Thursday, Aug. 1, 2019

Greetings!
Welcome to the first issue of Georgia High School Football Daily's 11th season of covering high school football.
 
We have two big news items to report.
 
GHSF Daily has new title sponsors. We are excited to partner with AstroTurf and Sports Turf Company, both based in Georgia.
 
GHSF Daily also has a new archive. To find past issues of GHSF Daily dating to 2010, please visit the archive page hosted by the Georgia High School Football Historians Association.
 
In the coming days, we will provide preseason all-state teams, document the more than 100 offseason head-coaching changes, cover the NHSF's new rules changes and feature the top 10 players at each position.
 
GHSF Daily remains free. Please get to know our sponsors by clicking on their ads or logos as they make GHSF Daily possible. Let us know if you want to support GHSF Daily and promote your company with us.
Spotlight
Rush Propst was fired as Colquitt County's head coach after 11 seasons, in which he led the Packers to a record of 119-35 and two state championships. (Photo by Jason Getz / For the AJC)

Catching up on top stories of offseason
It wasn't known at the time, but it might've been Rush Propst's final game as a football coach. His Colquitt County Packers - 14-0 and ranked No. 1 in Class AAAAAAA - lost 14-13 to Milton in just about the largest upset in state finals history. Milton's preseason odds of winning the state title were 1,073-to-1, according to the computer Maxwell Ratings, which also pegged Colquitt as a 21-point favorite in the championship on Dec. 12.
 
It has been 232 days since that historic event. To get you caught up on what's happened since, here are the top 10 stories from the offseason.
 
10. Haselwood's final adieu: The state's No. 1 prospect for 2019, Cedar Grove wide receiver Jadon Haselwood, was named the AJC's all-classification player of the year two weeks after leading Cedar Grove to a state championship. He was the only top-10 Georgia prospect whose college decision seemed uncertain leading up to signing day. He signed with Oklahoma. Georgia's elite prospects continued to take a national view of their recruitment. The top 10, as defined by the 247Sports Composite, signed with nine different schools.
 
9. Stars begin to align: Recruiting services such as 247Sports and Rivals help shape the perception of every new season with their assessment of the latest class of prospects. Myles Murphy, a prominent member of Hillgrove's strong defense last season, but not then its biggest star, emerged as the state's consensus No. 1 recruit, a five-star defensive end who committed to Clemson. He's one of 10 Georgia players in the national top 100. Marietta, led by five-star tight end Arik Gilbert and four-star quarterback Harrison Bailey, has seven in Georgia's top 100.
 
8. Artificial turf movement: The number of Georgia football teams that play on artificial turf as their home fields grew by 19 this offseason. That brings the number statewide to 208 of the 422 football-playing schools in the GHSA. Fourteen added artificial turf to their campus stadiums. Those were Apalachee and Winder-Barrow in Barrow County; Adairsville, Cass and Woodland in Bartow County; Eagle's Landing, Hampton and McDonough in Henry County; plus Marietta, Metter, Walker, Toombs County, Towns County and Worth County. Shared stadiums that went to artificial turf were Griffin-Spalding Memorial (home to Griffin and Spalding) and the Ed DeFore Sports Complex in Macon (home to Howard, Rutland and Westside). The 19 is not a record. There were 24 teams that called artificial turf home for the first time in 2018. GHSF Daily will report on this trend in more detail later this month.
 
7. Going to college: The trend of successful Georgia high school coaches taking college jobs continued in a big way. Jimmy Smith, who led Cedar Grove to its second Class AAA championship in three seasons, took a job on Georgia State's staff. Joey King, who won two state titles with Trevor Lawrence as his quarterback at Cartersville, is now at Coastal Carolina. Kevin Whitley, who turned perennial loser Stockbridge into a state power, has joined Georgia Southern's staff. Also moving on to colleges were Villa Rica's Rico Zackery to Kennesaw State, Ridgeland's Cortney Braswell to Louisville, Pacelli's Mark LeGree to Georgia State and Americus-Sumter's Larry Harold to Kentucky State. College programs have tapped into Georgia in recent seasons to nab Jess Simpson of Buford, now a defensive line coach for the Falcons after working at Miami and Georgia State; Mickey Conn of Grayson, a secondary coach at Clemson; and Dell McGee of Carver in Columbus, an assistant head coach and running backs coach at Georgia.
 
