Paul Bryant Stampede

In an email to parents the Tuscaloosa City Schools announced that football tickets for Bryant High School, Central High School and Northridge High School will not be sold at the gates and can only be purchased using GoFan.

It's time for high school football in west Alabama! Area play might not be starting yet, but there are plenty of inter-class and inter-region games that are bound to excite football fans across the state.

With spring football games happening all around Tuscaloosa, it is time to feature some of the most notable high school football programs around the Druid City!

Auburn University wide receiver, Seth Williams, will declare for the NFL Draft, according to Matt Zenitz of AL.com. Williams led the Tigers in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns as a junior. The 6-foot-3 receiver is a 2018 graduate of Paul Bryant High School.

From COVID forfeitures to many of the games in west Alabama being moved to Thursday due to Hurricane Delta, last week of high school football was a wild one. As the regular season starts to wrap up, its crunch time for many schools as they make a final push for a playoff spot.

With Hillcrest’s huge win over Northridge last week, the doors of Region 4 of 6A were opened wide for an arms race involving almost all of the teams in the region. Now that we’re in October with only four weeks of the regular season left, its “put up or shut up” time for teams on the edge of a playoff berth.

After several teams took the week off last week to prepare for the second half of the schedule, most of Tuscaloosa county is back and ready for more area play. Three different 6A Region 4 matchups might be the difference makers for teams to make a playoff run. In addition, several surprise teams have matchups that could affect their comeback seasons.

This week, many of the Tuscaloosa-area schools are looking at off weeks, but many other schools in west; Alabama are taking on cross-division and even cross-class showdowns. These may not affect playoff races, but they can definitely halt some of the valuable momentum that teams have been storing as they progress through the season.

The Paul Bryant High Stampede (1-4, 0-3) got the first win of the season tonight against the Holt Ironmen (1-4, 0-3) and gave themselves a chance for the playoffs.

Last week, Tuscaloosa-area schools didn’t look great. Besides a miracle in Wetumpka by Hillcrest, west Alabama was full of blowouts. Still, this week provides several big area matchups that could be big statement wins for a few schools in a rut.