North Murray coach Preston Poag admits it's the scariest thing he's ever seen on a football field, though for now it has a happy ending.
Sophomore Luke Griffin, a 6-foot-6, 280-pound Mountaineers lineman who has committed to Georgia, was knocked unconscious late in last week's game at Heritage. He lay motionless on the field for more than 20 minutes as concerned coaches, players and fans waited on an ambulance to arrive.
When he finally started to come to, Griffin did not know where he was or what had happened, and he was not moving very well as he was transported to Erlanger hospital.
"I've never seen a kid out that long, over 20 minutes," Poag said. "It was awful and we all were scared. But everything looked good at the hospital and he's going to be fine. He doesn't even have a headache any longer."
The Mountaineers are off this week and Griffin, who was released after being diagnosed with a concussion, may suit up the following week against Calhoun, according to Poag.
Mustangs' timing good
Walker Valley won 49-28 at Coffee County last Friday, evening its record at 2-2 and getting a shot of confidence as well. Mustangs coaches decided to play without starting quarterback Kolten Gibson, receiver Bryce Nunnally and running back Alex King. The trio might have been able to play, but head coach Glen Ryan decided against it.
With the team off tonight, those key players will have two weeks to heal from bangs and bruises suffered in the McMinn County game on Sept. 2, when the Mustangs coughed up five fumbles and lost a game they had every opportunity to win.
The three are going to be in ice baths every day and going to therapy twice per day.
"Whatever it takes," Ryan said. "The good thing, though, is that we had some folks step up, which is something we've been needing."
Eagles get first win
Winning the turnover battle and consistently running the football were the keys to his team securing its first win of the season last week, according to Signal Mountain coach Ty Wise.
"We got three turnovers and only gave up one," he said. "We had a lot of success running the ball."
The Eagles had a shot the previous week against East Ridge but turned the ball over four times.
The Class 3A Eagles have been bested by higher-classification teams including 5A Ooltewah and 4A East Hamilton. They were overwhelmed by Ooltewah despite having no turnovers, but no fumbles or interceptions kept them in the game against East Hamilton.
"Whenever you have guys buying in on sustaining their blocks and running backs intent on protecting the ball, it at least gives you a chance to win," Wise said.
Signal is playing Chattanooga Christian tonight.
Polk urged to forget
As his players prepared to play at Bledsoe County tonight, Polk County coach Derrick Davis wanted them to be forgetful this week. At least in one way.
Last Friday the Wildcats were surprised by a 38-7 loss at neighboring rival McMinn Central.
Davis watched the video over the weekend. He counted 33 missed tackles. He saw 10 missed alignments.
He considered pointing out the multitude of problems to his team during the planned film study Monday, but he decided to take a totally different approach.
"I went out and dug a big hole," Davis said, noting it was in an area near the practice field. "I got the players together and told them to come out there with me. They probably thought they were about to do a bunch of running or something.
"We got out there and I showed them that I had the DVD of that game. I broke it in half, threw it in that hole and said, 'That's it. We're burying it. That game's over. We're moving on.' I've never done anything like that before. I guess we'll see if it works."
Trion's Pierce out
Trion senior running back and safety Jarrett Pierce suffered an injured ankle in last week's loss to Bremen and likely will miss the Bulldogs' next few games.
"He's probably going to be out at least a month with a high ankle sprain," Trion coach Justin Brown said of the team's leading rusher. "He's seen two different doctors and they don't feel anything is broken. Needless to say, he's a very important player for us, and once he went down we struggled to get back on track.
"We just need to play a little better than we did. I don't think we ever recovered after he went down, and hopefully this week we will do a better job of raising our level of play."