6. Retired - Lamb, Dickerson, Herron, Shaw: That's 840 wins, 242 losses, 13 state titles, 48 region titles and 86 years of head coaching experience for those four - Hal Lamb at Calhoun, Jim Dickerson at Clinch County, Lee Shaw at Rabun County and Jeff Herron at T.L. Hanna (S.C.), formerly of Grayson, Camden County (et al.). Also retiring this offseason were Sid Fritts at Elbert County, Scott Wilkins at East Jackson, Don Williams of George Walton Academy, Vex Farley at Greenville, Mark Daniel at Rutland and Donnie Revell at South Effingham.
 
5. Home-schoolers ineligible, for now: The GHSA's executive committee in April voted down a proposal to allow home-schoolers to play varsity sports at the high schools that represent the school zones in which they reside. The GHSA office floated the proposal to get ahead of a bill making its way through the General Assembly. The bill stalled, meaning the GHSA could rest easy and vote no, but the issue isn't going away. These so-called "Tim Tebow Bills" - Tebow played for a Florida high school team as a home-schooler - are common in state legislatures. "It's an issue that's going to come up every year," GHSA executive director Robin Hines said.
 
4. Class A to have separate public, private regions: Beginning in the 2020 season, there will be 16 Class A regions - eight exclusively with public schools, and eight with private schools. No more power ratings. Each region will get four playoff teams, meaning an expansion to 64 from 48 Class A playoff teams. Of the approximately 420 football-playing schools, 256 will make the playoffs. The change, approved in April, also means eight more seats on the GHSA's executive committee from Class A, doubling the influence of Georgia's smaller schools.
 
3. Dream jobs suddenly open: There has never been an offseason with so many high-profile job openings for head coaches. Cedar Grove and Clinch County just won state titles. They have new head coaches. So do Colquitt County, Grayson and Cartersville, schools that have won two titles each since 2010. Calhoun has won three in that time. Buford has won 10 since 2000. Warner Robins just made the state finals for the second straight season. Perennial winners such as Charlton County, George Walton Academy, Griffin, McEachern, Mill Creek, Rabun County, Stockbridge, Ware County and Westlake also hired new coaches this offseason. All are chronicled in the first seven issues of GHSF Daily.
 
2. GHSA moves state finals to Georgia State: The state championship games, played or scheduled indoors at the Georgia Dome or Mercedes-Benz Stadium since 2008, went to Georgia State Stadium, the former baseball Turner Field south of downtown Atlanta. It's a cost-cutting move. The Benz charged roughly $600,000, Hines indicated in May, when the Georgia State deal was struck. Georgia State's fee is capped at $100,000, and the half-million-dollar windfall will go to the participating schools, the GHSA said. The dates for this year's finals are Dec. 13-14.
 
1. You're fired: It's stunning enough to see schools such as Buford and Grayson cast aside coaches who had just won their regions' coach-of-the-year awards as voted by their peers. Those would be Buford's John Ford (21-5 in two seasons) and Grayson's Christian Hunnicutt (20-5 in two seasons). But what happened on March 14 beat them all. Rush Propst, who had led Colquitt County to an unprecedented level of sustained excellence in the highest classification, was forced out amid allegations of insubordination, verbal abuse, providing pills to players and losing control of his team. An investigation by Colquitt County schools superintendent Jamie Dixon even dragged up an alleged $400,000 in owed back taxes. Propst said the accusations were either "totally false" or "misleading half-truths." Propst's record at Colquitt County was 119-35 in 11 seasons. His teams won state titles in 2014 and 2015, each time with a 15-0 record, and had Class AAAAAAA runner-up finishes the past two seasons. The Packers reached the semifinals or better nine of the past 10 seasons, the best run of consistency of its kind in the history of Georgia's highest class.
In Memoriam
Tribute to several who have passed away
Georgia lost many prominent high school football personalities during the offseason. Here is a tribute to some of those.
 
*Don Savage , head coach at Dunwoody (1997-2001) and Northview (2002-08), died at age 51 on Dec. 12 of respiratory failure complicated by a degenerative auto-immune neuropathy that he had battled for 10 years. Savage coached Georgia football for 29 years, most recently with Norcross in 2017.
 
*Dale Williams , who won state championships as a Valdosta player and Waycross head coach, died on March 6. Williams was the starting quarterback for Valdosta's 1956 and 1957 championship teams and a backup to Fran Tarkenton at Georgia. Williams' 1977 and 1981 Waycross teams won state titles, and his coaching record was 230-112-3. He was the father of former Georgia quarterback Todd Williams, a star on the 1981 Waycross state champion. Dale Williams was 79.
 
