The South Greene football team has been reeling off wins this season and has won eight straight contests to close the regular season. Now the Rebels feel like they have a chance to make a deep playoff run, and that will start on Friday as Tellico Plains visits Rebel Hill for the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.
“We’re excited to be here,” South Greene coach Shawn Jones said. “We’re in that second season where if you lose you go home. It’s hard to tell a senior they could only have one more game. We have a good group of seniors, and we want them to play in as many games as possible. We feel like we have an opportunity in front of us, and we are prepared to make a deep run.”
Tellico Plains enters the contest as the No.4 seed out of Region 2-2A with a 6-4 record. The Bears are playing in the playoffs for the first time since 2020, and have their first winning season since 2013. Tellico Plains has not won a playoff game since 2009. Last week the Bears beat Wartburg 50-8.
“It’s been four years since they have been in the playoffs, and hopefully that’s a big deal. We’re used to being in the playoffs and we get to play at home,” Jones said. “But, Tellico Plains has a good football team. They ended up fourth in their region, but they were in a lot of those games. They have some athletes running around. We’re going to have to play well to win this one.”
The Bears will be led by their running back Ryan Shaffer who has run for 1,1198 yards and 13 touchdowns this season. As a team Tellico Plains runs for 219 yards per game while throwing for 69 yards per game. They have used a variety of formations this season and the Rebels are prepared to face anything from the spread to power formations.
“Offensively I think they have been trying to find an identity,” Jones said. “Early in the year they were a spread team. Then they went to an inverted wishbone. They go shotgun with two backs beside the quarterback and one behind. They’ll go pro set and some I-formation. They’ve run a bunch of different stuff, and we just hope they have not found that identity. They lost their starting quarterback to injury, but they have a real good athlete back there that runs it really well.”
South Greene enters Friday with an 8-1 record and coming off of a 35-20 win over Hampton. Defensively the Rebels have not allowed more than 20 points in any game this season.
On offense South Greene has spread the ball around to a variety of playmakers with Jacob Susong leading the passing game. Last week against Hampton he had two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to swing the game in the Rebels’ favor. Nash Rader has led South Greene’s dynamic run game, and last we he scored a pair touchdowns as well.
Friday will mark the first ever meeting between South Greene and Tellico Plains.
