Eagle playoff hopes may ride on win

Shelbyville senior running back Julius Smythe and the Golden Eagle offense will look to carry over the momentum from last week's performance when they close out the regular season tonight against Lincoln County. Senior Night festivities begin at 6:30. (T-G Photo by Gary Johnson) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The game was moved up because of possible severe weather in the forecast for Friday night.

It's the final game of the regular season and a win by the Golden Eagles (5-4, 1-3 8-AAA) will give them a wild card berth into the TSSAA state playoffs.

"We've said it for a couple of weeks and I'll say it again, we control our own destiny," Shelbyville coach Jason Hardy said. "At the start of the season when we looked at our schedule we said that if that final game of the regular season with Lincoln County meant anything we had put ourselves in a pretty good situation. Thankfully that's what it's come down to.

"We all know what's at stake, but we really haven't talked that much about it. We've talked more about having a winning season, and the fact that this season's class can leave here with the first winning season since 2003."

It will be Senior Night and all the seniors and their parents will be honored starting at 6:30.

"This senior class will always be special to me because they were freshmen when I got the head coaching job," Hardy said. "This group has really battled a lot the past four years and have overcome a lot of adversity. Not only did it make them better football players, but I think it will make them better men. I would like nothing better to see them close out their high school career with a winning record. They have the opportunity to set the example for all other senior classes to follow."

The Eagles started the with a 3-0 record, but it's been a season full of ups and downs.

After a number of tough losses midway through the season while battling through illnesses and injuries, Shelbyville bounced back with a huge 48-0 win over White County last week to keep its playoff hopes alive.

In that game the Eagle offense went back to the basics of running the football and racked up 417 yards on the ground.

Shelbyville's defense was just as impressive, allowing only 103 yards of total offense.

"Last week's performance was big in a number of ways. Our execution on both sides of the ball was much better, but it also helped our confidence as well," Hardy said. "We started off the season strong, struggled a bit when we hit the tough part of our schedule and now we need to finish strong."

It wouldn't be wise to overlook the Falcons, no matter what their record might be.

Lincoln County (2-7, 0-4) has a great football tradition, winning state championships in 1982, 1990 and 1993. They are coached extremely well and their record is very deceiving.

The Falcons have played a very tough schedule and enter the game winning two of their last three.

They may have lost six in a row to start the season, but those losses were to Blackman, Lawrence County, Riverdale, Tullahoma, Oakland and Columbia.

Lincoln County's defense has struggled, allowing 34.4 points per game while the offense is averaging 12.7 points per game but over the last three games those numbers have improved to 24.3 ppg for the offense and 17.6 ppg on defense.

"Lincoln County is not the same team they were earlier in the year," Hardy said. "They have really improved and I knew they would be much better at the end of the season. They had a really tough schedule at the start of the season and they are a young football team. You can count on them coming in here and playing hard. They're a very scary team to play at this stage of the season."

Over the second half of the season, Lincoln County has really opened up its offense and throwing the ball around more.

Defensively, they are really big up front and have some quality linebackers.

"We're going to continue to concentrate on us and attempt to do what we do best. That worked pretty well for us last week and hopefully it will work this week as well. I think that philosophy gives our guys more confidence, which in turns allows them to play better and have more positive results," Hardy said.