*Bill Yoast, a former head coach at Roswell and best known as the top assistant coach on the Virginia team that inspired the movie "Remember the Titans," died on May 23. Yoast was a graduate of Georgia Military Academy and Mercer University and coached at Sparta and Roswell before becoming head coach at Hammond in Virginia. Hammond was absorbed into T.C. Williams in 1971, where Yoast became the defensive coordinator under Herman Boone. Yoast was 94.
 
*Jack Rudolph, an assistant coach at Valdosta through 11 state championship teams with Wright Bazemore and Nick Hyder, most notably as defensive coordinator, died on June 23. Rudolph was a star player at Grady High in Atlanta and Georgia Tech. He played six seasons in the AFL with the Bills and Dolphins. He was the father of former Georgia Tech and NFL defensive end Coleman Rudolph. Jack Rudolph was 81.
 
*Tyshon Dye, an all-state player at Elbert County and running back on Clemson's 2016 national championship team, died on July 5 of a drowning in Lake Russell. Dye rushed for 1,561 yards for Elbert County in 2011 and was a four-time letterman in basketball and track and field. Dye was 25.
 
*Others: Dennis Payne , a former associate director of the Georgia High School Association, died on Feb. 25. Payne was the director of football for most of his 15 years at the GHSA, which he left in 2014. Payne was 72. ... Jim Frazier, for whom Sprayberry's stadium is named, died on July 4 at age 86. He was a coach at the school from 1959 to 1986. ... Jerry Foster, head coach of Calhoun from 1980 to 1988 and later its athletic director, died on May 14 at age 84. ... Norman Olson, head coach at Lakeside of Atlanta, Dublin and Newton in the 1960s and '70s, died on Feb. 22 at age 84.


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List
Longest-tenured: 7A
There are 13 new coaches among Class AAAAAAA's 48 schools. Fifteen coaches have been on the job five seasons or more. Cherokee County has provided the most stability. Its three coaches in the highest class - Brent Budde of Woodstock, Dave Svehla of Etowah and Josh Shaw of Cherokee - have led their programs for eight seasons or more. Jason Carrera has become the first coach to remain at Meadowcreek for five seasons since program founder Kevin Maloof (1986-90).
 
21 - Keith Maloof, Norcross
18 - Randy McPherson, Lowndes
14 - Phillip Ironside, Hillgrove
14 - Shane Queen, North Cobb
11 - Andy Dyer, Archer
10 - Brent Budde, Woodstock
10 - Jeff Arnette, South Forsyth
10 - Todd Wofford, Central Gwinnett
8 - Dave Svehla, Etowah
8 - Josh Shaw, Cherokee
6 - Eric Godfree, Parkview
6 - Louis Daniel, Lambert
5 - Ashley Anders, Tift County
5 - Jason Carrera, Meadowcreek
5 - Philip Jones, Brookwood
Trivia

The 2018 state champions were Milton, Lee County, Bainbridge, Blessed Trinity, Cedar Grove, Heard County, Clinch County and Eagle's Landing Christian. Which ones avenged regular-season defeats in the championship games? (Answer Friday)
 
Jostens is the leading provider of yearbooks, caps and gowns, class rings and championship rings and is the Official Championship Ring of the GHSA. Click here to learn more.
Games on the Web
The NFHS Network will present live streaming of football games from around the state each week. To sign up for the network or watch the games, click here . The NFHS Network partners with more than 100 Georgia high schools to give their students the opportunity to train and learn to broadcast their school's sporting events. Contact the NFHS Network to find out how your school can serve its students and fans with sports broadcasting opportunities.
GHSF Daily Archives
Issues of Georgia High School Football daily dating to 2010 can be found by clicking here.
Preseason All-State Teams
Class AAAAAAA
*Best player:  Harrison Bailey, Marietta. As a high school player, he makes the most difference. Bailey passed for 2,809 yards and 29 touchdowns in just nine games last season and should threaten state records. A four-star recruit, Bailey has committed to Tennessee.
 
*Best position:  Running back. Colquitt County's Daijun Edwards rushed for 1,480 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2018. Parkview's Cody Brown rushed for 1,588 yards as a sophomore and finished with three consecutive 200-yard games. McEachern's Jordon Simmons rushed for 982 yards and 16 touchdowns on just 105 carries and had another 380 yards receiving.
 
*Highly recruited:  Hillgrove defensive end Myles Murphy is the state's No. 1 recruit. The five-star prospect is committed to Clemson. The state's No. 2 recruit is Marietta tight end Arik Gilbert. Bailey is No. 9, and McEachern defensive tackle Jamil Burroughs, a Georgia commit, is No. 12. Milton tackle Paul Tchio, committed to Clemson, is No. 10.
 
