If you enjoy what you read today in the SRM Varsity sports section, where I cover all things high school football, consider becoming a subscriber below. You can select which sports sections of the newsletter you’d like to get emails from here.

Subscribe now

SRM: Biggest reason the South-Doyle job was the right job for you for right now?

Gibson: I think the biggest part of this job that made it so appealing to me is the rich tradition that they have there, and knowing that football matters to that community and to that school, and that the administrative team, the staff and faculty, and especially the kids and their families that are a part of the program right now, they are absolutely starving for success. I’ve seen first-hand coaching against them, what those teams look like, and what they can do, and the same kids have still went to the same hallways out there, and football still matters just as much now as it did five, ten, fifteen years ago, and there is no reason that it can’t happen. I think that’s really, really important to look at when you look at the big picture of how much does football really matter to a school and to a community, and South Knoxville is definitely one of those around here.

Subscribe now

SRM: How did your time at Powell prepare you for this spot?

Gibson: I cannot, and I’ve told a lot of people, I cannot thank Matt Lowe, the head football coach at Powell High School, enough for preparing me, not only for this, but just for so many other situations as a man to face and to learn how to handle the right way. He did a great job at teaching me all the ins and outs trying being a successful head football coach and all the things that a lot of people don’t see on the surface because there’s a lot more to it that comes to than just playing football games and winning football games. You’re running a business when you do it the right way, and being sure that you know how to interact with people and treat people the right way, and be sure things are done with respect and dignity all the time. That, and then the administrative team at Powell, too, and people that I’ve worked with one-on-one, the teachers, faculty, staff, everybody from the cafeteria staff, everybody over there, has just been so wonderful to me and my family and such a blessing at teaching me how to grow up as a 24-year-old coach when I first got over there to a 34-year-old man now just trying to keep things rolling the right way and everything they’ve taught me I’m so thankful for.

Share

SRM: What is the biggest difference between you as a football mind, coach, temperament, personality than Coach Lowe?

Gibson: Oh man, that’s a really good question, because Matt Lowe and I were alike before we started working together, but then after working with somebody for eight years and being side-by-side with them, hand-in-hand with everything that’s been going on I’ve become a lot more like him than I think some people realize which has been good, but I would say Matt Lowe is a lot more patient than I am. I think a lot of that comes from his experience — there’s not a lot that Matt hasn’t seen in his time being a head coach. I think this is coming up on Year 20-ish, somewhere like that, for Matt being a head football coach, and so, again, the landscape of high school football has changed a lot since Matt’s first year, but he’s done a great job of evolving with it and being sure that he’s adaptable and flexible and things like that. And so there’s not a lot that comes up that Matt either isn’t prepared for, hasn’t seen, or doesn’t know how to handle or can’t get a grip on. And I think just his patience with a lot of that stuff is something that I’m trying to be a little more like on my end because I have a tendency to not be quite as patient as he does sometimes.

Share Sports Renaissance Man

SRM: Best advice you got from Matt Lowe after you got the job at South-Doyle, and the best piece of advice you got during your time working under him at Powell?

Gibson: I would say since I’ve gotten the job, the best advice from Matt is just take it one day a time. He knows how I’m wired, I’m a ‘go, go, go’, ‘now, now, now’ type of person, and that’s just not realistically for the program or for me, how it’s going to happen. I know it’s going to take some time, and like I just said, I know I need to be patient with some of that stuff. As long as we keep chipping away at it the right way, going the right direction, which I feel like that we are with the kids in the program, the coaching staff coming together, and the people that support the program I think that’s definitely happening so far it’s just I’ve got to be patient to know that it’s not going to happen overnight. Working for Matt, no doubt, the best advice and best lesson that I’ve learned from him that I keep telling people and will always tell people is be sure your people are taken care of. Your coaches, your kids, your support staff, the people in the building, everybody that helps the program, like I said, it’s running a business when you do it the right way everybody that helps keep that business efficient and afloat and trending the right way doing things the right way to compete at a high level all the time, be sure that they’re seen, that they know that they’re seen, that they know that their voices are heard, and that they’re respected. Because at the end of the day, this is all a people business, and if you don’t treat your people right, you’re not doing anything right.

SRM: Do you have a rigid offensive philosophy or will it evolve later this spring and summer when you get a better feel for your personnel?

Gibson: Yeah, I think that’s a really good point. So with me, obviously, working with Matt for the last eight years, and I was really fortunate to work with Ron Gray at Halls for four years before that, and just kind of blending all that together, I kind of have an idea of what the system looks like, and I know what’s effective and what’s not, things like that. Especially for the two years that I worked on the offensive side of the ball with Matt and the one year that I worked on the offensive side of the ball with Coach Gray at Halls, has helped me grow, but at the same time, kind of like with just the landscape of high school football you have to stay on the cutting edge all the time. You can have your identity, and know what your structure is, and what the bones are going to be, but if you are not keeping up with the Joneses, then you’re going to get left behind — you can get outdated and lapped in a hurry.

SRM: How to succeed as a defensive coordinator with how modern high school offenses function now is what?

