Don’t look now, but it appears that defense has reared its head to reassert itself in the Wild West of offensive wizardry that is normally Class 7A, Region 3.

Top-ranked Hoover leads Class 7A in scoring defense this year, allowing a mere 8.2 points per game. No. 3 Thompson is giving up 13.5 a game, good for second-best in 7A. Hewitt-Trussville, the third seed from the region and the fifth-ranked team in 7A, is allowing 17.5 points a game, which is 4.2 points fewer than last season, and fifth-best in the class.

The Bucs and Huskies have their best scoring defense numbers of the past four years while Thompson gave up an amazing 7.1 points a game last season.

Hoover (9-1) registered three shutouts this season, including a 9-0 win at Thompson. The Bucs held the still high-scoring Hewitt-Trussville offense to 29.1 points fewer than the Huskies’ average.

Hewitt (7-3) held Tuscaloosa County to 7 points, Huffman to 8 and Spain Park to 10.

Thompson (7-3) had one shutout, limited Chelsea to a field goal and Tuscaloosa County to one touchdown. The Warriors beat Hewitt 14-12 and 6A offensive juggernaut Clay-Chalkville 17-14.

Outside the Top 3 in Region 3, fourth seed Vestavia Hills blanked Homewood and held Spain Park to 7 points.

In Friday’s playoff openers, Hoover will welcome Bob Jones, Thompson hosts Huntsville and Hewitt will travel to Florence. Vestavia Hills travels to Austin. All the games are at 7 p.m.

Hoover has scored 27.5 points per game this season and Thompson has notched 26.9, both fewer than last season. Hewitt-Trussville is scoring 36.1 a game this year after averaging 35.5 a year ago.

What’s the reason for the unusual rise of the defenses? Foremost is almost certainly the cliché: It’s not the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmies and Joes. Top-tier offensive talent from those three teams graduated last season and experienced defenders are back.

Thompson’s 2021 quarterback, Conner Harrell, is now on scholarship at North Carolina. Top receivers Ryan Peppins, Mr. Football a year ago, is at Grambling and Justin Pegues is at Tennessee Tech. All three were first-team All-State picks by the Alabama Sports Writers Association.

Hoover’s 2021 QB was Bennett Meredith, an honorable mention All-State pick, who is now at Arizona State.

Cade Carruth, who threw for 1,891 yards last season at Hewitt-Trussville, is a preferred walk-on at Alabama. Wideout Omari Kelly, a first-team All-State choice, has played in all eight Auburn games this season and has averaged 18.7 yards on the three catches he has for the Tigers.

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While there are top performers on each team’s offense again, the defenders seem to be making the most noise.

“It definitely starts with the players,” Hewitt-Trussville coach Josh Floyd said. “We had a good nucleus coming back from last year on defense, a couple seniors on the defensive line and we’ve got three seniors at linebacker.

“We’ve got a cornerback (4-star) Rickey Gibson, who is committed to Tennessee, and (4-star defensive lineman) Hunter Osborne, is committed to Alabama. Two of our leading tacklers, Braylon Chatman and Hunter Jones, are back. Some of those guys are three-year starters.

“We lost Justice Finkley to Texas (where he’s played in seven Longhorns games), but we did return Osborne and Tyrell Averhart, who was a leader as a sophomore.”

Floyd said six of his defensive starters are seniors and experience is often critical to success.

“There is a lot of talent in this state on defense this year,” he said. “One of our coaches pointed out how many 4- and 5-star players were on defense. Central-Phenix City had some guys, talking about 4- and 5-star guys. Hoover obviously has some and Thompson has two or three guys who are 5-star type kids. I still think Thompson has the most talent of anybody, from a college prospect standpoint. They may have lost a few from last year, but I think they probably have three players who can go anywhere in the country.

“Every game is different and matchups matter,” Floyd said. “But if you look at some of the games we have played, us and Hoover was 17-7. The Thompson game was 14-12. That hasn’t happened, hardly ever, when coach (Mark) Freeman’s teams have played. There have been a lot more shootouts.”

Hoover’s Wade Waldrop, in his first season leading the Bucs, said his first impression of his new team was the talent on defense. “It was very obvious to me that our defensive players carried themselves and worked differently,” he said. “The defensive guys had a different demeanor about them. They had a different walk about them. The way they worked and the way they wanted to work, it was obvious in the weight room, on the field and when we were running, they were different.”

Waldrop said playing tough defense is a requirement for teams in Region 3. “Our kids played really hard and really tough. Vestavia Hills is playing good defense. Oak Mountain did some things really well in defending the run. Teams have had a hard time running the football all year,” he said. “Coaches in this league do a great job putting kids in position to play well. They do a great job taking away the top one or two things you like to do.

“It’s a combination of tough players, talented players and talented coaches.”

Among the college prospects on the Hoover defense are junior linebacker Bradley Shaw and lineman Jordan Norman.

Thompson, of course, has Clemson commitment DE Peter Woods, Alabama commitment DB Tony Mitchell and red-hot sophomore recruit Anquon Fegans at DB.

College potential is not everything, though, Floyd said.

“It’s not like every player on defense is going big-time Division I,” Floyd said. “We’ve got good, tough, hard-nosed high-school kids. They are smart and have played a lot of football.