Region 3-2A at a glance
* Last year’s champion: Boyd-Buchanan won District 5-A; Marion County won District 6-A.* Team to beat: Marion County ran to the Class 2A state final in 2014, and most of those players, with the notable exception of RB/LB Blake Zeman, return for Ricky Ross’s second year as the Warriors’ coach.* Watch out for: Along with Tyner and Brainerd, Bledsoe County’s Warriors are dropping from a district that consisted of 3A and 4A teams. New Bledsoe head coach Josh Owensby, who stepped up from offensive coordinator, has favored the passing game but says he and the team will make a concerted effort to run the ball.* Best game: Marion County is to play at Boyd-Buchanan on Sept. 25, but the championship-telling game may come the next week when Marion’s Warriors host Tyner.* Dream schedule: With seven region games, a dream schedule is out of the question, but Silverdale Baptist has region games two of the first four weeks (Bledsoe, Meigs) and is the only team that doesn’t draw two preseason favorites in back-to-back weeks.* Nightmare schedule: Bledsoe County has three straight weeks of likely championship contenders beginning with Boyd-Buchanan on Oct. 2, followed by Tyner on Oct. 9 and Marion County on Oct. 16. The only silver lining is that all three are at home.* Players to watch: Among the area’s returning rushers, Silverdale’s Hunter Arnold had the highest per-carry average (9.1 yards/seven games). Meigs Tyler Lawson (878 yards/nine games) stands as the district’s top returning rusher.* Predicted order of finish: Marion County, Tyner, Boyd-Buchanan, Meigs County, Bledsoe County, Brainerd, Polk County, Silverdale Baptist.
Boyd-Buchanan football coach Grant Reynolds was taken aback earlier this summer when he saw a poll that had his Buccaneers picked third in Region 3-2A.
The Bucs, after all, return a solid and deep offensive line, key elements to a stingy defense, quarterback Cooper Hodge, running back E.J. Matthews and tight end Jack Keebler, who recently committed to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
The favorite's role, though, falls to Marion County, which reached last year's Class 2A championship game. Yet there is debate on the region's final pecking order with the most likely candidates for four playoff spots being Meigs County and Tyner along with Marion and Boyd-Buchanan.
With the new region alignments, that quartet joins Bledsoe County, Polk County, Brainerd and Silverdale Baptist in 3-2A, and coaches were of a single mind on one thing at the league's media day. They believe their region to be the toughest in Class 2A.
"We're not going to play a bad football team," said Jason Fitzgerald, who last year coached Meigs to its first postseason appearance since 2011 and its first winning season since 2007. "We're always going to strive to be the best, but there are a lot of good football teams in that region."
He included Brainerd, whose last winning season was 2009 (8-4), and Polk, 0-10 last year, in his assessment.
"Brainerd is always going to have at least three or four athletes who are going to keep their games from being a breather for the opponent, and Polk, as always, is going to be hard-nosed," Fitzgerald said.
Yet the focus appears to be on Marion, senior-laden Tyner, Meigs and Boyd-Buchanan.
"I appreciate somebody picking us No. 1, but I'll tell you like I tell our kids: Seldom does the team that's supposed to win it do so," Marion coach Ricky Ross said. "Being picked at the top only puts us on our guard. We know we're going to get everybody's best shot, but I know there are several other teams out there that are pretty sporty."
Ross, whose Warriors were 12-2 last year and District 6-A champions, was thankful for the compliment sent Jasper's way, but the second-year coach from Georgia has done some homework.
"It's a little different for me. I don't know these teams. You go back and look and I think 3-2A probably does have the toughest chunk of teams from top to bottom," he said. "Brainerd? Mega-athletes. They must be pretty good to have had six kids in a camp at Alabama. And Tyner? I don't care who you are, if you have 29 seniors then you're going to be pretty good."
Polk coach Derrick Davis remembers the years his Wildcats were in the same region with first Marion and then Tyner.
"I don't know much about Silverdale. We've never played them, and we've never played Brainerd since I've been here," Davis said. "As a matter of fact, we haven't played anybody in this region in a few years. Even Meigs, whom we used to play every year, we haven't played in four years. We were in a district with Marion, maybe 2001-2002."
What he most vividly recalls are the battles with Tyner.
"It was a good district. We were always second to them - never could beat them, although we played them tough a couple of times, and then we continued to scrimmage with them after we went to different districts," Davis said. "Boyd? Always well coached with good kids."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.