Monday Morning Quarterback: Central Georgia polls; who's going to make the playoffs?; and more

September 2, 2019 Central Georgia Sports Report

Central Georgia polls

As time goes on, preseason polls seem less relevant – college fans have been bellyaching about ‘em for a decade or so now - and it seems to make more sense for the first poll of the year to wait until everybody has played a game, moreso in high school where information is much more scarce.

And especially when a good chunk of those idle the first week will be ranked, and when a rankable team’s first game is against another rankable team.

And again employing logic (as well as thought), The Sports Report is splitting polls, into Division I (6A, 5A, and 4A) with five teams and Division II (3A, 2A, A, and GISA) with 10 teams.

Class A is trending weak again, and it may force a mid-season decision to drop Division II to five teams. Well, then again, Class AA is pretty strong, and there’s one GISA team likely to again merit a Division II top-10 spot pretty regularly.

A new item: every three weeks, an overall top 10. And this year, Division II teams are more likely to appear than in the past. Right now, the trifecta of Peach County, Dublin and Washington County would have a spot on an overall top 10.

And get ready: Peach County may be the No. 1 overall team for a good, long while this season.

Division I

1. Jones County

As expected, the transition to a new coaching staff has been minimal. Note: the first shutout in awhile came last week.

2. Warner Robins

Each team is different every year, but the Demons so far have been up to the task of adjusting to a coaching change, about as well as Jones County. And the change at Warner Robins was moderately drastic compared to that at Jones County, combined with new player personnel.

3. Northside

The Eagles have lost to Peach County two times in a row. Last year, Northside then muddled its way through the regular season before the stunning postseason run. Expect quicker improvements this time, but the Eagles do have to take a step up in the passing, one they didn’t necessarily take last year.

4. Veterans

Two games, and the Warhawks have outscored opponents 76-23. A year ago, the 2-0 Warhawks had outscored opponents 80-21. Sure, it’s early, but some consistency for a growing program is huge.

5. Houston County

Progress has been the key for the Bears, and they’ve taken among the bigger steps in the area, with some general numbers fairly similar to a few years ago when there was a high level of talent. The schedule isn’t as strong as then, but transfers and coaching moves punched the program, and the Bears look like they should, now with some roster stability.

Division II

1. Peach County

Many Trojans – well, mostly people over 17 – started slobbering over Lee County’s impending visit before the team buses passed the Galleria on Watson heading home Saturday night. Failing to score for the final three quarters in a quality win over Northside at The Mac? May have been part of a plan.

2. Dublin

Not the best time for a week off. Just means the Irish will be antsy this week.

3. Washington County

Winning at Jefferson County and finishing on the road are pretty good.

4. Dodge County

The Indians were off, too. Just means they’ll, well, you know.

5. Westside

Defense was going to be an issue entering the season, and Friday backed that up, the Seminoles giving up 48 at home to a team that failed to crack double digits five times last year, with three shutouts.

6. Lamar County

The Trojans started 2-1 last year, and have solidly avenged that loss. Lamar County can’t look ahead, but we can, and there’s a shot at a 5-0 or 6-0 start.

7. Mount de Sales

The defense is off to another nice start, and the passing game is off to a better start. The Cavs have some balance, and have outscored the first two opponents 75-18, compared to 49-26 last year.

8. Tattnall

There’s no thumping by Dublin to deal with, as opposed to a year ago. The Trojans, even with Friday off, have some momentum.

9. Rutland

Yes, Rutland. Yes, after only one game. The Hurricanes played what has become an un-Hurricane-like game. They were business-like, didn’t get cocky at halftime, didn’t let Hawkinsville back in the game, didn’t hurt themselves with dumb penalties. Those are massive signs of progress.

10. John Milledge

Repping the GISA is a team that has a few college prospects, some balance, and has more talent than people think, like RB Amaad Foston who will get overlooked all year by media types but not by college coaches and opponents.

The surprises

Westside was a slight favorite, but coughed up 48 points at home and lost by 11.

West Laurens was a slight underdog, but won by three, which wasn’t a surprise in some quarters.

Worth County hasn’t been all that competitive – almost lost to Rutland last year – and was a serious underdog, but hammered Dooly County, a 1-9 team last year thumping a playoff team.

Crawford County was about a three-TD underdog and lost by only one, but favored Stratford lost by two scores at home.

Underdog Upson-Lee bowed up on defense and held on to win. The bowing up on defense was a little unexpected.

As expected

The Maxwell Ratings were within two points of hitting a few games on the money: Warner Robins over Locust (picked by 36, won by 36), Howard over FPD (22-point favorite, 21-point win), Washington County over Jefferson (10-point favorite, 8-point winner), Veterans over Bleckley County (favored by 20, won by 18).

There were scores of games that were within a six- or seven-point margin.

A different week

Region 2-4A went 1-5 last week, West Laurens the lone winner. It went 5-1 in Week 2, Spalding falling to 0-2.

