November 1, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County High School Tigers will hit the road to Crossville tonight (Friday) for the last football game of the regular season against the Cumberland County Jets. But win or lose the Tigers will see action in the first round of the TSSAA State Play-Offs. A win against the Jets tonight would guarantee the Tigers a home game next Friday night, November 8.
(Click link below to hear this week’s Tiger Talk program)
DeKalb County enters tonight’s game with an overall record of 5-4 and a region mark of 2-1. Cumberland County is winless at 0-9 and 0-3 in the region.
While the Tigers have been perfect at home this season at 5-0 they have been winless on the road at 0-4. Still, Cumberland County hasn’t even won a game period on the field since 2016.
Tiger Coach Steve Trapp said at this point those things don’t matter as much as his team focusing on tonight’s game.
“The play-off moment is not even here yet. We understand that it’s there and it’s a little different than it has been the last couple of years where we had to win this game just to get in the plays-offs but we can’t worry about the play-off moment. We can’t worry that we haven’t won any road games this season. We can’t even think about these guys (Cumberland County) not having won a game in two or three years. What we need to be concerned with is taking care of business and first and foremost understanding that we have a job to do and a lot of responsibility and if we get out there and prove that we are the most prepared team mentally and physically then I like our chances,” said Coach Trapp.
As for the Jets, “They definitely have a philosophy of what they want to do. It looks like they want to establish the run first and then have some of those run-pass options off that. Unlike year’s past they would have multiple things they would do offensively trying to figure out what would work. Defensively they have shown a couple of different things. I have told our guys that I am not 100% sure how they may line up to some of the things that we do but everything we have seen from them (Jets) is not anything we have not seen and I am confident our guys can handle it,” said Coach Trapp.
This season DeKalb County has beaten Stone Memorial 33-0, Grundy County 49-12, Cannon County 41-10, Smith County 28-24, and Macon County 26-13 and lost to Warren County 35-21, Upperman 35-0, Watertown 42-20, and Livingston Academy 31-0.
Cumberland County has lost to Scott 42-6, White County 31-20, Livingston Academy 42-0, Clay County 29-0, Macon County 48-12, Walker Valley 69-30, Rockwood 37-14, Stone Memorial 49-6, and Bledsoe County 44-6.
Region Standings:
*Livingston Academy: 9-0 (3-0)
*DeKalb County: 5-4 (2-1)
*Macon County: 5-4 (2-1)
*Stone Memorial: 3-6 (1-3)
*Cumberland County: 0-9 (0-3)
Kick-off will be tonight (Friday) at 7 p.m.
WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5 p.m. featuring former coaches Doug Matthews, Dave McGinnis, and broadcaster Larry Stone.
“Murphy’s Matchups” airs at 6 p.m. featuring the Guru of Tennessee High School Football Murphy Fair.
“Tiger Talk” begins at 6:30 p.m. featuring DCHS Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger Football Players Isaac Cross, Josh Berry, and Desmond Nokes. John Pryor, the Voice of the Tigers, is the host of the program.
WJLE’s “LIVE” play by play coverage starts at 7 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby.
LISTEN LIVE ON WJLE AM 1480/ FM 101.7 and LIVE STREAMING at www.wjle.com.