By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

            Earl Chambers didn’t necessarily talk very long, a little bit less than average for featured speakers at the Macon Touchdown Club.

This week’s honorees

Two schools are represented by this week’s Macon Touchdown Club players of the week, with the school getting the most attention-getting win Friday picking up two honors.

          Tattnall quarterback/defensive back Miles Morris is the back of the week after getting 10 tackles, a fumble recovery and an interception on defense, and throwing for a touchdown on offense in the loss to Lincoln County.

          Central sophomore Adam Lamar is the lineman of the week after racking up 12 tackles, five for loss, a sack and a forced fumble in the 14-6 loss to Southwest.

          Tattnall kicker Adam Musolf is the special teams player of the week after kicking two 30-yard field goals, going 2-for-2 on PATs, and three times pinning Lincoln County inside the 20 with punts.

            But no doubt more members and guests will be keeping up with LaGrange and its new head coach after the former Georgia defensive back was done.

            He tried immediately to get a head start on a former teammate, after four weeks of OrthoGeorgia players of the week were honored, since Monday was the first meeting but the season started almost a month ago.

            “As a matter of fact, I can do something Kirby Smart can’t do,” said Chambers, promoted after four years as defensive coordinator. “I’m gonna offer every one of you scholarships.”

            Chambers went on to explain that no, he couldn’t really do that because Division III LaGrange doesn’t offer athletics scholarships, and its academic standards are pretty high.

            He admitted he has little chance at somebody who has the 3.0 GPA and 1,000 SAT score and can actually play, let alone afford the $43,000 a year – minus financial aid – it costs at LaGrange.

            Despite those limitations, he has about 95 players on the team, which is below his recent norm of about 125 or so.

            “I heard you say ‘wow,’” he said at the reaction of having a large number of players. “Not all the guys can play football.”

            Chambers was a quarterback at Banneker, who was down to Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.

            Alabama head coach Gene Stallings wasn’t interested in him as a quarterback. Then he visited Tennessee.

            “I had a chance to meet Peyton Manning,” Chambers said. “He as a stud. ‘I knew my time if I went to Tennessee, it would be a long time before I go on the field.”

            Georgia head coach Ray Goff promised him a shot at quarterback, but Chambers couldn’t beat out Mike Bobo. Then Goff got fired, Chambers saw his quarterback dreams vanish, and moved to defensive back full-time.

            That worked out pretty well. His final season was 1999, the next-to-last year for Jim Donnan, and the Bulldogs went 5-6, 10-2, 9-3, and 8-4. Mark Richt hired Chambers as a defensive quality control assistant.

            “He was a huge inspiration to me coming up,” Chambers said. “He’s by far the most genuine person I’ve ever met.”

            Chambers learned from longtime Georgia defensive coach Rodney Garner, the lessons including learning how to coach the defensive line.

            Chambers, like Smart, spent a chunk of his career at Valdosta State under Chris Hatcher and then David Dean, with whom he won a pair of Division II national titles.

            Interestingly, Smart, Dean, and Hatcher will all speak at the Touchdown Club this fall. Chambers’ other former boss was Mickey Matthews, a Georgia assistant who went on to be head coach at James Madison, where Chambers worked for a year before joining the staff at LaGrange.

            Had JMU not gone 5-6 and the staff gotten fired …

            “The good thing that came out of being fired (was) I had a lot of time,” Chambers said. “I really got real good at cooking pancakes. I’ll tell you, my kids would rather have my pancakes than my wife’s.”

            LaGrange is a young program, its debut season in 2006. Chambers said he tends to recruit small-town kids rather than try to compete in Atlanta. LaGrange’s undergraduate enrollment is about 1,000 in a city of about 30,000.

            “Really nice buildings,” he said of the campus. “Real expensive buildings.”

            LaGrange, of the USA South Conference, is 0-2 with losses of six and 13 points. The Panthers have had four non-losing seasons, a 9-2 in 2008 with three 5-5s, and went 4-6 last year.

            Former Peach County standout and LaGrange alum Nick Searcy is a graduate assistant.

            Chambers was engaging from start to finish, and didn’t sound like somebody slobbering to escape Division III football. He noted how happy he and his wife were when he got promoted.

            The young ‘ns didn’t quite feel the same joy.

            “My 3-year-old looked at me and said, ‘When are we going swimming?’” Chambers said. “She didn’t get the memo.”