Gibson: Yeah, absolutely, especially around here with some of the offensive minds that we see in our region and on our schedule. I would definitely say, one, the preperation part of it, I take a lot, a lot, of pride in how I prepare, how the assistants prepare, and then how we transfer all of that information over to the kids, so that they get what they need, that they can learn easily and then not only learn it but then apply that in a fast way, when the lights come on on gameday. Then the other part of it is, it’s another lesson I learned from Matt Lowe, I’m not trying to trick or outsmart the 40-year-old coach on the other sideline all the time, that is part of it, you’ve got to be sure your ducks are in a row on that, but I’m trying to manipulate and take advantage of and trick the 16-year-old that just had a math test that afternoon and then he’s got to worry about buying prom tickets on Saturday and all this other stuff that teenagers have going on. That’s the person that if you can figure out how to make it hard on the kids, then that’s where you’re going to have your real success.

Give a gift subscription

SRM: Money is no object. Where are you going for Spring Break?

Gibson: I’m going to Destin, Florida, with my family, and I’m sitting on the beach where it’s hopefully quiet, with white sand, and clear water, and it’s about eighty degrees, and there’s not a cloud in the sky, and I get to go to all of my favorite restaurants for about five or six days and then watch Hudl on my phone while my son goes to sleep.

Leave a comment

Evening, y’all! Check out today’s episode of ‘SRM Varsity Xtra’ below, and please make sure you subscribe on your preferred podcast player so that you never miss one of our daily episodes.

Author’s Note:

On today’s program, Chase is joined by Knox News’ Wynton Jackson to talk Alcoa’s latest state title win, Webb & Central being really interesting going into 2026, buying Derek Rang and Oak Ridge stock in 2026, Sevier County’s Nathan Patterson’s underrated year and much more. Then, Page’s Charles Rathbone joins the program to talk about his Patriots’ state championship (25:00), beating Sevier County, what made his group this year special, unsung heroes for this year’s team how to repeat next year and much more. To wrap, Lincoln County’s Eddie Cunningham joins the program to talk about the Falcons’ huge underdog run in the postseason (42:00), the Powell and Sevier County ball games, his big-time playmakers on offense, going into 2026 with big expectations and much more.

Subscribe now

Host: Chase Thomas

Guests: Wynton Jackson, Charles Rathbone, Eddie Cunningham

Listen via Apple l Spotify l iHeartRadio l PodLink l Download l RSS l YouTube l PodBean l Amazon l GoodPods l Castro l Beacons AI

APPLE

SPOTIFY

*NOTE: If you have not already done so, please consider leaving the podcast a five-star rating and writing us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or however you get your podcasts. It helps other folks find the show and helps this very show continue to grow.

As always, you can contact the show by emailing me at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.com.

Leave a comment

Author’s Note:

On today’s program, Chase is joined by Gatlinburg-Pittman’s Tyler Williams to discuss his Highlander team’s undefeated season thus far, soaking in the moment, making history for the school, the big win over Tyner, what makes Westview a tough matchup, why this team is special, and much more.

Host: Chase Thomas

Guests: Tyler Williams

Listen via Apple l Spotify l iHeartRadio l PodLink l Download l RSS l YouTube l PodBean l Amazon l GoodPods l Castro l Beacons AI

APPLE

SPOTIFY

*NOTE: If you have not already done so, please consider leaving the podcast a five-star rating and writing us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or however you get your podcasts. It helps other folks find the show and helps this very show continue to grow.

As always, you can contact the show by emailing me at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.com.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

Oak Ridge has now played four high school football games in 2022. The Wildcats have won two of them. They have lost two of them. After four games, it is fair to assume you might have a good feel for a team.

I do not have a good feel for the Wilcats.

Through four weeks, the Wildcats, and their future, is as much of a mystery as it was back in July when I first visited with the team.

On Friday night at Blankenship Field, Oak Ridge was shutout by rival Farragut. Zero points for the Wildcats. The loss gives the Admirals three-straight victories in the series versus Oak Ridge.

Subscribe now

This was a game where the final score did not tell the whole story. With Clinton last week, the final score matched the game. The same was true against South-Doyle in a very different way. This week, though, things were different for Oak Ridge. It was more frustrating. More frustrating than their loss at Bearden two weeks prior.

The Wildcats outgained the Admirals. They had more first downs. They had more passing yards. They had more rushing yards. However, they also had more turnovers. They had more penalties. Oak Ridge had more everything in their game against Farragut on Friday night. “We are our own worst enemy. We just are,” Oak Ridge head football coach Scott Cummings told me after the game.

Farragut marched down the field and scored on their opening possession Friday night. You kind of got the sense that this might be a back-and-forth game where both offenses put up a healthy number of points.

Oak Ridge, which has excelled in their opening drive to this point in the season, did not involve star linebacker Brian Kelley on any seam routes over the middle again this week. Instead, they ran their lead tailback De’Jauvis Dozier. They got Almani Rembert involved on some jet sweeps. They were aggressive and went for it on fourth-and-short and were rewarded with a huge scamper from Dozier up the middle.

The Wildcats got to first-and-goal. Then came a false start. Then an illegal procedure and then quarterback Peyton Sharpe took a bad sack and coughed up the football.

That was the first costly turnover.

That first drive from Oak Ridge told the story for how this game would go. Oak Ridge could run on Farragut. They responded to that opening punch in the mouth via Farragut and responded well. Then things got tight in the red zone and disaster struck. The defense, which has thrived under defensive coordinator Robert Ayers Jr. this season, held their own once again. They forced a three-and-out from Farragut following the turnover only for Rembert to muff the punt return and give Farragut first-and-goal from inside Oak Ridge’s 10-yard line. “We are killing us,” Coach Cummings told me after the game.

