For all the flash and fun of spread offenses, one of the biggest takeaways from the first full Friday night of the 2024 prep regular season for the Chattanooga area was the way several teams reverted to the old-school “football in a phone booth” style to win their openers.
The trend actually began Thursday with the area’s first TSSAA game as McMinn County ran the ball 50 times while completing just six passes in a three-point win at Bradley Central.
One night later, Signal Mountain reintroduced the wing-T offense and saw it pay off in a big way in Mark Mariakis’ first game as head coach of the Eagles. Mariakis has leaned on the wing-T throughout his successful career — including a run with Ridgeland to the GHSA Class AAAA title game in 2012 — and just one game into his new job, it paid off not only with a road win but a renewed hope on the mountain after hanging nearly 50 points (including 28 in the first quarter) on McMinn Central.
Looking ahead, with upcoming games against Notre Dame, at Sequoyah and Hixson — all teams that were handed lopsided losses in their openers — it’s not unthinkable that the Eagles could enter their midseason matchup at Red Bank unbeaten.
Bledsoe County looked as solid as any team could be expected to be in an opener. With the return of five offensive line starters — including Zach Bruggner (6-foot-3, 265 pounds) and Jake Agee (6-1, 245) — from a team that reached the second round of the Class 2A playoffs last fall, the Warriors are the equivalent of a punch to the nose for four quarters. They physically beat up a good Class 3A team, rushing for 220 yards against Sequatchie County, and the defensive front stuffed the Indians for zero or negative yardage on 15 plays, with 11 of those coming in the second half as the Warriors just wore down their rivals.