​Nov. 14—The Decatur Red Raiders are officially on the clock.With the resignation of John Ritter becoming official Tuesday, the Red Raiders will begin searching for a new football coach. Ritter spent the past three seasons at Decatur.Decatur’s next hire will be its third head coach since Jere Adcock retired in 2022 after 27 seasons and 187 victories. The Red Raiders haven’t won more than three games in a season since his retirement, and the challenge for their next coach will be to restore a program that was once among north Alabama’s best.With that goal in mind, here are 13 potential candidates divided into three categories: long shots, main candidates and coordinators. This analysis was written before Friday’s playoff results. — Long shotsDrew PhillipsCurrent job: West Morgan head coachRecord: 58-14 at West MorganWhy: Whenever a big-school job has come open in this area in recent years, Phillips’ name is always the first to get mentioned.Phillips has built West Morgan into one of north Alabama’s most consistent programs with 58 total wins, as well as three consecutive undefeated regular seasons and region championships from 2023-25. While successful coaches at smaller schools are often expected to move on to bigger programs, the longer Phillips stays at West Morgan, the less likely a departure seems.He was recently named assistant principal and athletic director while retaining his coaching duties. He also has a large coaching staff that rivals those at much bigger programs, and his son took over as the Rebels’ starting quarterback as an eighth grader this season.Never say never, but multiple larger schools have already failed in attempts to lure Phillips away from West Morgan. — Kenny MorsonCurrent job: Florence head coachRecord: 63-31 at Florence and Fayetteville, Tennessee, with one state championshipWhy: On the surface, this hire wouldn’t make sense for Morson.Morson is back in his hometown, where he has spent the past three seasons rebuilding Florence’s program. This season, he led the Falcons to just their second season with at least 10 wins and their third region championship in school history. The Falcons are also on track to tie their school record for wins (11) and possibly even surpass it.So why include him on this list? A move seems unlikely, but Morson spent 22 seasons as Decatur’s offensive coordinator, giving him deep ties to the school and city. — Drew GilmerCurrent job: Leeds assistant coachRecord: 81-12 at Clay-Chalkville with two state championshipsWhy: This would certainly be a controversial move.Gilmer is one of the state’s most successful coaches, with six seasons of at least 10 wins at Clay-Chalkville from 2017-23, success that helped him land the Hoover job. However, he resigned before coaching a game at Hoover after being placed on administrative leave amid controversy over practice videos showing coaches physically confronting players. The videos included one coach pushing a player to the ground and another thru