The Times Free Press continues its prep football primer series with TSSAA Region 4-5A.
Overview: The biggest news in this region is the addition of East Hamilton, which won Region 3-4A and advanced to the state quarterfinals last season before moving up in classification. The Hurricanes will also be under the direction of a new head coach as Aaron Nance takes over for Grant Reynolds, who resigned after the season to become the head of Chattanooga Christian’s program. In finishing unbeaten in the league, McMinn County outscored region foes by an average of 34-9 last fall. The Cherokees’ defense allowed more than 20 points only once and held 10 opponents to 14 or less, but a huge key to repeating as champions will be finding replacements for the production of versatile Caden Hester — last year’s region player of the year — and Jayden Miller. Meanwhile, Walker Valley, Rhea County, Ooltewah and Howard all finished with losing overall records — with Walker Valley the only one of those four teams to win more than two games.
1. How does East Hamilton replace Juan Bullard?
Last year, just before the first game, the Hurricanes lost their starting quarterback for the season. Bullard stepped in and stepped up, rushing for more than 1,500 yards and throwing for another 1,350 to become a Tennessee Titans Mr. Football semifinalist. Nance has said Bullard’s production will have to be replaced by committee, with Mike Hinton and Wesley Weldon likely to split plenty of carries and Vanzale Hinton and Kireese Willis bringing big-play capability at a variety of offensive positions. Willis led the secondary with six interceptions last year in addition to compiling 900-plus yards of offense.
“The offense we’ll run will be similar to what they ran last year, so that should make for a smoother transition for the players,” Nance said. “One big difference is that since we don’t have the numbers or experience they’ve had here before, we’ll teach the kids to play multiple positions.”