Week 7 of the high school football season won't be forgotten anytime soon across East Tennessee.
A line of storms rolled through right around kickoff that left several fans and teams frustrated while tracking storms via cell phones and forcing a few games to be pushed back to Saturday or Monday.
But one team that will be, and rightfully should be, anxious to forget about Friday night is the Tellico Plains Bears.

While Sequoyah and Sweetwater were forced to wait until Monday night to get their games played, the Bears ran into a force almost as powerful as the storms that littered the East Tennessee skies – the Polk County Wildcats.
Yes, this was a marquee matchup based on the fact that it was a meeting between two top 10 teams in their respective classifications.
But that's almost where the significance stopped.

Don't get me wrong, though.
A win over Polk County would've done wonders for the Bears' confidence as Tellico looks to wrap up an automatic playoff berth.
But the second part of the previous sentence is much more important than the first part.
If the teams were still together in Region 3-3A, a win or loss last Friday would have carried more significance than it did this year.

That's because the two teams aren't even in the same regular season classification, much less battling each other for a playoff berth.
So where does Tellico go from here?
With the way the playoffs are configured now, there's no guarantee that a wildcard gets you into the group of 24 teams that will battle for the state championship in the playoffs.

Combine that with the fact that Tellico is still in control of its own destiny as far as clinching the automatic 2A bid from District 3-A and you've just discovered what should be the Bears' sole focus.
Tellico Plains doesn't have to worry about winning and Rockwood losing. The Bears don't have to sift through the endless possibilities we grew accustomed to under the old system where four or five teams could be fighting for one or two playoff spots in Week 10.

The new system can be confusing. And it certainly has its flaws, just like every other playoff system out there.
But there's no complicated formula or flaw for the Bears.
Beat Greenback this Friday and beat Midway to finish the regular season in Week 10 and the automatic bid goes to the Bears.
When Tellico beat Rockwood a few weeks ago, it was easy to see that was one of the biggest victories Tellico has earned in several years.

It was a sign of where the Bears had come from to the position they've put themselves in now.
But who knew it would be so big due to slip up suffered at Harriman a couple of weeks ago?
Last week I stated the only thing the teams here had to do, as far as the playoff race is concerned, was win their district games.
Sure, being ranked and pulling an upset would be nice.

But being in the playoffs would be even better.
So as the old saying goes, Tellico doesn't need to let Polk County beat them twice.
Knowing Tellico head coach Trevor Hunt and the staff he has assembled, the only game that matters is the game coming up.
Tellico pounded Greenback in a scrimmage last year when the Cherokees put together a great season. Tellico has a majority of that team back while Greenback is rebuilding.
Tellico is facing its first real adversity of the season after dropping its last two games.

But adversity often forces a team to get tougher, and that's an area where Tellico is already solid.
With the ability to control its own destiny, that's exactly what Tellico needs to be focused on. I have a feeling that's what will be the theme of Tellico's practices this week.