Playoff Football: Freeman's Versatility Key Vs. Oak Ridge?

Owls Safety Has Been Busier On Offense Down Stretch

Thursday, November 12, 2015
Larry Fleming

Ooltewah's Rashun Freeman (right) carries the ball against Rhea County in a game played earlier this season. Freeman is a key for the Owls on both sides of the ball. Ooltewah hosts Oak Ridge Friday night in a TSSAA second round Class 5A playoff game.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File

The preseason plan on how Ooltewah’s coaching staff would use versatile Rashun Freeman has pretty much worked out perfectly.

Basically, coach Mac Bryan wanted to limit Freeman’s touches on offense to keep him healthy and fresh so the two-way threat senior could play more defensively, which is his primary duty with the Region 4-5A champion Owls.

“Our defense has been very solid and he’s one of the anchors over there and that’s the most important thing,” Bryan said. “We intended to use Rashun only when the situation required and in games we had to have his explosiveness on offense.

“He’s carried more and more in the last few weeks and that will continue.”

In the Owls’ first seven games, Freeman touched the ball 34 times for a combined 165 yards and four touchdowns. Over the last four games, Freeman’s had 47 touches for 150 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Freeman rushed 24 times for 127 yards with five touchdowns, all season-high totals, in a spine-tingling 45-44 double-overtime victory over Walker Valley that nailed down the region title and No. 1 seed in the postseason.

“I feel pretty good after 11 games because they told me all year about trying to keep me fresh,” Freeman said, “but now we have to pull out all our guns and do what’s necessary to win. “I’ve been doing this since I was about 5 years old. It’s something that has become the norm and I want to provide for my team the best ways I can. I’m glad the coaches put me in positions to make all those plays and put me in situations where I’m able to score in different ways.”

Freeman joins several other Chattanooga prep stars with scores coming from three different phases of the game – rushing, receiving and interception. In total, Freeman has 16 rushing scores, 1 receiving and two on interception returns for 114 points.

Soddy-Daisy’s Tre Carter headlines the way players can score in various ways. Carter, who will play baseball at the college level, has two rushing touchdowns, 14 receiving, two on kickoff returns and two on punt returns.

Freeman’s scoring resourcefulness could come in handy Friday night when Ooltewah (9-2) host third-ranked Oak Ridge (10-1), the runner-up to Farragut in Region 3-5A at James N. Monroe Stadium at 7 p.m.

While his value to the offense is obvious Freeman may play a more significant role defensively as the Owls will try to contain two superb Wildcats receivers – wide receiver Tee Higgins, a 6-foot-4-inch, 184-pound junior already committed to Tennessee and a Class 5A Mr. Football Back of the Year candidate and tight end Darel Middleton, a huge 6-7, 250-pound senior.

“It’s hard to compare the Oak Ridge guys to people we played without seeing them in person,” Bryan said. “It’s very hard to matchup with players like that. Skyler Davis is one of the best we saw all year in this area. From what I’ve seen on tape, Higgins is a very special player.”

Freeman will be in the starting secondary at free safety, along with safety A.J. Diggs and cornerbacks Elijah Wigfall and Corey Morgan. Bryan also expects to use Adrian Hall, if he’s healthy, and Jaylin Rogers in the secondary.

Ooltewah’s front seven has to hold up its end of the bargain, by pressuring Oak Ridge quarterback Jordan Dunbar and freshman running back Jordan Graham, who rushed for 155 yards and scored on an 88-yard kickoff return to start the third quarter in the Wildcats’ 45-33 win over Soddy-Daisy in round one.

The visiting Trojans trailed 38-7 going into the fourth quarter before putting a bit of a scare into Oak Ridge.

“We have to stop the run, stop their sweeps,” said linebacker Jeremiah Jackson, a Mr. Football Lineman of the Year semifinalist. “Our goal is, believe it or not, to get them to pass the ball. They run an offense that’s a mix of Rhea County and Cleveland and if we can slow their run game, I think our DBs, some of the best in the state, will do a good job and it should work out fine.”

However, the Owls’ defensive focus will not stray far from Higgins and Middleton.

“We’ve never seen receivers like they have, so we’re excited about playing guys like that,” Jackson said. “Higgins is a 5-star guy, Middleton a 3-star guy. Our defense always likes a challenge, so it’s going to make us play harder and should be a lot of fun.”

Obviously, Ooltewah’s offense shares in the team’s hope of pulling off a victory that would get the Owls past the second round in Bryan’s first three years with the program. The Owls lost to Columbia Central, 31-13, in the 2012 quarterfinals, which was the first time they reached the third round since 2008.

In their nine wins, the Owls’ offensive unit, directed by quarterback London Elrod, has averaged 40.5 points. In narrow losses to Riverdale and Cleveland, Ooltewah scored a combined 12 points, failing to cash in on about 10 scoring chances inside the 10 yard-line.

“I don’t think about that,” said Elrod, who has thrown for 1,803 yards and nine touchdowns with three interceptions despite missing parts or all of three games with broken ribs. “Every time we’re on the field I have the mind-set of scoring, whether we’re at the 40 going out or inside the 5.”

Bryan added, “Our offense has improved throughout the year. It has been productive. In two games against Riverdale and Cleveland we got inside the 10 and couldn’t score and it bit us both times. That can’t happen Friday.”

Soddy-Daisy showed the Oak Ridge defense is not invincible, just like Walker Valley proved the same point to the Owls two weeks ago when the Mustangs amassed 509 total yards, 319 coming on the ground. The Trojans scored 26 fourth-quarter points and quarterback Justin Cooke wound up passing for 314 yards as the offense put up 455 total yards.

Oak Ridge rushed for 311 yards while throwing for just 88.

“Soddy-Daisy started to execute and make plays,” Elrod said. “Our plan is to come out at the beginning of the game with intensity and execute right away. We don’t want to fall behind early. Oak Ridge is a good team, we’re a good team. I think it’ll be a great game and should be a dogfight.”

Coach Joe Gaddis, the all-time winningest coach in Oak Ridge history who is now three years deep into his second stint at the school, has done a good job keeping the Wildcats’ postseason tradition alive. Oak Ridge is riding a string of seven straight playoff appearances, including reaching the quarterfinals twice and semifinals once.

The Wildcats have won four of five times they reached the championship game.

Ironically, Ooltewah and Oak Ridge played every year from 2001-08, with the Owls winning five of the eight meetings.

In 2008, the Benny Monroe-coached Owls rushed for 581 yards behind tailback Matthew Polk and fullback Brandon Brewer and whipped the Wildcats, 45-7.

TSSAA Football Playoff Schedule

Second Round

Chattanooga Area Schools

All Games Start at 7 p.m. Local Time

Class 1A

Fayetteville (9-2) at South Pittsburg (8-3)

Whitwell (6-5) at Columbia Academy (10-1)

Class 2A

Tyner (8-3) at Boyd-Buchanan (11-0)