Riverdale’s Austin Bryant (6) carries the ball against Smyrna.
As of Wednesday evening, a handful of playoff games involving Midstate teams were moved to Thursday because of the threat of inclement weather on Friday. Most of those were in the Chattanooga area.
Among the games rescheduled for Thursday are Riverdale vs. Bradley Central (at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga), Pope John Paul II at McCallie, Eagleville at Boyd-Buchanan, Mt. Pleasant at South Pittsburg, Grace Academy at Fayetteville and Ezell-Harding at Friendship Christian.
There is a less than 10 percent chance of rain on Thursday in Middle Tennessee while Friday’s forecast calls for a considerable chance of rain during the morning and afternoon, but just more than a 10 percent chance of precipitation at game time.
The chance of rain in the Chattanooga area Friday evening is heavy (50-60 percent chance at game time).
Tennessee high school football playoff brackets
Giles County student section cheers on the Bobcats during the 2013 Class 4A championship appearance.
Turnaround: A coaching change in the middle of a high school football season is rare, and usually an immediate impact is not expected.
Giles County is an exception to that rule.
Bobcats head coach Walt Smith, who had guided the team to the Class 4A championship game in 2013 before the team fizzled to 5-7 a year ago and 0-6 to start this season, was asked to resign following the sixth setback.
He was replaced on an interim basis by former assistant Scott Blair, who has guided the team to three wins in its last four games and a trip to the 4A playoffs again.
Giles County (3-7) enters as a No. 4 seed after having defeated Spring Hill 56-46, Signal Mountain 10-0 and Tullahoma 35-14. The only blemish in Blair’s four games is a 49-27 setback to Page.
Converted running back Jordan Tucker has been instrumental in the Bobcats’ recent success, rushing 107 times for 862 yards and 11 touchdowns in the last four games, while completing 22 of 39 for 280 yards.
Giles County plays at unbeaten Stone Memorial on Friday.
Independence quarterback Andrew Bunch (10) looks downfield.
What if? Independence quarterback Andrew Bunch leads his unbeaten and top-ranked Eagles into the 5A playoffs with mammoth passing numbers.
He has completed 120 of 181 passes for 1,867 yards and 25 touchdowns with just two interceptions.
The most remarkable statistic? He did it in 5-1/2 games.
Bunch was injured midway through the Eagles’ second game and missed the next four with an elbow injury. His replacement, Adam Swayze, passed for 735 yards and seven TDs, giving the two a combined 2,602 yards and 32 touchdowns.
Brentwood Academy quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall (4) races away from a Father Ryan defender.
Big stage, big plays: Brentwood Academy quarterback Jeremiah Oatsvall’s 2015 statistics don’t exactly jump off the page, especially when compared to prolific Midstate passers such as Bunch, Marshall County’s Ashton Posey and BGA’s Clayton Beathard.
Oatsvall has completed 88 of 134 attempts for a modest 1,289 yards and eight touchdowns, and his rushing numbers (73 carries for 775 yards and eight scores) aren’t out of this world, either.
The numbers themselves might not be overly impressive, but the way in which the 6-foot-1, 190-pounder has gone about getting them is.
In top-ranked Brentwood Academy’s 42-30 Week 5 win over No. 3 Baylor, Oatsvall threw for 255 yards, ran for 139 more and tallied five total touchdowns. Three weeks later against Montgomery Bell Academy, the dual-threat junior put together another monstrous performance, blistering the second-ranked Big Red for 412 total yards and five scores in a 49-14 win.
Oatsvall, a two-time Tennessean + TitanUp High School Player of the Week, has consistently come through in big-game situations, and, fortunately for the Eagles, it doesn’t get any bigger than the postseason.
Bracket breakdown: State football playoffs
The Tennessean Midstate Top 10
Top prep performers from Week 11
Prep notebook: Brentwood Academy gets gold NFL ball
The Tennessean’s Cecil Joyce and Michael Murphy contributed to this report.