Five local high school football players have extra reason to be thankful this week.

Collierville’s Samuel Iroh; Southwind’s Kelvin Perkins; Skylan Smith of Covington; Andrew Johnson of Fairley and Tipton-Rosemark’s Nix Fullen have been named as finalists in their respective classes for the Tennessee Titans Mr. Football award. The trophies will be presented Dec. 10 at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.

Perkins was last year’s winner in Class 5A, while Smith is a 3A finalist for the second year in a row.

At Briarcrest, the defending state champion Saints are thankful that Fred Smith Jr. is back to lead a team that still has high hopes despite some key graduation losses.

And we’re always thankful for your help in spotlighting our top prep athletes. Coaches and stat-keepers can send in their scores, highlights and top performers from each game either by emailing jvarlas@dailymemphian.com or via X @johnvarlas.

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