Football Fridays in Georgia: The 2022 Season is here and Dublin Celebrates a Major Milestone

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Jon Nelson:  Welcome to another round slash season of the weekly variety of the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast here at Georgia Public Broadcasting. Thanks for accessing us however, you are doing so in an audio form, a video form, on the YouTube channel on whatever your favorite podcaster is. Thanks for hanging out with us. Jon here, Hannah there. Behind the glass it is another season of Commander Sandy, King James, Jake the Snake. We are all here. We are ready to talk high school football because Hannah, we're in week zero.

Hannah Goodin: Happy week zero, everybody.

Jon Nelson: See, and that's the thing. You know, our dear friend Tommy Palmer and I would always get into the semantic argument.

Hannah Goodin: You and I have gotten into this argument.

Jon Nelson: But that's the thing.

Hannah Goodin: It's like I just said, it's week one.

Jon Nelson: But week zero is always week zero because it's the week before week one. One minus one is zero. Therefore, this is week zero. Okay. Even though this is the first week of competitive high school football games in the state of Georgia.

Hannah Goodin: And the first time that GPB in a long time…

Jon Nelson: Long time.

Hannah Goodin: has done a full season. So, we start this Friday, and we're going to preview our game at the end of the show.

Jon Nelson: And so, let's see, we have top ten that you want to get into. You wanted to get into the interviews involving 70 individuals.

Hannah Goodin: So, Jon went a little overboard, everybody.

Jon Nelson: No such thing. No such thing. Yeah, but think about it. 70 interviews mean we only caught up with, like, 16 or 17% of the state.

Hannah Goodin: That's incredible.

Jon Nelson: Over 400 schools in the GHSA, and we only caught up with 70.

Hannah Goodin: That's too many. That's too many. Because I'm editing all of these.

Jon Nelson: No such thing is too many.

Hannah Goodin: Oh, well, let's start with that. Let's start with that. You did the central—your yearly central swing and southern swing.

Jon Nelson: Year nine. Year nine now.

Hannah Goodin: Oh, we skipped one because of COVID.

Jon Nelson: True.

Hannah Goodin: That was sad.

Jon Nelson: But still, it's here. It's the ninth. I went back in my-I don't know, for. For those of you that have phones that do flashbacks with photographs and things, literally the last two weeks, my phone has been giving me flashbacks of photos of all of these schools that I visited over the last nine years. And I realize it was nine years until it I went back to the beginning, and they're like, Yeah, nine years ago.

Hannah Goodin: So, does the 70 coach. Interviews include my interviews from DeKalb County Media. Yes. Okay. So, 70 total, all media day. All day swings. Yes. Well, tell us what it was like on the road this year.

Jon Nelson: 971 miles, I think, on the southern swing.

Hannah Goodin: Where, what stops you?

Jon Nelson: You hit. Okay. Let me see if I can let me see if I can do this quickly on Southern, and I've got to reconstruct it in my head. Wilcox, Fitzgerald, Irwin, Tift, Colquitt Brooks, Lowndes, and Valdosta crashed Chris-Chris Beckham's radio show Monday night for the second year in a row, which is always fun. Day two is the Wiregrass. So that was Lanier, Coffee. Atkinson, Clinch, Pierce, Ware, Charlton, Camden. Glynn Academy, and Brunswick. Then, day three was Wayne, Long, with your buddy Mike Pfiester. The Blue Tide. Yeah, with a little whiskey. And we got into that discussion off camera about spelling. Lewis, Georgia. Richmond Hill. Then it was Savannah Country Day, Jenkins, Benedictine Calvary Day, Savannah Christian caught up with Jake Wallace at WTOC, then went to Vidalia, Dublin. And Holmes and Dublin is where our guest is coming from this week. But that was just southern swing.

Hannah Goodin: You look like you're thinking a little too hard. Are you? Do you need, like, a cold rag?

Jon Nelson: No, I need. No, I need caffeine. But that was southern swing. Okay. And then we did another one that when we did another 11 in Central plus the two segments that we got to cut with our friends from George's EMC's and Flynn Energies for future segments that are going to be running at halftime.

Hannah Goodin: That was Northside and Taylor County?

