Who’s undefeated?

          What with schedules so funky and games coming and going, a team has to have played three games (GHSA and GISA) at this point to qualify:

          Warner Robins, Bleckley County, Putnam County, GMC, and John Milledge, are 5-0.

          Perry, Washington County, Macon County, Stratford and Tattnall are 4-0.

 

Who can plan on an 11th game, GHSA version?

          Houston County and Northside (by default), Warner Robins, Jones County, Baldwin, Perry, Peach County, Mary Persons, Bleckley County and/or Washington County and/or Dodge County and/or Northeast (Lamar County is an enigma at this point), Putnam County, Macon County, GMC, Tattnall, FPD, Stratford.

          Veterans is probably in, basically by default. East Laurens is probably in, but still needs a quality win, since three wins are against A Publics and one AA, with a combined 4-14 record and not much history. Dooly County is probably in, and sure would rather play this week after beating Dublin than rest.

          Hancock Central is a coin flip.

          Who is in the hunt will need to pull off an upset or two and get some help? Upson-Lee, Howard, West Laurens, Westside, Dublin, and Taylor County.

 

Loughdmouthings

          Dear coaches, please for all that is good in the world, check what’s reported by your team on MaxPreps. Now, a school that’s undefeated has accounted for 24 points in stats, and another one has left all defensive stats empty.

          Hard to brag on teams when details don’t always matter. …

          And no, rosters can’t be checked enough.

          Firing information to centralgasports@gmail.com on Friday night to chip in to by far the area’s most comprehensive game-night coverage would be glorious, too. ……

          Funky numbers: the average margin of victory in games involving Region 7-A Public Friday night? 42.6. ACE and GMC did their part with wins of 29 and 42 points. …

          No, no, no. The scheduling issues last year with Vanderbilt had about nothing to do with Georgia crushing the Commodores. People can hype up all that, and read stuff into (more folks are phenomenal at reading what’s not there).

          What happened this year was going to happen last year. Others will do the same to Vandy this year, unfortunately. There are too  many real things for a team to work on than to manufacture – and yammer about – venom for a non-competitive game.

          That said, Georgia still hasn’t played anybody who’s going to win a conference title, and only one that’s a lock for a bowl game, and that bowl game will be mildly decent looking but not sexy at all. …

          I’m not surprised that Georgia Tech is playing better, but didn’t expect what happened with Clemson and North Carolina to happen. Sure, north Carolina was clearly overrated, but for the loser to Northern Illinois to break that can of whoop-butt wasn’t quite expected.

          Still, it’s too early to say the Geoff Collins regime has turned the corner. Regardless, maybe he’s realizing that winning – not cheesy Waffle House and 404 crap and social media absurdity – is the best branding. ...

          That ACE won Friday night wasn’t all that shocking. That it won by 29 was.

          One never knows what impact a coaching change will make, but the gut instinct here was in this case it would end up being a positive. New voices, new approaches, maybe some philosophical – field and administrative – changes can lead to players listening more.

          And the reality is that 7-A Public isn’t a ferocious region after the first couple teams, although it’s perking up with GMC having a year and Hancock Central having issues. Even before the thud against FPD and accompanying change, ACE was in the playoff hunt for the fourth spot, battling older programs that weren’t much better.

          Now? Let’s see what the confidence does against another pretty equal team, Crawford County, which should – despite a 58-0 loss to Warren County – have similar confidence in going against an equal team.

        Unless ACE proves it’s better and doesn’t let the joy of last week impact this week. …

          As per the Georgia High School Football Daily, Pike County’s win over Upson-Lee was the second-biggest upset in the state on Sept. 17.

          Tattnall and West Laurens were 10-point underdogs and won, tying for eighth-biggest.

          As for Sept. 24, the biggest Central Georgia upset was a big one, 31-point underdog ACE hammering Wilkinson County. Two more big ones: 28-point underdog Houston County over Newton and 15-point underdog Dooly County over Dublin.

          Tattnall was a 7-point underdog and beat up Aquinas. Bleckley County was a slight underdog to Dodge County and won by two.

          Tattnall (10-point underdog) pulled a mild upset on Sept. 17, but impressively so over Savannah Country Day. Ditto West Laurens (10-point underdog) over Veterans, the Raiders making it mighty shaky at the end. Swainsboro (2-point underdog) over Dublin is no upset, but winning 39-7 kind of qualifies as something of an upset. …

          Repeating: Tennessee and South Carolina will be better than people think, as will the Falcons. Hard to figure out Auburn any more.

          Wasn’t that benched QB a five-star? …

          Dear Friday night gamecasters: The guy in the striped shirt on the field, who y’all always call “the white hat”? See, you can avoid constantly missing calls for no reason – other than self-absorption – by watching him, because 90 percent of the time, you’ll see what the call was.

          Now, after all these years, know the signals would be kind of expected. And just because you didn’t see the infraction – because often it’s hard to figure out what y’all are watching – doesn’t mean there wasn’t one.

          Plus, get binoculars. “Well, I –‘ . No, learn to use them so you can avoid saying you don’t know what happened or who did what. …

          The firing of a coach really brings out the crap in crappy people. Anonymously, at keyboards mostly, but on some airwaves, too, twits who miss the point of things because they bitterly live their lives through a team and don’t realize that it’s not actually about the loser in the living room.

          Sure makes you want to be able to troll them when things don’t go their way.

          The same hypocrites hugging and kissing Chad Lunsford a year ago now call him garbage. Wish keyboards could be electrically charged and deliver a shock.

 

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
          So much for a “major, major test” with “no threat of a running clock with the visit from Lee County.” And we had a freakin’ running clock. Warner Robins has won the 1-6A championship, and now can focus on its actual region, 1-5A.

2. Perry
          The Panthers took care of business properly against Rutland, and now have a potential trap game against a surprisingly strong Spalding team.

3. Baldwin
          The season’s schedule has gone all over the place for the Braves, so all they did was come to Macon and discombobulate Westside in every form and fashion. Now they get to finally dance on their new turf.

4. Jones County
          The hyperventilating in metro Gray will decrease even more after this week’s trip to Locust Grove.

5. Houston County
          Who knew the Bears would bow up and rack up their best win in years? On the road? Over a ranked 7A team? But yeah, the question is what will Houston County do with that win. Consistency remains an issue.

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

1. Peach County
          The Trojans are almost quietly reaching “that’s not fair” levels again. Up 59-0 at halftime at Sumter County? Goodness. That wasn’t a running clock, it was a sprinting clock.

2. Macon County
          Odds are favorable for Macon County’s fourth shutout in five games this week.

3. John Milledge
          The Trojans were indeed a little amped up. Can somebody in the GHSA play them on the consecutive off weeks they have on Oct. 8 and 15? Please?

4. Mary Persons
          The Bulldogs stayed with Peach County, and followed it up properly with the predicted win over Central.

5. Bleckley County
          The Royals won their region opener last year by five over Dodge County and ended up as the region’s fourth seed (but had a likely W wiped out that would’ve, well, not mattered, and they went farther than anybody else in the region), soooo …

6. Washington County
          Oooh, and the Golden Hawks host Northeast this week.

7. Northeast
          Oooh, and the Raiders visit Washington County this week.
8. Putnam County
          Two more romps before a challenge.

9. Stratford
          A burly road test with Calvary Day is next.

10. Dodge County
          The Indians lost their region opener last year by five points to Bleckley County and ended up as the region’s top seed, so, ya know …