It might have taken a couple of days, but the 2025 high school football season is underway, and boy, did we learn some stuff!
Here are five things we learned from Week 1 of high school football:
1. BUFORD'S DEFENSE IS A BEAST!
This might seem obvious, because Buford always has great players on the defensive side of the football. But did you see what they did to Milton on national television Thursday night? They made a team that had won 25 straight games completely one-dimensional. I said in the lead up that the secondary might have been the weaker part of the defense, and that group proved they can hang with the front seven. They had three interceptions, including the game-sealing one in the final minute. Watch out. This Buford defense is going to cause FITS all season long.
2. QUARTERBACKS SHINE ON OPENING NIGHT
Four quarterbacks really showed out on the gridiron Friday night with Paris Wilbanks of Habersham Central, Jamarcus Harrison of East Hall, Ty Truelove of Rabun County and Kharim Hughley of Gainesville each leading their teams to blowout wins. Wilbanks had three touchdowns on the way to beating Stephens County for just the second time since 1996. Harrison accounted for four touchdowns, two on the ground and two through the air. Truelove led his team up and down the field, setting up the rushing game to score a lot of short touchdowns. Hughley had three touchdowns of his own at City Park. If we are looking for the top quarterback in our area, these four have started their resume early on.
3. BANKS COUNTY IS GOING TO BE HARD TO PUT AWAY
We had an inkling that the Leopards weren't far from being a team to watch out for. It looks like they might be ahead of schedule. Yes, they lost to East Hall, but they put up 21 points and were in the game for a good portion of the contest. The triple option attack is hard to prepare for once you get into the grind of a season, so these Leopards have a great chance to play spoiler against a lot of teams in 8-A Division I. This team is going to win ball games this year. The question is who will they ultimately play spoiler against.
4. JACKSON COUNTY DEFENSE BRINGS THE JUICE
The Panthers had to wait until Saturday morning to get their season going, but it didn't take long to find out that their defense is going to be something to watch this season. Twice in the first half, Flowery Branch drove inside the redzone, and twice the Falcons came away without any points. The Panthers held Branch to just 13 rushing yards in the entire game. The secondary will continue to improve throughout the season, but heading into a matchup against Jefferson this week, Jackson County has to be happy with how the front seven is playing early this year.
5. MOTHER NATURE IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE UNDEFEATED
For a second year in a row, storms wreaked havoc on opening week. Five games in our area alone got pushed to Saturday kickoffs, while games stretched into the wee hours of Saturday morning after multiple hour delays on Friday night. The good thing is, though, we got the games in. And boy, is it good to have high school football back in our lives! Enjoy it while it's here, though, because in what will seem like a blink of an eye, we are going to be getting ready to start the playoffs, and the season will be drawing to a close.
