If the Alabama High School Athletic Association adopted the “Mark Freeman Class 7A Football Playoff” formula, his four-time defending state champions might not be playing another Region 3 foe in the semifinals for the seventh consecutive year on Friday. But they might.

Hewitt-Trussville is good enough to have earned that spot regardless of the format.

“I’ve been advocating all along they should seed the 7A teams 1 through 16,” Freeman said. “Just seed it and go play. I think it would be fair and I think every coach would be OK with it. They say they work for you, but we have the central (AHSAA) office and the Central Board of Control. Nobody listens to me.”

The last time the semifinals from the North didn’t pit two Region 3 opponents was 2016, when Hoover beat Gadsden City from Region 4. Gadsden City – a Class 6A team for the past two years – is the only Region 4 team to ever make the semifinals. Hoover and Thompson have dominated one semifinal spot since Class 7A was formed 10 years ago with the Bucs playing in the first nine and the Warriors playing in the past seven.

This season’s South semifinal is the first not to feature a rematch of Region 2 foes since 2017, with Central-Phenix City – also semifinalist for the past nine years – hosting Mary G. Montgomery from Region 1. The first season of 7A play, Region 1 representative Foley played Region 2′s Prattville.

“I would like the opportunity to play other people,” Freeman said. “I’m not sure that sometimes, either here or down South, that the two best teams in the state don’t play in the semifinals. The years that Central plays Auburn and one of them gets knocked out (in the semis) either one might have been good enough to win it all.

“At the end of the day, I don’t care who we play. I’m just thankful to be practicing on Thanksgiving and thankful to be playing.”

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Thompson (10-1) – winners of 18 straight playoff games – won 40-14 at Hewitt-Trussville on Oct. 6, the week after Class 6A No. 2 Clay-Chalkville had handed the Warriors their lone defeat of the season.

“It’s obviously a little different this time of year,” Huskies coach Josh Floyd said. “It’s been a few weeks since we played them and teams change throughout the season and evolve some. There’s a lot of familiarity there, but teams do change. I hope our team has improved a lot since last time.

“I think we’ve gotten better in some areas over the past three or four weeks. I think it has helped us in the first couple of rounds of the playoffs.”

Hewitt-Trussville beat Bob Jones 56-14 to open the postseason and knocked Hoover out 40-7 last week. The Huskies are 9-3, with a season-opening loss Central-Phenix City (48-24) and an Oct. 20 loss to Spain Park (50-29) – both at home. The Huskies finished second in Region 3 behind Thompson with a 5-2 record and the tiebreaker win over Vestavia Hills (55-27).

Hewitt is averaging 40.3 points per game behind quarterback Peyton Floyd, one of the coach’s two sons who start for the Huskies. Peyton leads the team in rushing and passing, running for 847 yards and 18 touchdowns while throwing for 2,481 yards and 26 TDs. The senior has completed 72 percent of his passes and been intercepted 5 times.

His counterpart at Thompson, heralded freshman Trent Seaborn, has completed 73 percent of his throws for 2,236 yards, 25 touchdowns with 5 interceptions.

“I told Josh that Peyton is one of my favorite players to watch,” Freeman said. “I don’t like to be playing him when I watch, though. He’s a prototypical coach’s son. He keeps plays alive, he runs hard and is hard to tackle. He throws the ball really good. I think the world of Peyton and obviously Josh Floyd and them do a great job at Trussville. We have to contain him and not let him make big plays.”

Floyd said his quarterback is driven to win. “I think he’s obviously a student of the game and he’s been running this system for a long time. He is just competitive; he hates to lose at anything. That drives him no matter what. He’s smart, but he has a lot of drive.

“I try to be a dad at home as much as I can,” the coach said. “We’ll watch some video at home, but I try to be a dad as much as I can. It helps that he loves it so. It’s not like he doesn’t want to talk football.”

The other starter named Floyd for Hewitt is linebacker Parker. “He’s super competitive as well,” his dad said. “He’s played really well for us this year. He’s played quarterback and defense in the past. Who knows what will happen in the future? I’m proud of the way he’s played. It’s hard to get on the field as a sophomore in our region.”

The younger Floyd leads the Huskies with 94 total tackles, 57 solo, with 7.5 tackles for a loss.

“Defensively, Riggs Dunn has been a really good leader for us,” Floyd said. “Drew Ollis and Ayden Moore have played really well and gotten better up front over the year.”

Dunn, a 6-foot, 180-pound senior defensive back, has 4 interceptions to go with his 42 total stops. The 6-2, 230-pound lineman Moore, another senior, leads the team with 4 sacks. Ollis, a 6-2, 220-pound end has 43 total tackles, 27 solo. Outside linebacker Jadon Cantley has 10 tackles behind the line with 2 sacks among his 53 total tackles. Junior linebacker Owen Robinson (5-11, 210) has 79 tackles.

