McMinn Central coach Brandon Derrick has dismissed quarterback/athlete Jordan Jackson and running back/safety Brandon Simpson from the team.

Jackson, the Class 3A all-state quarterback in Murphy Fair’s preseason magazine, had missed the first two games of the season as part of a suspension related to off-the-field problems last season.

“Effective Sunday, I dismissed those two players from the team,” Derrick said. “They walked off the field with 3:52 left in the game. They were mad, felt like they didn’t get to play enough or something. I told them if that was their attitude, then it was obviously more about them than the team.”

McMinn Central beat Notre Dame 42-0 last week. The unbeaten Chargers (5-0) enter tonight’s game at East Ridge as the state’s third-ranked Class 3A team in the latest Associated Press poll.

“We have some kids that will step up,” Derrick said. “We played all spring and the first two games without Jordan. We can still be competitive.”

Pirates passer sets records

Last week’s nonregion win at Tyner marked the first time in South PIttsburg coach Vic Grider’s 12-year head coaching career that the Pirates threw for more yards than they rushed for.

With Tyner stacking nine defenders near the line of scrimmage, Pirates junior quarterback Terrell Robinson completed 11 of 24 passes for 244 yards and four touchdowns, including the game-winner with 16 seconds remaining. Robinson broke the previous school record (227 yards) for single-game passing and tied the record for most TDs in a game.

The Pirates (5-0) had averaged 366 rushing yards per game going into the game but got only 84 against the Rams.

“It gives us confidence as a team and a staff that if teams load up to stop the run we can still move the football,” Grider said. “The encouraging thing is that it is wasn’t just Terrell hitting one or two guys. We had five or six make catches, so we feel really confident that we can be balanced or rely on our passing game if we need to.

“But we don’t plan on making a living doing that.”

Reclassification date set

The timeline for the TSSAA’s reclassification process has been set, with the new alignment set to be finalized at the Board of Control meeting Nov. 12-13 in Murfreesboro. Updated 2008 fall enrollments are posted on www.tssaa.org. Those figures will be used for the classification process.

The deadline for schools opting to move to Division II is Oct. 10, followed by all non-public schools remaining in DI having their enrollments multiplied by 1.8. The deadline for any school moving up in classification is Oct. 20, and on Oct. 29 all schools will be set in classifications for DI (three classes) and D-II (two classes).

The second day of the Board of Control meeting, schools will be placed in districts and regions in all sports.

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