Subscribe now

That cannot happen.

But it did.

Farragut punched it in and went into the second quarter up 14-0. The Wildcats tried to create some chunk plays deep to get their offense clicking like it did back in Week 1 vs. South-Doyle. The offense hasn’t looked the same since, with injuries being a large reason why. However, it can’t all fall on Dozier. The deep 50-50 balls have not fallen in Oak Ridge’s favor to this point. This offense needed a spark. So it should come as no surprise that head coach Scott Cummings played three different quarterbacks in this game beginning on that third drive with junior Ethan Garza.

Subscribe now

On the decision to go to Garza in the first half Coach Cummings said, “We kinda talked about potentially doing it, but we didn’t know for sure. We just felt like we kinda needed a spark. Garza gets rid of the ball so quickly, you know, we just kinda needed a spark and for him to get rid of it.”

Garza was not able to find his footing against Farragut, either, though. On an important third-and-eight Garza missed high that result in another punting situation for Oak Ridge.

Share

Still, he provided a different look and feel for the Wildcats’ offense with his ability to use his feet a bit more and roll out to put more pressure on opposing defenses to stay disciplined to prevent the big play.

The backbreaker for Oak Ridge came just as the second half began. Already surrendering seven points due to a turnover and fumble, Oak Ridge fumbled on their first play of the second half which resulted in another immediate touchdown for Farragut to put the Admirals up 21-0.

And yet, Oak Ridge responded well. The Wildcats put together a masterful 15-play drive, but again, could not finish the drill in the red zone and were stuffed on fourth-and-goal.

The final score was ugly, but it did not tell the whole story. The Wildcats fought hard, but when you lose the turnover battle 3-to-1 and commit as many penalties as they did, it’s hard to win games in this sport.

Share Sports Renaissance Man

With three quarterbacks getting work in this one, I asked Coach Cummings if there would be an open competition to be QB1 going into next week’s game. His answer was clear, “Yes.”

We shall see who is under center to kick things off next week for Oak Ridge. The Wildcats host Lenoir City as they look to get back over .500 on the 2022 season.

Leave a comment

Subscribe now

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

Clinton is a good football team, that much is certain. 

On Friday night at Blankenship Field, Oak Ridge found themselves in another dog fight, only this time it was not with the Bulldogs of Bearden it was with the Dragons of Clinton.

Like a week ago, Oak Ridge found themselves in another one-score game late. As Oak Ridge learned a week ago, you don’t want to be the team who needs to drive to score to either win the game or send it to overtime. You want to be the team that needs just one stop, not the the team that needs just one score.

Last week, the Wildcats were the former.

This week, the Wildcats were the latter.

Subscribe now

Life can be funny this way. Sports can be funny this way. Through his first three games as head football coach at Oak Ridge, Scott Cummings has already run the gambit. He experienced a blowout victory over South-Doyle. He experienced a last-second defeat against Bearden. Now, he experienced a last-drive defensive stand by his defense against Clinton. Each week, the Wildcats have found themselves in a different kind of circumstance.

Through three weeks, the Wildcats are 2-1.

Oak Ridge is 2-1 and we still haven’t seen the team at full strength once yet. Star wideout Brandon Heyward was ejected early in the South-Doyle game and missed the Bearden game the following week. Start playmaker Elijah Rogers got hurt early last week and missed this week. Starting tailback Jai Hundley missed this week. Coach Cummings has had to mix-and-match his roster significantly early in the 2022 season, but the Wildcats still find themselves at 2-1 heading into next week’s home contest against Farragut.

There are many great aspects of covering Friday Night Lights in the South, but one of the best is being on the field late. When things get tense on both team’s sidelines. When both teams and coaches can see the game going either way. That is what happened late in this one. It could go either way late into the fourth quarter.

Share Sports Renaissance Man

Clinton quarterback Josh Keith was sensational all night. Through three weeks, the Wildcats have excelled in taking away any chunk plays for their opponent. To beat Oak Ridge you have to create a little dent at a time. One tiny dent here, a tiny dent there. You are not going to beat them deep. You are not going to get them into a track meet. That is just not how things go for defensive coordinator Robert Ayers Jr’s defense. 

Share

Keith, though, never quit. When Oak Ridge went up 14-0 early in the first quarter, the Dragons could have crumbled on the road against a rival. They did not and most of that was because of Keith.

Down 14-7 in the fourth quarter, Keith drove Clinton down the field. On the play before their touchdown run to tie it, Keith rolled left and hit a Madden-like spin move to get by two Oak Ridge defenders and get the Dragons inside the 10-yard-line.

Subscribe now

Coach Cummings told me after the game, “Clinton, let me tell you, this isn’t old Clinton team. They’ve got athletes, they’ve got a lot of talent. That quarterback is so hard to defend.” 

The next play, the Dragons punched it in and tied it up. (However, Clinton came oh-so-very-close to missing the extra-point try and making all of Keith’s heroic efforts moot.)

To the Wildcats’ credit, they did not waver.

After a big-time kick return to give Oak Ridge great field position near the fifty-yard-line, the Wildcats put the game in tailback De’Jauvis Dozier’s hands. On his third-straight carry, Dozier broke what felt like his nineteenth tackle on the night to put the Wildcats up a touchdown late 21-14.

After the game, Coach Cummings said of his star tailback, “Dozier’s honestly, honest to goodness, probably one of the top two or three running backs I’ve ever had and I’ve been doing this a long time. That kid is powerful, he’s got the vision and the feet.” 