*That's interesting:   The Oct. 25 game between Marietta and Hillgrove will match Murphy against Gilbert. That will be the first time a Georgia game has featured the state's top two recruits since 2007, when Westlake's Cam Newton faced Creekside's Eric Berry. Newton and Berry, arguably the most successful Georgia players from their decade, have played 17 seasons between them in the NFL.
 
*Snubbed?  Roswell tight end John Copenhaver (44 catches, 759 yards, 12 touchdowns in 2018) and Archer quarterback Carter Peevy (2,567 yards passing, 27 touchdowns) are all-state material but in the same classification as Gilbert and Bailey. Mill Creek's Parker Wroble (698 yards receiving, 663 rushing) is another good one who's hard to place.
 
*What else is new? Marietta has five players represented, and another four were strongly considered. No other school has more than two. Marietta safety Rashad Torrence, a starter as a sophomore, didn't play last season after he was declared ineligible for not establishing a bona-fide change in residency as required by the GHSA. He's a four-star recruit committed to Florida. Ricky White, who caught 55 passes for 1,006 yards in just 10 games for Wheeler last season, is the newest playmaker for the Blue Devils.
 
OFFENSE
QB - Harrison Bailey, Marietta, Sr.
RB - Cody Brown, Parkview, Jr.
RB - Daijun Edwards, Colquitt County, Sr.
WR - Josh Downs, North Gwinnett, Sr.
WR - Ricky White, Marietta, Sr.
TE - Arik Gilbert, Marietta, Sr.
OL - Ethan Lane, Archer, Sr.
OL - Micah Morris, Camden County, Jr.
OL - Aidan Perkins, Brookwood, Sr.
OL - Paul Tchio, Milton, Sr.
OL - Trey Zimmerman, Roswell, Sr.
ATH - Jordon Simmons, McEachern, Sr.
PK - Brock Travelstead, North Paulding, Sr.
 
DEFENSE
DL - Jamil Burroughs, McEachern, Sr.
DL - Jasheen Davis, Shiloh, Sr.
DL - Myles Murphy, Hillgrove, Sr.
DL - B.J. Ojulari, Marietta, Sr.
LB - Eli Orr, West Forsyth, Sr.
LB - Gary Osby, Lowndes, Sr.
LB - Will Troutman, Roswell, Sr.
LB - Kobe Wilson, Parkview, Sr.
DB - Ronald Clarke, Mill Creek, Sr.
DB - Jack Rhodes, Milton, Sr.
DB - Rashad Torrence, Marietta, Sr.
DB - Nyquann Washington, Colquitt County, Sr.
P - Albert Jang, Peachtree Ridge, Sr.
 
Coming Friday:  Class AAAAAA

New Coaches
Class AAAAAAA
Number of hires:  13
Best hire:  Franklin Stephens, McEachern
Hardest to replace:  Rush Propst, Colquitt County
Best job:  McEachern
Toughest job:  Lakeside
Most interesting: Kyle Hockman left McEachern, one of state's 10 best jobs, to coach at New Hampstead, a Savannah-area school with little football tradition. The motive was to be closer to his Tybee Island retirement home. Grayson parted ways with Christian Hunnicutt despite his 20-5 record over two seasons and a 2018 coach-of-the-year award. But nothing can top the news of the firing of Rush Propst, the state's (if not the nation's) most famous high school football coach. A school board investigation concluded that Propst lost control of the team, gave pills to student-athletes, interfered with the hiring of a principal and owed more than $400,000 in back taxes. Propst denied the charges, calling them "misleading half-truths meant to damage my reputation."
 
Region 1
*Colquitt County hired Jones County head coach Justin Rogers to replace Rush Propst, who was fired in March. Rogers' five-year record at Jones County was 45-15. Jones County had not won a playoff game since 2001 until Rogers' first season in 2014, when the Greyhounds went 10-3 and advanced to the Class AAAAA quarterfinals while scoring a school-record 481 points, twice the output of the previous season. Propst's record at Colquitt County was 119-35 in 11 seasons. His teams won state titles in 2014 and 2015, each with a 15-0 record, and had Class AAAAAAA runner-up finishes the past two seasons.
 
Region 2
*Campbell hired Etowah defensive coordinator Howie DeCristofaro to replace Kyle Adkins, who took the head coaching job at Bradwell Institute. As a head coach, DeCristofaro led Milton to its first region title in history in 2014 with future NFL players Peyton Barber and Carl Lawson. He was let go after a 5-5 finish in 2016. DeCristofaro was a head coach in Florida for 12 years before coming to Georgia. Campbell was 6-15 under Adkins, including 1-9 last season, but the 5-6 finish in 2017 marked the first playoff appearance since 2006.
 
