By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Some years, the matchups in the Macon Touchdown Club Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic are better than others, and sometimes, the marketing is easy.

This is one of those years.

Three of the four teams are in the Georgia High School Football Daily/AJC top 10 in their respective classes, with the unranked team likely to get ranked pretty soon and perhaps another to drop fairly soon amid a rebuilding and coaching transition year.

All four head coaches and a collection on players gathered Monday in Mercer’s field house for lunch and to talk about Saturday’s matchups in the seventh Kickoff Classic.

Tickets
Tickets are available at each school for different prices ($10 at Mary Persons and at Jones County), with gameday tickets at the gate going for $15 (cash)/16 (credit card). Pregame ticket sales revenue goes to each school, with teams and the Touchdown Club splitting gameday ticket sales.
Revenue goes to the Touchdown Club’s scholarship fund.

Weather Report
The Classic has not been favored by Mother Nature as often as it has, including last year, when lightning led to the early conclusion of the Mary Persons-Northeast game.
This year, as per the average of three weather apps: 95 in the daytime, 73 at night, less than 10 percent chance of precipitation all day.

Jones County takes on Northside at 4 p.m. at Five Star Stadium, with Mary Persons and Northeast to follow.

Each year, the Touchdown Club honors between games a notable former Central Georgia head coach. This year, it’s Northside’s Conrad Nix, who went 241-52 in 24 seasons, covering two stints (1973-80, 1994-2009), with 10 region titles and a pair of state championships.

In 35 seasons as a head coach in Georgia and Alabama, Nix is 299-109-1.

Northside is No. 10 in 6A, Jones County No. 7 in 5A, and Northeast No. 10 in AA.

Consider donating to Central Georgia's most extensive coverage

Mary Persons head coach Brian Nelson, though, said it feels in Forsyth like it did about five or so years ago, when the Bulldogs were amid a four-year run of region championships and at least 11 wins a year, in Region 2-AAAA.

“From a talent and a depth standpoint, I think we’re in better shape than we’ve been in at least three years,” said Nelson, beginning his 12th season leading the Bulldogs, and owning a 97-36 record, 72.9 percent. “Our numbers are getting up a lot.”

Less than half of Northside’s offense has any legit experience, and the Eagles face a veteran Jones County team with a quarterback headed to Miami and wideout set for Oklahoma.

Northside and Mary Persons have the strongest statewide reps of the four schools, but Jones County has been the winningest program in the last 10 years, going 88-34, though the Bulldogs barely have the edge in winning percentage, 72.5 to 72.13 percent.

But the Greyhounds are on a better roll recently, winning 73.02 percent of their games the last five years, followed by Mary Persons (62.5), Northeast (59.7), and Northside 54.1.

And this is the most veteran group head coach Mike Chastain has had in Gray.

“We have 32 seniors on the team,” he said. “We’ve got a really big senior class, one of the biggest I’ve ever been a part of.”

The biggest marketing, though, comes with the players.

Zion Ragins of Jones County didn’t have a normal season in 2022, with only 557 yards in catches, but a healthy Ragins – who has committed to Oklahoma - is a 1,000-yard receiver and threat to go the distance whether he catches a pass or punt or kickoff.

In the Greyhounds’ scrimmage last week at Buford, he took the opening kickoff back.

Jones County’s Chandler Harris is the No. 10 returning tackler in Central Georgia, racking up 87 stops last year. Northeast’s Talien Sampson is 12th with 81.

A pair of opponents Saturday are, as of now, set to be opponents in college. Jones County quarterback Judd Anderson has committed to Miami, and Northside defensive back Ricardo Jones to Clemson.

The offensive lines at Northeast – led by 6-7, 300-pound Malachi Hancock - and Mary Persons, though, will be blocking with a little more juice than usual in hopes of winning the running game with running backs Nick Woodford of Northeast and Duke Watson of Mary Persons.

They’re two of the top 21 returning yardage-gainers from 2022, junior Woodford with 2,728 yards in his first year as a starter and senior Watson with 1,669, a year after getting 1,716.

Of course, the challenge is equally strong for both defenses to slow down the standout backs.

Jones, Ragins, Watson, Woodford and Hancock all earned spots on the GHSF/AJC preseason all-state team in their respective classifications. Jones, Ragins, and Watson are among the top 50 seniors in Georgia this year.