Maaaan, Region 3-AA is going to be a slugfest.

          Pick a favorite, any favorite. Pick the playoff-caliber team that sits home, pick any one.

          Bleckley County, Dodge County, Northeast, and Washington County are in the AJC’s top 10, making up 6-10 except for No. 7. Lamar County is unranked, but is 3-1.

          Bleckley County has a road. The Royals face Lamar County, Northeast, and Washington County on three straight Friday nights.

          Washington County has a road. The Golden Hawks have two back-to-back sets of battles, at Lamar County and home against Northeast, then home against Bleckley County and at Dodge County.

          The best final-week game among the contenders is the only really good one, at this point: Lamar County at Northeast.

          It’s the ultimately simple analysis: whoever makes the fewest drive-killing or drive-killing mistakes – i.e. the pull-your-hair pre-snap penalties and the emotional 15-yarders in the fourth quarter will play an 11th game.

          A high five to anybody who can make it through with a perfect region record. Dublin, now in Class A Public, did it in 2018, with only one fairly close win, 28-10 over Washington County.

          All five teams have playmakers and coaching. Millions of teams have playmakers and coaching. Fundamentals and discipline may not be sexy, but winning because of them sure is.

 

Loughdmouthings

          Dear media, people near mics/cameras, and about everybody else: one game. First or second game. That’s all. You get no rings for 1-0 or 2-0, and 0-1 or 0-2 is not a terribly deep hole.

          So calm down. Take a breath and stop planning three months from now or whining and grumbling. …  

          Social media post on Saturday, still goes: Topics to be addressed here soon: Tenn. & South Carolina will be better than expected (not good, but better). Ditto the Falcons. Auburn will be pretty good. Georgia is what it is (but ...), & Tech? Don't dismiss the mess yet (though they could 'easily' lose today, or win by 30).

          If Clemson's QB realizes his mistakes from last week (take off), Tigers will be fine. A&M/Jimbo remain overrated. The greedy power grab - suddenly folks are OK with greedy - by the SEC will not make college FB better in any way, shape, form. Monologues to come. …

          Upson-Lee is an interesting team so far.

          The Knights didn’t look so hot in the opener against LaGrange, then came back with a last-minute win over 5A Harris County.

          Then came 5A McIntosh, which lost 57-14 to LaGrange a few weeks ago and then 40-14 to Upson-Lee last Friday. A change in offense to a frisky run-oriented offense has paid dividends with 69 points in the last two games, and showing an ability to come back late.

          Tre Bloodser ran five times for 169 yards against McIntosh, and tried all of two passes. With a former quarterback, Justin Elder at Mary Persons, as head coach.

          Flexibility, rare, is not a bad thing. …

          Congrats to Brentwood’s Bert Brown, the first milestone-achiever of the season with his 150th win, Friday over Edmund Burke. He’ll be the last Central Georgia coach this season to hit 50, 100, 150, or 200. …

          As per the Georgia High School Football Daily, Rockdale County’s win at Westside was the biggest upset of the week, as per the Maxwell Ratings, which had the Seminoles as a 28-point favorite.

          Nobody from the area was on the good end of upsets. Hancock Central was next, a 27-point favorite losing 16-14 to Greene County. Northeast was an 11-point favorite (lost 10-7) and Lamar County (lost 17-0) a 10-point favorite. Apparently, Pacelli – led by former Jones County head coach Dwight Jones – is better than expected.

          Dooly County (lost 32-7) was picked by 10 and Mount de Sales (lost 31-23) by four. …

          Social media post on Saturday, still goes: Dear Falcons fans, whiners, fans/haters, gripless gripers: One game. Good opponent. New staff, players. new philosophies (that will work soon). Grip reality. Look at what NO did to GB. 35 points. Arizona to Tennessee. 25 points. And Miami won in Foxboro. Context is good. Really. …

          Some begging for teams to post scores on MaxPreps in a timely manner and make sure the score is right (ditto Hudl). Firing information to centralgasports@gmail.com for by far the area’s most comprehensive game-night coverage would be glorious, too. …

          There were some surprises Friday night, other than the upsets just as upsets.

          Northeast losing was a surprise to those spending too much time back-patting and not enough time paying attention. But scoring only seven points was a surprise, especially at home, and introducing the new turf field to Thompson.

          The reality is that the Raiders could find themselves on a three-game losing streak, with Monroe (same region as Dougherty) and Washington County (after a week off).

