Notre Dame's Patrick Johnson
For the past five years, even one season when Notre Dame had a losing record, the Irish extended their season into the TSSAA state playoffs.
The Irish’s Patrick Johnson has been around for three consecutive postseason appearances, including back-to-back semifinals in his sophomore and junior campaigns.
Johnson, now a 6-foot-2, 245-pound senior, says the experience he gained in the last two seasons will be beneficial as he enters his final season with the Irish.
“I was the starting tight end my sophomore year when we went 12-2 (in 2014),” Johnson said Thursday during the Region 3-3A media day held at Notre Dame High School. “The last two years have helped me be a better leader. I know what it takes to get there (the playoffs).
“I know it’s going to be hard filling the shoes of leaders before me, but we’ve got a lot of good leaders this year. That’s going to help our younger guys and they’ll be ready to lead when they get to be seniors.”
Dating to the 2012 season, Notre Dame posted a four-year combined record of 40-13. The Irish reached the semifinals – losing to Alcoa both times – in 2015 and 2014, were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Upperman in 2013 and suffered a second round loss at the hands of Giles County in 2012.
Johnson was an integral part of the Irish’s success in 2015, recording 52 pancake blocks and catching 10 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns while garnering tight end of the year honors in the region.
He also made his presence known on defense as an outside linebacker: 35 tackles, a dozen for lost yardage, one interception and six interceptions.
“I love playing offense and defense,” Johnson said. “I love hitting and I’ll be doing that no matter which side of the ball I’m playing. I practice hard and play hard both ways. It would be nice to get the region award for defense this year.”
Asked what area of his play he targeted for improvement during the offseason, Johnson said: “Mostly my speed. I want to be able to close the distance when I go for the quarterback. On offense, I want to run better routes and get better hands to catch more passes.”
So, Johnson and his teammates – after they take care of a scrimmage against Ringgold and a date with Baylor on Saturday in the prep jamboree at Finley Stadium – and that’s to be well-prepared for the regular season opener against Central on Aug. 19.
“It’s my senior year and we’re ready to go out and do our thing,” Johnson said.
The Fall At Signal Mountain
In 2014, Signal Mountain opened with six straight wins and eventually finished 9-3 with a second round playoff loss against Loudon.
A year later, the Eagles fell on hard times. They dropped the first nine games before beating Howard – the Tigers went 2-8 – in the regular season finale, 28-13.
With the floodgates wide open with injuries and other players leaving the program, placed next-to-last (1-4) in the region standings. Only Howard (0-5) finished below the Eagles.
The 1-9 nightmarish season gnaws at All-Region 3-3A tight end TaDarrell Hodge, a 6-3, 245-pound senior who also is a stalwart at defensive end.
“It was hard on us,” Hodge said. “Some people had to step up and maybe some weren’t ready. It shocked them. We went from 40 to 50 players down to 20-something. If somebody went down (to injury), it was really tough. We didn’t have depth and that killed us.
“We didn’t finish some games. Against East Ridge we played a good first half, but in the second half everybody was dead tired. We don’t want another year like that.”
A testament to Hodge’s toughness, he figured to miss one game due to injury. Instead, Hodge played through the pain.
The numbers aren’t much better now. Eagles coach Ty Wise said Thursday he’s working with 28 players. Hodge said when summer workouts began, the team had 34 or 35 players on the roster.
“People started dropping off,” he said. “They didn’t have the right work ethic, I guess.”
The team’s collective mental attitude appears to be much improved this time around. Hodge is trying to lead the way to keep it that way.
He recently broke his right pinky finger during practice. Instead of calling it a day, Hodge went right back to work.
“I didn’t want to let all my other dudes down,” he said. “I’m the last four-year starter that’s still on the team. But I’ve still got something to prove. The team has something to prove. We let games against East Ridge, Red Bank and Giles County slip away. We didn’t finish them.”
Stewart Will Carry Big Load
East Ridge standout Lorenzo Stewart will be carrying the mail offensively until running sensation Traneil Moore, last year’s Class 3A Mr. Football Back of the Year, returns after recovering from a knee injury.
Stewart rushed for 800-plus yards a year ago while Moore was going for 2,295.
So, he’s ready for a tough assignment when the season starts Aug. 19 against Polk County.
“I’m going to step up until Traneil gets back,” Stewart said. “I can carry the load. I’ve done a lot of conditioning running and I’ve got the highest confidence that I can do it. I’m going to be playing a lot more and I’m not worried about injuries.”
Clark Likes Lions’ Togetherness
As Red Bank’s Lions slogged through a 3-8 record last season, All-Region 3-3A defensive back Mike Clark saw troubling signs of disunity among the team’s players.
“That hurt us last year,” said the 5-8, 155-pound Clark, who also plays wide receiver and is one of the Lions’ fastest players. “We’re much closer now. Some of the guys that are seniors now talked about that us not being really together last year. A bunch of us, about half the team, started going out to eat and we did that several times.
“We have a team concept now. We want the dude on each side of us to do well. The key to us having a good season is consistency and we’re ready to compete at a high level. I think we can compete in more than just the region. I think we can compete in the state playoffs, too.”
Red Bank opens the season against non-region rival Soddy-Daisy.
Clark can’t wait.
“We’re ready and we’ve been waiting a long time for the season to start,” he said.
(Reach Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)