This time last year, East High football coach Marcus Wimberly was already looking ahead to the 2008 season.

His Mustangs had finished 2-8 in 2007 in his second year on the job and Wimberly, a former East standout who went on to star at the University of Miami, had no intentions of watching his alma mater plod through another losing season.

"We expected this. We put the work in, and I said, 'Don't be surprised if we go from 2-8 to 8-2.' I said that before the year started," said Wimberly, whose Mustangs managed to make his prediction a reality this season.

East (8-2) earned its first outright region title since 2000 with its 30-25 road win at Region 8-4A foe Melrose last week. It was the Mustangs' sixth straight victory overall.

Tonight, for the first time since 2005, East will host a first-round playoff game when fourth-seeded Hardin County (7-3), led by standout senior quarterback Will Gilchrist, invades Fairgrounds Stadium.

"They're a hard-nosed team. They're pretty balanced," Wimberly said. "It's not just (Gilchrist). They've got two guys who have rushed for over 700 yards."

Wimberly credits East's six-game turnaround this season to its offseason work in the weight room and the emergence of several team leaders.

He's also had a direct hand in the turnaround himself, having applied for and receiving a grant from the NFL to improve the school's weight room.

"This time last year, we were preparing for this year," said Wimberly, a former fifth-round NFL draft pick. "We were getting our new weight room in, and I think that's been one of the biggest differences between last year and this year, because we were physically weak.

"As an overall team, there's a lot more discipline in place. These are pretty much my guys, the class that came in with me, and they came in under different guidelines."

The return of senior linebacker Mark Guyton from a season-ending injury in 2007 and the improved play of junior quarterback Jaszy Parker (1,566 total yards, 22 TDs) have also been major factors in East's resurgence.

"(Guyton) has made a big difference. He's made us tougher at the linebacker spot, which we really needed," Wimberly said.

"(Parker) is improving each and every week. He had to learn last year. We threw him in the fire and it was kind of rough on him. But he's stepped it up this year tremendously."