The South Greene Rebels open up the 2026 season with a trip west to Morristown for a date with the Morristown East Hurricanes on Friday night.
It’s only the third all-time meeting between the Rebels and the Hurricanes. Morristown East leads the series 3-0. South Greene is searching for their first win over a Class 6A opponent since the six-classification system was introduced by the TSSAA.
Morristown East took last year’s contest on Rebel Hill, 26-22, with a late surge in the fourth quarter and erased a 14-0 deficit. It was East’s only win of the season. With that fresh on their mind going into week one, South Greene is hungry to exact revenge on the Hurricanes and start the season 1-0.
“We’re expecting to get all they got. Last year the only game they won was against us, and that doesn’t sit well with us. Everybody says, ‘well that’s a 6A school,’ but we feel like we should have beat them last year,” Rebels Head Coach Shawn Jones stated. “We’re gonna go down there ready to play. Our boys are hungry to get revenge from last year.”
The first game of the season always brings a lot of question marks. Who starts where? What will each team look like? And a lot of question marks surround South Greene with a lot of new positions being filled.
It will be sophomore Dawson Ripley’s first game as a starting quarterback for South Greene. Four of five offensive lineman will be replaced. A lot of players in new rolls will be introduced on the turf at Burke-Toney Stadium on Friday night. The Rebels will rely on senior running back Tripp Neas to carry the load and be a weapon on offense as well as a leader at the linebacker position on defense.
Morristown East has changed the offense around and changed from a spread offense to a double-wing set. The Rebels are familiar with the single-wing and double-wing concepts. South Greene ran the double-wing offense years ago and have faced multiple opponents with similar sets to what East will present on Friday night.
The Hurricanes will take their nickname to heart and send loads of pressure in an attempt to cause destruction on defense. “Defensively they’ve got a good front seven that gave us fits last year. They’ve graduated some guys, but we know what they’re going to do. They’re gonna bring six or seven on every snap,” Coach Jones stated.
The Rebels will kick off the season at Burke-Toney Stadium at Morristown East High School at 7:00 on Friday night.