Jon Nelson: Right, and so that was the visit. Most of the Houston County schools, it started at Crawford, went to Peach, Perry, then it was Northside, Warner Robins, Houston County, Veterans, Jones, and then home. It was all of those schools in the Warner Robins area that were the ones that we caught up with to work our way back home and finished Jones County and had the best barbecue in the state of Georgia.

Hannah Goodin: I'm going to ask, what did you eat? Well, what was it? You can't hold out.

Jon Nelson: Why not?

Hannah Goodin: What was it?

Jon Nelson: Clinton barbecue outside of Gray in the town of Clinton? Just on your way to Jones camp.

Hannah Goodin: What did you order?

Jon Nelson: You order the barbecue. Hello?

Hannah Goodin: Well, yeah, but, like, did you get, like, the brisket, the burnt ends?

Jon Nelson: No, I got the sandwich. I got the barbeque.

Hannah Goodin: Just a pulled pork sandwich.

Jon Nelson: Sandwich from our friends at old Clinton barbecue.

Hannah Goodin: Burnt ends are my favorite.

Jon Nelson: I blame John T. Edge for that one.

Hannah Goodin: What fixings did you get?

Jon Nelson: What? What did I- oh, a double mac and cheese? And, what else did-and cornbread?

Hannah Goodin: Hmm.

Jon Nelson: So old Clinton barbecue in Gray, Georgia. Highly recommended. Yes. So that was. That was central and southern. That was what? That was how many. So, 11 plus tend to be 20-28.

Hannah Goodin: You're thinking way too hard, like.

Jon Nelson: Almost 40 I think it was over 40 interviews for Central and Southern this.

Hannah Goodin: Year. Okay. One more thing on this, and we're going to move on. Sure. What was a notable story or storyline or something a coach said? Like, what was the top memory from your swing?

Jon Nelson: See, there's no top memory. You can't do that.

Hannah Goodin: You can't do that. What was something most notable?

Jon Nelson: Well. Oh, here's something most notable in catching up with Maurice Freeman down at Brooks County. Got another container of his rub for the cookout.

Hannah Goodin: Definitely notable. Yes, it's notable.

Jon Nelson: That-that.

Hannah Goodin: Why didn't I get one? I still haven't gotten one.

Jon Nelson: So, Commander Sandy, this is what you do when you and Maurice actually said this. Maurice said that I'm the only person outside his family that has ever gotten his rub for his needs.

Hannah Goodin: Wow. That's a.. Sandy needs one. Yeah. And Jake and James.

Jon Nelson: Now you got to talk to Maurice about that. And Maurice came out. Maurice went up, and I was I told Maurice I was going to meet him at practice. And he comes out with this big container that's; literally, it's a foot tall, and it's about four or five inches thick with we went through that rub in about six months, and I told Maurice, I said, Maurice, you have to market this stuff. It is that good. And he goes, and he's laughing at me, and he's on his way to practice. He goes, maybe when I retire. That's when I'll do it.

Hannah Goodin: But you need to take that on.

Jon Nelson: The master... I'll market it for him, yes. But no. Maurice Freeman, Master Chef, no lie. That's another good.

Hannah Goodin: Thank you. To give me just a little sampling of this. All right. John, my husband John loves.

Jon Nelson: Not related yet.

Hannah Goodin: Different types of.

Jon Nelson: You. You will. You will.

Hannah Goodin: Completely and totally.

Jon Nelson: Fall out of your chair with Maurice. Guaranteed.

Hannah Goodin: Okay. Yeah. All right, let's head on to the preseason—top ten. The votes are in by our GPB Sports team. (Right). And let's see if we can work our way down to single-A.

SEE WHERE YOUR TEAM RANKS: in the first week of the 2022 GPB Sports Top 10 Rankings 

Jon Nelson: Because we have a guest coming up.

Hannah Goodin:  Roger Holmes.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, really? Let's see what happens.

Hannah Goodin: Let's start with 7A. The top team. Is Buford.

Jon Nelson: Right.

Hannah Goodin: The Wolves move up in the state's highest classification and try to embellish the school's winning legacy. Huh? Buford was playing class single-A football as recently as 2001. They've won 13 state titles since. Since then. One in each classification.

