It came as quite a shock to me when I realized that we prep sports fans and the teams involved across Georgia have reached the midpoint in the 2018 football season. As a matter of fact, some teams have already played six -- count them if you must – yes, that’s six regular season games.

 The state’s No. 1-ranked team in Class 7A, the Colquitt County Packers, fresh off of 26-14 win over highly-regarded Grayson, will have played seven regular season games this season before the end of September, after welcoming Alcovy to the “Hog Pen” for a homecoming match this Friday night.

The 2018 season debuted on Aug, 16 this year and will not end until eight champions are crowned on Dec. 7-8 in the palatial Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It is a difficult road to travel, this 17-week journey to a hoped-for title. 

As is always the case, there are several familiar faces at the top of their respective regions at this point, but there are some new faces that are sending signals of a new regime is blossoming in all classifications. The familiar faces: Colquitt County (6-0), Walton (5-0), Hillgrove (5-0), Archer (4-1) and North Cobb (5-0). The new 7A faces: North Paulding (5-0), Meadowcreek (5-0), Wheeler (5-0), and Forsyth Central (4-1).

There is also the return of a few dominant teams from the no-too-distant past in Class 7A, who are once again making noise in the region standings. Camden County from Region 1 and Roswell from Region 4 are both 4-1.

Wheeler High School

Class 6A is loaded with familiar powers such as Lee County (5-0), and Coffee (6-0) from Region 1, Harrison (6-0) from Region 5, but there are two surprising unbeaten teams from Region 5 who will square off this week in the GPB-TV game of the week. Creekview (5-0) will host unbeaten Sequoyah (4-0) in a Cherokee County showdown. The All-Access Pass kicks things off at 7 p.m. and the game action begins at 730 p.m.

There are several other teams in all classifications who are surprising their region counterparts with fast starts to the season. In Class 5A Veterans, is 6-0, Riverdale and Thomas County Central are both 4-1, and it’s no surprise that the two-time defending 5A Champions, the Rome Wolves are unbeaten at 5-0, while Buford is 3-2 after playing a difficult early season schedule.

Carver-Columbus, is 5-0 in Class 4A. Eastside is 4-0, Richmond Academy is 5-0, Pickens is 5-0, while newcomer Denmark is a surprising 4-1 in their debut season. Pierce County and Southeast Bulloch are the surprise teams in 3A. The Bears from Blackshear are 5-0, while the Yellow Jackets from Brooklet are 4-0 heading into this week’s action.

In Class 2A Rockmart is 5-0, Union County is 5-0, Douglas is 5-0, while down in the southern portion of the state, Berrien and Early County are both 4-1, heading into that always-tough Region 1-2A schedule.  In Class A, Pelham (5-0) and Mitchell County (4-1) are both off to strong starts in Region 1.

In action this week as we head into the second half of the 2018 campaign other than the Sequoyah-Creekview game on GPB-TV, there are some great matchups. Glynn Academy is at Camden County, Woodland-Stockbridge is at Dutchtown, Cedar Shoals plays at Clarke Central and Lee County travels to the “Brickyard” to play Thomson.