It has been a really wild off-season for Georgia high school football…

There’s been another classification added (we now have 7A with 8 title games in December at the Georgia Dome now) and another round of single-a playoffs added to give them action in the first playoff week alongside everyone else for the first time in a few years…

But, there’s been more to it… with 406 schools playing football in the state- we’ve gotten a few new ones coming to the party (Discovery and Fulton Leadership) and the turnover rate for high school coaches is pretty constant as 70 coaches had vacancies created and filled- about 18 percent.

One of the larger hires is with the winningest program ever in Valdosta. Alan Rodemaker takes over for Rance Gillespie- who moved on with Valdosta State head coach David Dean- to run the Wildcats program in 6A.

Yep, you read that right… The Cats are in 6A, not in the newest highest classification of 7A.

But the new classification has created some headaches when it comes to non-region scheduling. If there are four teams in a region (like the new 1-7A), not all four are guaranteed to make the post-season. The two lettered phrase “Power Rankings” comes into play at the top AND the bottom (Class A) with the public and private split of almost 90 schools.

With regions that small, schools have had to resort to REALLY long road trips to fill schedules. Tift, as an example, has to travel to Orlando. Greater Atlanta Christian has decided to take a game in Colorado. Camden County even plays their first three games in the state of Florida. I’m fairly sure that Head Coach Welton Coffey’s relationships in his old state of Florida came in REALLY handy.

Speaking of Camden County, their old coach Jeff Herron has a new job at Grayson. THEIR schedule is bordering the crazy- hosting IMG Academy, hosting Deerfield Beach of Florida, hosting Birmingham-Ramsay High of Alabama, and AT Hoover for their next to last game of the year in the regular season. They’re chasing that mythical “national title” if ever anyone was ever chasing that mythical national title…

So, Dear Reader… it’s that time… I have a question and I would like to make this a two-way conversation for 2016…

What’s the biggest change you have seen in this topsy-turvy off-season…???

Let us know here at GPB Sports however you do on social media these days… Facebook (on the GPB Sports page), Twitter (my handle is @OSGNelson for those of you who haven’t friended me yet and there's also the one at @GPBSports- so friend us both, won’t you…???) and whichever way is your favorite if I haven’t mentioned it yet.

The answers will be a part of our conversation next week!

Strap in, folks, this season should be a blast!

Reminder:

We’re doing something a little different for a few weeks in the schedule this year. For Weeks Zero, One, and Two, we will be doing a “Red Zone/Inside Edition” show with live look-ins all around the state at the games that are kicking off non-region schedules and getting folks ready for their new regions.
So, join Mark, Jackie, Sam Crenshaw, and myself- along with some very special guests- as we check in on all of you. We’ll also be Inside for the final week of the regular season as we all get to fill out our brackets in November and get ready for the playoffs…

So… it will be another fun year for all of us…

Play it safe, everyone… I’ll see you at the stadium…