In the second season of the revamped Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 7A state football playoffs, the opening round will match Region 3 against Region 2 – the Birmingham metro area vs. the Auburn-Phenix City-Montgomery area.

Vestavia Hills head coach Robert Evans said the pairing will feature “probably the best eight teams in the state playing in the first round.”

He’s not a fan.

“If 2 and 3 matched up last year, Thompson would have played Central in the first round and not the championship,” Evans said on Monday on Day 1 of the AL.com Birmingham High School Football Media Days at Thompson High School. “That’s how crazy it is.”

Last season was the first that changed the traditional North vs. South setup that had Birmingham schools always playing Huntsville/North Alabama teams and the Auburn/Southeast Alabama squads playing the Mobile schools in the opening round.

Birmingham schools won three of four first-round games against teams from Mobile last season with only Hewitt-Trussville falling – by a field goal in two overtimes. The other Birmingham teams won by 21, 25 and 50 points.

In the three years before that, Birmingham schools beat Huntsville/North Alabama teams in every matchup – including the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds knocking off the top two seeds from North Alabama – with only one game’s margin being less than 18 points.

Of course, Thompson and Central-Phenix City have dominated the 7A championship games lately with the Warriors taking titles in 2024, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019. Central won in 2023 and 2018. Hoover won the two championships before the Warriors-Red Devils run, both over Mobile’s McGill-Toolen.

So, what does Evans believe should happen? The fourth-year head coach and Vestavia alumnus said he agreed with head coach Mark Freeman of rival Thompson, who has advocated for a straight seeding of the 16 teams (of 32) who make the playoffs.

“We don’t agree on everything, but we do on that,” he said.

Evans also said he has high hopes for the AHSAA task force that is investigating non-compliant transfers.

“We have some high-end transfers coming in from throughout the state,” he said. “I want to see what will come from the task force led by Mr. (AHSAA executive director Heath) Harmon that is looking into what is essentially a transfer portal in Alabama high schools.

“We are truly a community-based program. There are so many talented kids in places like Alabaster, Hoover, Prattville who didn’t necessarily grow up there. That’s not a knock on anybody, not an accusation. When you have a good program, you attract players.”

Evans also said that Region 3 has “never been as loaded as it is this year” and that Vestavia Hills will “play the hardest schedule in the state with our non-region games.”

“We don’t complain. We don’t b—- and whine, we go right at it,” Evans said. “It’s a selling point to our parents. We embrace playing talented rosters with really good coaches. We want to challenge ourselves and play this region and Region 2 as well.”

Vestavia’s non-region schedule begins with the opener against Westside of Anderson, S.C., followed by Auburn, both at home. Westside was the No. 3 team in South Carolina last season with a 13-1 record and second at 14-1 in 2023. Auburn finished 10-1 last year. The Rebels’ final game of the season is at home against Montgomery Catholic, last season’s 14-0 Class 5A state champion.

“Teams like Stanford, Northwestern and Vanderbilt and when coach (David) Cutcliffe was at Duke are the teams I look to,” Evans said. “It’s very cyclical in nature for those teams. When those programs are humming, they are really good at the line of scrimmage and they play a quirky brand of football with smart stuff. That’s what we have to do at Vestavia and we hope to do it this year.

“We specialize in getting creative.”

The 2025 Rebels have five returning starters on offense, including junior quarterback Charlie Taaffe. Evans said junior Price Lamaster would also likely challenge for playing time at QB. Defensively, Vestavia Hills has four starters returning from a 6-6 team that lost in the second round of the playoffs to Central-Phenix City after whipping 9-2 Mary G. Montgomery in the playoff opener. The Rebels were fourth in Region 3 with a 4-3 mark.