The Goo Goo Clusters won by the McCallie School student body in a bet with Montgomery Bell Academy headmaster Bradford Gioia over the 2019 TSSAA Division II-AAA football championship game hadn't even arrived from Nashville last December when the members of that Blue Tornado team who weren't seniors met with coach Ralph Potter to discuss the offseason.
"I don't know if Coach Potter was the first to talk about it or we were," senior linebacker John David Tessman said earlier this week of the goal to return to another BlueCross Bowl at Tennessee Tech and repeat as champions. "But it was definitely discussed. We've definitely vocalized the desire to win it again."
The chance to complete that goal by earning the program's second straight TSSAA state title and third overall comes at 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday against Memphis University School, which nipped McCallie 10-7 in the semifinals two years ago.
If the Blue Tornado (8-3) succeed, MUS (10-2) is expected to send a large batch of Gibson's doughnuts to settle a bet on the game with McCallie headmaster Lee Burns. Exactly like last year, Burns has agreed to send Moon Pies to the winning team if McCallie loses.
But unlike last year, when McCallie hammered Nashville's Montgomery Bell Academy 28-7 in the title game, Potter expects his team to face its most difficult test of the year against the surging Owls.
"What stands out in the playoffs is their ability to run the ball," the McCallie coach said of the offensive output by MUS on Nov. 13 in a 41-17 quarterfinal victory over Father Ryan - which spanked Potter's team 31-7 during the regular season - and its 49-42 semifinal win two weeks ago over MBA, which had beaten MUS during the regular season.
"And defensively they've got really great athletes on the back end in the secondary. Great closing speed. Plus they're a hot team right now."
McCallie looked like anything but a hot team a year ago when it entered the postseason on a two-game losing streak. This year's postseason run looked similarly iffy due to the Father Ryan setback and a 24-16 loss to Virginia's Life Christian Academy in late October.
However, much as last season's team was without eventual Auburn signee John "Jay" Hardy for much of the regular season but welcomed him back for the playoff run, this Blue Tornado bunch lost wide receiver and defensive back Eric Rivers for the last half of the regular season before having him return for the playoffs.
"The difference is, we knew we were getting John back for the playoffs," said Potter. "We weren't sure about Eric."
Just how much does the fleet, talented Rivers mean to McCallie?
"We're definitely not the same without him," Tessman said. "Eric's a game changer."
Added Potter: "He gives us a lot more energy."
Though he is a good enough athlete that he has already discussed playing both basketball and football with two Southern Conference programs - Samford and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga - and has often shored up the Blue Tornado defense in the secondary when asked, Rivers' college future could well be at receiver, where he not only has great hands and speed but has also been a dangerous running back when spelling Tennessee Titans Mr. Football finalist B.J. Harris.
Prior to Rivers' injury, they had scored 191 points in 18 quarters. Since his return to the field for the playoffs, McCallie has won 42-28 at Christian Brothers in Memphis and 28-18 at previously undefeated Brentwood Academy, avenging a 30-27 loss from early September.
"I'm excited," Rivers said Monday. "I want to go live those (championship) moments one more time. From the first day of fall camp, we've told each other, 'We've got to do this again.'"
After all, the rest of the student body is counting on a shipment of world-famous Gibson's doughnuts to welcome in the holidays.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.