Week 1 of the 2024 high school football season is here, and there are plenty of storylines to go around. However, some are better left to see what develops over the coming weeks and months.
But we found a few things that may interest fans and could impact who comes out on top in December, as well as a few individual observations.
So, let’s get things underway with the first Friday Game Night Notebook of the season.
LET THE DEBATE BEGIN: WHICH HALF OF THE STATE IS BETTER?
It’s been an age-old question. Which area of the state is stronger, the North or the South? Of course, it depends on what classification you’re talking about. It also depends on where most of the metro Atlanta schools are placed.
For most of its existence, the GHSA has tried to keep travel to a minimum early on by having the North play North and the South play South in the opening round. But in 2024, half of the opening round will pit North vs. South teams in the first round, at least in Class 4A-6A. Class A to 3A will use power rankings to determine the playoff field and seedings.
This season, 4A, 5A, and 6A have region-vs.-region first-round matchups as follows: 1 vs. 5 and 2 vs. 8, pitting the North and South. Regions 6 vs. 7 and 3 vs. 4 will have one matchup each of North vs. North and South vs. South.
Hopefully, the new format will allow for the better teams to match up later rather than early in the playoffs. We shall wait to see.
HERE A CHAMP, THERE A CHAMP, EVERYWHERE A STATE CHAMP!
You knew that with the GHSA dropping an entire classification, the remaining six would see more consolidation of power teams as they moved up and down. There definitely were some interesting placements. Fortunately for us fans, it could make for one of the best postseasons in recent memory, at least since the state had just six classes prior to the 2016 season.
Class 6A, now the highest class in the GHSA, will remain one of the best pure high school leagues in the nation with the likes of Buford, Colquitt County, Mill Creek, Grayson, Walton, Westlake, Carrollton, and the list goes on. Even the first round in that league will not be for the faint of heart.
But Class 5A found nearly half of last year’s eight state champions eventually housed here after the reshuffling was over. Milton, the defending Class 7A champ, dropped down, while last year’s Class 6A champ, Thomas County Central, and defending 5A champion Coffee, are also in the classification. Just the thought of a semifinal with those three would lead most fans to say go ahead and start the playoffs. The problem could be that everyone else in the 61-team classification could be playing for that final spot.
Jackson County and Habersham Central are the only AccessWDUN area teams in Class 5A and are in a wide-open Region 8-5A as well. Snagging a home playoff game in the opening round could go a long way in what will be a brutal playoff field.
We can’t wait to see how this turns out.
CAN LEE GET THE EAGLES FLYING AGAIN?
Riverside Prep, one of the oldest running programs in Georgia, already is considered one of the toughest jobs in the state under normal circumstances. With the program being shut down during COVID, it has become even more difficult.
The Eagles have a brutal 1-25 record since reinstating the program in 2021 and are on a current 25-game losing streak, matching the program record initially set from 1996-98.
Now, the Eagles have a new coach after Nick Garrett left after six seasons to take over the same position at Andrew College in Cuthbert. Garrett won 11 games in a two-year stretch and guided them to the second round of a difficult Class A playoffs in 2018, their first postseason appearance in nearly a decade. However, a talented group of seniors was forced to transfer out when the administration shut down everything in 2020.
Former Dawson County coach Jeff Lee was hired in January after spending the last nine years in Florida. Early on, it looks like things are on the upswing. Lee said he had nearly two dozen players in summer camp (a high summer number for the boarding school).
Lee knows how to coach, and early indications show that he has the RPA brand moving forward. It may take another year or two, but he could have the Eagles flying once again.
A TALENT RECORD IN MILTON?
According to Todd Holcomb of Georgia High School Football Daily, a newsletter covering Georgia high school football that is published daily during the season, the Buford-Milton showdown will be a record showcasing Power 4 talent.
The game will feature 19 seniors who have committed to Power 4 Conference teams, which Holcomb says represents "the most major Division I college seniors in one game in Georgia history." Holcomb stated that the previous record was 14 during the 2016 Class 7A championship game between Roswell and Grayson.
Here are the lists of the players from both Buford and Milton that are expected to play:
Buford (10) — WR Jordan Allen (Louisville), RB Justin Baker (Tennessee), TE Hayden Bradley (Ole Miss), CB Chris Garland (Stanford), LB A.J. Holloway (South Carolina), DL Nicco Maggio (Wake Forest), LB Jadon Perlotte (Southern Cal), LB Kenyon Rivera (Kansas), LB Mantrez Walker (Colorado), CB Devin Williams (Auburn). Milton (9) — TE Ethan Barbour (Georgia), DL Caleb Bell (Arkansas), TE Ryan Ghea (Auburn), OT Brayden Jacobs (Clemson), S Ma'khi Jones (Duke), CB Dylan Lewis (Tennessee), QB Luke Nickel (Miami), CB Tyler Redmond (Tennessee), WR C.J. Wiley (Florida State).
LET’S GET RANKED!*
Several northeast Georgia area teams are getting some early-season love from writers around the state.
In our Friday Game Night Composite poll, seven teams cracked the Top 10 in the initial poll of the season. Of course, no one has played a game yet, so expect this to change next week.
Of the seven, two are ranked No. 1 in their respective classifications. Buford edged out Carrollton in Class 6A. Jefferson begins the year No. 1 in Class 3A ahead of Sandy Creek.
Gainesville in Class 5A opens at No. 3 behind defending Class 7A state champion and nationally-ranked Milton along with Thomas County Central. Lumpkin County is seventh in Class 3A to begin the season.
In Class A Division 1, Commerce is fifth, Rabun County is sixth, and another Region 8-A D1 member, Elbert County, is eighth.
(* -- Rankings are based on a composite average of the rankings of the AJC/GHSFD, Maxwell, MaxPreps, Score Atlanta, GPB, 680 The Fan and RecruitGA.)
