Greene Devil fans are going to have to wait an extra day, but the Greeneville football team will back in Burley Stadium this week for a Saturday morning showdown with Volunteer.
Rain that hovered over the area for much of the week caused flooding throughout the region and forced the game to be moved to Saturday at 11 a.m., but the Greene Devils are excited to start a stretch of five Region 1-4A contests.
“We are excited to be back at Burley Stadium for a region game. Volunteer is much better team than in the past. They have played a lot of young kids the past couple of years, and now they have a lot of experience. Sometimes playing young kids doesn’t work out in the moment, but it makes those kids better down the road. This will be a good challenge for us. We have played those non-region games to get us ready, and now these are five games that matter.”
The Greene Devils are coming off a dominant 42-6 win over longtime rival Morristown West. In that win Greeneville rushed for 207 yards, led by Carson Quillen who had 169 yards on 10 carries with four touchdowns.
Spradlen came away proud of what he saw out of his offensive line in the win, and the group has paved the way for the Devils to run for 243 yards per game this season.
“Our offensive line is playing really well right now,” Spradeln said. “Carson had four touchdowns the other night against Morristown West but that starts with the offensive line. We challenged those guys to step up after the Alcoa game and they did that on Friday night.”
Spradlen is still looking for growth from the Devils’ passing game, knowing that that every team they face will be loading the box. Last week quarterback Caden Baugh was 6-of-10 through the air for a 105 yards with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Zaydyn Anderson.
“They are going to crowd the box on defense,” Spradlen said. “Every week teams are going to try to stop our running game and make us pass the football. We have to continue to get better in that passing game. Right now we are beating people by throwing over their heads, but we need to take advantage of when teams play us in man coverage to be successful down the road.”
The Falcons enter Saturday’s contest with an 0-4 record, but each of their last three games have been one-score losses, 41-38 to Lakeway Christian, 24-21 to Sullivan East and 46-38 to Northview. The Falcons are currently on a 19-game losing streak that started September 30, 2022. They have won one game since making the playoffs in 2021, but Spradlen knows that this year’s squad is better than the one that Greeneville beat 56-0 last year.
The Greene Devils expect Volunteer’s offense to try to control the clock in order to limit Greeneville’s scoring opportunities. They will bring in extra linemen and when they do pass there will be extra blockers protecting quarterback Jameson Mowell.
The Falcons will be led by running back Keelin Releford. Through four games he has rushed for 528 yard and eight touchdowns while accounting for nearly half of the team’s total offense.
“Volunteer has a big offensive line and one of the best offensive linemen in the region. This will be a good challenge for us. They have really good running back, he’s a fast kid. And they have quarterback that throws it well and runs a little bit too,” Spradlen said.
In their histories Greeneville and Volunteer have met 18 times on the Gridiron and Greeneville is 18-0 in those contests. The closest game was Greeneville’s 17-7 win in 2007. Greeneville has twice won by 56 points, in 2021 and 2023.
