Oh, what a great first weekend, everybody said. Just like last year, and the year before. And we’ll rave about most Saturdays for the next few months.

So many eyebrow-raising games all over the place, between the big boys and between the big boys and not-so-big boys. More of us paid attention to and talked about the latter.

Enjoy it while it lasts, because it’s not.

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Note the greed and obnoxiousness and gluttony – isn’t that a mortal sin? – of the SEC bosses and conference “leaders” and a bunch of coaches when you realize what we’ll miss when the greedy SOBs – how much is enough, when they waste so money on redundant crap? – get their way.

We won’t get App State and North Carolina, and the buffet of angst and thrills they gave us.

We won’t get East Carolina and N.C. State, and the WTF – what the funk? – sent our way.

One state, two games, Group of 5 should be celebrating wins over in-state Power 5s that avoided playing them on the road forever.

We won’t get Old Dominion dumping Virginia Tech for a second year in a row.

We won’t get Iowa needed two ties to beat FCS power South Dakota State.

We won’t get South Carolina needing Beamerish (the old man) special teams wizardry to gain control over Georgia State.

We won’t get Houston needing four overtimes to beat a program that’s 11 years old and has been a decent Group of 5 team lately.

And whatever leads to this weekend’s “maaaaan, did you see …?” head-scratchers that lead to giddy giggles, we won’t have, soon enough.

Assorted gumflappers buttkissed during their quality games about how all the hand-wringing about NIL and the portal and all sure didn’t have an effect, and gee, aren’t these games great?

Thanks to Brentwood, Dublin, FPD, GMC, Jones County, Northside, and Westfield for sending game information on Friday, and to Houston County, Lamar County, and Washington County for sending some information on Saturday and Macon County on Sunday.

Last week’s coverage
Saturday’s complete roundup
Friday night’s Central Georgia scouting reports
Georgia HS Football Daily visits with The Central Georgia Sports Report
This week’s Central Georgia predictions
Monday Morning Quarterback: Surprises, upsets, Loughdmouthings, polls
Last week’s roundup: Huge nights for Houston County, Northside, Putnam County, ACE, Bleckley County,Jasper County
Last week’s Central Georgia predictions

Yes, but we’re in the infancy of the greedy people screwing things up. Let’s see where we are in three years, when we won’t be talking about the things we’re talking about now.

Suddenly, the nation has morphed into one where greed is actually OK, until people grumble about because they have no idea where they stand on things. From “How can they leave that money on the table” one minute to “maaaan, they’re just all about the money” the next. Being all about the money used to be something to criticize around these parts.

Greed doesn’t equal progress. I doubt folks will remember that in five years.

Last week’s upsets

It starts and ends with what happened in Class A.

There was Dooly County, staring at an 0-3 start, which brings confidence issues and on-the-field discipline hiccups along the way. Sure, a 58-26 score against Macon County wouldn’t have surprised a soul.

But as 16-year-old high school athletes are wont to do, they messed with our head. Dooly County’s win over Macon County by that score will be in the top 10 upsets in the state – in all classes – when the year is done, especially if Macon County figures out what in the world is going on.

Last week’s surprises

Dodge County beating Washington County was no surprise. Dodge County not letting Washington County be in the game too long was.

The Golden Hawks started 0-2 in 2020, the COVID year, against (AA) Swainsboro and (AAA), by 20-14 and 28-14. This year, they’ve been outscored 85-21 by A and AA.

That Twiggs County beat anybody 61-0 and Wilkinson County beat anybody 53-13 is, well, um, see … It’s speech challenging. A decade ago, no so much. Since then, yeah, since either and both could go a month – and often did – without scoring that many points. The Cobras managed 21 in 2018.

GMC losing by double digits to GIAA AA Brentwood was a little bit of a surprise, more so in that the Bulldogs were outgained 272-165 in total offense and gave up eight more first downs.

Just when you wondered a little bit about Westfield, the Hornets hammer a team that opened the season with a nice win on the road against a decent Class A program.

If West Laurens was going to suffer a historic loss, it was not expected to come from Houston County this year. And the Raiders tend to go a month/four weeks without giving up 58 points. Like the six-week stretch in 2020 when they gave up all of 55 points.

