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On Friday night, the Coffee County Red Raiders began the 2024 season with a 49-0 thrashing of Franklin County at Carden-Jarrell Field

What a difference a year can make. Flash back to Aug. 18, 2023 and Coffee County barely scraped by Franklin County in a 10-7 game that was severely lacking in offensive production. It’s safe to say that there won’t be a shortage of offense in 2024.

It only took a minute and nine seconds for the Red Raiders to make a statement in this year’s game, going 80 yards in four plays on their first drive which was capped off by a Deontae Short touchdown run to give the Red Raiders an early 7-0 lead.

Franklin County would go three and out on their first drive, and a couple of Rebel penalties on defense helped the Red Raiders reach the end zone again, this time on a rushing touchdown by Caiden Martin, giving Coffee County a 14-0 lead.

The next drive by the Rebels looked to end in a punt, but the Red Raiders had too many players on the field, and instead of accepting the penalty and backing Coffee County up after the punt, the Rebels chose to punt again.

Franklin County’s decision turned out to be catastrophic, as the Red Raiders blocked the punt and Jayden Carter recovered the ball in the end zone to give Coffee County a 21-0 lead.

Coffee County again forced the Rebels to punt on the next possession, and the Red Raiders again got to the punter, but this time recovered at the one yard line at the end of the first quarter.

The Red Raiders would waltz into the end zone two plays later to begin the second quarter as Kane Dixon scored to make it a 28-0 Coffee County lead.

Franklin County was again forced to punt, and the ravenous Red Raiders looked as if they had blocked another punt, but Coffee County was called for a roughing the kicker penalty. The Rebels wouldn’t go far after the penalty call, and were again forced to punt.

The Red Raiders would again score on their next possession, this time on a throw by Kaysen Lowrey to Caiden Warren, who bulldozed his way to the end zone as the Red Raiders went up 35-0.

Coffee County again forced the Rebels to punt and on their next possession, it appeared that Lowery threw a touchdown bomb to Torin Van Zandbergen, but the play was called back for a holding penalty.

Lowery would score himself later in the drive with a rushing touchdown to give Coffee County a 42-0 lead with 2:15 to go in the first half, and it would stay that way until the halftime break.

The third quarter began with a running clock and the Red Raiders took the time to play their bench.

Coffee County would score once more as time expired in the third quarter with Jon Massengill running in for a touchdown to give the Red Raiders a 49-0 lead, which Coffee County rode until the end of the game.

“I’m really proud of our coaching staff and our kids,” said head coach Roger Haynes. “It took a total effort of every coach, every player and every support personnel that we have. It is just one game, and we have to go to work next week, but I’m really proud of them, they played really hard.”

Coach Haynes also credited his offensive coaching staff, who gave the team a little more motivation in the locker room before kickoff.

“Before the game they said, ‘Guys we have worked too hard for this to not come to fruition,’ and they went out there and did it.”

The Red Raiders will travel to Tullahoma for the 99th edition of the Battle for the Coffee Pot on Friday, Aug. 30 with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. Tullahoma is coming off of a 33-21 loss at Stewarts Creek in their first week matchup.

Coffee County is 3-7 in the last 10 Coffee Pot games, losing last year’s matchup in Manchester by a score of 16-0. The last win in the series for the Red Raiders was a 35-14 victory at Wilkins Stadium in 2022.