Jon Nelson: The beginning of time.

Hannah Goodin: And been runner up four times as the wolves move up the ladder. Buford has won three state championships under Coach Bryant Appling. That is the top team in 7A. Who else is on your-.

Jon Nelson: Region one. Region one is on my list.

Hannah Goodin: Okay.

Jon Nelson: Because of how new Region one looks and how you look at now, you've got Matt LeZotte in Richmond Hill in there. You've got Lowndes and Valdosta in the same region in Colquitt County. You've got three coaches who have ties to Rush Propst, Region one 7A.

Hannah Goodin: Okay, there you go, 6A, Hughes.

Jon Nelson: Yeah. For them.

Hannah Goodin: The Panthers have a lot to prove this season. They lost in Class 6A title game falling to Buford in the final seconds. Coach Daniel Williams returns a team that is loaded with talent and has a definite chip on its shoulder. In fact, Hughes could be the best all-around team in Georgia and was a unanimous choice to start the season as number one in 6A.

Jon Nelson: Yep, so I'll go to Lee County and a young Rome team. Those are my other two storylines in 6A. Off the top.

Hannah Goodin: 5A is Warner Robins. The Demons have been the dominant team for the last five seasons. In this classification, they've won the last two state championships and reached the final the previous three years. The record is an amazing 66 and eight over that time, Jon, number one in 5A.

Jon Nelson: Yep, and then I will look at Jones County. I'll look at Ware. I look at Creekside, Cartersville, and Calhoun brought to you by the letter C since we have to do that here in public broadcasting. 5A is brought to you by the letter C, c there you go.

Hannah Goodin: C. 4A is not a C. Benedictine. The Cadets have been the perennial contenders since Danny Britt arrived as a head coach in 2011. Last year's state championship was the third during that time, and the team has won at least eight games all but once.

Jon Nelson: Yes. So that means you're looking at folks like I'll give you one Trinity Christian coming all the way up from 1A. Yeah, 1A private to 4A. How does Trinity Christian work in their first year in Quad?

Hannah Goodin: Here's another C for you 3A. The Saints kept their machine rolling last year by going 12 and 3 and winning their fourth state championship. Since 2018, Cedar Grove has won 11 plus games in all but one season. That was that crazy 2020 COVID year, and that has been since 2015.

Jon Nelson: And say, you said it was brought to us by the letter C, I'll give you a couple of others, Crisp, Carver (Columbus), Carver (Atlanta), and Calvary Day. How about that?

Hannah Goodin: Love it. Love a good theme. 2A Eagles Landing Christian, the Chargers have been one of the most dominant teams in class 1A for the last decade, winning six state championships since 2012. No drop-off is foreseen by the voters who chose ELCA as the team to beat despite an elevation in classification and a brand-new head coach.

Jon Nelson: To give you another one, "to be the man you got to beat the man" brought to us by Ric Flair. One of the best orators of this era was Fitzgerald. What's Fitzgerald going to do for an encore?

Hannah Goodin: And, in class 1A Division one, Brooks County. The Trojans won the Class 1A public title last year and are the pick to take it all in the restructured format this fall. Brooks County has won double-digit games in eight of the last ten seasons, including last year's 12 and two campaigns.

Jon Nelson: Yep, you've got Rabun, you've got Irwin, you've got the region, the old region of doom has been split now. And so, when you look at Division two, you'll have some of those folks as well. And so, Schley County in Division two, you look at them, you look at Clinch, you look at some of the other folks. But yeah, the old region of doom now gets impact in two divisions in single-A. So, there you go. There's your wrap.

Hannah Goodin: Wrap. There is our wrap on the preseason top ten. And where does Dublin fall on that list?

Jon Nelson: Well, let's ask the guy coming up in just a little bit.

Hannah Goodin: Fighting Irish head coach, Roger Holmes, joins us now. And Coach, my first question for you. How has Summer been? How's the family? How's practice? How are you?

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Oh, I'm doing great. We got through spring practice and got my son married off this summer. Now, all of a sudden we find out there's a little one on the way.