In search of …

… the first win.

Central Georgia still has a chunk of teams at 0-3: Baldwin, Upson-Lee, Southwest, Crawford County, Hawkinsville, GMC, Macon County. Baldwin and Macon County are big surprises, Upson-Lee and Crawford County a little bit, based on expectations.

Hawkinsville is 0-3, with the losses by a total of 20 points. Frustrating, but workable. Crawford County losing by 40 at home to Wilkinson County is a double gut punch, and GMC losing all three by double figures wasn’t quite expected.

Loughdmouthings

When is a sellout not really a sellout? Or a misleading one?

Like Monday night in Atlanta, when we’ll be told about a sellout at the Georgia Dome – dangit, can we start a movement for an actual name change? - for Georgia Tech and Clemson in a Chick-fil-A Kickoff.

Note that Mercedes-Benz Stadium/Atlanta has a basic-configuration capacity of 71,000, for the Falcons. It can expand – like for SEC-related games, as per Saturday with UGA-Oregon – to 75,000 or so.

For Clemson, which traditionally brings a big following to Atlanta, and Georgia Tech, which lives in Atlanta, the capacity will be 42,500.

That’s 12,500 less than Bobby Dodd Stadium, and 18,100 more than Georgia State’s formerly-a-baseball-stadium facility.

Remember this always, for all sports on all levels: sellout is different than attendance. Those at mics will brag about a sellout while not telling you about 15 percent empty seats. Teams will brag about a sellout streak, and not tell you about tickets bought just to keep a streak alive.

And, of course, you have athletics department officials who just flat-out lie about what attendance is, at 92 percent of capacity when the place is 40 percent full.

Tickets sold is different than attendance. Attendance=who cared to show up. …

Central Georgia has a candidate for state player of the year in every GHSA classification. OK, such a player hasn’t yet emerged among the 6A teams.

But in 5A, Jones County has Zion Ragins and Javious Bond. Perry offers Armar Gordon in 4A, Mary Persons has Duke Watson in 3A. Putnam County has Jalon Kilgore in AA, and CJ Allen of Lamar County is pretty much among the top 10 players in the state, as per “recruiting services.”

Gordon is off to an almost stupid start: 28 of 43, 65.1 percent, nine touchdowns, no interceptions, for 579 yards. If he averages just 200 yards a game through the regular season, and he’ll have several chances for 300- or 400-yard nights, Gordon will enter the playoffs with almost 2,200 yards. He’ll be closer to 3,200 yards by then, barring injury. …

Dear Fridaynightgamecasters: Truly, hand to God, constantly saying “I don’t know” or “I didn’t see it” should be embarrassing.

Should be.

And it’s not, because y’all say it all the time. Don’t look at each other. Look at the field. Scan it for flags. Watch the white hat. Look at the scoreboard. Read a rule book every so often, or consult it – ask a ref – when you’re baffled (mostly because you weren’t paying attention).

Speaking of the scoreboard, every time you look at it, tell us what it says. Don’t be allergic to actually sharing relevant information.

And for some of the multiple-voiced yakfest teams, please note that you will not – not – be hired as a coach because of what you say during a game. …

Why there’s more to a game than the score: Dublin outgained Lamar County 359-133 and had 10 more first downs, and lost by one. Jones County outgained Perry 334-283 with three more first downs and lost by 28. FPD outgained Brookstone 400-315 on two more plays and lost at home.

The score tells the final story, but more often than not, there’s more to it, like yardage and first downs and turnover and good or bad punting and special teams. The box scores – and the struggle to get ‘em is real – tell much more, and even then, they don’t show the dropped pass, the wretched tackling we’ve seen on all levels these early weeks, the momentum-changing hit or pass defense.

And they don’t show that, for example, those three aforementioned teams, among others, can take plenty from those losses and move forward with confidence. …

Here’s hoping teams spend a little extra time on tackling drills and on discipline for wretched tackling over the weekend.

Polls

Division 1

(6A-5A-4A-3A)

1. Warner Robins

The Demons are extreeemely fortunate to have beaten Northside. They outgained the Eagles by only 32 yards on 10 more plays, survived a bad field-goal snap (in the rain) and assorted other mistakes which, fortunately for them, Northside tended to match. But it’s the kind of game, at Warner Robins, that leads to tightening things pretty quickly. Just in time with Valdosta next. The Demons know how to beat the Wildcats.

2. Houston County

The numbers are impressive, and clearly, there is a different culture – to go with offense and confidence – on 96. But before anybody starts making December plans, note – as noted Saturday morning on this pages – that this the team’s “best three-game stretch scoring 171 in 2016 in wins over Eagle’s Landing (50-27), Veterans (58-27), and Warner Robins (63-28). In both cases, though, all three opponents were lower-classification opponents. That was also Houston County’s last 3-0 start.” And two of three this year don’t move the needle. But right now, the Bears are boppin’.

3. Perry

The gap between Houston County and Perry is mighty slim. To stroll up to the Barking Lot and stride off the buses like they owned the place and sort of own a very tough place to own is the Perry we all expected to be undefeated right now. The improvements between week one and two that everybody talks about? This was how to do it. Keep some of the fourth quarter of the Houston County game, though, on video nearby, just in case.

4. Northside

The Eagles are extreeemely miffed to have lost to Warner Robins. They closed the gap more than most expected, and every time an Eagle – certainly including those with whistles - watches parts of the game tape, there’ll be a profanity and a sigh and throwing the arms up. A step forward, no doubt, but the Eagles still have to prove they can do good things multiple weeks in a row. Like this week at 7A/No. 4 North Cobb.

5. Jones County

Well, so much for one week at No. 1. Losing to Perry is no big deal. Perry’s good. But never leading, and watching the Panthers pull away, and that happening at home? Nope, it’s doubtful anybody saw that coming. And the coaches are maybe rubbing their hands together at what this team is capable of around the time region action starts up.

Division II

(AA-A-GISA)

1. Bleckley County

No doubt the Royals would’ve preferred to play last week, but some rest for No. 1/A-II Schley County isn’t a bad thing.

2. Lamar County

A “well, we pull that one out of our nether regions” win over Dublin will help the Trojans all year long. They won’t be able to survive like that very often, but they’ll have the confidence to know somebody else might be the better team that night and the Trojans can still win.

3. Putnam County

Can you get shut out and still have a little bit of a smile and confidence? Putnam County can, playing an upper-level Class AAA team to a two-score game until the final minute. Get healthy and some rest this week against Jasper County, and get ready to play two straight region contenders.

4. Northeast

The Raiders bowed up impressively against the No. 1 team in the state and defending champ, and were thiiiiis close to a historic win. In front of, well, another local ho-hum audience. Northeast’s special teams remain an issue, and mark it down, they’ll break the Raiders’ hearts in the postseason. Hard to drop the Raiders after that outing.

5. Dublin

Hard to drop the Irish after they lost a game they dominated statistically and kinda/sorta gave away. Some losses leave deep bruises and inspire chugging Pepto, and this was one. It appeared to answer some questions about what Dublin had this year. Maybe the Irish have a little more than expected, but they’ll need to show it this week against always-solid ECI.

6. John Milledge

The Trojans were off. Several teams were grateful. They love when the Trojans don’t play.

7. ACE

OK, now, this is getting a little goofy. Sure, it appears that the first three opponents won’t be playing an 11th game, considering two of them are now 0-3 and they didn’t expect to be 0-3. But on paper going into the season, ACE could’ve been 1-2 or 2-1 at this point, in close games. The “close” game was a 17-point margin, and the Gryphons are 3-0. Interesting.

8. Tattnall

It’s one thing to be expected to hammer somebody, and another to actually do it. The Trojans followed up a last-minute with a nice focused night and 30-point – or 27-point, depending on the source – win on the road. It sets up for a really interesting battle this week at home against a GHSA Class A public team that went 10-2 last year and rode a quality defense.

9. FPD

The Vikings weren’t sharp Friday and paid for against a team that was just a little sharper, especially when it mattered: late. Digging an early hole was not good. Climbing out of it and being on the verge was.

10. Stratford

The Eagles are still a little tough to figure out, although they’re starting off solidly. The Westfield win was more impressive than hammering a down Riverside Military program. And it’s hard to say how much we’ll learn against Brookwood this week, unless it’s a huge rout or a stunning upset.