And miles to go
Cameron, Rams don’t want this trip to end
With a three-hour trek to Cross Plains for a TSSAA Class 2A quarterfinal showdown between a pair of 11-1 football teams Friday night, no horseplay is expected on the bus ride for the Tyner Rams as they prepare to square off with East Robertson.
Popular rapper Lil Baby will be playing on the headphones for Jarius Cameron, part of a 20-man senior class for the 2022 Rams, who have a chance to rank as one of the best groups in program history.
“We came together as a team before this season and established we aren’t going home until we get that gold ball in our hands,” Cameron said of adding a second state championship prize to Tyner’s trophy case. “This is another step along the way for us. We just have to keep doing what we have been and be locked in from start to finish.”
Cameron has played an explosive role in Tyner’s dominance during a season in which the Rams have outscored 2A competition by an average of 36 points per game in seven contests.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pounder is part of a deep group of receivers that includes Trae Ruffin (13 total touchdowns), Marcus Lewis Jr. (six touchdown catches), Josiah Bridgeman, Zashun Hubbard and Demetri Lovick.
Cameron did not come out to play football for the Rams until after the 2021 preseason, when his interest grew after watching Tyner in the Best of Preps jamboree at Finley Stadium. He is a student and basketball standout for Arts and Sciences, but because that Chattanooga school does not have a football program, the TSSAA’s cooperative program rule allows Cameron the opportunity to play his fall sport of choice at Tyner.
In playoff routs the past two weeks, Cameron has eclipsed 100 receiving yards. He had six catches for 109 yards to help Tyner end a four-year postseason skid against Trousdale County with a first-round victory, and he had two catches for 114 yards as the Rams pulled away from Westmoreland in the second half last week. He now has 38 catches for 700 yards and nine touchdown receptions, plus 120 rushing yards and three scores on the ground as well as a kick return for a touchdown this season.
“I have known a lot of my teammates here at Tyner since I was little growing up with them,” said Cameron, who is also a standout safety for the Rams. “I really wanted to come play with them and am glad I came out. We had a brotherhood when we were younger and have really formed something special here this season. We want to keep the Ram Train rolling all the way to Finley and win it all.”
The BlueCross Bowl title game for 2A is Dec. 3 at Finley Stadium.
Tyner’s only state championship came in 1997, when the Rams defeated Union City 13-10 at Vanderbilt University as Rory Hinton threw the winning 29-yard touchdown pass to Windarek Stewart with 1:13 left in the fourth quarter. The season before that, Tyner lost the title game to Melrose, which was led by future Tennessee Volunteers receiver Cedrick Wilson.
The Rams also finished as state runners-up in 2017, when they fell 27-21 to Union City in double overtime at Tennessee Tech.
If Tyner can make it past East Robertson’s two-headed monster backfield of senior Zech Prince (1,677 rushing yards, 27 touchdown runs) and sophomore Isiah Groves (1,175 rushing yards, 10 touchdown runs), next week the Rams would host a semifinal against either Monterey (10-2) or York Institute (8-4).
Stopping — or at least slowing down — Groves and Prince will be one of the top tasks for a defense led by senior linebacker Jersey Chubb, who has 90 tackles this season.
Tyner senior offensive lineman Journe Norwood (6-3, 280) will try to give stellar protection for quarterback and Tennessee Titans Mr. Football semifinalist Josh Jackson, who has 35 touchdowns and more than 3,000 total yards this season. Markel McKinley, yet another senior, has 92 carries for 823 yards and 17 scores.
“One of our big goals is to be the best team in program history,” said Chubb, who is one of the team leaders in pancake blocks, too, and has three receiving scores. “We have worked so hard and come so far that we don’t want to go home. We won’t be satisfied until we are all holding the gold ball above our heads. We aren’t going to let anything stand in our way. That’s just how we are rolling.”
Witnessing the buy-in from his team has been special for coach second-year Tyner coach Scott Chandler, who believes the Rams can accomplish every goal.
“These senior guys really made a pact after last season to do everything they could to get better, hold teammates accountable and make this a football team people are going to remember,” Chandler said. “We have to play with a sense of urgency and do what we have done all year. This is a special group who can continue to do special things.”