We’ve made it. The final Friday night without meaningful prep football action is now behind us, and from next weekend until early December, as the temperatures cool down, the schedule heats up.
Added to the coming week’s annual array of area jamborees — highlighted by Finley Stadium hosting the three-day, 21-team “Prelude to a Championship” event — will be the actual regular season kicking off for more than a dozen Georgia teams in our area.
Rest assured that the Chattanooga Times Free Press staff is once again planning to highlight all the best stories involving area teams and players. After daily appearances for nearly two weeks, we have revealed last of our region previews, with this one on TSSAA Division II-AAA East, arguably the toughest league outside of the Southeastern Conference.
Next up, we will count down our list of Dynamite Dozen players, and on Aug. 18, the annual TFP prep football preview section will be included within the Sunday edition. This year’s 72-page preview section will include in-depth information for what to expect from each of the 32 Tennessee teams and 13 of the Northwest Georgia schools in our coverage area. Also within its pages will be large photos and information on the Dynamite Dozen — the annual list of the area’s top 12 college football prospects.
As a public service to our readers, some of whom inquire every year how we come up with that list, here’s a brief explainer. It’s not a complicated formula. Each year, our staff gathers information from the national recruiting services, along with double-checking with area high school coaches, to come up with the highest-rated senior prospects.
The list may begin with dozens of names early in the summer, but it gets narrowed down to a manageable figure of players we discuss with several college coaches who recruit our area, and we typically emerge with a pretty clear idea of who the top 12 seniors are.
It’s a college prospects list — not “who’s the most statistically productive player” — based solely on input from coaches and experts in the recruiting world. The key stats are the same as those used by college recruiters: height, weight, speed, strength and how high a player is projected to pan out at the next level.
This marks the 23rd year for the Dynamite Dozen, and for only the second time in its history, each member has at least one college offer from a Football Bowl Subdivision program. Last season was the first time that had happened, and in fact, the group was so loaded with talent that we wound up going with a “Baker’s Dozen” to include all 13 players with FBS offers.
The back-to-back run of such a deep pool of highly rated prospects can likely be attributed to two main factors: the level of incoming out-of-area talent added to the rosters at private school powers Baylor and McCallie, and the number of local players who have caught up to the rest of the state in terms of their individual training and gaining exposure at prestigious showcase camps.
That first factor cannot be understated. Whether from the Canadian ranks or transfers from in-state and out-of-state programs, Baylor and McCallie have an embarrassment of talent riches.
Granted, that infusion was needed just to be competitive with the rest of DII-AAA, simply because our surrounding area’s population can’t produce the amount of top-tier talent to challenge opponents from the Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville areas.
How stacked with next-level talent is DII-AAA? Nearly half (19) of the state’s top 40 overall prospects compete in that league.
Since the Dynamite Dozen began in 2002, there have been multiple players from the same school on the list every single year. The most from any one school in the same year was three — Baylor (2022, 2023), Bradley Central (2023), Calhoun (2015) and McCallie (2015, 2020, 2023) — until now.
Baylor, which has played in the BlueCross Bowl each of the past two seasons — winning it all in 2022 and coming up just short to McCallie last year — is so loaded this year that there was simply no way to prevent setting a record for number of representatives from one team.
In fact, there’s an argument to be made that the Red Raiders, who have seven seniors with FBS offers, could have made up more than half of this year’s total.
As it is, wanting to address any questions surrounding potential private school bias head-on, I am informing our readership that a total of five Red Raiders seniors will be included in this year’s area recruiting rankings. The pecking order will be revealed in the days to come.
So while I understand the section of folks exhausted by “Baylor envy,” take it from the product of one of our area’s rural public schools — and someone who simply enjoys watching, covering and highlighting the best prep football teams, players and storylines — that it’s time to accept something as fact.
We’ve reached the point where the dominance by Baylor, McCallie and all of DII-AAA is not just on the field — where most public schools refuse to schedule them — but also for the right to claim possession of the most impressive in-state talent.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com.