Tough non-region contests have come to define the Greenville Tigers’ 2017 regular season. And in that regard, their regular season will end very much how it began.

The Tigers face the 6-3 McAdory Yellow Jackets, who sit at the No. 2 spot in Class 6A Region 4 with a 5-1 region record.

Though the Tigers and the Yellow Jackets have a limited history—the teams have only met three times—last year’s 35-20 defeat is fresh in the mind of Greenville head football coach Josh McLendon and a number of his players.

For him, as the 2016 season illustrated, they are not a team to be taken lightly.

“They’re good every year,” McLendon said.

“They play good, fast, hard-nosed, very aggressive football.  Anytime you step up in classifications, it’s always a tough test.  They’ll be a good test for us going into the playoffs.”

The Tigers are seeking to rebound after a heartbreaking loss on the road to the Carroll Eagles.  Before moving on to face an arguably tougher team, McLendon said that this week’s focus will be in self-improvement, and ironing out the mistakes of Friday evening.

What complicates matters further is the fact that the Tigers are prepping for a Thursday game, effectively taking away a day of preparation.  Though McLendon suggests that losing a practice day is less of a concern in Week 10 than, for instance, Week 2 or Week 3.

“At this point in the season, everybody should be pretty well groomed on what they’re doing,” he said.

“It’s just maybe a few alignment issues here for the defense, and getting some tendencies down for them.  Offensively, we’re going to do what we’re done all year and just continue to work and try to get better at what we’re doing.  I feel like that’s all we can do.”

Though Thursday’s game is important for the Tigers’ overall sense of momentum heading into the postseason, its outcome won’t impact Greenville’s place in the first round. 

The Tigers’ first-round opponent is the Beauregard Hornets, who fell to Greenville 34-31 in the first week of the season.

Since then, the Hornets have won each game in commanding fashion—by at least 26 points—to climb to a No. 1 seed in Class 5A Region 4.

As far as McLendon is concerned, the Tigers’ previous win over the Hornets this season doesn’t mean anything.  And neither does the regular season as a whole, for that matter.

“We’re in the playoffs, and everybody’s record is 0-0,” McLendon said. “We look at it as a whole new season, and everybody’s mindset is that it’s a one-game season, like we always talk about.  We’ll have good preparation the whole week, and our kids are excited about going back up there, and I know they’re excited as well to get another chance to play us.”

The Tigers will travel to face McAdory Thursday night, and will travel for a rematch with Beauregard the following week on Friday.