The goal for each of Tennessee's 230 prep football teams that advanced to the playoffs is to extend what began just before last weekend's Halloween sugar rush all the way through the tryptophan-filled Friday after Thanksgiving.
When the regular season ended last week, the objective became to carve up each postseason opponent over the next four Fridays, which would mean surviving from one food-centered holiday through the next and advancing to this year's BlueCross Bowl state championship games at Finley Stadium in early December.
A total of 26 schools from the Chattanooga area qualified for this year's TSSAA playoffs, with multiple teams in eight of the nine classifications' brackets (no local teams compete in the smallest private school league, Division II-A). Also, an area team earned the top seed in five of those brackets, which comes with the assurance of home-field advantage for at least the first two rounds.
The area has had at least one team play for a state championship in eight consecutive seasons and once again has about a half-dozen with realistic expectations of advancing that far this year. Top-ranked and two-time reigning DII-AAA state champ McCallie, which rolled through the regular season unbeaten for the first time in 20 years, received a first-round bye and will begin its playoff run next week in the quarterfinals by hosting the winner of this Friday's Father Ryan and Memphis University School matchup.
Among the area's public school playoff teams, while five different teams have played for a title in Classes 1A and 2A, no local squad in the state's four highest classifications has advanced past the semifinals in more than two decades. That is a streak that 4A qualifiers Red Bank, East Hamilton and Central, 5A's Rhea County and 6A's Bradley Central - who have all been state-ranked at some point this season - would like to put an end to once the postseason begins.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.