What makes Tennessee high school football's toughest region one of the nation's best

A beast was created this season when Lipscomb Academy moved up in classification to Division II-AAA, creating a East Region that already had McCallie, Baylor, Montgomery Bell Academy and Knoxville Catholic. And add Brentwood Academy, which moved from the West to East after two years.

The Tennessee high school football season begins Thursday with a vast majority of teams opening the 2023 season Friday. And the DII-AAA East Region monster will be unleashed as early as Week 4. Region games should be nothing short of grueling and entertaining.

"This is what you want," said Baylor coach Erik Kimrey, whose Red Raiders are the defending DII-AAA state champs, winning in Kimrey's first season at the Chattanooga school. "You have to be an ultra competitive to compete in this league, and all you're doing is getting a preview of what’s going to happen at the next level, at the college level."

That's because the region has some of Tennessee high school football's top players with nearly every big name in the 2024 and 2025 classes.

DII-AAA loaded with top college football recruits

Brentwood Academy five-star quarterback George MacIntyre is the No. 1 QB in the country according to the 247Sports Composite for the Class of 2025. Lipscomb Academy's Deuce Knight arrived from Mississippi two weeks ago and is the No. 4 quarterback in the country. Both have heavy Power 5 recruiting muscle.

Baylor boasts quarterback and Vanderbilt commit, Whit Muschamp, the son of former Florida and South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, who is the co-defensive coordinator at Georgia. The Red Raiders also have The Tennessean's top high school football player in the 2024 class, Amari Jefferson, who committed to Alabama. Lipscomb Academy has a pair of Tennessee commits in linebacker Edwin Spillman and Kaleb Beasley, The Tennessean's No. 2 ranked player in 2024.

The league also features Power 5 recruits like Lipscomb Academy's Chauncey Gooden and C.J. Jimcoily and Brentwood Academy's T.T. Hill and Shavar Young. Virignia Tech commit Marcellus Barnes and Tennessee commit Carson Gentle play for McCallie.

In short, fans need to have their popcorn ready.

East Region receives national recognition

The East Region is regarded as the fourth hardest in the nation, according to High School Football America with five schools (Lipscomb Academy, McCallie, Baylor, MBA, Brentwood Academy) ranked in HSFA's Top 300 programs.

"We're really excited about the opportunity," Brentwood Academy coach Jacob Gill said when he was hired as the Eagles coach in February. "Obviously it'll be a challenge, and we know from doing our research and talking with people, here, that's it's a great league with great coaches and great players."

Gill is among three new coaches in the East. He is joined by the Mustangs' Kevin Mawae. Mawae inherited a program that won the last two DII-AA state titles under Trent Dilfer. In four years at Lipscomb, Dilfer played in three straight state championship games and was the driving force behind the Mustangs moving to DII-AAA. And the combination of state championship coaches Steve Matthews and Philip Shadowens are co-coaches at Knoxville Catholic.

Dilfer left to coach UAB shortly after the Mustangs' 42-0 state title win over CPA and Mawae is now in charge of a team that has 21-game win streak and finished last season No. 11 in the nation by USA Today Sports' Super 25 rankings. The former Tennessee Titans star and NFL Hall of Famer has enough pieces for the program to win a third straight crown and Mawae has experience as a coach in DII-AAA, having been an assistant at MBA under Marty Euverard more than a decade ago.

"I understand what this is about," Mawae said. "I told our kids, that if we don't beat teams like MBA and BA, we don't win the division, we don't get the No. 1 seed and if we don't beat Baylor, we don't win the state championship. That's historically what happens in this division."

A league filled with TSSAA state football championships

The six East Region schools have combined for 28 state championships. Brentwood Academy has won 14, including four straight from 2015-18. Two were in DII-AA (2015 and '16) while its 2017 and '18 titles were in DII-AAA.

MBA's last state title was in 2014 (DII-AA) and the Big Red have finished as state runnerup six times since then, including in 2021 and 2022. The program has nine titles.

Baylor ended a 49-year championship drought last fall, while McCallie won three straight state titles (2019-2021) in DII-AAA.

Gill is also no stranger to playing a difficult league schedule. He helped guide his previous school, Shiloh Christian, to four straight state championship games as a defensive coordinator and won the 2020 4A title in Arkansas.

"The last man standing, in this league, will have earned it, that's for sure," Gill said.

TOP TENNESSEE HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS: Tennessee's top 100: Best TSSAA football seniors for 2023 season

TOP TENNESSEE HIGH SCHOOL JUNIORS: Tennessee high school football top juniors for TSSAA 2023 season

SUPER 25 TEAMS: Tennessee Super 25 high school football rankings: See who made first poll of season

Reach sports writer George Robinson at georgerobinson@theleafchronicle.com and on Twitter @Cville_Sports.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA football: Tennessee's toughest region among nation's best