Honorable mention
Caleb O’Neal, Gordon Lee: He completed 12 of 17 passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 141 yards and another touchdown.Cooper Hodge, Boyd-Buchanan: He completed 13 of 16 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown, ran nine times for 79 yards and two more scores and added five tackles, including a lost-yardage hit.Christian Bell, Soddy-Daisy: He ran 31 times for 201 yards, much of it in a crucial second half, and finished with three touchdowns.Coaches and/or statisticians are invited to nominate players by emailing Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com by 2 p.m. each Saturday.
Friday's game at Dobyns-Bennett was the closest thing to a must-win situation Bradley Central had encountered this prep football season.
The Bears were trying to remain in the chase for one of the 16 host roles in the upcoming TSSAA Super 32 playoffs, and they were a game below .500 in the Region 1-6A standings. Their two losses had come down to a total of 29 seconds and, at least once, a questionable call.
Coach Damon Floyd said in the preseason that the Bears' fortunes would likely ride the performance of junior quarterback Cole Copeland - yes, another of the Copeland clan that has become synonymous with Bradley athletics.
In Kingsport, Copeland rose to the occasion and the family name. While teaming with sticky-fingered receivers and an offensive line that came to play, the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder passed for 459 yards and five touchdowns, and he ran for another 122 yards and three more scores.
For his part in Bradley's 56-42 victory, which improved the Bears to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the region, Copeland has been selected by the Times Free Press sports staff as the Waffle House All-Star player of the week.
"He was in a zone. He was lighting them up," Floyd said. "When players talk about getting in a zone, Cole was on the money."
Copeland, whose father played for the Bears - along with brothers, uncles and cousins - is the first Bradley player to account for eight touchdowns in the school's lengthy and colorful football history, Floyd said. The 56 points Copeland engineered against Dobyns-Bennett are the most that school has surrendered in 53 seasons.
It might have been an even more impressive performance if the Bears hadn't milked the clock in the fourth quarter.
"We didn't throw as much," Floyd said.
Yet it was more than Copeland's physical effort, the coach said.
"Cole was checking coverages and also protections. If they blitzed from a certain area, he was going to that 'hot' area," Floyd recalled. "When we did get a chance to beat them vertically, the receivers were making the plays. We had three different receivers with long TD receptions, and we maybe gave up one sack all night."
Bradley forced the Indians out of their blitzes that came atop a four-man rush. They went to a three-man line, looking to put an extra body or two into pass coverage.
So Copeland pulled the ball in and ran, finishing the night with 581 yards of offense.
"We knew if we went empty formation (no backs) that we would get single coverage. We worked hard all week on blitz pickups and hot routes," Floyd said. "After we burned them a few times, they went to a three-man front, and part of the reason was that Cole did a good job at the line of scrimmage."
The Bears often went to the line of scrimmage and made a "dummy call." Copeland then checked with his coaches on the sideline, who were talking with offensive coordinator Keith Freeman, stationed in the press box.
"Coach Freeman could see well what was going on, and then sometimes Cole would make an audible on his own," Floyd said. "He has the green light to check to certain plays if he sees something and wants it."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.