Football Playoffs: Hustlin' Tigers Eye Elusive Win

Face Tough Test In Unbeaten Sequatchie County

Saturday, October 29, 2016
Larry Fleming

Howard’s football team hasn’t been to the postseason since 2010.

The Hustlin’ Tigers haven’t gotten past the first round in 15 years, having lost seven straight playoff openers dating to 2002.

Since a 28-22 first-round loss to Loudon in 2010 – that was the Tigers’ last winning season (8-3) – Howard has gone 9-50, including two winless campaigns in 2014 and 2011.

But that’s history.

Howard (4-6) is in the 2016 playoffs as the Region 3-3A fifth-place team and that’s the bottom line for coach John Starr and his squad.

“It’s a really big deal,” Starr said Saturday. “It was a celebration (Friday) night when we beat Signal Mountain (35-16) to get into the playoffs. These guys, our seniors, haven’t had much success on the field in their four years at Howard.

“I was really proud of them and they’ve got a chance of playing at least one playoff game. They’ve put in hard work, did what they were supposed to do and it came to pass.”

Playoff reality hit the Tigers late Friday night, however,when they landed in the bracket opposite undefeated and fourth-ranked Sequatchie County in the first round. The game will be played in Dunlap at 7 p.m. CT.

The Indians are 10-0, have outscored their opposition 337-132 and routed Grundy County and Upperman by a combined 77-0 to close out the regular season.

Conversely, Howard was shutout in each of its first two games and then forfeited a 28-13 win against eventual region champion Red Bank in the third game.

“At the beginning of the year I thought we had playoff potential,” said Starr, winding down his first season with the Tigers. “The guys have come a long way. They bought in and reached our goal of getting to the playoffs. We had to win (Friday) to get in, so it was exciting for everybody, including myself.”

Starr preached to his choir all season to simply improve on a weekly basis and see where that could take the Tigers.

They now know.

If the Tigers want to post a playoff win like they did against York in 2001, they will have to overcome the moutainous challenge of doing against a Sequatchie County team that is on an impressive run.

On Saturday, Starr was just beginning the process of learning what Howard is up against.

“I think we’ve improved every week,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of setbacks along the way, but in the last four or five games we’ve played really good football.”

Starr said if Howard is to extend its season, a long will hinge on the play of Cameron Thomas and Tawon Billups, both of whom are linebacker/running backs.

“Those two guys are good players on both sides of the ball, they’re unselfish and have made the biggest contributions to this team,” Starr said. “They’re solid players. We don’t have a superstar, we’re not even close to having a superstar, but we’ve got a good football team because they play well together.”

Over at Red Bank, third-year coach Chad Grabowski labeled his team’s home playoff game against Upperman, like Howard, as a huge deal too.

The Lions are 7-3 and won five of their last six games after a 47-0 loss to potent McCallie on Sept. 9. The only blemish down the stretch was a 28-0 setback against perennial state champion contender Alcoa two weeks ago.

Red Bank erased that defeat and knocked off Notre Dame in the regular-season finale.

“The McCallie game ended the gauntlet of games against private schools (Baylor and McCallie) and we were able to concentrate on public schools that were closer to our size and caliber,” Grabowski said. “The kids were able to relax and start the rest of our season.”

Grabowski said the Lions’ offense has been consistent and was able to score points when needed under coordinator Drew Akins and the defense of coordinator Charles Weems has been “playing lights out.”

Grabowski has known Weems for 16 years and the two coached together in Florida.

The Lions captured the Region 3-3A regular-season title with a 21-3 win against the Irish. A year ago, the Irish clobbered Red Bank 43-7 and a week later Upperman routed the Lions 35-15 in the first round.

“It’s always good to win the last game and go into the playoffs with some momentum,” Grabowski said. “Beating Notre Dame is big for us. They’re a good football team, coached well and they’ve got a bunch of good players. We had to perform at the top of our standards to win and we did that.”

Ooltewah coach Mac Bryan, who has taken all four of his teams to the postseason, says his team has been playing all season with a chip on their shoulder due to what they perceive as a lack of respect.

