Field set for battle to be state champs

With the playoffs set to begin, only four teams in 5A remain undefeated and just three more have just one loss, telling us just how competitive big-time high school football has been this season.

The 5A playoffs include 32 teams, three of whom, like Warren County, have sub-.500, or to be specific, 4-6 regular season marks, the others being Coffee County and Cordova in west Tennessee.

The top four teams are admitted in each of the state?s eight regions. The playoff admission is based soley on region wins, with the overall record against non-region teams not meaning a thing. In our region, 3-5A, wins against Crossville and Franklin County were enough to get the Pioneers in, although a loss Thursday night at Manchester now sends Warren County packing to highly rated Riverdale this week as the region?s final seed.

Riverdale, my pick to win it all this year unless Warren County pulls a miracle Friday night, has a single loss, 33-27 to private school McCallie earlier this year, a loss which seemingly awoke the perennial powerhouse which has since smoked everyone in its path. Perhaps most impressive is that six of their wins have come against playoff teams.

However, standing in the way of their date in the Blue Cross Bowl Dec. 2 are four undefeated squads, those being, Dobyns-Bennett, Ooltewah, Gallatin and Ridgeway.

To be straight with you, I don?t know much at all about west Tennessee football except to say that Ridgeway usually goes deep in the playoffs. I do know its undefeated status was least impressive of the perfect four as it beat only two playoff teams on the way to out-scoring its opponents 245-49. On the up-side, it never allowed more than seven points in any single game.

However, for Ridgeway to make it to Dec. 2, there are a number of predators it will have to go through. One could be undefeated Gallatin, which beat four playoff teams and scored three shutouts on the way to regular season perfection. The Green Wave outscored their opponents 292-66. Their biggest problem could be the competition as pre-season top ranked Franklin will play them in the third round if things go as predicted, Franklin?s only loss in an ambush against Independence, a team that didn?t even make the playoffs.

Perhaps the most interesting race is in the east, where undefeated Ooltewah and Dobyns Bennett could meet in the third round if things go as predicted. Of course, Dobyns would have to clear Farragut while Ooltewah would have to take out a tough McMinn County team on the way for the clash of the titans. The winner of that match would then, if my predictions are right, take on Riverdale with the winner to play the western champ, which I believe will be Gallatin.

So what happens to our region in the playoffs? Well, I think we all bow out first round. Region champ Cookeville, which lost to Franklin County in the closer, will have trouble with La Vergne while Lincoln will not hold in the ?Pit? against the Lebanon Blue Devils. Meanwhile, the Smyrna Bulldogs will maul Manchester while the Pioneers are hoping to be David versus Goliath in Riverdale.

Hey, Livingston Academy took a 5-5 record last year, backed into the playoffs and won the state title in 3A. That?s why they play the games.