Because of some of the other duties I have when I’m not watching high school football during the week, I found myself flying to and from Orlando this weekend- which meant flying back to Atlanta Sunday…

September 11th…

And to say it was a bit surreal flying on the anniversary is understating it…

I didn’t lose anyone ten years ago, but my sister did. She knew people who worked in the Towers. She knew people who were working on getting people out of the Towers, and she knew people who were trying to track down the folks who were responsible. And watching the ceremonies while I was waiting to board my own flight just makes you heartsick all over again.

Security at the airport didn’t seem all that elevated- even though it was… but it did remind you how things are different. And it should…

My thoughts are with everyone involved in the past and the present…

Simply, never forget…

Now, onto the football…

As always, remember, this is in no particular order…

First thing… Georgia is still making inroads against teams in neighboring states…

I was doing the math and it was a week where while Georgia teams were 4-3, Buford beat Yulee ((FL)) 49-7, Valdosta beat Tallahassee-Lincoln 10-7, Lowndes beat Tallahassee-Leon 39-22, and Westminster beat Providence ((FL)) 28-21. And there was a lot of offense on the scoreboards…

Ten teams scored over 50 points, four scored over 60, and three scored 70 or more- Cairo and Heritage both scored 70 on the nose and Tucker scored 77 in their 44-point win over Carver-Atlanta. Yes, that’s right- the final was 77-33…

Once we get into region play, don’t look for all of this offense to repeat itself over-and-over again. But I will admit it’s interesting to see all of this happening early on…

Second thing…

Just which classification is the toughest right now…???

5A can make its case with McEachern and the teams from Region 1 to go with Camden County. Lowndes gets Burke County in a tough non-region test and more on Colquitt later down the page.

Quad-A has Tucker, Northside, Statesboro, The Branch, and Ware in the top 5 right now. Triple-A Sandy Creek, Burke, Peach, Pius, and Carrollton. A lot of people outside the top 5 are talking up Allatoona pretty hard. And consider where the school and its coaching staff were a year-and-a-half ago with all of the proposed budget cuts in Cobb County.

They’ve gone from not having much of a staff at all to being a top-ten team.

Double-A will be another one of those “north versus south” debates with Buford and Calhoun squaring off against everyone from Carver-Columbus to Brooks, Cook, and Fitzgerald. Remember what Region 1 did in the playoffs last season…? Look for another strong run from those teams into the third season.

And since Single-A starts with Region 2, Savannah Christian, and ELCA, it certainly won’t end there… ECI, WilCo, Wesleyan, and Marion County are all making statements early on…

This is already a fun year… and we’re just getting started…

Third thing…

Here’s a quick shout out to Head Coach David Bruce and Veterans High in Kathleen, just outside of Warner Robins…

It was a rough year for them in Year One of their varsity schedule going 2-8 beating only Central-Macon and West Laurens. This year, they’re 0-3, but the team is really competitive-just ask Peach County. Last year, in Veterans third game ever they lost 62-7. This year, they lost 14-7. This week, Coach Bruce plays the other tenant at Perry High School’s stadium- the home team- in a home game for the Panthers this Friday night…

Another shout out to our friends at Ringgold for their 14-7 win over Pickens County. Coach Akins and the Tigers are now 3-0 and host Cartersville at UTC’s Finley Stadium in Chattanooga Friday night.

Keep rolling…

Fourth thing…

The “Region of Doom” is already at it…

Region 2-A is one of the toughest tests all season long with Wilcox, Charlton, Clinch, Turner, and Lanier Counties all at it. Business has already picked up. Wilcox knocked off Clinch for the end of the Panthers 17-game win streak in Rochelle 33-20. The Patriots get Lanier this week and Clinch gets 3-0 Bacon County.

Expect these teams to beat each other up pretty good, but they’ll be ready for the post-season.

Fifth thing…

Shameless plug time…

The “Football Fridays in Georgia” crew will be at Hughes-Spalding Stadium at the Marist School for one of the coolest rivalries in all of Quad-A this week.

Southwest DeKalb takes on Marist in region 6 and two of the best men, who also happen to be coaches, are going at it one more time. Alan Chadwick is eight wins away from 300 in his career while Buck Godfrey has 260 over their combined 56 years of coaching on the sidelines.

There’s a lot of history between these two and the next chapter will go down a little before 8PM Friday night on GPB and gpb.org with Gil, Coach, Trey, Mark, Jackie, and myself…

The web side gets to travel down to the “International City,” Warner Robins, for the Demons home game with Region 1-5A rival Colquitt County. The Packers’ Rush Propst had a health scare in the off-season and brings the team at the top of the ladder up Interstate 75. His team was runner-up in 5A last year and they want a return to week 15.

Question of the Week: Go back to topic 2… Who has the toughest class so far this year…??? Best answers get into the mailbag next time around…

Play it safe, everyone… talk to you soon…