Oak Ridge’s defense would later stop the Dragons on fourth-and-short to clinch the victory. The defense was dominant all night long, led by Brian Kelley at the linebacker spot and Izzy Mitchell at the corner spot. “Brian Kelley is just a football player,” Coach Cummings told me after the game.

Not only was Kelley a force again on defense with tackle-after-tackle, but on Oak Ridge’s opening drive, Kelley lined up at tight end and proceeded to reel in two grabs after running the same seam route over the middle with the second resulting in a touchdown for Oak Ridge. “We can put a lot on Brian, and he’ll take it and he’s very coachable and he had been saying, ‘You get me that ball on that stuff and I’m going to score.’” Kelley was right and his TD snag was the difference in the game.

Next week, the Wildcats host the Admirals as they look to improve to 3-1 on the young 2022 high school football season.

Leave a comment

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

If you were not at Bearden High School Friday night in West Knoxville, you missed out. (If you didn’t snag some Chez Guevara beforehand, you missed out on multiple fronts.) Although the final score was not what Oak Ridge fans had anticipated coming into the contest against the 0-1 Bearden Bulldogs, this was exactly the kind of high school football game you reflect on in the offseason. You tell friends and family members about a game like this, all that happened, and that it came down to the very last play.

The very last play.

Subscribe now

Oak Ridge had their chances in this one.

The Wildcats’ defense remained steadfast throughout not falling victim to explosive plays via the Bearden offense at any point in the contest.

It was the Wildcat offense, that put up 46 points on South-Doyle in the first half last week on the road, that was the story tonight. Bearden and their defensive front closed the b-gap for business Friday night. A lot was asked from star running backs Jai Hundley and De’Jauvis Dozier to step up with star wideout Brandon Heyward unavailable and star two-way player Elijah Rogers leaving the game due to injury. And yet, the Wildcats had an opportunity to win a tough road game in front of a fired up Bearden fanbase up until the very last play of the game.

You go back to the start of the second half, though. That first play of the second half. On an inside zone run, Dozier was hit hard and coughed up the football that resulted in an Oak Ridge turnover and great field position for the Bulldogs. The momentum shifted, and the Bulldogs took advantage of the mistake and marched down the field quickly and put another touchdown on the board to put the Bulldogs up 14-3.

For Oak Ridge, it was the way the game was going. The Wildcats’ offense just felt off and could not get the running game cooking like they wanted. The explosive plays weren’t there.

The Wildcats forced three punts on the first three possesions for Bearden. The defense put the Wildcats in a good spot to build off last week’s offensive explosion, but when things would get rolling a bit, it changed in the red zone. Things get tight inside the 20-yard line, and quarterback Peyton Sharpe struggled with holding onto the ball too long at multiple points in the contest. The quick crossers over the middle to Izzy Mitchell were clicking for Sharpe, but situations like the sack he took on 1st & Goal on that opening drive for the Wildcats stood out. The Wildcats were forced to settle for three on that drive.

Then there was the 91-yard drive by the Bulldogs.

Based on what you saw last week and early in this one, this kind of sustained drive by Bearden was huge. It took 12 plays, none of which were large in yardage for the Bulldogs to march down the field and go up 7-3 early. The Wildcats kept everything in front of them, especially with the Bulldogs’ quick slants and inside zone runs. They just couldn’t stop them and get off the field. One bad drive from the defense all night, and one costly turnover was the difference.

Give a gift subscription

That’s football.

However, the Wildcats fought back after the disastrous start to the second half. Mitchell, who had a great game on both sides of the ball, jumped the route in the third quarter in Bearden territory for a huge interception. Immediately, the Wildcats put it in their best RBs hands and it resulted in a touchdown by Dozier to put the Wildcats back in the game. However, head football coach Scott Cummings was in a predicament here. He could take the extra point and be down four, or he could go for two to make it a 3-point game instead of needing another touchdown to win. Ultimately, there was some confusion for the Wildcats on the field and a timeout was called. Cummings elected to not go for two and the Wildcats were still down a touchdown.

You never know which way things are going to go in a football game. I asked Coach Cummings after the game about his decision not to try and make it a field-goal game and he told me, “We had made a decision not to try to chase points at that time. It was still early enough, where, you know, just didn’t feel like it was smart to chase the points.”

Share

Cummings was right in that the Wildcats had three more offensive possessions following the touchdown early in the fourth quarter to score more points. They had the time and the possessions to make their move, but the Wildcats went three-and-out their next two drives before the final drive.

The Wildcats, led by quarterback Sharpe, rose to the moment in their first two-minute drill of the season in hostile territory. The Wildcats were pinned up deep in their own territory, but they moved the ball. Bearden had a pair of big pass-interference calls, and Hundley finally found a lane inside for a big burst up the middle to give Oak Ridge a chance to steal it late. The Wildcats got it inside the Bearden 10-yard and Will Pressley, a deep-target favorite of Sharpe’s, just missed coming down with the game-winner in the back of the endzone.

The Wildcats came up just short, but Cummings was proud of how his team handled the two-minute drill late. “Not bad, not bad. You know, we didn’t do bad with it. I thought we were a little discombobulated at some points there. I thought we got it back together, made some plays to get ourselves in position to win this thing.”

