The 2019 football season finally is in full swing with fall practice underway around the state, yet one huge burning question hovers over northeast Georgia area programs like a wayward drone: who among the perennial playoff powers can get back to state prominence?
The 2018 season by any measure was not what many coaches, teams, or fans, have come to expect after an amazing 11-year run that saw at least one area team advance to the semifinals and/or finals.
There were some pleasant surprises, to be sure.
Riverside Military Academy won its first-ever Georgia High School Association playoff game and its first postseason win of any kind since 2006 (GISA). Habersham Central won its first playoff game since 2007. North Hall snapped a four-game postseason losing streak with its first playoff win since 2012. Dawson County posted its first-ever 10-win season. Johnson claimed its most wins (4) since going 6-4 in 2012.
However, just 11 northeast Georgia area teams overall from Class A Private through Class 6A in the GHSA advanced to the playoffs, with just three -- Commerce (Class A-Public), Rabun County (Class 2A), Buford (Class 5A) -- making it out of the second round. Jefferson was knocked off in the first round for the first time since 2011. None got past the quarterfinals.
Buford’s 11-year run of semifinal appearances came to an end one year after its 10-year streak of consecutive finals was halted. After winning 10 titles in a 14-year span (2001-14) the Wolves have not added a title to their trophy case since 2014. And now, after having just two coaches (Dexter Wood, Jess Simpson) over a 22-year span they are on to their third coach (Bryant Appling) since 2016.
But Appling, who was a Wolves assistant for the past 15 years before being promoted to take over for the departed John Ford, said they are not as far off from a return to the glory days as many may think.
“The last couple of years I felt like we got away from focusing on the little things,” Appling said. “There was a little too much focus on the last two games of the season -- the semifinals and finals -- and not enough on what was going on in the moment and getting better each day. We are going back to the Buford Way, so to speak.
“The potential and talent are there. We just have to develop it a little better. If the guys will focus on the little things -- getting better each practice, each day, each week -- then I think we’ll be fine.
“We’re really not as far off to being what we used to be. But only time will tell if we can get back to where people think we should be. We feel good about how things are going so far.”
Jefferson’s program-best six-year run of quarterfinals or better was snuffed out in a stunning Class 3A first-round loss to Westminster in 2018. Starting with their 2012 Class 2A state championship season, the Dragons had advanced to the semifinals twice, the finals once, and had won three region titles in a five-year span.
However, the Dragons have not won a region title since 2016 and injuries derailed a promising 7-1 start as they finished 2018 with an 8-3 record, which snapped a six-year streak of 10 or more wins.
Jefferson coach Gene Cathcart said none of that will change anything at Memorial Stadium.
“Expectations here never change: they are always high,” Cathcart said. “No excuses but telling it the way it was. We had 11 starters lose 8 full games or more last year and we only had our projected starting lineup for 39 percent of the season. It’s hard to make a playoff run when you don’t have your best players, especially in a classification as tough as Class 3A.
“But on the positive side, we had a ton of younger guys get a lot of experience last year. Really, to be 7-1 at one point like we were with all the injuries we had was pretty remarkable and a testament to the coaching staff and the younger players.”
The experience factor is one reason Cathcart is almost giddy about getting 2019 under way. Projected phenom sophomore Malaki Starks, who was lost for the entire 2018 season, and senior quarterback/linebacker Colby Clark, who also missed the last half of the season, both are back and the Dragons appear to be at full strength for the first time in two years.
“We’ve had a great offseason and morale is very high,” Cathcart said. “We feel we have the talent to be considered among those teams with a chance to win (the state title). The biggest question was just getting all our top guys back. We feel very confident that we can get back to the levels we, and our fans, expect us to be every year. If we can stay healthy and get some breaks to go our way, of course.”
Rabun County, which advanced to its first-ever championship game in 2017, fell in the Class 2A quarterfinals in 2018. The Wildcats sported a new freshman quarterback in Gunner Stockton and now will sport a new coach as Jaybo Shaw takes over for his father, Lee Shaw, who stepped down after the 2018 season.
The Wildcats will be a heavy favorite to win their sixth consecutive Region 8-2A title. And Jaybo Shaw said that’s the way they want it.
“Our goal here always is to win the region and then the state titles,” Shaw said. “If you’re not playing to win titles, why are you playing.”
Stockton, who garnered multiple Power 5 offers, including from Georgia and Georgia Tech, and has gotten “bigger and faster,” according to Shaw. Combined with a talented receiving group, the Wildcats should be poised to improve on last year’s “disappointing” finish. However, he said they are embracing whatever expectations are being put on them.
