Patriots close regular season Thursday night, eye playoffs
Bob Jones head football coach Kevin Rose
A week after a pressure-packed victory to claim the 6A, Region 8 championship, Bob Jones will play the #1 ranked team in 5A, Muscle Shoals, with absolutely nothing on the line except bragging rights.
Both teams have completed their region schedules and know where and who they will play when the playoffs start the next week.
“There is no pressure at all on either team,” Bob Jones coach Kevin Rose said this week. “It is one of those games where you go over there, play as hard as you can, hope you come out injury free, see where you are, and go on to the next week.”
The game at Muscle Shoals High School on Thursday night is a homecoming of sorts for Rose, a 1988 graduate of Muscle Shoals. It is also the first meeting ever between the two schools.
“I’m excited,” Rose said. “They have one of their best teams in the history of the school, ranked number 1 in 5A. I think Bob Jones and Muscle Shoals can be a natural rivalry. Both schools have had some SEC prospects. We are two of the top programs in North Alabama and I’m pleased to have them on the schedule.”
Rose played quarterback for the Trojans in his playing days before going on to graduate from UNA. He then coached at Deshler and was a head coach at Sheffield where his teams played Muscle Shoals.
“They will be here next year and hopefully it is a series we can continue. We both have great fan bases that will show up and it will be a money maker.”
It will also be a prime opportunity for Patriot players to go against one of the top prospects in the state, Dee Liner, an Auburn commit. Liner, 6-foot-4, 285 pounds, is a defensive tackle.
“We have always tried in our non-region games to play somebody that is going to challenge us as a football team and that is what our kids want to do. Win or lose we feel like we will get a good gauge of where we are as a football team going into the playoffs,” Rose added.
For Bob Jones, Jay Rogers needs just over 100 yards rushing to go over 1,000 yards for the season. Kevin Wright has come on strong lately. The senior has rushed for over 100 yards in the last two games.
Bob Jones will go into the playoffs as a #1 seed and play Class 6A, Region 7 #4 seed Gadsden City on Friday night November 9 at Madison City Schools Stadium in the first round of the playoffs.
“We will start working on them hard Friday morning,” Rose said. “That’s one advantage to playing the last game of the season on a Thursday night, we get an extra day to prepare. We’ll use it wisely and be ready to go first round of the playoffs.”
It will be the first meeting ever between the two schools.