Hannah Goodin: Oh, Congratulations!

Caption

Dublin High School head football coach Roger Holmes speaks to GPB Sports's Jon Nelson during his central and southern media tour in August of 2022

Credit: GPB Sports

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: I just found out that type of stuff, and a grandson of my youngest daughter, he started preschool today. So, everything on the family end is great. My wife's still living with me.

Hannah Goodin: That's a bonus.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Small miracles there. Our football team, we think, had a good summer. Our attendance as well. They've been a really good group to coach so far. They're, you know, they're attentive, they're showing up, and they're working. When Lord knows we got a long way to go, but we're excited to get the season started this week.

Jon Nelson: So what's more difficult, planning for a wedding or planning your summer schedule to get ready for 2022 to make sure everything's at a full song by the time you match the game one?

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: You know I'll stay out of the wedding planning. Is it- All that does is make sure they got it covered on the end of making it happen. But I will give you a quick, funny story my daughter got married in 2019. She comes to me, I don't know, back in the summer, and she says, “Dad, you know, we'd like to set a wedding date and these types of things.”

Jon Nelson: I know where this is going.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Oh, honey, I got news for you. If I were you, I wouldn't be scheduling it during a football season that may not be there.

Hannah Goodin: Uh huh.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: And she laughs. She said you'd be there. I said, No. I'm not sure I would. You know, I don't know that Friday night, I won't be at the game, not a wedding rehearsal. And she said, “well, when can we do it?” And that it was an open date week that we looked at, and I said, “I don't see any way I don't think we'll win a state championship, but if I were you, I would schedule it till after the state championship.” So, she got the last weekend in December, and lo and behold. We were able to go there and win the state championship.

Hannah Goodin: I was going to say 2019. I got that. I've got that year circled.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: That's a true story.

Jon Nelson: Well, and true story is that I'm the same way. Is that with the Boss being an alum of a Southeastern Conference school? Right. There was no way that it was going to be. We got engaged on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. And so, our thought was, okay, do we do it in the summer or do we do it? Do we wait a year and do it after? Because there's no way during football season. No way.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Yeah.

Jon Nelson: With a Southeastern Conference fiancé slash going it soon-to-be wife. No way. So yeah. So, we waited two weeks after you and did it. We did it the second week of January.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Right. And you know, and it's hard. That's what a lot of people don't understand in coaching and those types of things. I'm-I think I'm in year 41 or 42. Our whole life schedule is revolved around what goes on with football from June to December but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Jon Nelson: So, you after reclassification, all the dust settled, you're now in region two 1A, you're in Division one, and you're in one of those mini regions with Bleckley and East Laurens and Jeffco and Swainsboro. How difficult was it to schedule your non-region stuff knowing that you're in a mini region which is a four-game sprint?

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Well, it was a little bit tough. Now, obviously, what you get into, Jon, when we talk about our schedule, it wasn't as hard as you may think. A lot of times on the schedule in here, when you exit round one in the playoffs, people are filling the job, you know, when you go to the semifinals or whatever, a little bit different.

Jon Nelson: They don't pick up the phone.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: They don't call you. You have to call them. But we've got we're going to open the season with Wilkinson County. That was a buyout game. Yeah. So, they'll come here two years in a row. And then we've got Lamar County, which touts a Georgia commit number three linebacker in the country, a Super 11 player, tremendous team—knowing that coaching staff up there for a long time. As a matter of fact, Gary Morton, offensive coordinator, used to be the head coach at East Laurens, and then he worked with us for several years. So, Gary's up there, and then we've got ECI. We've played them a few times since we've been here, and ECI called us, I think, looking for a game. So that tells you they're pretty loaded. We've got Metter, which was a state semifinal football team last year. They were they were one of those teams, I'm sure, that was having a real hard time getting a schedule. Yep, and then, you know, a game, a non-region game I think is really pretty neat is Charlton County will be coming to Dublin on September 30th, and the last time we played Charlton County, and Dublin was the tie, the state championship game in 2006. And all we can promise everybody is there won't be a tie this year. And then we've got Dooly County. It was a game that we thought we had dodged. We thought we had it worked out and our day that they didn't coexist. So, we were able to pick up Dooley, who beat us last year. Yeah. So, we think we've got not only a good region schedule but a phenomenal non-region schedule. When I look this morning, I think five of the teams on our schedule are ranked in the top ten in their classification.

