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During the 2020 season, we’ll use this space each week to take the temperature of teams and players around the area and see which ones are trending in the right direction, or in some cases, the wrong one.
Stock up
Ray Banner, La Vergne senior RB: Perhaps no player made himself known in Week 1 than Banner, who ripped off 273 rushing yards and five scores last Thursday. That touchdown total puts him one-third of the way to surpassing his 2019 finish (14) after just 48 minutes of action.
Fairview’s chances: The Yellow Jackets made a defensive statement by holding Williamson County rival Page to just three points in their season-opening road win. Logan Nardozzi scored twice, but the Fairview defense raised some eyebrows and has head coach Chris Hughes believing they can do big things this season.
Macon County’s start: Perhaps no result was more surprising than the Tigers’ 43-7 throttling of rival Smith County last Friday. What they can’t do is let another rival – Westmoreland – catch them sleeping this week. If they take down the Eagles, their next three games are against teams they outscored by a combined 173-27 last year (Mt. Juliet Christian, Glencliff, Cumberland County), though they’ll likely be replacing that Glencliff game. A 4-0 or 5-0 start isn’t out of the question before their Week 6 visit to Trousdale County.
Stock down
Games on Friday: Mother Nature continues to pile on as what is now Hurricane Laura should be downgraded to a tropical depression before gametime on Friday. Several games have been moved to Thursday in anticipation of bad weather on Friday, but a few seem ready to stick it out. Depending on the timing of the storm hitting (Nashville Severe Weather has a great explanation of the uncertainty here), they might be rewarded for doing so, or they may get the wrong end of the deal. It remains to be seen, but as of this writing, there will be football on Friday evening this week, just not as much of it.
Metro’s chances of playing: Let’s face it, Metro Nashville Public Schools did not do their teams any favors by delaying sports ‘until further notice’ on Tuesday. And with no clear plan outlined as to how their teams can get on the field, Metro coaches and players are understandably frustrated with the whole process. Even if they are eventually allowed to play this season, the restrictions are so tight that they’d almost be better off playing every game on the road. It’s been a rough year already, and the people that they were trusting to lead them did not do that on Tuesday. These kids deserve to know if they’re playing or not.
Masks: It was troubling to see photos of various student sections with a lot of masks pulled down last week. There were reports of some student sections following the directives, but not all of them did. That has to improve this week. It would be a shame to see student sections have to be broken up because they wouldn’t follow the rules. The rain didn’t help matters, but if you’re going to a game this week, carry a spare if there’s even a chance of rain.
