The Times Free Press continues its prep football primer series with TSSAA Region 2-6A
Overview: Despite having its 144-game region winning streak — which dated to the 2000 season — snapped by Cleveland’s Blue Raiders last year, perennial state power Maryville managed to rebound and stake its claim to a share of another region championship. The Rebels shared the league title with Farragut (each had one region loss) and wound up advancing to the semifinals before losing to eventual state champion Oakland for a third straight season. Since then, Cleveland, which missed the playoffs last year, has hired an energetic new coach, while Bradley Central, which earned the fourth and final playoff spot last season, has added a considerable amount of talent to its roster. Those are the only two Chattanooga-area teams in this region, but both should be much more formidable members of a stacked league.
1. Can Bradley Central challenge Maryville and make a deep playoff run?
The amount of overall talent the Bears have is staggering. Not only are there eight starters back on both sides of the ball, the secondary alone is as good as any position group for any team in the state with Boo Carter and Marcus Goree — both are committed to the University of Tennessee — as well as Tito Williams, who has offers from Duke, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and West Virginia among others, plus junior cornerback Mason Goree, who recently picked up an offer from Vanderbilt.
Carter is ranked the state’s top overall prospect, according to Rivals.com, and Goree is the No. 8 prospect, according to On3.com.