Murphy Bulldog 2023 Fall Football Season Schedule Finalized

Smoky Mountain High School Returns to the Schedule and Seven Straight Homes Games

 

By Brandon Stephens

 

(Murphy) – – An old familiar mountain team will return to the Murphy Bulldog football schedule for fall 2023, which features seven straight weeks of home football games.  Smoky Mountain High School’s Mustangs has not been on the Murphy schedule in almost 10 years.  2014 was the last year the Mustangs and Bulldogs faced one another.  Through a 10-year period, Murphy won 10 games over Smoky Mountain High with 28-point average margin of victory.  Prior to school consolidation in 1988, Sylva-Webster, which became home to the Mustangs, bested Murphy by similar margins of victory under Coach Charles “Babe” Howell, who was North Carolina’s Most Winningest High School Coach.  The Mustangs will present a good challenge to the Bulldogs with a very talented Quarterback in Jed West, Running Back Isaiah McNeely, and Wide Receiver De’mare Williams.  Williams has reported an offer to play at Appalachian State University.  This past fall Williams caught 61 passes for 1,024 yards and 13 touchdowns.

The Long Home Stretch – Usually there is an alternating week of home and travel dates for a high school football team.  The Bulldogs will start out with a road trip; afterward have six straight home games over the next seven weeks; and end the regular season with three road games.  From August 25^th through October 6^th Murphy fans will have the luxury of sitting on the Hill cheering on the Bulldogs.  Now let’s take a look at the schedule.

Season Opener at Franklin (August 18^th) – The Panthers have always been a favorite team for Murphy to cut its teeth on a new season.  The Brooks brothers (Josh and Jay, not the executive clothing franchise) will whip any group of teens into shape.  They will have their work cut out with more than 15 seniors from the 2022 season walking the graduation stage including Senior Running Back Ty Handley.  Not as many underclassmen were on the roster and may present some new opportunities for the Panthers.  Wide Receiver Beau Paulson and Running Back Brayden Watts should be Seniors and team leaders, who as Juniors made highlight films for Franklin.

The First Home Game – The Commerce Tigers (Commerce, GA) will come to Murphy (August 25).  You can bet the Tigers want some revenge for a 1-point loss to Murphy.  After a stunning loss to Franklin, Murphy had some long faces and worries about its play.  The Commerce game was sloppy and frustrating.  Murphy didn’t make adjustments to its play, other than eliminate mistakes and took advantage of some Tiger errors to win a game over what some people believed to be an unwinnable game by Murphy.

Open Date then Smoky Mountain (September 8^th) at home – We have already described the Smoky Mountain game.  So let’s move to the next…

Fannin County (GA) September 15^th – This is a game the Bulldogs will want to do over and are probably glad it’s on the schedule.  After demonstrating good play over Commerce and winning another game the Bulldogs were supposed to lose in South Pittsburg, Tennessee; Murphy lost by one of its worst margins of 26 points 56-to-30 and lost its second team leader Will Johnson to a knee injury.  The high powered RPO team will probably be just as good when they roll to Murphy.

New Faith Christian Academy  September 22^nd – This game was a healing moment for Murphy.  The Bulldogs beat the Titans 42-to-nothing in this game.  New Faith Christian Academy was in its inaugural season with Coach Antwann Harris who has getting started with his career. This coming season there may be more film, but the schemes may change.  There was a lot of passing and option attempts that went no where for the Titans.  This kind of team can only improve and may pose some unknown threats to Murphy.  While inexperienced now, this is the kind of team that you never know what will happen.

Smoky Mountain Conference Time! – Hayesville September 29^th –  There will be some new faces in the Yellowjacket line up with the loss of great players like Kyle Lunsford, Logan Caldwell, and Avery Leatherwoods as well as a significant number of line players.  This may be a rebuilding year.  However, Taylor McClure and Michael Mauney will return to be team leaders and help build a threat to the Bulldogs.

OK last home game and it will be a challenge – Robbinsville October 6^th – The only Adams you won’t see is Brock, who graduates this spring. Bryce, Cooper, Cuttler Adams as well as Donovan Carpenter, and Roman Jones are a few that will light up the Friday nights for Robbinsville. Oh this coming season could be a conference banner hanging season for the Black Knights in my opinion.

Knock down the cobb webs in the activity bus because the Bulldogs go on the road – Swain County October 13^th – It is Friday the 13^th for one of these teams.  Coach Sherman Holt has been in rebuild and retool mode with Swain County.  The season for Swain was laden with turnovers and miscues that were very costly.  Rising Senior Reese Winchester should be a new threat this coming season to reduce the turnovers and lead the team to renewed success.

Andrews – Take 3 – October 20^th – I have heard so much about how the Wildcats had this stellar season and its over for 2023.  Hogwash!  Isaac Weaver, Donovan Bateman, Taylor Waldroup and a few other seniors were not the only players on the team.  Turns out this team is very young with a lot of sophomores and juniors in the right places like Eli Aguilar, Cameron Rattler, and so on.  Plus, James Phillips is a heck of coach.  The Wildcats will be an obstacle for any team this coming fall to get the outright Smoky Mountain Conference Banner.  Murphy is on a three-game losing streak and its one they want to break.

Final Regular Season Game in Cherokee – October 27^th– Last time in Cherokee, the Bulldogs barely made it out of Ray Kinsland Stadium with a win.  There is a little magic on the field when you step into the stadium you have to overcome.  Braves are really tasked with finding a new quarterback. Tso (Cherokee for “Ball Player”) Smith will go out to graduation which leaves Chase Calhoun, Michael Driver, and Tsi-sgwa  (means Bird in Cherokee) Hill as senior team leaders from the backfield and on the line.  If Coach David Napert can find the right QB, Cherokee will be a giant killer.

What does Murphy Head Football Coach Joseph Watson think?  It’s his third season and season two was a 9-and-4 finish at the third round of the state play-offs.  Coach Watson is ready for the Challenge of Fall 2023.  “I am very excited about our upcoming schedule. We have had so many road games over the last two years it is nice to be able to have added more homes games this year. Opening with Franklin is always a great test. Welcoming Commerce GA to Murphy will be a great experience for our team. We are happy to get Smoky Mountain back on the schedule, we played them every year up until 2014. Fannin Co had an outstanding season last year and have had great teams the last couple of years, we are glad they are traveling to Murphy this year. We like to have a tough non conference schedule to prepare us for the SMC gauntlet,” Coach Watson stated about the Murphy Bulldogs Fall 2023 Schedule.

 

Next – Spring Drills, 7-on-7s and late summer practices.  Seven months will go by like smoke through a key hole and hopefully we hear lots of “First and Ten Bulldogs.”