Five Things I Know- Week 2

It’s almost like the curtain has been pulled back on the new season, even if it doesn’t feel like fall one bit…

For those of you that caught GPB’s “Football Fridays in Georgia,” it was a back-and-forth contest between Collins Hill and Roswell on turf that had to be 110 degrees until well after sundown. Personally, I went through two sets of shirts when the night was through and have no idea how much weight I lost.

I do need to lose the weight, however…

But it’s fun to get the project going- more on it a little later…

Once again, here’s what I saw after the first full weekend…
As always, in no particular order…

First thing I know…

All the cross-state games from last weekend confirm that Georgia high school football is not to be taken lightly…

Eagle’s Landing Christian took Alabama’s Briarwood Christian (or “Briar-World” Christian as they say to the west) to the bitter end before a tough loss 21-18. Grayson and North Gwinnett won both ends of the Bulldogs-created Football Classic beating Edgewater (FL) and East St. Louis High. Colquitt County held off Madison County (FL), Lincoln County beat cross-river rival Abbeville (SC), and Darlington went down to Orlando and beat Dade Christian (FL). All in all, Georgia went 7-5 against quality competition…

Well played…

Second thing I know…

Milestones a plenty moving forward…

Lowndes head coach Randy McPherson and Tucker head coach Franklin Stephens hit milestones with wins over Pebblebrook and SW DeKalb. McPherson hit the 100 win and Stephens got win 50 over the Panthers.

Alan Chadwick of Marist picked up win 291 in the War Eagles 44-6 win over Douglass and Rodney Walker of Mary Persons picked up win 294 in the Bulldogs 36-20 win over Jackson…

Two more moving closer to the magic 300-win number…

Third thing I know…

Congratulations to Ringgold head coach Robert Akins and the Tigers for their first win out of the box at their temporary home-away-from-home UTC’s Finley Stadium 34-10 over rival Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe. We’ve covered a lot of the steps in the city’s recovery since the April tornado that blew up the high school and a lot of the surrounding subdivision…

It’s just stage one of a long return back to a new normal…

Our friends at WTVC-TV, Darrell, Dave, and Nate have the highlights…

Fourth thing I know…

A lot of teams ranked in the top tens had some big tests coming out of the gate…

Wesleyan survived their game with Seminole County (which is a pack-a-lunch-and-dinner drive) 43-40, Clinch held off Pierce 14-13, Valdosta had to score 21 points in the final 13 minutes to come from behind to beat Brooks 21-13, St. Pius had to do the same in their 28-21 win over Westminster. Cairo was listed in some circles to be 40 points better than Drew, but it took a FG block and a defended 2-point conversion to win 7-6. Peach County had to drive the length of the field to beat Warner Robins by the same score. Collins Hill scored 21 unanswered to win at Roswell 24-21…

You see where I’m going here… no one seems safe in the first season…

Fifth thing I know…

Shameless self-promotion time…

Week Two of “Football Fridays in Georgia” is on GPB Friday night- pre-game starts a little before 8PM with Lambert traveling to the Arena and defending Quad-A champ Chattahoochee.

Sid Maxwell has moved on from Sequoyah to Lambert and went 8-3 in their first full season of varsity football. Terry Crowder has to defend in Quad-A with his top pitch-and-catch duo, Timmy Byerly and Kane Whitehurst (yes, of those Whitehursts), gone and otherwise graduated.

On the web side, the travel trailer heads to Grady Stadium for the Blessed Trinity-Grady battle. The Titans new head coach is not a new head coach. Tim McFarlin won a state title in 2006 with Roswell and he’s now in charge at BT.

Their pre-game starts at 5:20…

Be there, watch them both, get the iPhone app and be a part of the story on the best Football Friday show… bar none…

And I lost, maybe, ten pounds in the heat...

Oh, before I go...
Your question for the week... Who is making in-roads that surprise you after the first weekend...???
Let me know... and the best responses are in the next version of this grouping of paragraphs...

Play it safe, everyone, I’ll talk to you soon…