“I don’t care if we have to play in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Memphis, we want to go to the playoffs.”

Those are the sentiments of DeKalb County High School Tiger Head Coach Steve Trapp as his team comes off its bye week and prepares to play host to Cumberland County – the winner assured of a place in the state high school football playoffs.

“No, 3-7 and facing a top seed wasn’t the way we wanted to go in but it is what it is,” Trapp said of his team’s narrow 20-17 loss to Macon County last week. “Had we been able to get the win there that would have put us up further in the seeding.”

With the loss, DeKalb finds itself in a win or go home situation when they wind up their regular season against the Jets this Friday in Smithville.

“It’s, in essence, a playoff game because the winner gets to advance and the loser has their season over,” Trapp said of taking on the 1-8 Cumberland team who they beat 16-8 to end last season. Cumberland’s only win this season was a forfeit by Powell. Otherwise, the Jets have only been able to muster 26 points all season.

Following their win last season over the Jets, Tigers would go on to be knocked out in the first round of the state playoffs by Marshall County, 42-0. Marshall County would then move on to the state semi-final where they would be beaten by eventual state champion Greeneville, 49-24. “It’s a five-team district, so the top four teams go to the playoffs.”

Trapp said he gave the players some time off to enjoy their fall break with a couple of workouts crammed in between. They were back in full preparation-mode this week, preparing for the Jets.

“It’ll be a question of who wants it most,” Trapp said. “I know for us, we want to go to the playoffs, no matter who we play.”

Should the Tigers make the playoffs, they will play either Maplewood or Tullahoma, both of whom go into Friday night with perfect 4-0 records and both ranked the state’s 4A top ten. The winner of the game, which will played at Maplewood, will then play the Tiger-Jet winner the first round while the loser of the game will play Macon County.

The Tigers boast wins this season over Warren County, 19-14 and Grundy County, 28-6. There were also three near misses with the 20-17 loss at Macon, a 47-34 shootout at Smith County and a grinding 19-7 loss at Cannon where the Tigers held the lead going into half-time. The Tigers didn’t fare as well in their three games against top ten opponents as they fell to the third ranked Watertown squad 48-14, fourth ranked Upperman, 43-0 and ninth ranked Stone Memorial, 35-0.

Kick off for the Cumberland game is at 7 p.m., Friday Oct. 26.