Those who haven’t noticed, the Florala Wildcats and their head coach Bubba Nall are excited about tonight’s game at McKenzie.

Nall said the players had one of the best practice weeks in his three years at the school.

“Our kids are excited to play, and we’re healthy,” the Wildcats coach said. “I feel like that we’re going to compete and we’ll see what happens.”

McKenzie has a lot of “speed, speed and more speed,” Nall said.

“They’re a very good football team,” he said. “Their speed can be problematic.”

When asked what at practice this week that’s gone well, Nall said the kids decided to change things up a little bit.

“A lot of it was that the kids voted — they told me that they wanted to practice at 5:30 in the morning,” he said. “So, we met up at the school (Wednesday) morning at 5:15, and I told my wife that we were going to be sluggish in all of that — that was probably the best practice we’ve had this year hands down.

“Everybody got up there. It was cool and crisp. Everybody was bouncing around,” he said. “They had a positive attitude. It was just a tremendous practice. It was one of those things where it was like holy cow, why hadn’t we been doing this the whole year?”

Monday at practice, Nall said work was focused more on fundamentals. In the more than two-hour session, the coach said a couple player felt like it was a “turning point in their career.”

“Time will tell in all of that,” he said. “When you’re still having good practices this late in the season, something good’s going on. I credit that to our coaches and our kids just staying positive and continuing to work.”

With all of the excitement going on in the community, Nall said he believes the team can “shock” the state.

If the Wildcats were to win tonight, then they will have to beat Georgiana next week to secure a berth in the playoffs. FHS now sits at 4-3 overall, and 2-3 in Class 1A, Region 2.

Nall said there’s been little talk about the playoffs this week as the focus has strictly been on MHS.

“Our kids are stoked,” the coach said. “This isn’t one of these deals that I’m dreading going to McKenzie. I’m thinking that we’re going to go over there — and I may be dead wrong — I know our kids and I feel like I’ve read them right. I feel like they’re going to come and we’ve got a good plan for (tonight).”

Kick off in McKenzie is at 7 p.m.