By Erik Harris
CLAY – Game times have been set for the Middle Tennessee Football Classic.
Class 6A Clay-Chalkville and Class 7A Hoover will represent Alabama on Aug. 22 in Middle Tennessee State University’s Floyd Stadium. The two in-state powers will square off against returning playoff contenders from the Volunteer state.
The defending Class 6A state champions will square off against Blackman (Tenn.) at 4 p.m. Hoover, who took the inaugural Class 7A crown, will face Oakland (Tenn.) at 7 p.m. on the same field. Neither of the Saturday games will be televised.
Blackman finished last season with an overall mark of 11-2. Its postseason run ended in the third round with a 20-9 blemish at the hands of Oakland. The Blaze also fell at Hoover on Oct. 31 by a final of 35-20.
The Cougars will serve as the first opponent for a new coaching regime at Blackman. First-year head coach David Watson has replaced Philip Shadowens after working under him as an assistant at Blackman for five years.
Watson will field a roster coming off a 6-0 record in Tennessee’s AAA District 7. Defensively, Blackman held its opponents to 21.5 points per game in 2014. That unit will be put to the test against a Clay-Chalkville offense that produced 463 yards and 48.7 points per contest.
Offensively, Blackman went for 39.3 points per game last year, according to MaxPreps.