The 2025 high school football season is officially upon us. Every team has high expectations and championship dreams as we start the year. Over on Lakeland Drive, Jackson Prep enters its fourth season under Head Coach Doug Goodwin and the Patriots are coming off a runner-up finish in the state championship game last season, a 19-14 nail biter against Hartfield. Prep may be hard pressed to repeat the feat this year as Coach Goodwin is quite literally having to rebuild his 22 starters from a year ago. Patience will be the key word for fans, players and coaches as the Patriots open on the road this week, taking on Battle Ground Academy from Franklin, Tenn. at a neutral site in Memphis.
“People may think I’m crazy but I look forward to years like this, where the challenge is to take a group with little experience and put the puzzle together,” said Coach Goodwin. “We’ve seen flashes of brilliance on offense through the summer and our few fall practices. We actual ly have a little more team speed than last year. The glaring negatives are our inexperience and making mistakes. We’ll be patient and manage our expectations for the kids that have never started. Right now our main focus as coaches is to figure what we are good at, what we can’t do and work to get better.”
Junior quarterback Luke Essary will lead the offense into battle this week. Essary played very few snaps as a sophomore, completing three of his seven passes for 19 yards with one interception and no touchdowns. Essary did learn a lot playing behind the talented senior Billy Puckett who passed for 2,400 yards, 27 touchdowns and picked up more than 600 yards rushing on 100 carries.
“Our offensive philosophy really hasn’t changed. Luke has lots of tools. He throws and runs well. His biggest obstacle is making the right decision at the right time. He just needs reps and we understand he is going to make some mistakes,” said Goodwin. The receiving corps will be led by senior Aidan Rowe who is moving from tight end to wideout. Rowe, also a baseball player, is a formidable target standing 6’4 and weighing 190 lbs. The Patriots will try to stretch the field with a rotation of two sophomores and a junior. Look for Essary to throw a bunch of high percentage intermediate routes to gain confidence in the early going. The real question mark is whether Essary will have time in the pocket. Goodwin is in search of five new starters on the line as he’s been rotating sophomores and juniors around a bunch to try and find the best combination. Coach knows the offense will only be as good as the line allows them to be. If they can find some cohesion, there should be room for senior running back Thomas Hewitt Oswalt to really shine. Oswalt led the team in rushing as a junior with 105 carries for 715 yards and seven touchdowns. He will be joined in the backfield by junior Wade Smith who had a productive sophomore sea son with 376 yards on 34 carries, an average of 11 yards per carry.
Defensively, the Patriots are really a work in progress with their top 17 tacklers all lost to graduation. Every starter is new and right now the coaches are rotating six or seven defensive linemen to find the best three or four. Goodwin believes he’s got three solid linebackers with lots of work to do at cornerbacks and safeties. All told Prep is playing 15 or 16 guys on defense.
That group will be thrown right into the fire against a very talented Battle Ground Academy offense. The Wildcats were also a state championship runner up last year in the Tennessee High School Association’s Division II-AA. Battle Ground returns now senior quarterback Kaedyn Marable who was a DII-AA Mr. Football finalist after passing for 3,273 yards with 34 touchdowns to just three interceptions. Senior running back Ethan Kellum is coming off a 1,000-yard season on 123 carries and scored 13 touchdowns.
“They are really good at throwing the ball. They have eight seniors returning on both sides of the ball. This will be a huge test for us,” said Goodwin. “We are looking for ward to it as we try to schedule hard in the non-conference. We know playing a talented team will help us down the line. While it’s always more comfortable playing at home, going on the road to play at a neutral site in Memphis will give our kids great experience. It’s kind of us against the world.”
An interesting side note to the game is the Wildcats back-up quarterback, junior Bo Bryan, is the son of country music star Luke Bryan. Bo is expected to take some snaps in the opener, but his dad is on tour right now and not expected to be in attendance.
This will be the first-ever meeting between the schools and is the first of a two-game series. Next year’s game will also be held in the Memphis area as it is an equal-distant location for both teams.
Coach Goodwin has dealt with all kinds of adversity over the years as a college coach at Auburn and Ole Miss and the high school ranks in Alabama. He’s gone through rebuilding processes before at his high schools and boasts a pretty good track record.
“I had to do it three different times at three different schools. We started over all three years and we won 13 games each time,” said Goodwin. “We know what to expect, we know it’s a work in progress, but it doesn’t mean we won’t get there at the end. Our kids are working as hard as they can and realize that we won’t be as good at the beginning as we will be at the end. You only learn by doing and we are gonna get ‘em out there in the fire, compete and build from there.”
After several years of championship caliber teams, Patriot Nation may need to remind itself that patience is a virtue this season.
PREP'S KEYS TO VICTORY:
On Offense: There are going to be a lot of moving pieces around the chess board this week. Quarterback Luke Essary is very talented and should do well if he can get the ball out of his hands quickly on short to intermediate throws and let the receivers do the work after the catch.
On Defense: Try to keep the ball in front of you and prevent quick scores. Battle Ground is very experienced and will move the football. The key is to make them run as many plays as possible. The more they have to handle the ball, the more opportunities there will be to force them into a mistake.
PREP AT A GLANCE
Class/Division: Class 4A, District 4 (MAIS)
Head Coach: Doug Goodwin
Assistant Coaches: Rusty Burke, Nick Brewer, Jake Pickett, Keith Giordano, Chris Hector, Brent Heavener, Matt Butts
The Series: First-ever meeting between the schools.
BATTLEGROUND AT A GLANCE:
Class/Division: Tennessee Division II-AA, Middle District
Head Coach: Bobby Bentley
Assistant Coaches: Jack Pittman, Pace Melvin, Landon Martin, Jeff Jordan, Nathaniel Wuellner, Jim Gatterer, Garret Reynolds
Record: 0-0
