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After seven weeks of hard-fought football, the Coffee County Red Raiders and every other team in 6A Region 3 took their much-needed bye week. With there being no action on the gridiron last Friday night, let’s take the time to look back at how the Red Raider football season has gone so far to this point.

Aug. 23 vs Franklin Co.

The Red Raiders started the 2024 campaign off with a bang against local rival Franklin County, rolling to a 49-0 shutout win over the Rebels at Carden-Jarrell Field.

Deontae Short, Caiden Martin, Kane Dixon, Kaysen Lowery and Jon Massengill each scored a rushing touchdown while Jayden Carter scored on a punt block recovery and Caiden Warren scored on a pass from Lowery to make up the Raiders’ 49 points, 42 of which came in the first half.

Coffee County put up 291 yards on the Rebel defense and held Franklin County to just 65 yards of total offense to seal a season-opening shutout win.

Aug. 30 at Tullahoma

The 99th edition in the Battle for the Coffee Pot proved to be an instant classic, as the Red Raiders came back from a 21-14 third quarter deficit to beat Tullahoma 24-21 for their second Coffee Pot win in the last three years.

Jayden Silva would hit a 24-yard field goal with 13 seconds left in regulation to give the Red Raiders the lead and Jayden Carter sealed the deal with a game-ending interception.

Before the Coffee Pot Trophy was handed out, the lights at Wilkins Stadium went dark after a transformer caught fire, but that didn’t darken the spirits of the Red Raider faithful, as Coffee County celebrated their fourth win in the last 10 years of the series.

Sept. 6 vs Shelbyville

Coffee County suffered their first loss of the season in a 32-28 heartbreaker to the Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles.

The Red Raiders led this one 28-25 with 2:36 left in the fourth quarter, but just 17 seconds later, the Eagles burned the Raider defense on a passing play to score the game-winning touchdown and leave Manchester with the win.

Coffee County out-gained Shelbyville 343-223, but two special teams touchdowns by the Eagles, one on a kick return and the other being recovered in the endzone on a bad snap to the punter, essentially gave Shelbyville the win.

Sept. 13 vs Siegel

The Red Raiders responded to the Shelbyville loss well in their region opener against Siegel, shutting out the Stars 21-0 for their third triumph of the season.

Despite some miscues on special teams, the Red Raiders outgained Siegel 171-47 in offensive yardage as Caiden Martin scored two rushing touchdowns and Jayden Carter scored on a 95-yard pick six for Coffee County.

Sept. 20 at Page

After averaging 261.5 yards and 30.5 points per game on offense through their first four contests, the Red Raiders made a trip to Franklin to take on the undefeated Page Patriots, who had yet to give up a single point on defense.

Coffee County would only manage 67 yards of offense, and the Patriots would roll to a 42-0 win, handing the Red Raiders their second loss of the season.

Sept. 27 at Riverdale

The injury-riddled Red Raiders would have another tough test at Riverdale, not only battling the defending region champs, but also the tropical storm weather rolling across the state of Tennessee.

The wind, rain and Warriors would halt Coffee County to a season-low 54 yards on offense, and the Red Raiders would be shut out for the second straight time in a 21-0 loss.

Oct. 3 at Rockvale

Deontae Short scored the game’s first touchdown on a 64-yard run in the first quarter, but that was Coffee County’s only bright spot on the night, as the Raider defense allowed a season-high 325 yards and 21 unanswered points to the Rockets, who celebrated homecoming with a 21-7 win.

After seven weeks, the Region 6A Region 3 standings stack up like this:

1. Oakland (7-0, 3-0 in Region 3)

2. Riverdale (6-1, 2-0 in Region 3)

3. Blackman (4-3, 1-1 in Region 3)

4. Rockvale (2-5, 1-2 in Region 3)

5. Coffee County (3-4, 1-2 in Region 3)

6. Siegel (1-6, 0-3 in Region 3).

Looking ahead

Coffee County has three games left on the season; two region contests at home against Oakland and Blackman on Oct. 18 and Oct. 31 respectively and a non-region road game at Ooltewah on Oct. 25.

Oakland is 3-0 in region play after beating Blackman in a close 13-12 contest on Sept. 20, routing Rockvale 60-0 on Sept. 27 and defeating Siegel 42-7 on Oct. 3. The Raiders lost last year’s meeting against the Patriots 42-0 in Murfreesboro.

Blackman is 1-1 in region play after their loss to Oakland and a 28-7 win over Siegel on Sept. 27. Coffee County fell 31-14 in last year’s meeting with the Blaze.

Ooltewah is 0-8 as of writing, having lost all eight games by 26 points or more. The Red Raiders won last year’s meeting in a 42-12 victory on Senior Night.

Best game of the season?

It’s easily the Coffee Pot game back on Aug. 30. It had everything you could possibly want in a football game; great offense, some splashes of great defense, a fantastic atmosphere from both sides and memories that will last a lifetime. Without a doubt, it is the best game of the 2024 Red Raider season so far.

Worst?

The loss to Rockvale. Yes, the team lost a heartbreaker to Shelbyville and yes, they lost in back-to-back shutouts against Page and Riverdale with the latter being played in a torrential downpour, but given the circumstances, the most recent loss to Rockvale takes the cake.

Rockvale was a beatable team and if the Raiders win that game, they place themselves firmly into the fourth spot of the region standings and potentially accomplish their goal of making the State Playoffs. Instead, the Raiders will have to beat either Oakland or Blackman and/or rely on Siegel to beat Rockvale if they want a shot at the postseason, and that will be quite a daunting task.

Improving on last year

Despite some tough losses, this year’s Red Raider football team is still miles better than their 2023 predecessors.

At this point last year, the Red Raiders were 1-6 overall, 0-3 in region play, held scoreless in four contests, averaged 131.6 yards of offense and gave up 304.3 yards on defense per game (this stat does not include the games against Tullahoma, Shelbyville and Rockvale; their offensive stats were not available). On the scoreboard, the 2023 squad averaged a measly 4.9 points per game and allowed 27.1 points per game leading up to the bye week.

This year, Coffee County has been held scoreless twice, held two opponents scoreless, has been averaging 193.6 yards on offense while giving up 195.2 yards defensively per game (this stat does not include Riverdale; their offensive stats were not available), has scored 18.4 points per game and allowed 19.6 points per contest.

The bottom line

The 2024 Red Raider football season has essentially been a tale of two seasons.

In the first four games, it was easy to see the improvements on both sides of the ball, and if not for a few miscues in the Shelbyville game, they could have easily been 4-0 to start the year.

In the last three games however, the offense has seemed to regress. Having some injuries to key players doesn’t help, especially when going up against powerhouse teams like Page and Riverdale, but if the Red Raiders can’t right the ship and get healed back up, they will have an even lower chance of playing in the postseason.