CPA hands hall of fame coach Gary Rankin rare TSSAA football playoffs loss

Gary Rankin stood a few feet from Boyd Buchanan's players Friday night. The Buccaneers' season had ended minutes earlier with a 27-16 loss to CPA. His wife Sandra Rankin was just in front of them, supporting her husband and the state's all-time winningest coach after a rare first-round loss in the TSSAA playoffs.

"I think everybody on the Boyd campus is happy," Gary said. "It was hard on me. I haven't lost four games in many, many, many years — maybe 30.

Thirty-two years, actually. Rankin's 1990 Riverdale team — finished 4-6 and missed the playoffs in his first season. Rankin hasn't lost in the first round of the playoffs since 1991.

The Warriors combined to lose 19 games and won four state titles over the next 15 years with him at the helm before leaving for East Tennessee and Alcoa.

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Rankin resigned from Alcoa after last season, leaving with seven consecutive TSSAA state titles. He accepted the Boyd Buchanan position, which allowed him to work with his son JT Rankin, who is the director of sports performance at the school. It also helped Gary and his wife move to the Chattanooga area and be closer to his first grandchild.

"This has been hard," Rankin said. "I lost my patience some and had to be more patient some. This is a rebuilding process. This job wouldn't have been open if it hadn't been. We won seven games, which is more than maybe they expected to win. But we've got to dig deep and try and build this program."

"We played hard," Rankin said. "We played hard. We played about as well as we could against one of the best teams in the state."

CPA (6-5) advances to the TSSAA Division II-AA quarterfinals and travels to Lausanne (8-1) in Memphis. Lausanne, which features Ohio State quarterback commitment Brock Glenn, had a first-round bye.

Boyd Buchanan finished the season 7-4, leaving Rankin with 473 wins. He's won 17 state championships — 13 at Alcoa and four at Riverdale — most by a Tennessee high school football coach.

"All week we were watching film and we'd talk about how their coach knows how to win," said CPA senior London Humphreys, a Vanderbilt commitment, who had two touchdown catches in the win. "He knows what he's up to.

"We talked about that a good bit."

CPA scored on its first offensive snap when Asher Keck ran 62 yards for the touchdown. Humphreys added a 10-yard TD catch from Braden Streeter for a 13-6 lead. Bo Burklow's 22-yard TD catch from Streeter made it 20-10 with 4:10 left in the third quarter before Humphreys reeled in a second TD pass.

Keck finished with over 200 rushing yards in the game.

"Asher did a great job," CPA coach Ingle Martin said. "I think the offensive line blocked well. We were able to move it."

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.