Hannah Goodin: Wow. Well, you're heading into your 21st season at Dublin. We talked about the championships and 2019 and 2006, and I know every single team is different. So, what is this year's team spark? What makes this year's team special to you?

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Well, as I mentioned earlier, their attitude and desire to go out and practice has really been good. Last week for us, I feel like could have been our best week of overall practice in years. I'm hung out all five days, you know, it was really good. I think a lot of that needs to be attributed to the group of assistant coaches that we've been able to bring in this year. And our kids really like them. They've got a good rapport with them, they coach them hard, and our young men are responding. So, we're very excited in our system. You know, we are one based, and in it, a huge part of that depends on your offensive guards. You know, those guys that the offensive guards are the most important thing. All our football team is not the quarterback. It's not running backs. It's an offensive line. And especially those guards. And we've got two of the best that I've had in my in all my career as far as two of them together. And there's Gilbert and Ramontei Dardy. So, there is a great nucleus to start from.

Jon Nelson: And with this next game that you're going to be having there at the Shamrock Bowl, and this will be the next couple of minutes here, you hit a couple of milestones, which I think are really, really cool when it comes to the Dublin program. You've got as you've got a zero-date coming up.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Yeah, it's, you know, we got to look at last year, and obviously, I think somebody really adjusted the Georgia Football Historians website, but all the information we came out of last year, we knew this was the 100th season of football in Dublin's history. Now I think they had a team 103 years ago, but there was a period of three seasons when they did not play football. So, this is the 100th year of football in Dublin, and they always got to look at it as the thousandth game in our opening game, and for that to actually fall that way was very, very unique. And the history and tradition of football in Dublin has been very, very strong, and our administration and the people in the town are going to do a big celebration. There is actually going to be a pep rally with the school and the school system involved on Friday morning-finishing with we’ll have the game and then finish with a huge firework show after the game just to celebrate that type of commitment in history to Dublin football.

Hannah Goodin: I'm on the historian website, and it looks like there are three years, 1928, 1929, 1930, that there were no games played. But the very first season was 1919. W.J. Boswell was the head coach in the Fighting Irish went three and two that year. Scored 151 points.

Jon Nelson: There's no truth to the rumor that I covered that game. Yeah. There's no truth to the rumor that I know Coach Boswell.

Hannah Goodin: No, it was on GPB, right? You were-that you were the sideline reporter, Jon.

Jon Nelson: Exactly.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: It was still there. I got you. But you know, that's unique. I think when I've looked up the history guys and 30 schools prior to this year that has played 100 years of football in the state of Georgia this year, there are three of us. It's Dublin, Mitchell County, and Lafayette is all having their 100th year of football this year, and it is hard to have a thousand games in 100 years at the same time.

Jon Nelson: And the other part of the fabric of all of this has been the Shamrock Bowl. And, I mean, it's one of the great venues. And I would recommend, if you haven't ever been to the Shamrock Bowl to watch a game, it is a special environment, and there have been some renovations over the last handful of years. And right now, it is gorgeous for someone who's never been to the Shamrock Bowl to see a game. Can you break down what the Shamrock Bowl is that adds to the fabric of Dublin football?

Hannah Goodin: Sparkling. Yeah.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Yeah. It's pretty neat in the fact that I don't necessarily like it as a coach because the stands are really close. I mean, the fans want to be almost right out on the field. They're right down on top of you. So, you know, when things aren't going good, you get to hear a lot of extra help from the coaches on the sideline or off the sideline. But it was built in a bowl. Okay. And I think the thing that makes it very, very unique. The Shamrock Bowl was a vision of some non-school personnel. It was just people out in the community. They went design their plans, borrowed the money personally from banks, paid back 15, $25 a pop, you know, a month or whatever, back in 1961. And Dublin played their first games in the Shamrock Bowl in '62. Another interesting fact about the Shamrock Bowl is when Eric Russell went down to revive the program at Georgia Southern, their first game that they played, which was an intrasquad game, was played here in the Shamrock.