“Thompson has really good receivers and a lot of weapons to get the ball to,” Floyd said. “They are really good in space and hard to tackle. The quarterback gets them the ball and does a good job to allow them to make plays. We have to try to limit the big plays. We want to make them earn it and not give them easy touchdowns.”

Hewitt also has weapons on offense to complement the quarterback. Senior running backs Jaqson Melton (94 carries for 585 yards and 5 scores) and Kennedy Mitchell (91 for 506 with 9 TDs) are joined by top receiver Jadon Loving, a 5-10, 160-pound senior, in making big plays. Loving has caught 65 passes for 1,052 yards and 12 touchdowns.

“Jadon has been making plays the entire year,” Floyd said. “Jacob Serena (38 catches for 509 yards and 6 touchdowns) is just a guy who makes a lot of plays. I’m proud of him and how he’s played.”

Floyd said while Thompson has big-play potential everywhere on offense, it’s the other side of the ball that has set the Warriors apart. “The first thing is it takes good players to beat Thompson,” he said. “They have a lot of players. They are going to have 4- and 5-star players every year, so you better have some players to have a chance to beat them.

“They are pretty experienced on offense, but their defense is the key. They have won so many championships because they have been so talented on defense. They make it tough for teams to score.”

Thompson’s top tackler is senior safety Kaleb Harris, who has 68 solo stops and 101 total tackles with 3 interceptions and 10 tackles for a loss. “Kaleb, who is committed to Auburn, is maybe the best football player we’ve ever had back there,” Freeman said. “He is a striker. He loves to tackle people. He’s got really good speed. He can cover their best player, and their next best player and play down in the block as a nickel back. In college, that’s where he will be.”

Harris, a 3-star recruit according to 247sports, is 6-0, 195 pounds.

The Warriors also have Anton Fegans in the secondary. Fegans is rated a 4-star recruit and is the No. 6 prospect in the state for the Class of 2025. “Anton is really good and Payton Lewis (5-11, 165 junior) does a good job. JB (Jaiden Brown, 5-10, 155 senior) and Noah Hicks (5-11, 167-pound sophomore) are our cornerbacks, although Anton plays cornerback some, too.”

Fegans has 61 total tackles in 11 games with 4 interceptions.

Hicks’ brother, Tyler, is a 6-0, 210-pound senior linebacker, who has 48 total stops in nine games, including 7 tackles for a loss. “Tyler is good, too,” Freeman said. “I think he’s going to go to Austin Peay.”

Freshman defensive end Cameron Pritchett has 6 sacks to lead Thompson and a team-best 6 quarterback hurries. Defensive lineman Curtis Oliver-Avery, a 6-1, 195-pound senior, has 4 sacks and 4 hurries.

Freeman said Seaborn has turned in his best performances of the year in the playoffs. “I think he’s played, really and truly, his best two games of the year the last two games. Florence was a heavy blitz team and he had to make a lot of decisions that night. I think he threw to a running back 15 times.

“Last week was totally different. (Vestavia Hills coach Robert Evans) brings chaos on defense. He’s hard to prepare for because there are so many different looks. Trent made some really good reads, especially when we went to the second half. We didn’t want to start the game relying on him so much because he threw three picks the first time we played them. We wanted him to get into the flow of the game, run the football and hit some shots. We hit those two for touchdowns.”

Thompson beat Florence 42-0 and ousted Vestavia 34-14 after being tied at 14 at the half.

“We expect Trussville to blitz us, but the good part is we have a lot of things naturally built in,” Freeman said. “If Trent has a good week if they bring pressure, it will create opportunities for us as much as it does for them.”

Running back AJ Green leads Thompson’s ground game, averaging 7.8 yards per carry. Green, who is rated as Alabama’s 56th best prospect by ESPN, has 957 yards with 11 touchdowns. Junior Michael Dujon has 363 yards rushing on 54 carries with 6 TDs.

Senior wide receiver Kolby Hearn and sophomore Colben Landrew have 655 and 504 yards receiving, respectively. Landrew is 6-5, 190 pounds and has 11 touchdowns and averages 20.2 yards per catch. Hearn’s caught 28 passes for 23.4 yards per reception with 7 TDs.

Thompson leads the all-time series with Hewitt-Trussville 10-6, with five straight wins, according to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society (ahsfhs.org). Hewitt is 0-2 in playoff meetings with the Warriors. The last time the Huskies beat Thompson was the final regular-season game of 2019, the Warriors’ first of four straight state title seasons.

“Our kids want to play to our potential,” Floyd said of this rematch. “We are one game away from the state championship game and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing. It happens to be Thompson and they’ve won the past four state titles, but that’s not the focus. We’re one away from state and we’ll play anybody. We are excited and hope to play a few more weeks.”

The winner Friday will play at 7 p.m. on Dec. 6 for the state championship against the Central-Mary Montgomery winner at Bryant-Denny Stadium.