By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

It’s time to strap yourselves in, if you haven’t already.

Every Friday night has surprises in some form or fashion, just like last year, and the year before, and the year before.

Atop the list right now is, of course, The Transfer.

Thanks to ACE, FPD and Northside for game-night boxes and Brentwood for game-night info, a box on Saturday box from Lamar County, and on Sunday from Perry and Jones County.

Teams should send game information on game night by 2 a.m., or by 10:30 a.m. Notes by email or text, or a picture of a stat sheet suffice. Please have MaxPreps or Hudl boxes sent to centralgasports@gmail.com as soon as updated.

While attempts to get more on the process will come from here soon, yes, there’s plenty to raise an eyebrow on about Judd Anderson’s abrupt transfer from Jones County to Warner Robins. Enough to chew on for days in general, but some parts are simple.

Was it legal? Yes. How can they …?

Text Saturday from a friend, on three schools in three years: “Something doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Reply: “There’s an aroma, but not exactly thaaaat aroma.” And a reference toward a more adult-oriented fragrance.

It’s not complicated: fill out paperwork, submit paperwork, body receiving paperwork confirms information, oversight body (GHSA) does its preliminary inquiries and sets time frames for further inquiry, and that’s basically it.

Clearly, a fair amount of paperwork was ready for a transfer, that eyes and ears have been open for a bit. This obviously wasn’t a sudden decision.

For those who care about information and reading, feel free to check it out here from the GHSA book.

It’s a little fluid, but logically, you’d think that the process, with a move in such short order, involves the GHSA checking back in a week or two to make sure a family has a “for sale” sign up, turned the lights out, has started the process of moving, and has a residence in the new school’s zone.

No, this in reality isn’t a completely done-deal situation yet, because part of the equation the GHSA looks at is “undue influence”, and no doubt part of the conversation with the GHSA and a family involves that time frame and re-checking.

Central Georgia’s best coverage

Last week
* Roundup: Northeast takes down No. 1 on the road, new kid at the Mac sparks Warner Robins comeback; nice rebounds for Perry, Mary Persons, FPD; ACE shutout streak ends; Tattnall gets first W
* A Greyhound on Friday, a Demon on Monday: Anderson transfers to Warner Robins
* Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
* Maxwell Predictions, Central Georgia state rankings
* Who’s going to win this week’s games
* Monday Morning Quarterback: Notes, reviews, Central Georgia polls, Loughdmouthings

Two weeks ago
* Roundup: Houston County holds off Perry aGAIN, Northside stops Peach County, shutouts for Veterans, ACE, surprises from Jasper County, Upson-Lee
* Scouting Reports: This week’s GHSA and GIAA games
* Maxwell Predictions, Central Georgia state rankings
* Who’s going to win this week’s games
* Monday Morning Quarterback: Notes, reviews, Central Georgia polls, Loughdmouthings

So, he’s a Demon until he’s not (graduation, or, well …) and let’s move on to that.

The only way I thought Anderson would get some snaps Friday was if incumbent Chase Reese got hurt and backup Jordan Powell was then seriously ineffective, or maybe there’d be a few get-his-feet wet snaps if Warner Robins got ahead.

There aren’t more than about three people on the planet who legitimately and pass-a-lie-detector-test thought he’d play anywhere near as much as he did, the second half plus a bit in the first half. And there’s nobody who would have put money on him being as efficient as he was.

A safe guess is that the staff asked Anderson what his best plays were at Jones County, found the Demons’ version of those plays, and that was about it. Of course, all the strategy in the world is based on execution, and the Demons executed up front and catching the ball.

The comeback from 28-11 down was clearly a team effort – defensive stops, blocked field goals, block returned for a touchdown, etc. – and not just Anderson’s play, but he obviously had an impact.

The performance sure did liven up those message boards even more, with a lot of questions for Jones County and Warner Robins, wondering of subterfuge and what in the world people were thinking and how’d we get to this point.

The season continues, as it (almost) always does, but it’s certainly cloudier in Gray than in Warner Robins right now.

Fitzgerald flummoxed, Raiders rock

The reality is that Bibb County public school teams very rarely pull off a surprise, like beat a better team, beat a better team on the road, beat a better team on the road as a (deserved) sizable underdog.

They don’t much deliver upsets.

Northeast, often in spite of itself, kept Fitzgerald at bay at the most clutch times and pulled off what will rank as one of the upsets of the year, for many reasons.

One is that in the last five seasons entering 2023, Fitzgerald’s home losses have been to (ranking and class at the time), in reverse order: No. 3/AA Thomasville 15-8/2022, unranked Thomasville 20-14/2019 (finished 9-5), No. 3/A Irwin County 16-10.

That’s it. That’s serious.

Northeast is the lone Bibb County public team to have any real success in recent years against ranked teams, now 10-8 in such meetings, improving the county’s record to 11-47 against top-10 teams in the last five years. Other than Northeast, the last such win was by Southwest in 2019, 16-14 over Bleckley County.

Head coach Jeremy Wiggins was equally happy and frustrated.