Next Friday night, the Wildcats host the Clinton Dragons with ostensibly their first full game with Heyward out wide at Blankenship Field. However, the Wildcats may be without another star in Rogers for this one as Coach Cummings and his staff waits to find out the severity of the injury he sufffered in the Bearden game. “My worry right now is for Elijah Rogers. You know, we cannot afford to lose him,” Cummings told me after the game in regards to getting his team healthy as a whole.

With the loss, Oak Ridge falls to 1-1 on the season.

Leave a comment

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

Some nights there is just not a whole lot you can do to flip the script on an opponent. This week’s Rivalry Thursday contest between Maryville and Powell was one of those ball games for the latter. The final score of 38-13 for win No. 2 of the season for Derek Hunt’s Rebels is a bit deceiving. With the Panthers’ starting quarterback Jordyn Potts out for the big-time contest, the odds were already stacked against Powell being able to go blow-for-blow on offense against the Rebels for four quarters. The Rebels went into halftime up 17-0 and got up to by as much as 24-0 midway through the third quarter. It wasn’t the flashiest way to win a football game, but win the game the Maryville Rebels did to move to 2-0 on the season while the Panthers fell to 0-2.

Subscribe now

It is always interesting to see a team show their hand a bit on their opening drive, and that is what we saw with Maryville in this one. The Rebels did not score on their opening drive, however, they would score on the following two. (It could have been three-straight drives, but the Rebels missed a field goal on their fourth drive of the contest.) The team’s leading tailback Noah Vaughn, a Virginia commit, was the story. Whether it was an inside zone run or an outside run, the Rebels were not going to shy away from putting the ball in their best player’s hands. Vaughn was going to find that hold in the B-gap. The Rebs also got No. 2 and No. 7 involved in that opening drive with some quick screens and inside slants, but the Rebels were not aiming to make a splash. They wanted to make a dent. 

And then another.

And another.

Maryville head football coach Derek Hunt told me after the game, “I was proud of our kids. I told them all week it was going to take four quarters. Powell’s gritty, they’ve got good athletes, great defensive line. They’re good.”

Coach Hunt was right in his post-game assesment of the Panthers. While the offense struggled to piece together a long, sustained drive throughout the first half, they kept fighting. “Gritty” was the perfect way to describe Powell in this one. The defense gave the offense a chance with their bend-don’t-break style. If you were looking for a fireworks show, Powell vs. Maryville was not the place for you, and Powell’s coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for not allowing many explosive plays early on in this one.

The 2021 5-A state champions fought hard in the trenches to give their playmakers in the backfield and out wide an opportunity on Thursday night. Tailback Connor Wheeler was one the Panthers who performed well for the Panthers on Thursday night. Powell head coach Matt Lowe told me after the game, “I’m extremely proud of our offensive line. I’m extremely proud of Connor Wheeler and everything that he’s doing. We know he’s talented, he’s big-time. He’s got a chance to be really special.” And you saw flashes of that on the field Thursday night. 

He’s not alone, though. Outside of Vaughn, who quietly rushed for 196 yards and three touchdowns, you saw the future of the backfield right behind him in No. 1. Indeed, Price Davis as a complementary back to Vaughn was just too much for the Panthers on Thursday night. “Price Davis is a heck of a football player,” Hunt told me after the game. He continued, “He’s just a sophomore, but, man, he’s good. He’s going to be really good as time allows.” The future is bright in the running-back rooms at Powell and Maryville.

Ultimately, though, it was Maryville who took care of business in Week 2 of the young high school football season in East Tennessee. You could count the number of deep shots the Rebels took on one hand in this one, but that’s OK.

Share

Hunt added, “Tonight I was comfortable with it because that’s what we needed to do to win.” They needed their defensive line to cause havoc in the backfield, their secondary to contain Ayden Greene on those crossing routes over the middle and Vaughn to make those dents. Four yards here, six yards there before the eventual touchdown-burst play. All of those dents added up to a 38-13 victory for Maryville over Powell on Thursday night.

Leave a comment

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

You’ve likely heard the expression that “winning cures everything” from somebody involved with sports at one point or another. The expression, of course, is not so. Winning does not, in fact, cure everything because games, and human beings, are more complicated than that. There is more to the games than that. Sure, winning will always feel better than losing, but not all victories feel the same. Kirby Smart winning the National Championship by defeating Alabama and his old mentor Nick Saban in the process feels different than defeating UAB on the first Saturday of September. Winning cures some things, but not everything.

Subscribe now

Oak Ridge head football coach Scott Cummings picked up his first victory as the new head football coach of the Wildcats on Friday night at South-Doyle. The ‘Cats took care of the South-Doyle Cherokees with relative ease in what turned into a major route for Oak Ridge in a hurry in the second quarter following a lengthy lightning delay. Winning the game did not, in fact, cure everything for Coach Cummings in his Oak Ridge debut, however.  

That final tally of 46-20 in favor of the Wildcats does not tell the whole story.

I caught up with Coach Cummings after the game and asked him about how it felt to notch win No. 1 in his Oak Ridge tenure Friday night. He told me, “You know, like they always say, winning is better than losing. Extremely frustrating, though, obviously.” It’s not often that a coach is that frustrated after a victory in which his team was up by so much at halftime that a running clock was added in the second half of the contest to get the game over with sooner rather than later. 

Share

You had to be there, though.

