Football Playoffs: McCallie Gears Up For Second Shot At Brentwood Academy

Blue Tornado Has To End Skid Vs. Eagles To Stay In Postseason

Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Larry Fleming

Literally, within a few minutes after McCallie had lost to Brentwood Academy 42-32 in the regular-season finale for both teams, Blue Tornado coach Ralph Potter told his players, “Don’t be surprised if we see those guys again in two weeks.

Well, Potter was right.

McCallie (7-4) and Brentwood Academy (8-2), the defending champion, will square off Friday night in Nashville in the Division II-2A quarterfinals.

“It’s two good football teams and hopefully we can find 10 more points in there somewhere,” Potter said before Tuesday’s practice at Spear Stadium.

The winner advances to the semifinals on Nov. 16 and will play the Baylor-Memphis University School winner. If MUS wins, the semifinal game would played in Memphis because the Owls are the No. 1 seed. Brentwood is No. 2 and McCallie No. 4 in the lower bracket.

McCallie, which has lost 11 straight times to the Eagles and haven’t won a postseason game from them since 2001 when the Blue Tornado claimed a state title with a 17-16 victory, aided the Eagles with four critical mistakes that turned into 28 points for the visitors.

Three of the misplays came in the second half and helped Brentwood overcome a 26-21 deficit in the third quarter. Two Riddle interceptions and a fumble turned the game around. Riddle also had a punt blocked.

“It didn’t take long to shake that loss,” Riddle said. “I thought about it a couple days over the weekend, but once Sunday came around we were focusing on getting past Father Ryan in our first playoff game.”

The Blue Tornado beat Father Ryan 49-14.

How long did Riddle need to forget the interceptions against the Eagles?

“I’m still thinking about them,” he said, “although they’re not troubling me that much in terms of preparing for our next game. I think we played as good as we could offensively and defensively against Father Ryan, but we’ll have to play better, probably at 95 percent consistency, to beat BA.”

Potter took some heat off Riddle after the first BA game, saying he made some poor play calls that put his quarterback in bad throwing situations designed over the middle.

For the game, Riddle completed 26 of 33 attempts for 407 yards. Brentwood Academy quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall, who led the Eagles to state football and basketball championships in 2015-16, went 26 for 36 and 361 yards.

Oatsvall, an Austin Peay football commitment although he has another path to college in basketball, was responsible for five touchdowns, three on the ground. Riddle accounted for four TDs, three through the air.

Riddle came out of the Father Ryan game with 2,728 passing yards and 22 touchdowns with four interceptions on the season. He has completed 186 of 258 for 72.1 percent and added six rushing touchdowns.

In the win over Father Ryan, Riddle threw five touchdown passes, including two that went for more than 60 yards. Shawn McColley, the Tornado’s leading ground gainer with 816 yards and 15 touchdowns, scored twice against Father Ryan.

While the Blue Tornado amassed 471 total yards versus BA, the Eagles had 540.

Riddle said Potter wants better offensive balance against the Eagles the second time around.

“We’ll definitely have to dominate the run game for us to have a chance at winning the game,” Riddle said. “Coach Potter told us in our last meeting he really wants to have a good run-pass balance. His dream game would be 200 (yards) running and 200 passing.”

Clearly, McCallie will have to break a strong pattern in Brentwood’s favor to keep its bid for a second state title alive.

The 11-game winning streak started with a 37-34 victory on Nov. 18, 2006, as Brentwood captured the state championship. In September of that season, McCallie edged the Eagles 28-21.

In September 2005, McCallie beat BA 30-23. Two months later BA edged the Tornado 38-35 in the first round of the playoffs.

In September 2004, McCallie won the September matchup 17-7, but the Eagles got revenge with a 34-13 win in another first-round matchup.

Skip a year and it was the same outcome, only McCallie won 28-27 in October. Just over a month later, BA clobbered the Tornado 38-0 in the quarterfinals.

Brentwood Academy leads the all-time series 22-8. McCallie usually wins in September, but the advantage swings heavily to the Eagles in November.

So, McCallie players should have no trouble achieving an emotional high this time around.

“No,” Potter said. “If you lose, you’re done.”

Ask Tennessee if an 11-game losing streak to Alabama ticks the Vols off. Heck yeah, it does.

It’s the same with McCallie. Not one player on this year’s McCallie roster has enjoyed a win over the Eagles.

“We’re super-hungry to do something about that,” said senior linebacker Jaylan Nowell, who blocked a punt in the first game against Brentwood Academy. “It’s time to get over the hump of losing to those guys. We’ve got to start beating them and the playoffs are the perfect time to start doing it.”

There is no secret to the philosophy of opposing teams facing the Eagles’ offense: do something to contain Oatsvall.

“That’s the real key,” said Nowell, who has been credited with 113 tackles (66 solos) and four sacks this season. “Everything goes through him. You stop him, they might not know how to function because he’s pulling the trigger on every single play. He calls the shots out there. When things break down, he takes off running.

“We want to make sure he stays in the pocket. If he comes out, we’re going to hit him. We’ve talked about this. The game is probably going to come down to three things: physicality, discipline and accountability. We have to be physical, so we’re going to come out and hit them in the mouth.”

Another factor that could play a pivotal role in the outcome of Friday’s game is the extended time BA has had to prepare solely on the Blue Tornado.

Brentwood had an open week prior to playing McCallie during the regular season. The Eagles had a bye in the first round while McCallie played Father Ryan.

That amounts to four weeks of prep time directed exclusively at McCallie.

“I think the second chance thing is more weird for them than us,” Potter said. “They’ve literally worked on us exclusively for a month and it’s a strange situation.”

Is that a huge advantage for the Eagles?

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask them,” Potter said.

“Would Potter like to have four weeks to concentrate on his quarterfinal opponent?

“Not really,” he said. “We’re probably a little more beat up than Brentwood because we played last week, but I don’t know how you’d handle it. It would be really easy to overthink things.”

2016 TSSAA Football Playoffs

First-Round Results (Nov. 4)

Class 6A

Bradley Central 29, Cookeville 25

Class 5A

Ooltewah 51, Campbell County 14

Walker Valley 35, Oak Ridge 27

Farragut 40, McMinn County 21

Rhea County 45, Lenoir City 7

Class 4A

Page 34, Chattanooga Central 7

Giles County 42, Hixson 14