More in-season preseason analysis: who makes the playoffs

Amid the most chewable preseason information in Central Georgia, items get pushed back, like who’s a lock to make the playoffs, and who’s probable.

Two weeks hasn’t changed but only one or two projections.

Who’s in (barring scandal or tragedy)

6A: Northside as the second, third, or fourth team in the region.

5A: Warner Robins, Veterans, and Jones County are again locks, particularly the Demons and Greyhounds. The Warhawks so far have lost little momentum, and should be at least better prepared mentally down the stretch.

4A: West Laurens so far looks like the best team in Region 2, followed perhaps by Howard. Perhaps. The Raiders feel like the lock, thanks mainly to a serious defense.

3A: Peach County=duh. Westside’s offense will be enough to overcome an iffy defense in a region with a gap last year between No. 4 and No. 5.

2A: Dublin, Washington County, and Dodge County, probably in that order from Region 3. And there’ll again be a gap from those three to the final region playoff team.

A Private: Mount de Sales is repeating last year’s start, and the Cavs are probably better than a year ago.

Who’s most likely in

4A: It’s hard to write off Baldwin after another 0-2 start that’ll be 0-3 after this week, but it’s highly doubtfully the Braves can repeat as region champs.

2A: Lamar County’s offense collapsed in region play last year, but the region is off to a slower start, especially defending champ Heard County. And the Trojans look pretty good.

A Private: Tattnall and Stratford were pretty close to the bubble last year, finishing 20th and 22nd in the power ratings. They should do a little better, but they’ll be near the bubble at times.

Who is a coin flip?

4A: Pretty much everybody in Region 2 outside of West Laurens. Howard has program momentum, nobody in the region lost as much as Mary Persons, followed by Upson-Lee. Perry lost a chunk. It may take until region play starts to have an idea what these teams have. Look for a logjam of 3-2 and 2-3 region records, and 4-6/6-4 overall records.

3A: Central was competitive last year, but needs to get going a little bit before region starts. The region looks familiar to 2018, so it may be Central and Pike County for the fourth spot again.

2A: The next couple weeks will show how much momentum Northeast and Bleckley County have. Unless Southwest has made any improvement, the fourth spot from Region 3 again likely comes down to the winner of that Sept. 27 battle at Bleckley County with Northeast.

Monticello beat the next two teams in Region 8 by a total of 13 points last year, and the Hurricanes are likely to battle Banks County and Putnam County again, unless the War Eagles don’t step up some on offense and play their way out of the hunt.

A Public: The area’s four 2018 playoff teams (Dooly County, Macon County, Taylor County, Hancock Central) are off to an 0-4 start and have been outscored 137-33. Last year: 1-3, outscored 110-61. Three were among the last six in, and nobody else in the area was close. 2019 isn’t looking any stronger.

A Private: FPD was out of the postseason hunt fairly early in region play, and while the Vikings are improved, they have to knock off at least two teams with higher rankings this year, and that means everybody on their schedule except Twiggs County and Wilkinson County.

Who has a shot if karma goes crazy in their favor

6A: Houston County this year is probably better than or equal to about five teams that made last year’s playoffs (Gainesville was 2-9, for goodness sake). But the Bears can’t slip up, and they’ll need help. Being of playoff caliber may be the lone consolation.

2A: Southwest needs both Northeast and Bleckley County to stumble pretty hard while also coming up with a win against at least one of them.

A Public: After the four who made it last year, the closest area team to 24th was Hawkinsville at 36th. So, yes, the Red Devils, Wilkinson County, Crawford County, GMC and, well, Twiggs County will have to turn in some stunning and surprising football and get all sorts of breaks.

We’ll update this once pretty much everybody has five games under their belts.

Note to keepers of standings, results

In this age of technology, certainly more teams can have stats on Friday night or Saturday morning to send to centralgasports@gmail.com so folks can find out what happened, other than seeing a few plays that don’t tell much about the game.

Thanks last week to Brentwood, Mount de Sales, John Milledge, and FPD for game-night info, Upson-Lee on game night and Saturday along with Northeast, Jones County, and Howard on Saturday, and Peach County and Perry on Sunday.

Dear beloved Friday night gamecasters

Kinda take it easy on raging shmoozing hyperbole, overuse of "great" and "aweome" and "good" and "remarkable" and "incredible." And avoid telling us what you don't know and then keep talking about what you don’t know. Skip those kindsa things. And it’s funny how the more verbal exclamation points we get, the worse the team actually is.

You're watching only the ball, whereas refs all have different things to watch, and from pretty much the worst angles. Just because you didn't see it doesn't make it horrible. And 17-year-olds wiiiill commit dumbness 30 yards from the ball. So, ya know ...

Last week: One a time. Please. One person talk at a time. When one person is done, the other person can start. Otherwise, well, the brilliance get lost because of people talking over each other for no apparent reason other than the glory of hearing one’s voice.

And the now-weekly reminder: time and score, score and time, and school name over nicknames. Go into a break, time and score. Come out of a break, time and score. Awaiting for the next flash of an attempted Munsonism, time and score.