It was apparent early on that the penalty flags would be flying in this one. On the opening drive for both teams, there was a block in the back on the kickoff return, a holding call on Oak Ridge, and a delay of game for Oak Ridge. It was the first game of the season for both schools, so committing more penalties than usual is to be expected this early in the season.

It was the second drive of the evening for Oak Ridge, though, where the story of the game unfolded. After a muffed punt deep in their own territory by the Cherokees, Oak Ridge was ready to strike for their first score of the evening. The Wildcats then had a touchdown called back on a holding call. Then came an illegal procedure call to push them back to 2 & 26. However, the Wildcats broke one open on the left side with a long touchdown run to put them up 6-0. Oak Ridge would then go for 2 and get it to put them up 8-0 early.

Share Sports Renaissance Man

The Wildcats would never trail in this game.

The rhythm offensively just wasn’t there early for Oak Ridge, though. Their third drive had a long punt return negated by an illegal block. Then came an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the Wildcats were forced to punt. 

Those offensive frustrations dissipated after the hour-plus lightening delay as the Wildcats’ plethora of offensive playmakers in Jai Hundley, Brandon Heyward, Elijah Rogers and De’Jauvis Dozier made play after play in the second quarter to put the Wildcats up 46-7 at halftime. Rogers, and his three interceptions in the game, were a big reason why the the ‘Cats put it on the Cherokees in a hurry in the first half.

Give a gift subscription

But even with the offensive explosion by Oak Ridge, the penalty flags were still flying in this one. There were several unsportsmanlike conduct penalties called on the Wildcats, two of which resulted in star wideout Heyward being ejected from the game. Heyward’s helmet was ripped off after Rogers converted on another Oak Ridge two-point try in the second quarter. 

Cummings said after the game, “Brandon Heyward gets his helmet ripped off his head, kid rips his helmet off and throws it and then Brandon says something and he gets another unsportsmanlike.” Cummings made it clear that his players should never talk to officials.

However, he was perplexed as to how no official saw what started the chain of events that led to Heyward’s ejection. “You would like to think that somebody in the striped shirts might see him get his helmet ripped off, you know, but there’s no ownership in that.” With the ejection, Heyward is likely to not be available for the Wildcats’ next game on the road against Bearden. 

The Wildcats got the win against South-Doyle on Friday night, but it did not cure all. “It was so incredibly frustrating,” Cummings said after the game in regards to the penalties that interfered with the Wildcats’ offensive rhythm early. “That’s about as nitpicky of stuff as I’ve ever seen in my whole career,” Cummings concluded.

However, Cummings was pleased with the play of his team overall on the evening. “There’s a lot of really good things. Obviously, Elijah Rogers is a dude.” Cummings complemented the play of his dominant defense as a whole that stiffled the Cherokees for the majority of the night. Offensively, Cummings said, “It was good to see after the break us come out and execute.” Cummings was also happy to see the Wildcats get everyone involved in the run game from Rogers to Dozier to Almani Rembert.

Next Friday, the Wildcats travel to Bearden to take on the Bulldogs at 7:00 PM.

You can watch the game here on Prep Radio’s YouTube channel.

Leave a comment

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

The first time fans of “Cheers” see Sam Malone following his breakup with Diane Chambers in the Season 2 finale of the hit sitcom, they are greeted with immediate chaos. Malone has fallen off the wagon once again. He is partying, drinking, and doing all the things one might expect following a devastating breakup. Malone is all over the place in that opening episode. His life is as chaotic and as much of a mess as viewers had ever seen it. You heard stories about his previous chaotic days, but you never saw it. Watching it was like what folks can’t help but do when they pass a car wreck while driving down the road.

They stare.

Sometimes, that same thing happens for a high school football game. You just stare.

Share

That’s kind of like what happened with Colquitt County vs. Valdosta on September 10, 2021. The Packers defeated the Wildcats, but, boy, was it a bender of a football game for Colquitt. The final tally in penalty yards for the Pack was over 150 yards. You knew, immediately, this game was going to remind you of Sam Malone at the beginning of Season 3 when Valdosta started things off with a pooch kick that they themselves recovered on the opening kickoff.

The rest of the game followed that same bizarre, unpredictable cadence that makes high school football, especially in the south, so completely perfect. I have watched a lot of high school football games in my life, but I’d be hardpressed to find a game that I got more lost in than this one right here in Valdosta, GA.

Goodness, what a game.

Donate Subscriptions

In the third quarter, the ‘Cats found themselves in deep trouble. The Packers put themselves in front 34-15 following yet another Charlie Pace touchdown run. Valdosta set this up for Colquitt as Joseph Gardner stared down his read and a Colquitt defender sat on it and waited for his opportunity to pounce for a big interception that gave the Packers the ball on the 30-yard line. Valdosta head coach Shelton Felton’s team could have surrendered there, but they did not. Instead, Valdosta realed off 20 consecutive points to lead early in the fourth quarter 35-34.

Give a gift subscription

The drive that followed that Packer touchdown to put Valdosta in a 19-point hole jumped off the screen. The ‘Cats did not panic. After a deep hitch pattern to Jalen Whitehead to pick up a first down, Valdosta ran it six times in a row. Three carries for Kaleb Robinson, and three carries for Terrell Denson. There was a growing sense on the broadcast that the Packers’ defense might not have answer for the dynamic duo. The latter eventually put it in for the score after bouncing one outside the tackles on the left side for the score.