Jon Nelson: Very cool.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: It's floated around here for years. Coach Russell is on a knee on the 50-yard line with the scoreboard and everything behind. But in 2006, we renovated the stadium with our new field house up top and put a Jumbotron in and some chair back seating and all that type thing. And then this past year, our superintendent comes in and says, "Coach, we want to put Shamrock Bowl on turf." He'd been telling me for two or three years that he wanted to do it. I told him, "We better." He said, "I'll do it for you." I said, "You better hurry." So, he shows up in, I guess, late April, two years ago and says, hey, we're ready to try to put the Shamrock Bowl on turf. I said, well, get our people in here this summer and let them get everything they can get planned. He said, "Nah, Coach, I want to play on it next year." So, we scrambled and got a beautiful-looking turf at the stadium. And everything is-is just prideful about the Shamrock Bowl when it comes to Dublin, Georgia.

Jon Nelson: What attracted you to the job in the first place?

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Yes, the true story of this deal now was there a newspaper article that had come out probably 26 years ago now, 27 years ago in the AJC, and it was called Pay Dirt. And it was talking about the salaries that coaches made as well as the teaching pay. Well, I've been 19 years in the state of Tennessee, and my coach salary was $4,000. And I've been a head coach for 11 years in the largest classification. And, I'm saying how in the world, if I'm going to pay for my kids to go to college and everything else. So, I went through a run there and looked at how five years. Or I came down and interviewed during that time, some of the multiple interviews over a four-year period. I interviewed for 14 different schools. I got to the final group, I guess you could say, a lot of times, but ever got invited to the prom? So really, what happened? I had a friend of mine call me Dublin, Georgia. Sam Bars had eft, and they hired a guy from Florida who came in. And the second day of spring practice, they had 11 kids show up. He came and put his keys on the desk and told the principal. He wasn't coming back. So now, it's in May. So, I actually got the job in June, but he called and told me I ought to look into it. So, I sent him a resume. And lo and behold, the first year here, we played for a state championship, and we lose it to Screven County. But I tell people all the time. Dublin would have never hired me in mid-June, and somebody else would have taken the job I was crazy enough to take. So, it's worked out great.

Hannah Goodin: Yeah. Four years later, you win a championship.          

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Timing is everything. Timing is everything.

Hannah Goodin: Very cool. So, this is a great one. I love hearing these stories. I could do this all day, Jon and Coach Holmes.

Jon Nelson: Right, but okay, so full disclosure. Okay, coach, you want it you want to do the introduction here? Because I've hidden something from Hannah. So, do you want to you want to go ahead and do the intro to this?

Caption

Jon and Hannah hold up the commemorative jersey for Dublin's 100th year and 1000th game celebration this Friday

Credit: GPB Sports

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Well, Hannah, what we've done is we ordered our player spirit packs and things for this year. Okay. Okay. And it has on the spirit pack. We have our 100 games. 1000 your logo. Okay. A number on the back is 22 to represent the year. And we wanted to make sure to present you and Jon with one of our team shirts.

Hannah Goodin: Oh my gosh, that is so cool. Okay. For people who are just listening and not watching the video.

Jon Nelson: You're going to have to watch the video now.

Hannah Goodin: It's a-it's a jersey with a green and gold Dublin and football in the front with the Fighting Irish logo. A thousand and a hundred in the top right corner. Turn it around, John.

Jon Nelson: Right. Turning it around. Here's a back.

Hannah Goodin: And just like Coach Holmes said, Irish at the top number 22. This is so awesome. Thank you, coach.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Well, you're welcome. And we appreciate everything that you guys do. Seriously, in supporting high school football and high school sports in general, there at GPB.

Jon Nelson: When I think you've rendered, I think you've rendered Hannah speechless for the first time in the history of the show.

Hannah Goodin: But then I've got nothing, as Jon would say. This is awesome. Thank you so much.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: You know, I mean, it's-it's a small token of our appreciation for what you've done. And now, when you when you talk about the Irish goals or whatever, you can feel a little bit of it.