“We expect a huge year from Gunner but that’s also because we may have the most talented and deepest receiving corps we’ve ever had,” Shaw said. “Last year was a disappointing end because we want to win titles. We played bad at the wrong time and got beat. But the potential was there.
“We take it as a compliment that people are now putting those big expectations on us. We’re embracing them. To me, that means we have built the program to a higher status and that’s what you strive for.
“We don’t worry about who is returning or who has left. Our job as coaches is to get this team better each day and hopefully be peaking at playoff time. We feel very good about going into this year.”
Flowery Branch, which snagged its first playoff win in six years in 2017, was knocked out in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs in 2018 after suffering a plethora of injuries to go with some late-season suspensions. The Falcons are looking to duplicate a stretch from 2005-11 where they won nine or more games each season and went 13-7 in the playoffs with four quarterfinals appearances, two semifinal runs, and a trip to the Class 3A championship game in 2008.
Third-year Falcons coach Ben Hall, who was the offensive coordinator on that 2008 team, said the goal is a simple one.
“We want to get back to that level,” Hall said. “When we got here two years ago we told the younger kids that it would take time but that if they bought into what we were trying to do we could get back to that level. After last year, I feel we’re ready to make that next step.”
The Falcons were just inches from knocking off then-No. 1 ranked and eventual state champion Blessed Trinity as a two-point pass to beat the Titans in overtime sailed just high in a 21-20 loss. That left many convinced they were a state title contender.
However, the loss came with a heavy price as more than a half-dozen starters suffered injuries that impacted them the rest of the season. Hall said that could be a key development for the 2019 season.
“The injuries in that game and others over the second half (of last season) were unfortunate,” Hall said. “But those are part of the game and a program that wants to be at the top has to have quality depth. Ironically, because of all those injuries, we were able to develop even more depth than we had already. That’s why we feel so good about this season.”
Gainesville had one of the area’s most impressive runs over an eight-year period (2008-14) making the quarterfinals or better seven times with four semifinal berths and two state championship games, including capturing the 2012 Class 4A state title. And Gainesville did keep its 19-year playoff streak alive in 2018 despite a 2-8 regular season.
But after a loss to Creekside in the first round of the playoffs the Red Elephants finished with their worst overall record (2-9) since 1999. It also marked a third straight first-round exit.
Second-year coach Heath Webb said changing the mindset has been Priority No. 1 in what he called their “1,000-day project.”
“For Gainesville to get back where we were, we needed a cultural shift, so to speak,” he said. “How we think, act, speak as a program, including a total makeover at the middle school level. That has been our focus. We’re 400-plus days into it and already I see huge changes. If last year was a 1, this year so far has been about a 9. Night and day.”
And the Red Elephants return the bulk of their starters, including a stout offensive line (“maybe the best line I’ve ever had in my 11 years,” Webb said) led by senior Jordan Williams and a beefy defensive line led by senior Markius Scott. Junior quarterback Gionni Williams also has had a full offseason to fine-tune his game.
And while Webb said “building the foundation of the program supersedes wins at the moment,” they are not about to surrender the 2019 season.
“We definitely do not want to go through another year like (2018),” he said. “We have a very, very tough schedule. If we’re moving the program forward in every area except wins, I’ll be okay with that. This is a process for the long-haul.
“But we’re not going to just sacrifice a season, either. These guys have made tremendous progress already. We will go as our line goes. They are good enough that maybe we can fast-forward that 1,000-day calendar.”
Commerce, however, may be the quintessential power program to dissect. After back-to-back semifinal appearances in 2014-15, the Tigers have not advanced past the quarterfinals since but did post their first 10-win season since 2014 last season and just their second since 2006.
They have won 46 games since 2014 (9.2 wins a season) in one of the toughest regions in the state (8-A) and have gone 6-5 in the playoffs during that time after tallying just 39 victories from 2007-13 (5.5 wins a season) with a 1-7 playoff mark in that span.
Michael Brown, now in his seventh season, has built the Tigers back into a power that should challenge for region titles and make the playoffs every season. However, can they get back over the hump with what is expected to be a seasoned group?
“To be honest, we really don’t talk about that kind of stuff,” Brown said. “Our focus is always just on ourselves and what we can do -- from coaches and players -- to get better each day. We try to develop a team and just be the best we can be at all times. If we do that every day, the wins will come.”
With getting back to, or continuing to, preach the old-school basics as a common theme, the 2019 season could go down as one where the power programs in northeast Georgia look back as to where they began their latest march back to the top of the mountain.