Then, Valdosta’ defense earned a stop, and returned a punt all the way down to Colquitt’s one-yard line. Chris Wolfe received the punt at the fifty and utilized his start-and-stop ability to follow his blocks down the right side to flip the momentum of this particular football game.

It was a classic “no, no, yes!” moment in sports.

Subscribe now

But, man, the penalties for Colquitt in this one.

One moment stands out above the rest, after the Packers punted up 7-6 on Valdosta in the first quarter. There was a delay of game penalty called on Colquitt, and then chaos ensued. I lost track, along with the delightful broadcast team in the booth, how many times the officials walked the ball back and forth trying to figure out where to spot it, what down it was and who even had possession of the dang ball. It was something you don’t see a lot, where you don’t have a stinking clue as to what’s transpiring on the football field. “These guys are confused,” the Colquitt County play-by-play man said over the broadcast feed.

Right he was.

This was a game where whoever had the ball last was probably going to win. Give the Packers credit, they did not roll over after Valdosta got the ball on Colquitt’s own 25-yard line following another disastrous penalty. After a few Kaleb Robinson carries off RPOs, the Wildcats scored late in the ballgame to go up 42-41. Without missing a beat, though, Neko Fann dialed up a deep bomb on 2nd-and-short to put the Pack inside the five-yard line in a first-and-goal situation.

The Packers did not panic, like Valdosta, and found the explosive play they needed where Fann had to drop a bucket of a pass in between two Valdosta defenders as the latter had split safeties up top in a Cover 2 configuration. That pass and Fann taking advantage of Ontavious Carolina running a deep post that required No. 21 on Valdosta to get a late jump on the outside leave the outside receiver running a quick out to catch up to him and not getting the help up top by the safety to prevent the explosive play. A perfect call and a perfect play that won Colquitt the game.

Share Sports Renaissance Man

What stood out most, though, was the play of both team’s running backs. Charlie Pace for Colquitt, popped off early when he bounced outside to the left and scored a touchdown to put Colquitt up 14-6 early. He waved at a trailing defender on the scamper, which led to one of many penalties called on Colquitt on the evening. The first half was all about Valdosta not keeping Pace inbetween the tackles. The second half, and the comeback all together, was all about Colquitt not being able to do the same, just with a two-headed attack in Robinson and Denson.

Ultimately, it was Colquitt who survived on the road in Valdosta, but, man this is one of those games I imagine the players, coaches and fans will remember for years to come.

Leave a comment

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

Cincinnati Bengals’ star wideout Tee Higgins put Oak Ridge on the map during the Bengals’ unbelievable run to the Super Bowl in 2022. Even better for longtime Wildcat fans, Higgins was at the center of the action for one of the biggest plays in the game itself. Had the Bengals held on to defeat the Los Angeles Rams and become Super Bowl champions, the way in which Higgins shook off lockdown cornerback Jalen Ramsey for the long touchdown grab would have been lead the story on all of the major sports networks. Instead, though, the Rams and Matthew Stafford were clutch late and the Bengals lost.

Share

The loss did not change the kind of season that Joe Burrow, Higgins and J’Marr Chase had, though. You would be hard-pressed to find another wide receiver trio as talented and as diverse as Chase, Higgins and Tyler Boyd. On a lot of other rosters, Higgins is likely a No. 1 option and the team is thrilled about it. In Cincy, it’s an embarrassment of riches at the moment around Burrow. Higgins is a star wideout in the NFL, but he had to start somewhere. We all do. Coming out of the Super Bowl, Higgins put Oak Ridge on the map. His emergence on the national level begs the question: will one day down the line four-star wideout Brandon Heyward do the same?

Only time will tell.

Donate Subscriptions

Heyward’s time at Oak Ridge has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Not many kids begin their playing career fighting for a state title as a freshman only to win three games the following year.

Already, Heyward has gotten the opportunity to see the good and the bad that comes with sports. He has already gotten to be apart of both something extremely special and something extremely frustrating in his first two years of high school football.

Heyward gained all that vital experience as an underclassmen. Now, as a rising junior and a highly-recruited wideout, Heyward is using those first two years to lead the Wildcats back to the promise land. “This year I got a strong belief we make it back to state. I hope that we make it back to state. I see all my players, they grinding in the weight room, outside the weight room, coming to the field working by themselves. I feel like everybody pitching in for their part. We’re gonna have a strong bond this year. I feel like we’re gonna whoop some teams,” Heyward told me after summer workouts on Wednesday morning.

Coach Cummings highlighted Heyward’s leadership to open summer workouts to kick things off yesterday morning. As both an uppeclassman and four-star kid, Heyward takes responsibility in his role to lead by example. He works hard, and being a leader means a lot to him. Being a good leader does not just happen, though. Not everyone is cut out to be one. The followers will always outnumber the leaders.

With Heyward, though, he told me, “What makes me a good leader is me just thinking back to the past how I wasn’t a good leader. Even though I was young, I was still a viabal part to the team and stuff like that.” 

No coach expects a freshman to be a leader that early in his football career. Regardless of how talented a kid is.  It does say a lot, though, that Heyward recognizes the expectations change now, though, being a rising rising junior and a big-time recruit. 

He continued, “So this year, going into my junior year, I just openly grew up, realized that if I want to take control of my team, especially how I got all of the offers right now, I need to step up and lead them. Tell them not to walk on the field, get my push ups [sic] if I drop a pass, be disciplined. That’s how I really lead my team and they trust in me. They listen and we all be disciplined when that time comes.”

