Jennifer Potter’s brownies are out. Cooper Gentle’s cinnamon-and-sugar pretzel bites are in. 

What?

As most McCallie football fans know, for years, whenever the Blue Tornado shut out an opponent, Jennifer Potter, former head coach and current defensive coordinator Ralph Potter’s wife, baked brownies for the whole team.

But with Ralph no longer the head coach, junior linebacker Cooper Gentle decided it might be time to give her a break. So a new rule has unfolded: If the first-team defense _ of which Gentle is an integral part _ shuts out an opponent while the starters are on the field, Gentle bakes his pretzel sweet treats for the whole team.

So after the final seconds ticked off the Blue Tornado’s 38-7 win over Knoxville Catholic Friday night atop Pete & Ralph Potter Field at Spears Stadium, Gentle already had his baking hat on.

“I’ll try to bake them this weekend,” he said. “I’ll probably bake 100 of them. I’ve done that before. It takes a couple of hours or so. They’re pretty good.”

Said Cooper Gentle’s brother Carson, now a freshman defensive end at Tennessee who’s expected to redshirt, “Everything he makes is good. It just comes naturally to him.”

Now 7-2 overall on the season and 3-1 in TSSAA DIvision II Class AAA play, this latest victory came naturally to McCallie, guaranteeing it a No. 2 in the upcoming playoffs, which will place the Blue Tornado in the opposite bracket to No. 1 seed Baylor, which guarantees McCallie wouldn’t play its archrivals again until the state title game at Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium on December 5.

And Gentle and his defensive teammates turned in a performance as sweet as his pretzel bites throughout. They held the Irish to 10 rushing yards total. Take away a late 73-yard touchdown pass to Tyreke King against the Blue Tornado reserves and Catholic had just 58 passing yards against McCallie’s starters, which meant the starters held the Irish to 68 total yards on the night.

“This a testament to our players and how hard they prepped for this game,” said Bradford afterward.

It’s also a testament to McCallie’s depth at running back. With its season-long workhorse Keylan Syam sitting this one out with a minor injury, juniors Joseph Korenblit (three total touchdowns, 28 rushing yards and 13 receiving yards) and Kris Lloyd (one touchdown and 75 rushing yards) more than made up for Syam’s absence.

Junior Keeyshawn Tabuteau also caught a 51-yard TD pass, and junior quarterback Elliott Drapeau threw for two scores and 162 yards. Senior kicker Elliott Arnold kicked a 28-yard field goal and five total PATs. Junior Aiden Conant collected his first varsity interception.

“This was probably our best defensive performance of the year,” said  Gentle, who had four tackles, including a sack. “There are still some things we need to clean up, some technical improvements we need to make, but we’re getting better every week.”

McCallie didn’t take long to signal that it had every intention of posting a win that would leave it behind Baylor only in the East Region standings, thus avoiding a possible rematch with its archrivals until the state title game.

Leading 31-0 at halftime, McCallie played to a running clock most of the second half after Korenblit scored early in the third to make the lead 38-0. Catholic’s lone score to King came in the fourth quarter.

McCallie concludes the regular season this Friday against Lipscomb Academy, which spoiled McCallie’s bid last year for an undefeated season when they came from 28-7 down to upset the eventual Division II Class AAA state champs on the final night of the regular season.

As Cooper Gentle discussed how he had to learn to make his favorite pretzel bites because he loved sweets but his three older brothers were always eating the goodies before he could get his fair share, brother Carson Gentle was critiquing the growth of the team he helped lead to three state titles in four years.

“They’re definitely better than the start of the year,” Carson said. “They’re healthier on defense and Drapeau’s getting much better at quarterback. He seems more relaxed out there. He reminds me of Jay (St.-Hillaire) his junior year than last year. He’s starting to understand what he needs to do.”

Before Cooper headed home to his family’s kitchen, he said with a proud smile, “I think this is the most physical we’ve been all year.”

With more than double the first downs of Catholic (15 to 7) and nearly double the total yards (278 to 141), the Blue Tornado pretty much dominated the Irish in all phases.

Which might be why Bradford looked ahead to the Lipscomb game and the playoffs to follow and said, “I still think our best football is in front of us.”