“Right away, we had two five-yard penalties, gave them two first downs,” Wiggins said. “We had 11 penalties to their (two). You know I was going crazy the whole game.”

The Raiders controlled the ball much of the second half, including a 17-play, 65-yard possession, and the defense came up big after Fitzgerald recovered a fourth-quarter onside kick near midfield.

Northeast did to Fitzgerald what Fitzgerald does to teams.

“I tried to keep the ball the whole third quarter,” Wiggins said. “I wanted to keep the ball as long as I could.”

Now Fitzgerald knows what that’s like.

Last week’s upsets

One of the biggest in the state was Northeast rolling into Fitzgerald as underdog of two-dozen points and rolling out with a win over the No. 1 team, a team that has more 10-win seasons this century (18) than the Raiders have winning seasons in program history (16).

Mary Persons battled through injuries, among other things, and clutched it out with a game-winning field goal at Trinity Christian-Sharpsburg as a two-touchdown underdog.

Taylor County was a double-digit underdog and gutted it out in the fourth quarter to beat Montgomery County

FPD rolled on the road, winning by 19 as a slight underdog. Westfield was a two-score favorite and lost by a score.

Last week’s surprises

Hawkinsville-Claxton was expected to be close, and it was. For a few minutes. The Red Devils were picked to win by three, won by seven. Seven touchdowns.

Southwest won by 42 more points than expected,

The Maxwell Computer had Perry and Jones County even. Oops. The Panthers, though, were a 23-point favorite from this spot, and blew it open, scoring 54 points.

Jasper County and Morgan County was supposed to be tight, but Morgan County cruised 35-0.

Loughdmouthings

Will there be a game-of-the-week type crowd this week?

We had maybe Bleckley County-Dodge County, a longtime rivalry, in Week 1, Houston County-Perry in Week 2 was epic, and we had Warner Robins-Northside last week.

Perry-Veterans at Freedom Field has great potential to get at least 5,000 in there, but, well, fan bases – in general – need to quit talking/posting and show up. …

This week’s posting is belated courtesy of a bout of food poisoning/stomach virus, or something like that. Whatever it was that wasn’t allowing to keep things down. Progress is being made. …

The struggle: Got box scores from both teams Friday night. Team A had the 84 plays for both teams, Team B had 74 and 60. First downs? 32-21 on one side, 26-16 on the other. Penalties? 13 for 79 and 5 for 40 on one side, 8 for 60 and 8 for 80 on the other.

And this was two days after the game, not an hour afterward.

Another game charted nine first downs in a game with more than 300 yards of offense, and five first downs alone on five touchdowns. It’s doubtful the team only managed four first downs the rest of the way.

There’s a reason to take many stats with a grain of salt.

Like, just because the arm motion was like a pass, it’s still a lateral if it goes backward. Like, a team gets a first down on a touchdown if the gain was past the first-down marker (people forget). No stats on conversion plays. Don’t count declined penalties. Yards gained on a penalty are from the spot of the penalty for a spot foul.

There are team yards that aren’t given to a player, like a kneel-down, or punt snap that sails away. And the yardage spot for stats is at the next progressive yardline, not the closest yardline, so when streamin’ screamers can’t add or say “we’ll give them 4”, it’s a mess. …

Impact players? FPD didn’t have QB Jakhari Williams for the opener and lost. Mary Persons didn’t have RB Duke Watson, and lost to Spalding.

Williams accounted for 298 yards on offense, and the Vikings rolled on the road. Watson came back, and despite still not being a 100 percent, cracked 200 yards and the Bulldogs upset Trinity Christian. …

Shutouts were thrown by, well, nobody. Would’ve been one if ACE’s deep backups could’ve bowed up late against Pataula Charter. There was probably running at practice Monday.

Just playing around.

Everybody or most everybody played – aka margins of 35 points or more – for Houston County, Perry, Upson-Lee, Southwest, Hawkinsville, Stratford, Tattnall, and Gatewood. …

Your Sports Report’s time-saving not-paid-by-the-word skipping-weather-three-time-zones-away kickoff weather this Friday: daytime high about 91, nighttime low about 67, chances of rain less than 25 percent all day long.

Polls

For at least this week, it’s a struggle to find 10 teams in Division II worth of saying “they’re ranked.”

A tie here, a shutout there, here a romp, there a stomp.

More Division I teams are .500 or lower – and without a quality win - than owners of a winning record. Of course, some teams at .500 or lower are better than some teams with winning records.

Yes, your team can be jumped by not playing. It’s week to week, and not head to head. Just a reminder.

Division 1 (6A-5A-4A-3A, 13 teams)

1. Houston County
2. Perry
3. Warner Robins
4. Northside
5. Veterans
In the hunt: Howard, Upson-Lee

Division II (AA-A-GISA, 34 teams)

1. John Milledge
2. Dublin
3. Northeast
4. Macon County
5. Bleckley County
6. Lamar County
7. ACE
8. Stratford
9. Tattnall
10. Hawkinsville
In the hunt: Hmm. Need another week and more teams showing a winning record.