With a new coaching staff led by longtime successful high school coach Scott Cummings, Heyward’s leadership is vital to ensure buy-in across the board. Football is a team game, that much is not new. You need everybody on the same page, and you can always tell if a leadership void is present on a struggling team. You can sense it, even from the outside looking in.

Give a gift subscription

Year 1 won’t be easy for Coach Cummings, as the ‘Cats open the season on the road for the first two weeks at South Doyle and then Bearden the week after. Then, no pressure, but the rivalry game against Clinton is right there at home in Week 3. 

For Heyward, he’s got a busy summer ahead of him before that first game against South Doyle. He’s going to travel and compete in some camps this summer, along with squeezing in both some official and nonofficial visits to various colleges around the country.

With YouTube and kids growing up nowadays being able to watch virtually any game they want to, I asked Heyward if he modeled his game after any wideout in particular. He told me, “I can’t say I actually just look at somebody and be like, ‘I want to be them.’”

He wants to be the best version of Brandon Heyward.

Still, the four-star wideout has his favorites to watch in the pros, like Jerry Jeudy of the Denver Broncos and DeVonta Smith of the Philadelphia Eagles. Has another coach viewed Heyward as a similar to player to some of that elite company coming out of Alabama in recent years?

No, but the Oak Ridge and Cincinnati Bengals connection continues as Heyward told me a coach compared him to Chad Ochocinco as a player and it was all about his footwork.

Will Wildcat Nation see Heyward more in the slot or out wide this fall? Does it matter to the wideout whether he lines up as the X, Y or Z receiver? “It doesn’t matter to me. Football is football.”

Football is football, and Heyward is excited to play more football this fall at Oak Ridge.

Leave a comment

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.

I also host a very popular daily national sports podcast called ‘The Chase Thomas Podcast’ that you should very much subscribe to here.

Summer workouts at Oak Ridge officially kicked off Tuesday morning at 8:00 A.M. With the holiday weekend, there will be four workouts out of the gate this week. The practices will range from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM each weekday until the TSSAA two-week dead period that begins at the tailend of June. 

Tuesday was the first opportunity I had to see new Oak Ridge head football coach Scott Cummings and his team this summer. It’s Day 1, and with that comes a sharp learning curve for a lot of kids about what lies ahead and what they have to adjust to in the here and now. “This morning was definitely a wakeup call that you better eat before you get here, you know, or you’re not going to be able to make it,” Coach Cummings told me after practice.

Share

It’s Day 1, which means there is a whole lot of opportunity out there for any Oak Ridge Wildcat to step up this summer and impress this new staff. It should come as no surprise that class of 2024 4-star wideout Brandon Heyward caught Coach Cummings’ attention as a leader early. “Brandon Heyward always steps up right now. I’m very proud of him and his leadership.” Heyward is one of four returning starters on the offensive side of the ball. (Note: The Wildcats also return just four starters on defense this fall, too.) “I thought Peyton Sharpe leads by example and every now and then verbally, too. I thought Brandon Heyward, he always leads. Nick Lucas on the offensive line and Elijah Israel, those guys are kind of the leaders up front for those guys and defensively Brian Kelley will always be a leader over there. You know, so we’ve got some leadership we just got to learn right now that summer is not a time off.”

It’s no secret that the 2022 Oak Ridge Wildcats are going to look different on Friday nights at Blankenship Field. It’s a new staff, a new scheme and a collection of new starters, so it’s going to take some time. For the offensive line, their assignments and expectations will be different than a season ago. “It’s definitely different, you know, there’s similarities in every offense, but we’re definitely different than what they have been doing. With a heavy emphasis on being able to run the football and being physical up front,” Coach Cummings told me. What percentage of run-plays the Wildcats run this fall versus pass-plays remains to be seen. “We’ve got to get Oak Ridge back to being a physical offense and being able to run the football and dicate to the defense what we’re going to do and not let them dictate to us,” Coach Cummings added.

Give a gift subscription

The kids have time to learn. It’s not going to happen overnight, but it’ll start to click more as the summer goes along and more installs are added to their plates. With only three hours each morning for the next few weeks, efficiency is the name of the game. Maximizing your time with your players during this window is critical to get things headed in the right direction right out of the gate. 

So what is Coach Cummings looking for out of his players this summer?

“Effort,” Coach Cummings said. “You know our strength and conditioning program is going to be more intensive.”

That’s the focus, but it’s also why a lot of kids want to play football to begin with. It’s a physical sport and size matters. “Generally speaking, the kids want that, though. They want to get bigger, faster stronger.” They want that and Coach Cummings expect to see that playout over the course of the summer. Instilling that understanding that every rep matters, even the moments where the coach may not see you. Things like “straining to finish” whether that’s via a benchpress rep or a sprint out on the practice field, Coach Cummings is looking for effort and buy-in from his players this summer. 

Day 1 of summer workouts at Oak Ridge is in the books. Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity for Coach Cummings’ Wildcats, but it’s clear the program is moving in the right direction with a clear identity in mind for the future of Wildcat football.

Leave a comment

Chase Thomas is the Sports Renaissance Man, Atlanta Sports Guy and Vol For Life. He is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee and resides in Knoxville, TN. Chase obtained his undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of North Georgia. He has written for a variety of publications that include Outsider, SB Nation, VICE Sports, SI’s The Cauldron, Cox Media Group & ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. You can email him at chasethomaspodcast[at]gmail.