Welcome to Season Three!

We’ve gone from north of 400 schools to the 255 that are chasing titles in all eight classifications Once again, I think my math is right and no one told me there was going to be math in this column...

I wanted to check in with some region champs and find out about their seasons -- going all the way back to the summer (or even sooner) and finding about their paths to the postseason.

First stop is Adairsville and first-year head coach Jon Cudd...

adairsville

Adairsville beat Coahulla Creek 48-33 to complete a 9-1 season and win the region title.

Credit: Adairsville Athletics Facebook

Cudd was the long time defensive coordinator alongside Eric Bishop and is now the guy in charge in 2022. By the end of the season, the Tigers were Region 6-3A champs and picked up a region title for the first time in over two decades. They get Douglass this weekend in Round One.

“I thought we had a strong group this season coming in,” Coach Cudd tells me. “We added a couple of coaches to our staff and I thought we had a good chance to win the region. But, we had to replace nine starters on defense while we had 10 of our 11 starters back on offense. Triple-A football, in general, is so tough. But I thought we could compete- even if we lost 90 percent of our tackles from last season.”

Admittedly, Adairsville took its lumps early in their non-region schedule with a lot of sophomores starting. They gave up 50 points in an overtime win over Cherokee Bluff and gave up 72 in a 72-36 shootout with Rabun County in Week 2.

“It was extremely hard to piece together the non-region schedule,” Cudd admits. “We reclassed and schools moved around in triple, double, and single-A. We had to talk to a lot of people since there were some schools that didn’t want to play us. We actually had a list of tiers that included folks that we thought would be willing to play us -- and that was part of that last tier. If you’re a 6A school, you don’t want to schedule a 3A school- especially if that 3A school beats you.

“But in Cherokee Bluff, they’re a good 4A school and they were a good measuring stick for us. Rabun, we knew, with their success. And we had a bit of a history with Coach Davis because of his time at Calhoun. They were another good measuring stick for us, too. In Cass, they’re ten miles away from us and they were a good team, too, and we got to have both sets of fans there as well.”

Coach Cudd knew his team was a good offensive team but with the non-region schedule, he admits they grew up on defense.

“We came back after those first two games and circled the wagons,” he admits. “We put some folks in different positions and only gave up 12 points to Cass. We got to the football better and that game gave us a lot of confidence.

Adairsville had a region game early on (Week 2) against Ringgold (who Cudd says, separately, are a very tough team and have been blowing folks out ever since) and it was a surprise blowout, 49-10. The Tigers have been posting numbers regularly in the 40’s ever since, save the game with Bremen they won 14-7, but he had the chance to regroup for the playoffs with a bye week last week.

“With Douglass, you can’t look at their results,” he says. “Their region has Cedar Grove, Sandy Creek, and Carver-Atlanta -- one of the most competitive regions out there. Coach Pritchett is doing a good job and we just have to keep everything in front of us to win the football game.”

Lamar County
Credit: Lamar County has a deep group of backs who total 250 yards per game on the ground.

In Barnesville, Lamar County got reclassified to a Class A school and won the sprint of Region 4. It was three region games and having to navigate the seven non-region games before all that.

“At the end of last year, with the last regular season game and the off-season, I knew we had a good nucleus of coaches and kids for this season,” head coach Travis Ellington says. “In the summer, we had great participation. We had some question marks -- kids who graduated and things like that. We had to fill some spots in the O-Line and with some defensive backs. But they all bought into our core values for this year.”

For Ellington and Lamar, the schedule fell victim to reclassification and then it changed again once they were settled. In his region meeting, the tenth game had been confirmed via text going in and was lost going out. But the main quest for the Lamar County schedule was trying to find quality and different styles on offense and defense to prepare for region and playoffs.

“Wilcox County … they're good! Upson-Lee gave us a great game. In Dublin, they have coach Roger Holmes -- one of the people I look up to and they run the wing-T offense. We were fortunate to win that one in overtime.” Add to that Manchester, Jackson, their only loss to Social Circle, and Pike County and they finally got to region play on Oct. 14.

October 14th... I’m putting that back in for emphasis...

“In region play, I learned that you gotta stay healthy, and keep the kids fresh and focused,” Ellington says. “In mid-to-late October, you can lose your focus. But the team got dialed back in after the Social Circle loss. They understood what we’re trying to accomplish here. “

Sidebar: Pat Spurgeon, the kicking coach at Georgia Southern under Erk Russell, had a quote from his high school coach that was adopted in Statesboro. Spurgeon’s coach always had the philosophy of the team getting better as the season went along. The word on that coach and Russell’s Eagles was that “you better beat him before the frost gets on the pumpkin.”   

Lamar

Junior C.J. Allen has rushed for more than 1,100 yards.

Credit: Barnesville Herald-Gazette

Same for Ellington ... now with Claxton coming to town...

“I’m a creature of habit,” he admits. “You don’t want to waver from your routine. We’ll watch film, get our mental reps in, and pay attention to the details. John Reid was always a coach who wanted to be good in all three phases of the game. I picked that up from him.”

That third phase -- special teams -- helped Lamar last week on their road to securing the region title.

“Claxton has some fast kids,” he admits. And he recalled to me his time in that region seeing Claxton performing well at the track meets there. They’re coached by Greg Hill, who you may remember with his time at QB at Southern and as head coach at Bradwell Institute. Study hall for Lamar has a lot of anticipation of wishbone (with play action).

“We will have to be lined up right all night and know our assignments on defense. We're a Wing-T team as well so some of our study of them carries over to what we do ourselves. But they’re a different animal in the power game with their option.”

So, welcome to Round One in Adairsville and Barnesville everyone...

Coach Ellington reminded me of a meal at Buckner’s I need to dive into next time I’m in town...

Play it safe, everyone... I’ll see you soon...