All posts by Geoff Courtney

Four Admirals Earn All-State Honors in 2022

Four Admiral players were named All-State this week in Class 6A for the 2022 season. Reese Keeney (Mr. Football Finalist for Kicker of the Year) was named Class 6A 1st Team All-State by both the Tennessee Sports Writers Association and the coaches of the Tennessee Football Coaches Association. Joining Keeney were classmates Luke Johnson (Quarterback) and Ashton Auker (Wide Receiver) on the TnFCA Class 6A 1st Team All-State team. Returning Admiral linebacker Jack Alley earned 1st Team All-State as a junior from the TnFCA. Additionally, Offensive Coordinator Geoff Courtney was recognized as the Assistant Coach of the Year for Class 6A from the TnFCA.

Click the link to a story published in the Farragut Press.

Preseason Over, Game Week Here for 2022 Admirals

The Admirals are days away from opening the 2022 season at home against Beech High School. The summer and preseason were packed full of football activities including 7v7s, fall camp, and three scrimmages.

Fall camp started in late July and the first week was capped off with a scrimmage against the Cookeville Cavaliers at home, and the annual fall scrimmage for the Admirals. The second week saw Farragut take on the defending state champion in the Powell Panthers at their place. The final scrimmage of fall camp took place at Walker Valley 8 days before the first game. The final dress rehearsal took place at the annual KOC High School Football Jamboree. In the jamboree, the Ads took on the Karns Beavers in a one-quarter battle, winning 7-0.

Now the time has come when the Ads will put to test their offseason and preseason work in Week One of the season. The Admirals will host to face the Beech Buccaneers, who they met for the first time in 2022. Beech is coming off a 9-4 season in 2021 and a quarterfinal run in the playoffs.

Week Two will see the Admirals travel for the first of a three-game roadshow. Farragut will travel to Knox West, a very familiar and perennial foe for the Admirals, with 2022 marking the 31st meeting of the two schools. The Rebels are coming off an 11-2 season last year that ended in the state semifinals.

The Admirals will travel to Maryville to take on the Rebels in Week Three. The Rebels, a perennially nationally-ranked program, will be the first region game for both schools in the 2022 Region 2-6A schedule. The Ads and the Rebels met in the quarterfinals in the 2021 playoffs where the Admirals fell short 28-21.

Week Four will find the Wildcats from Oak Ridge hosting Farragut. 2021 was a disappointing year for Oak Ridge, compiling a 3-8 record fresh off their 2020 state championship game appearance. Oak Ridge will be looking to avenge their 2021 loss to the Admirals. This will be the 48th meeting between these two storied programs.

The Admirals will return home to take on the Cleveland Raiders in Week Five, the first of a three-game homestand for the Admirals. Cleveland is coming off a 6-5 2021 campaign that saw them miss the 6A playoffs. While the two schools have met four times before, this will mark just the second regular-season meeting between them, and also the second time the two schools will meet as Region 2-6A foes.

In Week Six, the Admirals will host South Knoxville’s own, the South-Doyle Cherokees. The Cherokees are coming off a 6-5 2021 campaign that saw them lose in the first round of the playoffs. This will mark the 9th meeting between the two schools.

A Region 2-6A game will follow in Week Seven as the Admirals will again be at Bill Clabo field to host the Hardin Valley Hawks. Separated by merely 5.5 miles, this is a bitter rivalry game for both schools. The Admirals lead the all-time series 4-3.

The Admirals will have a deserved bye week in Week Eight, as they recover for the final three games of the 2022 season.

In Week Nine the Admirals will return to the road to take on the Bradley Central Bears in another Region 2-6A matchup. The Bears are coming off a 9-3 record in 2021 where they met Farragut twice, once in week nine and once in the second round of the TSSAA playoffs. While Bradley got the best of Farragut in the regular season, the Admirals avenged the loss in the playoffs ending the Bears’ season.

The final non-region game of the season will take place in Week Ten when the Fulton Falcons travel from Broadway to Bill Claob Field and take on the Admirals. The Falcons compiled an 8-4 record in 2021 and birth the second round of the 2022 TSSAA playoffs. Farragut and Fulton have met ten times, and the Admirals’ lone win in the series came in 1972.

