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Star Correspondent

When most people travel to Pigeon Forge, they are seeking rest and relaxation and possibly an opportunity to see Sevierville legend Dolly Parton at her amusement park, Dollywood.

However, when the Hampton Bulldogs step off the bus Friday evening, they are coming to town for one reason only: to seek revenge against the Pigeon Forge Tigers for a 24-14 loss in the 2023 season. It was one of only two wins the Tigers had that season.

“It’s always a challenge—how you can handle a trip like that, going down the road with a young, inexperienced team,” said Hampton head coach Michael Lunsford. “You have to treat it like a business trip, not a trip to Dollywood. We have to have our heads screwed on and be real sharp defensively because they formation you to death.

“There are a lot of adjustments that have to be made defensively. With a young team, that’s one of the things you have to be concerned with.”

Most teams are eagerly looking forward to Friday night as they can officially put on their uniforms and take the field for a game that counts, rather than one that has no official bearing.

Lunsford is just as eager to see how his team will react to their first night under the Friday night lights, and he hopes the game against Pigeon Forge won’t be like the first games of past years for his young team.

“The last several years, it seems like in our first game we’ve had fumbles and penalties—things of that nature that we eventually get ironed out, but a lot of times it costs us early in the year,” Lunsford said. “We have to make sure we are on our p’s and q’s and not have those silly things that cost us.”

The head coach, now entering his ninth season at the helm of the Bulldog program, has probably had nightmares about one of the series from last season’s matchup with the Tigers, played at Hampton in the season’s first game.

“Last year, there was a drive against Pigeon Forge where they gained seven yards offensively and moved the ball 45 yards for a touchdown,” Lunsford said. “They fumbled the ball forward and recovered it, we jumped offsides, we had a late hit for a personal foul—just things like that which we cannot give to another team like that.”

When considering what lies ahead against the Tigers, Lunsford knows that Pigeon Forge probably has a leg up offensively, even while losing one of their top running backs, who was a bull to handle.

“They lost the big running back, number 14, and I don’t see any big, strong running backs like that kid, but a lot of their other kids that were complementary players last year are still there,” Lunsford said. “They are probably further along in their offense and more established because they know more of what is going on than we do at this point.

“We still have a lot of guys learning, and that’s part of the process. Thankfully, we don’t have a conference game until week four. The first three games, we have to make sure we are getting ourselves ready for those conference games.”

Offensively, the Bulldogs are fortunate to have senior running back Domnique Burleson in the backfield behind first-year quarterback Maddux Wilson, who takes over from Dylan Trivett, who manned the role for most of his time at Hampton.

Lunsford feels that both Wilson and Burleson will need to take on leadership roles on offense and is counting on both to have solid seasons for the Bulldogs to be successful.

“I feel like Maddux has gotten so much better over the course of the scrimmages,” said Lunsford. “We had a hard time with the snap in the first scrimmage because it was the first time he saw live bullets where he was pulling out of there too quickly, just handling the routine plays.

“He just has to handle the routine plays, make sure he audibles when we need to audible, and adjust when he needs to adjust. He just needs to be a leader and control the game. We are going to rely on Domnique a lot, and I think everybody knows that. One of the things that we have to do is build off Dom. We are going to use Dom as the bell cow, but we need players who can play off of Dom.”

Lunsford and the team will leave early and stop for something to eat to break up the trip, in an effort to prevent dead legs from riding on a bus.

The Bulldogs feel like they have something to prove, and they are not going to let a long bus ride on a regular Carter County school bus, minus the air conditioning found on charter buses, become part of that challenge.

“These guys have a chip on their shoulder, and as a coach, it’s always a challenge to be good year after year after year,” Lunsford said. “They want to prove they are as good as teams we have had in the past.”

The game will kick off at 7 p.m. at Pigeon Forge High School.