Football Playoffs: Notre Dame Wants To Shake Late-Season Slump

Irish Usually Head Into Postseason On Momentum Wave

  • Tuesday, November 1, 2016
  • Larry Fleming
Junior defensive lineman James "Scooby" Williams (9) applies pressure against Red Bank last week for Notre Dame's defense. Williams and the Irish take on Smith County on Friday in the TSSAA Class 3A state football playoffs.
Junior defensive lineman James "Scooby" Williams (9) applies pressure against Red Bank last week for Notre Dame's defense. Williams and the Irish take on Smith County on Friday in the TSSAA Class 3A state football playoffs.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File Photo

One thing has been synonymous with Notre Dame and the state football playoffs over the last four years.

The Irish routinely finish their regular season strong and head into the postseason with a high confidence quotient.

Strictly from a mental aspect, it’s different for the Irish this time around because Notre Dame dropped its final two games to McMinn Central and Red Bank.

“We’ve had our struggles in the last two games,” said Notre Dame junior defensive tackle James “Scooby” Williams. “But this a new season and it’s playoff time. Our confidence is still pretty high.”

In 2015, the Irish won their final three games and eventually reached the semifinals before losing to Alcoa. A year earlier, Notre Dame closed the regular season with nine straight wins and again came up short in the semifinals those pesky Tornadoes again.

Look back at 2013. The Irish claimed three straight victories down the stretch, and got to the quarterfinals where they suffered a tough loss to Upperman.

Peek at 2012 and you again see a three-game winning stretch closing out the regular season for coach Charles Fant’s squad, plus a first-round win over Hixson. That campaign, however, was cut short in the second round against Giles County.

Another junior, offensive guard Jalen Derrick said the team is cognizant of mistakes made against the Chargers and Lions, and believes the miscues are fixable.

“We’re still very confident,” Derrick said, “but the frustration level is really high because we don’t lose many games at Notre Dame. But we can fix things and are getting them fixed this week in practice.”

Notre Dame lost the Chargers (4-6) and Lions (7-3) – the latter game was a showdown for the Region 3-3A championship – and the Irish (7-3) are preparing for Friday’s playoff opener at home against Smith County (5-5), the fourth-place team from Region 4-3A. Game time is 7 p.m. and admission is $8.

Three other local Region 3-3A teams will be playing first-round games this week as well. Red Bank takes on Upperman, East Ridge (5-5) challenges DeKalb County (7-3) and Howard (3-7) plays undefeated and second-ranked Sequatchie County (10-0).

“We have usually gone into the playoffs with high confidence in the past,” Irish coach Charles Fant said, “but the major thing this year is we’ve lost pretty key kids at the wrong time. We lost (sophomore quarterback) Cameron Wynn early in the McMinn Central game that rocked us a little bit and he still wasn’t the same against Red Bank.

“We pride ourselves around here knowing that one man doesn’t make a team.”

The reality remains that the Irish failed to play up to their past late-season standards in the final two games.

The Chargers built a lead before the Irish scored 14 points in 57 seconds to get back into striking distance before losing 27-21.

“We thought we would just roll in there and win,” Williams said. “They weren’t as good a team as us, but they played more physical than us in the game.”

About the disappointing loss to the Chargers, Fant added, “We had a lot to talk about after that game.”

Then, it was the Lions versus the Irish.

Fant used three quarterbacks – Parker Brock, Akil Sledge and Dallas Brown and the trio combined for a two-prong offensive attack the Lions had the deal with.

Brock is the passing quarterback. Sledge and Brown are the runners.

A superlative effort by defensive coordinator Chandler Tygard’s unit was overshadowed by two bad punts that gave McMinn Central short fields and a late pick-six provided the Chargers with a point-spread cushion.

“Our defense played lights out in that game,” Fant said. “Red Bank capitalized on both bad punts and the pick-six, coming when we were trying to hurry up and throw the ball down field and that’s how the game got away from us.”

Additionally, the Irish offense had a drive stalled at the Lions’ 8-yard line.

“The message of that game was this is a game of inches,” Fant said. “And it’s about execution because when you get close and don’t finish the drill losses happen. In their hearts and minds, these kids don’t think we’re a team that lost the last two games. We’re a team that didn’t finish.”

The Red Bank game (a 21-3 Lions win) evolved into Red Bank telegraphing it was going to rely heavily on two players to win the game. Notre Dame was challenged to stop the simplistic, albeit effective, attack.

The Irish failed.

“Offensively, they ran 60 plays and only two guys touched the ball – the quarterback and running back,” Fant said. “Drew (Red Bank offensive coordinator Akins) didn’t want to turn the ball over and was patient. He had an incredible game plan.”

The matchup of Smith County’s offense and Notre Dame’s defense will be nothing like last week, in Tygard’s opinion.

“Smith County has every offensive play known to man,” he said. “I went into last week’s game with 37 (defensive) plays available to us. We didn’t use them all, but we had them.”

So, what will decide Friday’s game?

“I think it’s going to be a guessing game,” said Williams, who got his nickname as a younger when his father used to sing the “Scooby Doo” song to him. “Smith County will run anything they to win. Our defense is good enough to stop that because we have a great defensive coordinator. He’ll do the job. It’s going to be exciting.”

Derrick would put one more item into a winning formula after two tough losses.

“More effort,” he said. “We were sad after the Red Bank game, but knew we had to get back to work the next week if we want to make a run for the state title. We want a ring and want one bad.”

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)

East Hamilton (5-5) at Marshall County (9-1)

Class 3A

Upperman (6-4) at Red Bank (7-3)

East Ridge (5-5) at DeKalb County (7-3)

Smith County (5-5) at Notre Dame (6-4)

Howard (3-7) at Sequatchie County (10-0)

Class 2A

Westmoreland (4-6) at Marion County (9-1)

Boyd-Buchanan (7-3) at Watertown (9-1)

Jackson County (8-2) at Meigs County (9-1)

Tyner (4-6) at Forrest (9-1)

Class 1A

Cornersville (5-5) at South Pittsburg (9-1)

Copper Basin (5-5) at Fayetteville (8-2)

Summertown (8-2) at Whitwell (5-5)

Grace Baptist (4-6) at Columbia Academy (9-0)

Division II-2A

Father Ryan (4-6) at McCallie (6-4)

Baylor (6-4) at Pope John Paul (6-4)

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

Notre Dame prepares to block a Red Bank defender during their regular-season finale last week for the Region 3-3A championship. The Lions won 21-3. The Irish hope to bounce back against Smith County in a first-round playoff game against Smith County.
Notre Dame prepares to block a Red Bank defender during their regular-season finale last week for the Region 3-3A championship. The Lions won 21-3. The Irish hope to bounce back against Smith County in a first-round playoff game against Smith County.
photo by Dennis Norwood/File Photo
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