Week Eleven will conclude the regular season for the Admirals as they travel to take on the Bearden Bulldogs in a Thursday night matchup. Bearden’s 4-6 record in 2021 was not enough to make the playoffs. The 64th meeting of these two perennial rivals promises to be another great one as the two schools will be looking to hurdle each other in the final Region 2-6A matchup of the season.

The 2022 season will mark the 76th season for the Admirals on the gridiron. You can see the entire 2022 schedule and plan to follow the Admirals in another exciting season this fall. One thing of note for the 2022 season, all games kick off at 7:00 pm. Season pass information can be found below. We look forward to seeing you on Friday nights!

Cole Strange Selected 29th Overall by Patriots

Foxboro, MA – April 29: The New England Patriots Robert Kraft and son Jonathan Kraft introduce their first round draft choice Cole Strange at Gillette Stadium on April 29, 2022 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)

The New England Patriots, winners of seven Super Bowl titles, made a dream a reality on Thursday, April 28th for Cole Strange. The Patriots and Bill Belichick selected the class of 2016 Admiral as their top pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Cole has ascended up the draft radar this spring after his composition of work at the Reese’s Senior Bowl and NFL Draft Combine. A projected 2nd-to-3rd round pick, the Patriots surprised most “experts” when they selected Strange 29th overall in the 1st round Thursday night.

“He would not still be around much longer”, said coach Bill Belichick at the Patriots’ media presser following their pick Thursday night.

Coach Belichick went on to add that Strange was “pretty athletic guy with good size, smart, so he does a lot of things well … a lot of good tools to work with.”

It’s hard to argue with the seven-time Super Bowl winning coach in what we’ve known about Cole Strange for a while now.

Following a stellar career at UT-Chattanooga where he started 44 games on the offensive line, Cole proved to be a relentless worker, intelligent, and physical player that embodies the “Team” aspect over individual accolades. The accolades still continued to reign in for Cole each year at UTC. Following an All-State career at Farragut in 2016, Cole was named 1st-Team Freshmen All-American, twice named All-American, All-SoCon three times, and twice the recipient of the Jacobs Blocking Award given to the top Offensive Linemen in the SoCon. He was also a member of the Honor Roll and All-SoCon Academic Team each year.

Cole Strange is seen on billboard near downtown Chattanooga. Photo credit Jack Tate on Twitter, @coachtatefhs20

Cole is the sixth Admiral to sign an NFL contract but the first to be drafted in the NFL Draft. Neil Clabo (1975 Vikings), Bill Bates (1983 Cowboys), Tyson Clabo (2004 Broncos), Nick Reveiz (2011 Buccaneers), and current Pittsburgh Steeler Nate Gilliam (2020 Chargers) all went undrafted. Cole is the first player from Knoxville to be drafted in the 1st Round of the NFL Draft since Harrison Smith in 2012.

You can revisit the moment that Cole was drafted here by courtesy of the Patriots team website.

Ads Lose Tough One to Beech, 20-7

The Ads kicked off the 2021 campaign with a 2.5 hour trip to Beech High School. This marked the first time these two schools had met on the football field. Beech is coming off a 10-2 quarterfinal run in 2020, while the Admirals are coming off a 7-4 season last year.

The Ads won the coin toss and elected to defer their option to the 2nd half. Beech received the opening kickoff and a Reese Keeney touchback meant they took over at their own 20. The Bucs embarked on a 14 play drive that covered 80 yards and was capped off by a 2-yard touchdown run. At the half, the Admirals trailed Beech 7-0.

The Ads looked to start the 2nd half after receiving the opening kickoff, but a three and out ended those dreams. The Farragut offense took the next drive to the Beech 4 yard line, but an unexpected snap rolled 10 yards behind quarterback Dawson Moore and an intentional grounding penalty made it 4th and goal from the 31-yard line.

Following the Admiral turnover on downs, the Bucs took over at their own 10. Five plays into the Beech drive, the Admiral defense would come up with a fumble recovery to set up a short field for the Admiral offense. The Ads took full advantage of the opportunity, scoring 6 plays later as Dawson Moore found Trace Corum on a 5-yard touchdown pass with 19 seconds left in the 3rd.