          FPD getting stomped by Aquinas and getting so little offense going was a huge surprise. And all the scoring in the game came in the first half.

          John Milledge rolling GHSA Class A Private Savannah Christian again was a surprise only in that one expected more from Savannah Christian. That one was a 40-0 game until the final seconds.

          Sure didn’t expect Taylor County to go down 55-0 to Schley County, or most anybody else in Class A. And expected closer from Hawkinsville and Telfair County. …

          The Rockdale County win was a good one for its new head coach.

          Lee Hannah was eased out at Baldwin after the 2016 season, going 15-18 in three seasons. He went through a rough three-year stretch at Miller Grove (6-23) before taking over the Bulldogs  

          Rockdale County broke a 13-game losing streak – 0-5 in 2020, hammered by COVID and transfers, and mourning the death of head coach Jamie Baldwin in July of 2020 - and cracked 30 points for the first time since the end of the 2018 season. …

          Yes, we’re to that point where you start wondering about some teams using COVID as an excuse to cancel games.

 

Polls

          Reminder that we split up the polls into divisions, because, well, it makes sense. A so-so record by a bigger school against better competition likely means deserving a higher ranking in an overall poll than a smaller school with a good record.

          One game is one game. Polls are big-picture items. Who would beat who right now? If they played 10 times, who’d win more? Tis mere reality.

          This is more fair, allows for more teams to be ranked. And there are many more 3A, 2A, and A programs in Central Georgia than larger programs, so they deserve more rankings

Division I (6A, 5A, 4A)

1. Warner Robins

          The ability of the Demons to remain so solid and consistent is so impressive. Out-of-town opponent or long-time rival, they take care of business. And the other team. Sure, they were certainly going to beat Northside with a little cushion, but 42 points again is pretty sporty.

2. Perry

          The Panthers are throwing it around a good bit, and catching it. Veterans had some momentum and confidence after knocking off Jones County, and Perry made sure it stopped.

3. Northside

          There are still adjustment/growing pains as the program gets used to a different philosophy on offense, and the Warner Robins game stung in the short-term but will pay off long-term.

4. Jones County

          In the “we’re still not sure” folder, Jones County turned in another good rebound performance with the win at Union Grove. They’re getting more experience, and getting a little healthier, which go hand in hand. We might be able to take the Greyhounds out of that folder in a week and put them back into “a region title favorite” folder again.

5. Baldwin

          The Braves showed some quality fight against 7A Brookwood, although giving up 59 points to anybody is a smack in the head. And Brookwood doesn’t appear to be quite that good. But there’s a three-classification difference, and a game picked up during the week. Too bad it looks like they’re off this week. 

Division II (3A, AA, A, GISA)

1. Macon County

          Barring mass injuries or mass overconfidence, the Bulldogs will be undefeated heading into Oct. 8’s showdown with Schley County

2. Peach County

          After two weeks off, the Trojans finally get back to work, at Mary Persons, which is off a very winnable loss.

3. John Milledge

          So much for what’s likely the Trojans’ last major challenge of the regular season, GHSA Class A Private Savannah Christian. Should the need for a game arise, let it be with another GHSA opponent.

4. Mary Persons

          A winnable loss – as was the Bulldogs’ 39-32 defeat at Newnan – can make for a rough but productive week of practice, which one has to have with Peach County coming to town.

5. Bleckley County

          The Royals are 4-0 for the first time since 1991, when the opened up 6-0, preceding a three-game losing streak. Both could happen again, but the former is more likely than the latter.

6. Dublin

          The game with Wheeler County – a team with two winning seasons this century – was no doubt much closer than the Irish wanted or expected, but was a W for a young team, and that’s relevant.

7. Washington County

          The Golden Hawks finally got on the field, and turned in an expected performance, rugged enough to trail 21-8 and gutsy enough to come back and win by one.

8. Northeast

          Eyes remain on the Raiders, to see now if they can rebound from a momentum-killing and attention-getting loss.

9. Dodge County

          The Fitzgerald loss was a frustrating one, the Indians failing to take advantage of opportunities. But that’s the kind of game that very easily can tighten a team up as far as eliminating mistakes.

10. Upson-Lee

          The Knights are again 2-1, and it may be a pleasant surprise. They’ve won a close game and controlled a higher-classification team the past two weeks.