It’s Baylor-McCallie week Part II.
The evidence was there Monday afternoon in the McCallie parking lot – a fairly new 4×4 pickup with oversized off-road tires and three homemade flags sporting a blue “M” draped from its utility slots and the trailer hitch.
It’s school spirit, for sure, but it also is a reminder of an unexpected Baylor-McCalllie football rematch in which the only thing missing might be the alumni week hoopla that always surrounds the teams in the regular season. Kickoff is at 7 tonight at Baylor, and Baylor athletic director Thad Lepico said Thursday that plenty of seats remain.
“It’s exciting,” McCallie coach Rick Whitt said of the annual Baylor-McCallie week. “The worst thing is the distractions, and I don’t think they’ll be as bad for this game as alumni week. Gosh dog, though, you get a chance to play your rival. That place will be packed and the atmosphere will be incredible. To me there’s nothing bad about it, because we [earned] a chance to play and it’s an opportunity.”
Whitt’s seventh-seeded team reminded all last week that anything can happen when it bounced Briarcrest Christian, Division II-AA’s No. 3 seed, from the playoffs in double overtime.
Yet Briarcrest was viewed merely as an obstacle to be swept off the path that led to 8-1 Baylor.
“Our ultimate goal was to win that game and to move on in the playoffs, but, yes, a lesser goal was to get a second game with Baylor,” said Ben Johnson, the Blue Tornado’s senior safety.
Johnson wasn’t going to be denied last week. He picked off a Briarcrest pass in the end zone and sent the game into overtime by hauling down a runner who had scooped up the ball after a Tornado field goal was blocked.
In their regular-season meeting Oct. 1 at Finley Stadium, the Red Raiders earned their second straight win in the series, breaking from a 14-6 halftime to a 27-6 victory.
“The rivalry is so emotional,” Johnson said. “We didn’t play to our full ability. We had some plays early that we didn’t capitalize on. That week was so chaotic, and I think having less chaos [around the game this week] will be to our advantage.
So does this game offer McCallie the opportunity for redemption?
“It’s kind of shortsighted to want to beat just one team at this time of the year. I would think everybody’s goal would be to win a state championship,” senior end Jarrod Coleman said.
“I think [redemption] is in the back of our minds, but Coach has preached that this is the playoffs,” said quarterback Trent Lusk, who missed last week’s game because of a concussion sustained the week before. “This is the second season. One of our goals in the season was to beat Baylor, and this is a chance to make up for it. But this is a must-win game.
“The whole Baylor-McCallie atmosphere is entertaining, but it’s down to win or lose, stay or go home, and we don’t intend to let the fact we’re playing Baylor have an [undue] influence on what we do.”
The only revenge/redemption conversation they want to hear is from 1974. It was Baylor, coached by Red Etter, and McCallie, coached by Pete Potter, at Chamberlain Field where all the big high school games were once played; a sunny Saturday afternoon. Baylor, a 31-14 winner in the regular season, was a prohibitive favor to bump McCallie from the playoffs. McCallie won 29-7 in a game that solidly stamped Potter’s style on the McCallie program.
“I can’t wait. It’s going to be a blast,” Coleman said. “It’s a rematch and they got us last time. They have a great team and we have a good team that has matured and is fixing to hits its stride.”
The excitement began coursing through the McCallie team on the six-hour ride from Briarcrest early Saturday morning.
“It isn’t about getting jacked up or keeping yourself or your teammates from getting too jacked up,” Coleman said. “That’s great. We just need to let it arrive at the right time. It isn’t about Baylor. It’s about winning a state championship, and right now we have a legitimate shot.”
“We probably know a little more about what to expect from them,” Whitt said Monday, “but preparation for this game will be no different than if we were preparing for Ensworth or Brentwood Academy or MBA.
“It is what it is, though. It’s Baylor-McCallie.”