For two years the achilles heel for South Pittsburg's football team has been stopping power-running opponents. As Union City proved in last year's championship game, as well as Polk County twice, Boyd-Buchanan last year and Signal Mountain this year, the Pirates have struggled stopping the most simplistic offense — the ones that bulldoze their way down the field.
South Pittsburg faces yet another team that prides itself in a power rushing attack, a Jo Byrns team that still employs the seemingly outdated I-formation. Although the Red Devils have had success throwing the ball, at the heart of their success is their ability to give the ball to Brandon Holt or Frankie Traugber and have one of them follow 228-pound fullback Johnny Smith.
"They won't get real fancy," Pirates defensive coordinator Danny Wilson said. "They can throw the ball and they have a few wrinkles they like to throw at you, but they're basically just going to come at you and see if you're tough enough to stop them. And they've got two guys who are pretty physical runners that run downhill pretty well."
For South Pittsburg to claim its fifth state title, and second in four years, it will need to corral Holt and Traughber, who each average more than 100 yards per game and are within eight yards of one another's season total. Holt has 1,320 and 24 touchdowns, while Traughber has 1,312 and 13 TDs and the next leading rusher has just 166 yards.
"We don't really have a No. 1 running back, we have two No. 1s," Jo Byrns coach Tom Adkins said. "We like using both to keep their legs fresh. We've been in the 'I' since I've been here and we can do a lot of different things out of it. We like having the fullback leading our guys because Johnny is a great blocker. He has to be to pave the way for two 1,300-yard rushers."
The Red Devils average 333 rushing yards per game and of their 380 attempts, they have lost just five fumbles so ball security is one of Adkins' top priorities preached each day at practice.
"Coach always says the most important part of any play is to have the ball after that play is over," Holt said. "We take care of it when we have it and try to strip it away from the other team as much as possible.
"It really helps having two of us who can carry the load because the defense can't just key on one guy. It makes us awfully tough to stop."
Stephen has covered high school sports in the tri-state area since the early 1990s, starting at the News-Free Press as a 19-year-old reporter. He has been with the Times Free Press since its inception and has been an assistant sports editor for more than seven years. Stephen is among the most decorated writers in the TFP’s newsroom, winning numerous state and regional awards for his writing on high school athletics. He has two children, Riley ...
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