Tom Kreager of The Tennessean joins Tate Matthews and Coach Will Hester for his weekly visit. He doesn’t sugarcoat round two: it was “not a great night” for Middle Tennessee. Oakland, Brentwood, Ravenwood and Antioch all lost, so 6A will crown a new champion, and both west-side semifinals will be all-Memphis matchups. Kreager says Memphis football, which took a step back after missing the COVID season, is “officially back,” with four of the city’s nine 6A teams still playing. He suggests that should cool complaints about how the Memphis regions are set up. He also admits he didn’t see Trent Dilfer’s young Lipscomb Academy team reaching a semifinal in his first year back in high school coaching. Then the panel turns to East Nashville and Pearl-Cohn, the only two Metro Nashville teams left. Both drop in classification next year, and East Nashville has already beaten a 6A quarterfinalist despite a 1A-sized enrollment. That has smaller schools grumbling, and the panel’s response is to get over it.

Looking ahead, the crew picks Page at Beech as the midstate game of the week, featuring two of the area’s most underrated coaches, Charles Rathbone and Anthony Crabtree. They’re also watching the Lipscomb–Brentwood Academy rematch after BA’s 20–14 win just weeks ago. Kreager calls Greeneville at Alcoa, a matchup of two unbeaten teams, the best game in the state. The panel breaks down Riverdale’s first playoff road trip, to Cleveland, a team that went from 1–9 last year to the quarterfinals. That game puts two Mr. Football semifinalist quarterbacks head to head. The segment ends in a friendly, admittedly biased debate over who has the best quarterback left in D2. The hosts take Brentwood Academy’s QB over Baylor’s, though they agree Baylor’s running back may be the best player on the field. Kreager signs off by wishing his Indiana Hoosiers luck.