This is a fun time of year…

For most folks, it’s the non-region part of the schedule where you challenge yourself against the best outside of your region and, in a lot of cases these days, some schools out of state.

It’s a different kind of challenge- and, probably, hard to judge on a local scale. But, at the same time, it’s a new way of getting ready for the “third season” -- the postseason.

Last week, as an example, Cedar Grove played Hewitt-Trussville out of Alabama and won in a 34-30 shootout. It was one of those opening-weekend, nationally-televised games that we see a lot of these days and Saints head coach Jermaine Smith caught up with Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye over at the GHSF Daily about it:

"It began because we were having a difficult time finding opponents. Then I realized that I could finally schedule who I wanted, so I used this opportunity to play teams out of state. I felt like it was an excellent opportunity for my guys to get better, get exposure and for me to see how my guys would respond."  

Other examples gave us mixed results last week.

Most notably, Colquitt knocked off Trinity Catholic (Mo.) 42-14. Marietta lost to Our Lady of Good Counsel (Mary.) 40-28. Lee County beat Dr. Phillips (Fla.) 35-3. Callaway beat traditional rival Opelika (Ala). Bartram Trail (Fla.) beat Brunswick. Wren (S.C.) beat Camden County. There were the Cam Newton Foundation games where Georgia teams played Alabama schools and Johns Creek traveled all the way to the Capitol District before losing to St. John’s.

Doing the math, Georgia teams were 9-8 and there are a handful of those match-ups this weekend as well. Five games even involve teams in the GPB Top Tens.

Cedar Grove's isaiah Ratcliff

So, other than the cool factor and all the novelty, WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN…???!!!

I decided to ask Jeff Fisher, the Major Domo of HSFB America, about where games like these place Georgia high school football within the U.S. high school landscape and where we can go from here.

“I covered the first one of these ‘interstate games’ back in 1986 -- when California school played a school from Pennsylvania,” Fisher admits. “In earnest, it’s been at least within the last 5-7 years where we’ve had a plethora of games like these.

“It’s interesting, having just come in California, the athletes are on par here and the play is in the top three states in the country,” he says. “And on any given year, it’ll interchange with No. 4 in the U.S. Having seen two weeks of football this year, I am definitely impressed with what I’ve seen and teams here are on par with the likes of a St. John Bosco and Mater Dei teams from the west coast. Play has been getting better here. I don’t know why, but it is getting better over the last little bit.”

Fisher has had the chance to see Marietta and Good Counsel last week up close and personal. Now, that he’s based here with HSFB America, he’s had his eye on his third-ranked state and all it has to show the rest of the country.

“I still think there’s a place for that old school 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense that Good Counsel had last week and they showed that against Marietta. I had a friend tell me about Cedar Grove before the season started and they were, around, No. 205 in my preseason algorithm. But, looking ahead, I am interested to see what happens this weekend with North Gwinnett and Wekiva (Fla.) and St. Joe’s and American Heritage, as well this weekend at the Freedom Bowl.” 

While Fisher enjoys the “who” when it comes to these early season games, he loves the “why?” The good teams couldn’t schedule games and, at the end of the day, this came out of something of a necessity. What we now have is a national variable for judging levels of competition -- and colleges from all around the country have another way to judge anyone that might be of interest. 

Finally, to add to the novelty and the coolness, I decided to ask Jeff if he was in charge of the schedules, what match-ups would he like to see?

Grayson lines up for coin flip

Here’s his list:

“I haven’t seen Grayson. But I have watched a lot of video. I would love to see a team like that go against either a team from the northeast or from out west- someone like St. Joseph’s Prep out of Philly -- where UGA running back D’Andre Swift came from. A team like Bergen Catholic from New Jersey is just as good and Grayson gets them this weekend.

“I liked what I saw with Buford -- an interesting match-up for them might be against Texas -- an Allen High School for them, perhaps. They have similar styles, but Texas brings a completely different rise out of it. Actually, I would love to see a Texas school come here to Georgia just to see how that would look. 

“Cedar Grove? Maybe, play a Mission Viejo team from California. They have similar styles, too, and I think it would be an interesting match-up.

“I was really impressed with what Colquitt did with McEachern. They are a talented ball club. Maybe I’m leaning on California just from my time there, but I’m thinking St. John Bosco. I think that’s a very neat match-up. I don’t have a style match for Lee County, but I would like to see them take on a team like Hoover. I love what Josh Niblett has done as head coach there. I love what they do to get ready for big ballgames and how they play in them.”

Okay, schedule-makers, get to it! These all sound like fun and I know a lot of folks that would love to see them in the first season of the year! 

One final thought, just so you know…

In Jeff’s algorithm, as a state, Georgia high school football last year was ranked at No. 4, but they were No. 3 in the 2018 preseason. His order was Texas, Florida, Georgia, and then California. It is the first time that Georgia appeared at No. 3 in that ranking. 

So, naturally, there’s a LOT to be proud of when it comes to the student-athletes that play on every Football Friday in Georgia (and Thursday and Saturday, too) … and it comes back at us for another fun weekend pretty quickly!

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