Coaches Preview Historic State Title Showdown Between Baylor and McCallie

Chattanooga-(WDEF-TV) Baylor-McCallie delivered a classic in the regular season with Big Blue winning 34-31.
The rematch should be just as fun with the Chattanooga rivals battling for a state title.
News 12’s Brian Armstrong has the preview.

Said Baylor head coach Erik Kimrey: “This game is not about red and blue. It’s about gold and silver.”

Gold for a state title, silver for a state title runner up. But despite the focus being on gold and silver, the Macaulay blue and Baylor red for a state title adds to the history of this rivalry and it’s creating a lot of buzz around the community.

Said McCallie head coach Ralph Potter: “I go into a hole, so you’ll have to ask somebody who’s like living a life, you know, I don’t know. It feels the same in terms of preparation.

Said Kimrey: “it’s never happened before. And these are two Historic program. So it’s surprising that it’s never happened before, but we’re honored and grateful that we get to be, you know, the first team to do this. And at the end of the day again, it’s about trying to win a championship. And, uh, but I do think that the red blue element plays into it. We just gotta try to ignore it as best as you can.

Said Potter: “There’s been a lot of interesting things that have happened in the Baylor McCallie game, but it’s never been for Uh, you know, the stakes.

This will be the second time they’ve played this season with McCallie getting a narrow victory earlier.

Said Potter:”And I that mistake that we did really well. From a coaching standpoint, this game, the first game was so close that it kind of messes with you a little bit because, um, there’s like a, a margin of unpredictability, you know, that you have it in all the games where you, what, what you planned didn’t really happen, but sometimes it worked out better for you.”

And coach Kimre

y says weird things happen in football, particularly in state title games.

Said Kimrey” I think championship games are their own kind of animal. And, uh, we always kind of believe that there’s a trickster element to them. And something’s going to happen that you’re not ready for. Um, but listen, at the end of the day, it’s a football game.”