Farragut and Beech remained tied until late in the fourth quarter. Following a fourth-down stand by the Admiral defense, a pass that looked to be incomplete was ruled a fumble, and Beech would scoop the ball and return it 32 yards for a touchdown. This gave the lead back to Beech, 14-7, with 2:24 left to play. Another late touchdown by Beech made the final 20-7.

The 0-1 Admirals come home in week 2 to host the Knox-West Rebels at Bill Clabo Field. The 1-0 Rebels are coming off a 24-2 victory over Bearden in week 1. The kickoff is set for 7:00 pm on Friday, August 27th. Click here to purchase your tickets for the Week 2 home opener against Knox-West.

A special thanks to Carlos Reveiz of CRFOTO for the action shots from the game. Be sure to check out CRFOTO.com every week for a full photo gallery from Friday’s game.  See a photo you like?  They are also available for purchase directly from his website.  Click here for this week’s photos.

National Signing Day 2021

Wednesday, February 3rd, was National Signing Day at Farragut High School and a ceremony was held to recognize 13 student-athletes in the class of 2021. Six former Admirals’ football players got to sign their letters of intent to the college or university of their choice to pursue their academic and athletic careers. These six young men have been key contributors to the Farragut Football program over the last four years not just for their efforts on the field but also for their work in the classroom and community.

Kicking off National Signing Day from Farragut High School this morning. @Madison4Blevins via Twitter

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly altered the landscape of recruiting for everyone. Coaches were not allowed to visit the recruits at school or in their homes, and the recruits were not able to take traditional visits to college campuses as in the past. Recruits were subject to meet with college coaches and take virtual visits to campuses via Zoom or other forms of virtual communication. Additionally, recruits are seeing fewer opportunities for scholarships in 2021 as the NCAA approved a one-year waiver for all current student-athletes to not count a year of eligibility against them. Having endured all of this, we could not be more proud of these six student-athletes in the football program for the manner in which they’ve handled this process and made decisions about where to continue the next phase of their careers.

Bridges Coffey- Bridges will enroll at Tennessee Tech University in the Ohio Valley Conference this summer. He has signed a partial scholarship to join the Eagles’ defensive secondary. Bridges finished the 2020 season with 40 tackles from his strong safety position. The Eagles are excited to have Bridges join their program this summer.

Logan Foody- Logan will enroll at The University of Dayton in Dayton, OH, and rejoin former teammate Alec Keathley on the Flyers’ roster. He has signed a partial scholarship to join the Flyers’ defensive secondary. Logan picked off 3 passes in addition to 40 tackles from his cornerback position in 2020. The Flyers are excited to sign Logan to help them compete for a conference championship in the Pioneer League.

Canaan Jackson- Canaan has signed an academic agreement and partial scholarship with Missouri Western State University as a long-snapper. Canaan was near perfect on all snaps this season while handling both field goal and punt snapping duties. MWSU is located in Joseph, MO, and competes in the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic (MIAA) Conference. The Griffons are excited to have Canaan enroll and help bolster their special team units.

Camden Kuhn- Camden will enroll at Samford University in Birmingham, AL in the Southern Conference (SoCon). He has signed a partial scholarship to join the Bulldogs’ roster as a strong safety in 2021. Camden finished his senior season with 78 tackles with 4 sacks to go along with an interception. Samford is excited to add Camden into their program this summer.

Trey Nesbitt- Trey will enroll at Missouri Western State in Joseph, MO, and has signed a partial scholarship to join the Griffons’ program as a defensive end. Trey finished his senior season with 32 tackles with 11 tackles for loss and 4 sacks while playing in just 7 games due to injury. The Griffons’ are excited to have Trey join their program and help them immediately compete for MIAA Conference championships.

Eli Purcell- Eli has agreed to a full scholarship offer and will enroll at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. Eli finished his senior season leading the defense with 90 tackles and 13 tackles for loss. The Terriers’ compete in the Southern Conference (SoCon) are excited to add Eli to their roster this summer.

Jake Wallace- Jake has agreed to an academic and athletic agreement with Reinhardt University in Canton, GA. The Eagles compete in NAIA’s Appalachian Athletic Conference. Jake started 8 games at Tight End in 2020 after joining the football team for his senior year. A member of the FHS Basketball program for 2 years, the Eagles are excited to add Jake’s long, athletic frame to their roster in 2021.