Page (Tennessee) stifling defense limiting opponents to less than two points per game

In past years, the Page Patriots (Tennessee) have been most well known for its offensive style of football.

Throwing the ball around the field and making opposing defensive coordinators wonder what buttons do they got to press in order to slow down Page offensively.

Now, it’s been the Patriots’ defense emphatically shutting the door every Friday night against opposing offenses, literally.

This 2024 season, Page (11-0), ranked No. 7 in the latest High School On SI Top 25 Tennessee rankings, has yielded just 15 points through 11 games. You heard that right. Two touchdowns with a missed extra point and a safety is all the Patriots have given up this season.

To put it into perspective, at this time last year through 11 games, Page had allowed 138 points for an average of 12.5 per contest.

When asking Page head coach Charles Rathbone the question of how they’ve been so dominant on the defensive side of the ball, he had a pretty simple response.

“Having really good players to be honest,” Rathbone said. “When you have four Power 4 commits that side of the ball, you should be good. Interesting enough, around the state, we’ve known for throwing the ball around and our defense has really come around this year.”

Taking a deeper look into the defensive stars for the Patriots gives you a better idea of why this unit has given up just 15 points and a 12-yard run being the longest allowed this fall.

Starting with the defensive line is 6-foot-3, 250-pound Louisville commit Eric Hazzard, who is rated a 3-star per 247Sports. On the other side of Hazzard is 6-foot-5, 275-pound Connor Coffman, who is anchoring the defensive line and is committed to Chattanooga.

Behind Hazzard and Coffman at linebacker is Tennessee commitment Brenden Anes, who flipped from Wisconsin to the Volunteers recently. The secondary has been a strength as well, with Wake Forest commit William Wiebush and Division I talent Knight Wilson patrolling the back end.

Not too mention that Rathbone’s son, Jacob, is also a Division I prospect on the offensive line and rounds out a very talented all-around team. Rathbone considers himself an old offensive line kind of coach, taking a good ole pancake block over a defensive highlight any day.

“I’m an old offensive line guy and I love a pancake block much more than a defensive play,” Rathbone said.

Page didn’t give up its first touchdown until Week 7 of the season when they faced Lawson, a 49-6 win on Oct. 4th. Rathbone was concerned on how his Patriots might react when they finally would give up a touchdown after six straight shutout wins, but said that it only angered his defense that much more.

“My biggest concern was when we would give up a touchdown, how would we react to that,” Rathbone said. “I think it honestly just made the guys more mad.”

With the starters having played only 22 of a possible 44 quarters so far due to game competitiveness and running clocks, Rathbone has the same expectations for his backup players to come into the game and preserve the shutouts to close out contests.

“Our defense has played a total of 22 quarters this entire season and our No. 2’s have gone in and know the expectation,” Rathbone said. “(Pitching a shutout) is the expectation. That is the gameplan and expectation is to execute the gameplan no matter who is in.”

The Patriots have made three straight trips to the Class 5A state championship game, unable to notch a victory just yet. If Page looks to breakthrough for its first title, they’ll be leaning on its defense to lead the way this time around.

Up just 5-0 last week against Columbia Central, Rathbone knew his defense would need to be leaned upon in order to win the game. The Patriots essentially pitched another shutout, giving up a safety, in a 19-2 win.

Now as the postseason continues onward, Rathbone believes he might have his best team of them all.

“Last week, we had to really lean on the defense when we were up 5-0,” Rathbone added.

“This group is very smart and they studied every little tendency you might have on offense. With our defense, we feel like we can win any game. With us going to three straight state title games, we feel like we should’ve won two of those. I think this could be our best team of them all.”

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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi