By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Respect is harder and harder for folks to give, no matter how obvious it’s been earned.

Common courtesy is automatic. That’s what every human deserves automatically, until they don’t. Until they go full Karen on you.

Respect is earned. Folks can’t get that straight, either.

But fans, fans don’t like giving credit, in part because they fail to grasp a world outside their own team’s orbit.

Nevertheless, it’s time for what’ll be a regular reminder for many to kind of grow up and clue in, and show some respect to the likes of App State and East Carolina and Georgia Southern and Middle Tennessee State and Western Kentucky, and so on.

And, yeah, Kent State.

LAST WEEK’S COVERAGE
Roundup: Houston County pops Warner Robins, Perry rolls, Lamar County stunned, heartbreaker for Mount de Sales, thriller for Stratford
This week’s Scouting Reports
Maxwell Ratings predictions and rankings
Who’s going to win this week’s games?
Macon Touchdown Club players of the week
Monday Morning Quarterback: Surprises, upsets, Loughdmouthings, Central Georgia’s polls

Two decades ago, sure, a top-10 team could mosey on in against teams that are now Group-of-Fives – let along I-AA teams - and not worry much.

That was two decades ago. Folks might want to move on up to the present.

The Rams’ Super Bowl roster had more players from a Utah college – three – than from Alabama – two – and one less than from Georgia - three from UGA and one from Georgia State.

Montana State had two, to one from Clemson, A&M, Oklahoma, and so on.

There are players everywhere.

About 25 years ago, I determined that the days of undefeated teams were about over, because there was just so much talent out there, and teams couldn’t really load up and stockpile like they used to.

No, it wouldn’t be hard for a great team to get beat because more teams had more talent, and teams would have some players as talented as the big boys, enough for the occasional surprise, or at least a good make-‘em-sweat game.

Thanks to Brentwood, FPD, and John Milledge – three games out of 33 - for sending some game information on Friday, and to Lamar County and Houston County on Sunday. Coaches, please have somebody email game information – general is fine – or a picture of stat sheets to @centralgasports@gmail.com by 2 a.m. after games.

Stunningly, teams – did you know that since the turn of the century, Auburn has as many perfect seasons as Alabama? - have gone undefeated in the regular season on a fairly regular basis. More stunningly, 19 in that span have finished the whole season perfect.

Remember that it wasn’t all that long ago that the coach-to-be-statued-in-front-yards was beyond-comprehension close to losing to a bad – not a playoff-caliber, but bad – Nicholls State program. At home.

The predecessor never came close to that. And that was about the last time that happened under this new guy.

Kent State? The Saban guy – whose SEC team lost to Louisiana-Monroe early in ULM’s 1-A days - went there. So did Julian Edelman. Jamesa Harrison. Jack Lambert.

Dean Pees coached there. Didn’t do well, but coached there.

There is good football played elsewhere. Good coaching elsewhere. Many, many, many good players you don’t see or know about (because they’re outside an orbit).

And on any given day, when dealing with 17-25 year-olds, it can happen. If not “it,” something close to “it.”

Whether it’s a muddled up Auburn team or a Group of Five team. Teams can bow up and make those with more really good players sweat, or downright hibernate after an upset loss.

And such surprises, we’re not done with them. So yes, be surprised, be entertained, be mad. But be an adult, less arrogant.

It’s OK to have knowledge on the world outside your team’s world, and it’s OK to give other teams credit. It really is.

Last week’s upsets

The biggest of the week, and one of the biggest of the year, was Lamar County getting thumped by Social Circle, by 39-7, after being a 29-point favorite by Maxwell Ratings.

That’s a 61-point turnaround.

Social Circle not long ago was on a 1-39 run, from 2011-14, and this was the biggest program win in a long, long time.

West Laurens was a 7-point favorite and lost by 12.

Wilkinson County was a 20-point underdog and stunned Portal by 10.

Twiggs County was favored – not everywhere – to beat Crawford County by two, and the Eagles – picked elsewhere to win by 19 - hammered out a 24-point win.

Last week’s surprises

In one of the Macon-Columbus battles, Central had much more trouble with Kendrick than expected (30-point favorite, 6-point winner).

Dodge County gave Fitzgerald more trouble the Maxwell expected, the 37-point favorite winning by eight (some of us knew it’d be a lot closer).

Loughdmouthings

The merciful end of the Geoff Collins test at Georgia Tech and some of the absurd speculation will be addressed here in a day or two.

But, man, to have three seasons with the exact same record? Doesn’t happen very often. And unfortunately for long-suffering Jackets fans, things were on target for the same this year, but Tech was going to be an underdog the rest of the way, with Virginia Tech the most winnable game. Too bad they didn’t have Boston College on the schedule this year. …

No team in the fight, but dear NFL: The last two minutes of the half and game, you absolutely have to stop the clock to spot the ball. You have to.

There’s way too much going on to just let the clock run when there’s no action. Refs are trying to wind through a half ton or so of players, some of whom aren’t getting out of the way, and they’ll nudge a ref, who may be slick-handed getting the ball anyway.

Stopping the clock on out-of-bounds plays in the final minute wouldn’t be bad, either, or as an alternative. NFL games are pretty short as it is, so a little improved competitive balance at the end will only keep people watching. …

Dearest game-day/night posters: No reason not to have first names. After all, the kids do have first names.

No reason to post something of suspense and post nothing for 37 minutes. And it’s OK to celebrate a win and post a few minutes later with, say, a relevant detail on a game-winning play.

But every – every single – game-related post after a game should have the final score. Really. …

Always remember that stat references – here and elsewhere – are mostly based on MaxPreps information. And teams – teams and coaches – are responsible for what’s on MaxPreps, not MaxPreps.

If teams don’t put the information in or update in a timely manner, it makes for an incomplete and misleading list (so if you want to ask your coaches why they’re not promoting kids – on offense, defense, and special teams …).

You can’t give a coach an extension unless that team makes the playoffs. Otherwise, ADs should be fired pretty quickly. The amount of athletics mismanagement, fiscal and personnel, in college sports is astounding.

Polls

The gap between 1-2 in Division I is mighty small.

The gap between the top five in Division II isn’t much bigger. The final spots in Division II aren’t getting any easier.

And always remember: it’s not head to head, it’s big picture, as of right now. Some may look at why a team is ranked a head of a team it lost to. It’s not about one game.

Of course, both teams could have the same result this week, and deserve being flipped. For a week.

Division 1

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

1. Perry

The Panthers are the best team in Central Georgia. Yes, even over the team that beat them. The gap is minimal (can we go ahead and schedule them to play again a week after their seasons end?). For all of the offensive weapons, the defense is underrated.

2. Houston County

Now we kind of know. Sure, Warner Robins is now a fighting-for-a-playoff-spot team – whaaat? – but the Bears took care of business in pretty much all phases, and they needed to. No, it wasn’t the 2019-21 Demons, but it was the Demons. Things get really interesting now with Lee County next.

3. Northside

The only pretty thing Friday night against Crisp County was the scoreboard after 48 minutes. But the Eagles haven’t been closing out those kinds of games consistently, so it was maybe a better win than it’ll get credit for.

4. Jones County

Still a hard team to figure out. It’s easy to see them winning the region – or finishing a close second – and making a fairly deep playoff run, or having a slip-up and finding themselves in a battle for second or third, and thus a home game.

5. Peach County

Still a hard team to figure out. Still can’t get a feeling if it’s the occasionally normal so-so start that picks up steam in region and the postseason, or, well, not. Am guessing those on the sidelines aren’t of too different a thought.

Division II

(AA-A-GISA)

1. Bleckley County

The underrated part of the Royals’ success is defense. They’re giving up 5.4 points a game, and against a respectable schedule.

2. Northeast

Two games in a row, the Raiders fell behind early and trailed after a quarter. The first wasn’t a surprise, the second one was. The reality: they can do that the rest of the regular season and again win by 40, but they shouldn’t trail after a quarter unless 21 players aren’t in uniform. Not a good habit, though.

3. Putnam County

The senior-oriented defense – with a variety of playmakers - has two straight shutouts. A third one is not out of the question.

4. John Milledge

It’s noteworthy when the Trojans aren’t nearing the running clock by halftime. Gee, they were only up 28-7 at the break over Brentwood.

5. Dublin

The Irish were off, all the better to prep for ranked Charlton County in the non-region finale.

6. Lamar County

Well, not sure what two groups were thinking to pick a blowout, but goodness, were they wrong. One of us thought they picked a closer game, since Social Circle was 3-1. But it was a huge surprise.

7. ACE

A week off after the Northeast loss might’ve been good for health – the Raiders are big, and it hurts being fallen on by one – but a week off after a loss is a long week.

8. Tattnall

The Trojans were off, and will pick up their third win this week on the road.

9. Macon County

The Bulldogs are one loss away from dropping out for awhile, because expectations are what they are for Macon County. And they have one win.

10. Stratford

We’re still in that “hmm, a lot of teams sure seem to be pretty even” zone, but the Eagles rebounded well from a loss with a quality win over a good Brookstone team.

They wrote it (a few years ago)

“Georgia better enjoy this victory over Florida in the the World's Largest Outdoor Talent Discrepancy Party. Once Dan Mullen starts recruiting at Kirby Smart's level, the tone of this rivalry will change dramatically.”

A Tweet on Oct. 28, 2018, from the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi (who is always funny and rarely this wrong)