Monday Morning Quarterback (Tuesday evening version): Upsets, surprises, Loughdmouthings, Central Georgia polls
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Week 1 upsets
Whitefield Academy over Macon County barely qualifies, only because it was in Montezuma.
Week 1 surprises
ACE getting a monthâs worth of points in a game is notable. Ditto Crawford County getting 53 in the same game. All that scoring â 123 points â in any game is a surprise.
GMC getting thumped by 28 at Wheeler County was a little unexpected. The Bulldogs have to prove last year wasnât a fluke.
Tattnall cringes a little bit at a good win that turned into a tough loss, 28-21 to GHSA Class A-II No. 1 Schley County. Still, it was a good opener for the Trojans.
Whoever had Peach County giving 30 is lyyyying. Baldwin, though, yet again is a mistake-prone team, one that really shouldnât be losing by 30 points to almost anybody.
Insanity
If these big-time programs need to have â and no, they donât need to have â dozens of âanalystsâ to go along with the full-time head coaches, the loads of grad and student assistants, all the video people, all the strength & conditioning people, âquality controlâ people in all three phases (or every bleepinâ position group), directors of player development and of speed improvement and skill development, and quality control for personnel (multiple positions), I have one question:
What the hell do the head coaches now need $10 million a year for and have no time to visit fan groups in their state?
Itâs getting harder and harder to take things seriously. You have 70 people doing stuff when you played for a staff 40 percent that size, and you canât visit with the people responsible for that salary and for making that job great?
Look at Floridaâs football staff list. I donât put coaches on much of a clock, but Billyboy, you better be in Atlanta next year with all those bodies doing all that crap when it really, honestly and truly, comes down to work ethic and fundamentals and some smarts.
Plus, recruiting coachable players, which means players who listen and then go do. Overshadows the 4.3 or huge bench of a knucklehead.
In fact, knuckleheads render a director of football logistics â huh? â fairly irrelevant.
Loughdmouthings
There sure are a lot of good matchups â seems like more than usual â early on this season.
This week, we have Perry-Houston County, Northside-Peach County, Baldwin-Putnam County, West Laurens-Dodge County, Washington County-Swainsboro, among others.
All are ranked or a win or two away from being ranked.
Stratford-Westfield highlights the GIAA offerings. âŠ
Zion Ragins is a speedy wideout at Jones County, but goodness, he ran like a bigger bruiser a fair amount of the time against Northside, and avoided big hits, no mean feat.
Itâll be hard to take your eyes off him during Jones County games. Be happy youâre not chasing him. âŠ
Man, the Macon Touchdown Clubâs luck sure gets shaky around Kickoff Classic time.
Yet again, lightning and rain took over the day, to the point of suspending play for the day. A few years ago, weather pushed back the Baldwin-Washington County kickoff to around 11 p.m.
The doubleheaderâs goal is to raise money for the clubâs scholarship fund as well as give the schools involved a chance to make some money. Schools get however many tickets they want, and keep all the money they take in, and the club splits the walk-up gameday money with the teams, a complete win-win.
But this danged weather puts a bummer on an otherwise quality experience. âŠ
Dear Fridaynightcasters: Rather than have two or three people âwatchingâ the game wonder if there was a flag â stop yammering a bit and watch the game is a start â and then have team speculation, usually wrong, about the call, just watch the guy with the white hat.
Heâs called the âwhite hatâ for a reason. He tells us what the flag was. All the time. Itâs his job. Be patient â why in a hurry to be wrong all the time? â and watch him, and itâs amazing how competent folks can sound. âŠ
To be elaborated on later: The Falcons will be better than last year, and more competitive, and will pull off two upsets, and Marcus Mariota will be better than Falconwhiners can grasp. âŠ
They said it: âIâm not saying the University of Floridaâs brand-new $85-million, 140,000-square -oot standalone football facility is plush and palatial, but LIV Golf just offered the Gators $200 million to buy it.â
- Mike Bianchi, Orlando Sentinel
Polls
Division 1
(6A-5A-4A-3A)
1. Jones County
The Greyhounds werenât in midseason form against Northside, but they didnât have many first-game hiccups, either. New QB Judd Anderson didnât look much like a QB with a new team. Jones County is off to a nice start.
2. Warner Robins
Losing to a 6A state power by a couple scores is no big deal. What coaches saw on film afterward is more relevant. But again, make no mistake, this is something of a transition year for the Demons.
3. Perry
The rested Panthers start this week.
4. Peach County
The Trojans rolled 4A Baldwin, putting up 50. Gee, what mightâve happened if they didnât get flagged almost 20 times? Peach County will get some running in this week, and should be sharper against Northside.
5. Houston County
Granted, the opponent was AA Sumter County, a 1-8 team in 3A last year, but cracking 40 with a new staff and new offense on the road is a decent sign for HoCo, which hadnât cracked 40 since beating Rutland 54-0 early in the 2019 season.
Division II
(AA-A-GISA)
1. Northeast
The Raiders were down 14-12 on Saturday when the game with Mary Persons was suspended, so thereâs no reason yet to move them around. Odds are the more balanced Bulldogs wouldâve eked out a win, which would have only dropped Northeast a spot.
2. Bleckley County
So much for a rival game feeling like a rivalry on game night. The Royals hammered Dodge County with a solid, balanced season opener.
3. Putnam County
The War Eagles get going this week.
4. Lamar County
A road win at Wilcox County by 13 is impressive. Lamar County led from the start, almost four hours from home.
5. Macon County
The biggest part of Friday nightâs âupsetâ was that it came in Montezuma. But the loss to Whitefield Academy wasnât all that big an upset.
6. Washington County
The Golden Eagles start this week.
7. Dublin
Nobody expected the Irish, on any year, to have that much trouble with Wilkinson County. For that game to be in doubt going into the fourth quarter was unexpected. Expect major improvement during an off week with Lamar County after that.
8. John Milledge
*Yawn, stretch*. The Trojans rolled Brentwood, again, to open the season. Lather, rinse, repeat.
9. FPD
The Vikings scrimmage GHSA 4A West Laurens, and open this week.
10. ACE
Sure, itâs highly unlikely the Gryphons will make another poll appearance this season, but putting up 70 in the opener with a new staff against an equal team is pretty decent. Then again, about that gave-up-53-points defense âŠ