Hannah Goodin: Yes, yes.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: Obviously, with this tough schedule we've got coming up. So, if it's not going too good, you could find a way to make it sound better. How's that?

Hannah Goodin: Always, coach. Always and forever from here on out.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: I got you, girl.

Jon Nelson: Well, Roger, thanks for hanging out with us, and thanks for letting everybody know about the thousand and the hundred and the season and you guys going back into single-A and all that kind of stuff. Great to catch up with you, my friend, when we were on the road last week. Great to catch up with you now this week, and we'll be keeping an eye on that thousand games coming up this Friday night. Thanks for hanging out with us on the show.

Roger Holmes, Dublin Head Coach: That's awesome, guys. Thank you.

Hannah Goodin: Thank you. I'm going to call that the Shamrock Storytime.

Jon Nelson: Shamrock Storytime.

Hannah Goodin: With Coach Holmes.

Jon Nelson: Oh, I'll bet he's a great storyteller. I love it. And the stories are true. I mean, it's like, this is no spinning of yarns or anything like that. This was legit stuff about football in central Georgia and what it means. And it's great to have folks like Roger Holmes, who are great ambassadors of high school football, not just here in the state of Georgia. I mean, Roger runs the Delaware wing team, and it is one of the most disciplined offenses that you have to run. I mean, legitimately, it is dive deep pitch. It is assignment football. And you know, he mentioned the guards in the interview. You got to have.

Hannah Goodin: Most important.

Jon Nelson: Offensive linemen who are right on task for a full 60 minutes or a full 48 minutes, that's you've got to be locked in. And he's got Joel Ingram, who came over from Washington County, now helping him out on the line. So, you've got a guy who is in the trenches and learned from Rick Tomberlin, coached at Washington County for a long time. He's got Joel Ingram now as one of his coaches to coach on the line. And when you have it Roger does clinics around the country for the Delaware wing team. That's how successful he is in running this offense. That is a pain in you know what for everybody to defend, and he runs it the way that he does, and the results speak for themselves.

Hannah Goodin: Record it at that. Dublin definitely speaks for itself. Well, the Fighting Irish will play Wilkinson County this Friday at the Shamrock Bowl. And, we've got Denmark at Roswell, our first Football Fridays in Georgia game of the week on Friday at 7:30 kickoff. I'm in the studio. Jon's on the sideline. Matt and Wayne are in the studio still for the regular season.

Jon Nelson: Yeah.

Hannah Goodin: TBD on where they'll be at for the championships but preview this one for us. Jon, what are your top storylines?

Jon Nelson: Top storyline is obviously Roswell and the tragic loss of Robbie Roper, at quarterback. And you know, he was down, was down on vacation. I think he had just gone to visit the University of Florida. Lost to us entirely too soon. And so, the mantra this year at Roswell is ‘live like five.’ And so, when we go to Ray Manus stadium, you're going to see you're going to see the stickers. You're going to see you probably see five hands, but you'll see what folks mean. And we talk about communities with Dublin, and now we're going to be there in Roswell, and we'll see really what it means to live like five for an entire season with Chris Pruitt, the head coach of Roswell. And, it'll be their first game, their first home game, obviously, since what happened in the off-season. So we'll be there for a very emotional night up there in Roswell against an up-and-coming Denmark team who's got one of the largest offensive linemen on this or any other planet who is heading, I believe, to the University of Tennessee. And it's a great story, and we'll tell that one to you on a Recruiting 2022, and we'll focus on it on Friday night as well.

Hannah Goodin: That Sham Umarov, I'm actually interviewing him this week for Recruiting 2022. So, he's like.

Jon Nelson: 6’ 7” and.

Hannah Goodin: Almost 6' 7" and 338 pounds.

Jon Nelson: And it is.

Hannah Goodin: In an athletic.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, it's not it's not something where it's like you're 6' 7" 338.

Hannah Goodin: And he can move.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, dude can go from one end to the other end of the line of scrimmage very, very quickly. It's a great story, and I'm glad that you're catching up with Sham for our 22.

