McKenzie School head coach Miles Brown means no disrespect to J.U. Blacksher.

He just isn’t all that interested in the Bulldogs.

“I don’t know anything about them,” Brown said. “I know a lot of folks think I’m just saying that, but it’s really true. I’m a lot more focused on our team and trying to get us ready for the season. I’m not really worried about J.U. Blacksher.”

After winning at least nine games for three consecutive years, and advancing to the second round of the postseason in 2009 and 2010, the Tigers stumbled to a 6-4 mark last season and were left out of the postseason.

Brown believes Thursday night’s preseason contest with the Bulldogs is the first step to returning to the top of the region and a berth in the postseason.

“It gives is a chance to work on some things,” Brown said. “We’ll use it to make sure everyone from offense, defense and special teams, all the way down to the water boys, knows their assignments. We’ll use this game to make sure that everyone is ready when (the games) start counting.”

Brown said the preseason contest will also allow him to evaluate just where his team is and what areas need the most improvement heading into the regular season.

“It’s a preseason game so it not going down in the record book anywhere, but it gives us a chance to get some footage of our guys competing against another team,” Brown said. “That’s probably the most important thing to me. I want to get us on film so I can get a good idea of what we need to take care of before the season gets started. We’re focused on improving as a team. We aren’t too concerned with the outcome of a preseason game.”

The Tigers and the Bulldogs will square off at 7 p.m. Thursday in McKenzie.