Football coaches and players often use the phrase “next man up” to say that teams can’t use injuries as an excuse for losing. Perhaps no football game in McCallum history illustrates the truism of that principle more than last Thursday night’s 14-13 victory over the Anderson Trojans in the 20th annual Taco Shack Bowl at House Park. 

McCallum entered the game with notable figures absent. Among those was first-team all-district defensive back senior Jake Hissey. Into Hissey’s role anchoring the secondary stepped senior Brock Fanning, who under normal circumstances plays offensive exclusively. 

“I haven’t played defense since freshman year,” Fanning said. “I found out I was playing safety an hour before the game. It just felt full circle to me.” 

Defensive coordinator Brandon Grant said the decision to play Fanning was one out of necessity. Senior Wyatt Cunningham was supposed to start at safety but was sick the week of the game and was cleared to play only a few hours prior to kickoff. 

“Brock is normally off-limits to the defense,” Grant said. “I told Coach Amy that we were going to have to use him at some point whether it’s at safety, weakside linebacker or middle linebacker. He knows all of those positions and the adjustments we make.”

To say Fanning stepped up is an understatement. His interception in the first quarter on the Mac 7-yard line prevented a recurrence of the early Anderson touchdowns that befell the Knights in each of the last three Taco Shack Bowls.

“I saw [the ball] come out of the backfield,” he said. “I saw [Anderson quarterback] Fred Dale’s eyes look that way and when I caught it I was like, ‘Holy crap!’ Then it was just celebration and yelling.”

The last-minute change at safety did not phase other members of the Mac defense. 

“Honestly I feel like with Brock you can trust him on anything,” senior Colby Napier said. “He knows like every defense, and we sorta just had to play a lot harder on some of those runs.” 

Like Fanning, Napier played both ways, and Grant applauded the cooperation of the offense and defense.

“It was just a team effort of sparing Brock some reps on offense, so he could get some reps on defense,” Grant said. “I thought he handled it incredibly well. I think that is a big part of why we ended up winning that game.” 

Fanning believes that the victory was written in the stars. 

“Oh my God, it was awesome,” he said, “it felt like it was destined to happen with all of us seniors and just banding together and getting through that tough game.” 

While Fanning was admirable in filling Hissey’s shoes, he wasn’t the only Knight who had to step up and play a new role. 

The Knights entered Thursday’s rivalry game missing three coaches due to illness: defensive coaches Chris Russell and Steve Searle and most notably head coach Thomas Gammerdinger. 

Gammerdinger had felt sick early with possible COVID symptoms Thursday morning, so he decided he had to take in Taco Shack from his couch. His caution proved wise when his COVID came back positive Friday morning. 

But just because he was at his house instead of House Park didn’t mean he was totally uninvolved.

“I was sending some text messages to Grant about in-game adjustments,” Gammerdinger said.

But Gammerdinger gave the lion’s share of the credit to his assistant coaches for carrying the torch for him. 

“[You have] to give credit to those coaches, especially to Coach Amy and Coach Grant who stepped up.”

In Coach G’s absence Grant led the defense, offensive coordinator Joshua Amy coached the offense and Coach Jarred Houston led special teams. 

Mac was left with seven coaches to Anderson’s 12. 

Coach Russell, absent for covid-19 safety protocol, czar of the defensive line, was originally going to have his defensive duties covered by Gammerdinger. 

But with both coaches out, the defensive line was missing a sideline voice with a headset. 

A familiar Mac face stepped up and joined the coaching staff for Taco Shack; assistant principal Larry Featherstone. 

“Mr. Featherstone has an extensive football coaching resume that a lot of people don’t know about,” Grant said. “He came in and did an excellent job of managing the defensive line rotation.”

The defense held on the game’s most decisive play, fourth and 2 from inside the Knight 5-yard line with three and a half minutes left in the game and the Knights’ clinging to a one-point lead. 

After the stop, Grant paced the sidelines urging the defense to be ready to make one more stand. But the Knight offense had other ideas, driving down the field with a punishing rushing attack that drained the clock to end the game before the defense was called back on the field.

“When we got that stop at the end of the game at that point I think our defensive guys were emotionally and physically emptied of the tank,” Grant said. “It was huge of Coach Amy and the offense to march that ball down the field, taking another three and half minutes off the clock.”

Prior to the fourth-down stop, the Mac offense had taken it’s first lead of the game by turning to senior wide receiver Nate Davidson.

After a rough first half, the offense woke up, thanks to some halftime adjustments and a versatile running attack that included running backs Napier and Thomas Lonsdale and quarterback Jaxon Rosales.

For what ended up being the game-winning score, Rosales found Davidson in the corner of the north end zone. 

“I remember screaming a lot,” Hissey said of his reaction to the play. “I knew the whole game we were going to win but that solidified it.” 

The touchdown merely tied the score at 13. Thanks to Anderson’s missed PAT in the third quarter, the point-after touchdown following Davidson’s catch gave the Knights the lead.