Hannah Goodin: Yeah, yeah. Really looking forward to talking with him. Yeah. Let's go through what else we've got coming up, guys. So, we also have something new this year. We have two new things new this year. Yeah, we've already talked about flag football that will start October 13th and go every single Thursday through the championships. Can't wait for that. We also have a streaming game every Friday

Jon Nelson: A screen experience

Hannah Goodin: and Jon is calling it the second screen screenings.

Jon Nelson: Make sure that you have every device in your house charged up at 130% because you're going to have our game. If you're not at our game, you're going to have our game up on like a TV on one monitor, and then you're going to have your other device, maybe your laptop or something, or maybe you've got another television is just as big, and we'll have a second game streamed. And when we know what those games are on a weekly basis, we'll let you know. But we'll have the Football Fridays in Georgia game of the week up on GPB.org, in the sports app and all those other places, but we'll have a second game streamed. It's almost like a live look-in situation for all the important other games that are around the state this week.

Hannah Goodin: Yeah, every week, we'll be able to announce that game here, but right now, we are still working that one out. Countdown to Kickoff starts this Thursday. Facebook live at noon in our brand-new set.

Jon Nelson: What's for lunch?

Hannah Goodin: Third year, third set. Hey, you guys need to tune in to check out.

Jon Nelson: We have some new friends that we're going to introduce on Thursday.

Hannah Goodin: Friends? New helmets. Yeah, some new graphics. So that's going to be awesome. As always. That's our preview and recap. Show that Jon and I do every week, Recruiting 2022 on Friday, blogs are coming out, and finally, of course, follow us on social media at GPB Sports for something new. Yeah, if you are into the TikTok world.

Jon Nelson: We are into the TikTok now.

Hannah Goodin: We're doing a new TikTok challenge. So, for more information on that, follow us at GPB Sports.

Jon Nelson: On the TikTok?

Hannah Goodin: Yes, TikTok some more. Sub-some-more-

Jon Nelson: Submit more.

Hannah Goodin: Submit your videos.

Jon Nelson: Submit your videos.

Hannah Goodin: Yes.

Jon Nelson: Okay. Just checking.

Hannah Goodin: More to come on that.

Jon Nelson: Yes. But now that we're on the TikTok, we're like in the 21st century or something.

Hannah Goodin: Jon is on the GPB Sports TikTok.

Jon Nelson: They said here, do this. It's going on the TikTok. And. I'm like, okay.

Hannah Goodin: You're on TikTok, Jon.

Jon Nelson: I know, but so does this mean I have to download? TikTok is an app.

Hannah Goodin: Yes, safe to download TikTok and follow us.

Jon Nelson: Okay.

Hannah Goodin: And you're on there.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, that's-.

Hannah Goodin: And you're going to go viral.

Jon Nelson: I was going to say you want to talk fish out of watch me on a TikTok. Me on TikTok, that's definitely fish out of water there.

Hannah Goodin: I think you did great.

Jon Nelson: Okay. I'll take your word for it. I have no earthly idea what-what you're supposed to do on it.

Hannah Goodin: For everybody wants to see Jon on TikTok. Go look now. Yes.

Jon Nelson: And for the four of you that do that. Thank you.

Hannah Goodin: Oh, man.

Jon Nelson: To see you. See, you're leaving with stuff today.

Hannah Goodin: I'm leaving the stuff and a jab at Jon.

Jon Nelson: What else is new? You see? Yeah. See, I thought you. I thought you were big there.

Hannah Goodin: Okay. All right, Jon. That's all we got send. Send us home.

Jon Nelson: I think I can do that for another round with Commander Sandy, another round with King James, and another round with Jake the Snake. Thanks for hanging out with us on the Football Fridays in Georgiapodcast. Don't forget to subscribe, lock into your notifications on your favorite podcast, your GPB, GPB.org, the GPB Sports app. Those of us here at Georgia Public Broadcasting, we are off and running out of the starter's blocks for week zero and everything between now and the middle of December when it comes to everything, high school football, thanks to Roger Holmes and everybody down at Dublin High School—looking forward to Game 1000 in year 100. Great to catch up with him as our anchor leg this week here at Georgia Public Broadcasting. For everybody here at GPB, I'm just Jon. Play it safe, everybody. Enjoy your games.

Hannah Goodin: Happy football season, y'all.