When picked by everyone in Bradley County to lose Friday’s game against Walker Valley, the Owls demolished the Mustangs, 63-35, and rolled up more than 500 yards of total offense. Running backs Cameron Turner and Sincere Quinn each had more than 200 yards rushing, although coaches were finalizing the numbers Saturday morning while watching tape.

“It’s rare to put up 500-plus yards on anyone,” Bryan said. “We ran the ball well and (quarterback) Collin (Thurman) threw two touchdown passes. They scored on the first play from scrimmage and we came right back and matched them.

“That’s the thing. We’re not getting a whole lot of credit this year. We have a young team, but we have good talent and a lot of kids have played. We’re progressed and steadily gotten better. Offensively, we’re more efficient, the offensive line is probably the best I’ve had here and we’ve gotten much better defensively simply because those guys have learned how to play.”

In 2015, Walker Valley pushed the Owls into double overtime before falling 45-44. It was Ooltewah’s third straight district/region title. This year the Owls finished second behind Rhea County and that earned them a first-round home game Friday against Campbell County.

Both teams are 8-2 and share a No. 8 state ranking.

Rhea County beat Ooltewah 28-6 on Sept. 16, but the Owls have reeled off five straight wins against Soddy-Daisy, White County, state-ranked McMinn County, Cleveland and Walker Valley. They go into the playoffs with momentum and confidence.

“After Rhea County we had an open date,” Bryan said, “and I told the kids we wanted to go 5-0 and we’ve done that. I’m proud of the players and the coaching staff. The one thing we’ve been doing is not turning the ball over as much.

“In our undefeated (the Owls won their first 11 games in 2014 before losing to Rhea in the second round), we were plus-20 in the turnover ratio. Last year it was plus-14. This year we were down early in the season, but are now plus-six. Our defense has created more turnovers in the second half of the season.”

Ooltewah’s primary goal before each season is to reach the playoffs. If they win a region title along the way, that’s fine. If they don’t finish atop the standings, competing in the playoffs is still the main objective.

“Now our job is to survive and advance,” Bryan said. “Records don’t matter; rankings don’t matter, but surviving and advancing does matter.”

If the Owls get past Campbell County, they would face the Oak Ridge-Walker Valley winner on Nov. 11.

The big question at Bradley Central, the area’s lone Class 6A school, is whether talented quarterback Cole Copeland is sufficiently recovered from a shoulder injury to play in the Bears’ home-field playoff opener against Cookeville.

“Cole will be re-evaluated on Sunday,” Floyd said. “They’ll do a MRI to make sure things are fine. If he’s OK, he’ll play. If not, we won’t take the risk of playing him.”

With Copeland, a UT-Chattanooga commitment, on the sidelines Floyd has used sophomore quarterback Dylan Standifer to trigger the offense.

“Dylan has done well,” Floyd said. “He’s completed about 70 percent of his passes and the bottom line is he went in against two of the best teams on our schedule, Hardin Valley and Maryville. We have all the confidence in Dylan getting the job done.”

Bradley is the Region 1-6A third-place team while the Cavaliers are the No. 6 seed from Region 2. Both won on Friday – Bradley beat William Blount and Cookeville whipped Riverdale.

“Cookeville is a good team,” the Bears’ coach said. “That region over there, top to bottom, is really good. We understand that. As a team, you can always improve and there areas you wish you were playing better, but we have a shot at the postseason and we’re happy about that.

“Obviously, we have some ups and downs, but really the kids have played really well and with a lot of effort. It has been a fun year. You like to try and win them all, but that wasn’t the case this year. We try to parallel football and life. If you get knocked down, get back up.”

The 2016 TSSAA Football Playoffs

(All Games Start at 7 p.m. Local Time)

Class 6A

Cookeville (6-4) at Bradley Central (8-2)

Class 5A

Campbell County (8-2) at Ooltewah (8-2)

Walker Valley (6-4) at Oak Ridge (8-2)

McMinn County (7-3) at Farragut (9-1)

Lenoir City (3-7) at Rhea County (8-2)

Class 4A

Chattanooga Central (3-7) at Page (6-3)

Giles County (7-3) at Hixson (6-4)