I’m looking forward to the return of Football Fridays in Georgia on GPB this Friday night and I hope you are too! Join me along with Jon Nelson, Sam Crenshaw, Tommy Palmer, Keisha Brown and Lisa Rayam as we keep you up-to-date on all the scores, highlights, recruiting news and big stories around the state every Friday night starting at 7:00 p.m. leading up to the state playoffs.

            Here’s my top two games of the week:  

1.     #9 Tift County at Parkview – The Blue Devils are flying high at 4-0 and coming off their first win at Valdosta since 1993.  This will be the fifth all-time meeting between the two programs with the Panthers leading the series 4-0 including a 21-7 win in the first-ever meeting which was the 1997 4A State Championship Game. That was the first of Parkview’s four all-time state titles over a six-year period. Last year Parkview was a 34-15 winner in Tifton. The Panthers are 2-1 this season with a 64-38 loss at #1 Lowndes two weeks ago after blowing out Peachtree Ridge and Shiloh in their first two games. Tift County Recruit Watch:  ESPN 3-Star WR Rashod Bateman committed to Minnesota and ESPN 3-star DE Andrew Johnson committed to Oregon. Parkview Recruit Watch: ESPN 3-Star WR Miles Marshall committed to Indiana and Junior Athlete Malik Washington whose offers include Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State.

1.     #1 Colquitt County at Brookwood – The Packers have started the season 4-0 after starting the 2016 season 0-4. Of course since that 0-4 start, Colquitt has won 12 of their last 13 games (only loss to eventual state champ Grayson in last year’s state quarter-finals) and before that 0-4 start the Packers had won 30 straight and back-to-back state championships. Yeah so it’s safe to say the Packers are back and this week pulled into a tie with Region 1 rival Lowndes atop the GPB 7A poll. The Packers current run of 12 wins in their last 13 games started last season with a 52-14 win over the Broncos and later included a 66-35 win over the Brookwood in the second round of the playoffs. This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two including the Broncos 52-38 win over the Packers in the 2010 5A State Championship Game. One other thing to watch for with this Colquitt team is their defense. Under the direction of new DC Mo Dixon, one of the state’s best, the Packers blanked Roswell 28-0 last week ending the Hornets’ state record streak of 221 games without being shutout.  Meantime Brookwood is off to a disappointing 1-2 start and have not played since beating South Gwinnett 35-7 two weeks ago after opening the season with an eight-point loss vs Archer in the Corky Kell Classic and then a seven-point defeat vs Walton.  I still think the Broncos have state Final Four potential.  Colquitt County Recruit Watch: ESPN 4-Star and nation’s #1 OLB J.J. Peterson whose top two are considered to be Alabama and Auburn; and sophomore RB Daijun Edwards who already has offers from Georgia and Tennessee. Brookwood Recruit Watch: ESPN 4-Star and nation’s #20 WR Matthew Hill who is committed to Auburn and ESPN 3-Star and nation’s #34 OT Casey Holman who is committed to Duke. 

Here’s a look at this week’s verbal commitments in the state of Georgia:

1.    Tucker DE Antonio Showers committed to Troy over 13 other offers including USF, App State and Tulane.

2.    Creekside RB Gino Appleberry committed to Western Kentucky over 17 other offers including Michigan State, App State and Fresno State.

Be sure to tune in Friday night. I am looking forward to starting my fourth season with GPB.