*Pebblebrook hired Turner County head coach Leroy Hood to replace Kevin Saunders, who took the head coaching job at Gilmer. Hood's Turner County teams were 6-5 in each of his two seasons. Hood previously had been on Tift County's staff. Pebblebrook was 20-23 in four seasons under Saunders, who led the Falcons to three consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since 2001-03.
 
*Westlake promoted Bobby May to replace Kareem Reid, who took the head coaching job at Griffin. May was Westlake's offensive coordinator for one season. May was head coach at Suncoast in south Florida and led the school to its best season in 13 years (6-3 record) before coming to Georgia. May also has coached at Palm Beach Lakes and Palm Beach Gardens. Under Reid, Westlake was 10-4, 8-3 and 9-3 with three region championships.
 
*Wheeler hired Woodland (Stockbridge) head coach Bryan Love to replace Mike Collins, who took the head coaching job at River Ridge. Love's Woodland teams were 3-7 the past two seasons. He was Westlake's head coach during the region-championship seasons of 2014 and 2015. Love was Camden County's defensive coordinator before to coming to Westlake. Wheeler was 37-56 in 10 seasons under Collins and 6-4 in 2018.
 
Region 3
*McEachern hired Ware County head coach Franklin Stephens to replace Kyle Hockman, who took the head coaching job at New Hampstead. Stephens was at Ware County the past five seasons and Lamar County the previous two. He has won seven region titles at three schools, at least two at each of them. His record is 133-26-1 over 13 seasons. Stephens was the fastest head coach in Georgia to 100 wins in 2014 when he reached the century mark in 109 games, one quicker than Hall of Fame coach Robert Davis of Warner Robins. Hockman's record at McEachern was 103-32 with five region titles in 11 seasons.
 
Region 4
*Lassiter hired Mayville State (N.D.) head coach Sean Thom to replace Jep Irwin, who took the head coaching job at Whitley County in Kentucky. Thom was head coach for two seasons at Mayville, a long-suffering NAIA program that managed just two wins during his tenure. A native of Florida, Thom was defensive coordinator at Kennesaw Mountain and North Forsyth before becoming a head coach for one season at McCormick, which he led to South Carolina's Class A quarterfinals. Thom worked at college alma mater Faulkner University for a season before taking the Mayville job. Irwin was 51-47 in nine seasons at Lassiter. That included 10-win seasons in 2011 and 2012 but a 1-9 finish last year.
 
Region 5
None
 
Region 6
*Mill Creek promoted top assistant and offensive line coach Josh Lovelady to replace Shannon Jarvis, who remained as athletics director. Jarvis and Lovelady go back to their days at South Gwinnett, where they were assistants under T. McFerrin. Lovelady also played at South Gwinnett. Jarvis started the Mill Creek program in 2004 and led it to a 102-68 record and semifinal appearances in 2015 and 2016.
 
Region 7
*Duluth hired Grayson assistant Cam Jones to replace Bob Swank, who is now defensive coordinator at Chamblee. Jones was head coach at Lakeside of Atlanta in 2016 and 2017, and his teams were 7-13. Jones also has assisted at Norcross and aschools in Florida and his native North Carolina. He most recently was Grayson's receivers coach and passing game coordinator. Duluth was 10-30 overall and 4-6 in 2018 under Swank, who now works under his former Duluth offensive coordinator, Scott Schwarzer, Chamblee's head coach.
 
*Lakeside of Atlanta hired Henry County head coach Morris Starr to replace Zack Edwards, who is now defensive line coach at North Cobb Christian. Starr has been head coach at Henry County (2013-18) and Tri-Cities (2006-07) and has a 23-59 record. He was the Henry Herald county coach of the year in 2018, when he got Henry County (now called McDonough High) into the playoffs for the first time since 2011. Lakeside was 1-9 in Edwards' only season.
 
Region 8
*Grayson hired Creekview head coach Adam Carter to replace Christian Hunnicutt, who took the head coaching job at Villa Rica. In Carter's only season at Creekview, the Grizzlies finished 12-1 and reached the Class AAAAAA quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Lee County. Creekview finished No. 4 in the final rankings, the highest ever for a Cherokee County school. Carter had come to Creekview from Valdosta, where he was the defensive coordinator for the 2016 Class AAAAAA championship team. Carter has been an assistant at Marietta, Camden County and alma mater Paulding County as well as Reinhardt College as defensive coordinator for one season, 2014. He was head coach at Bradwell Institute in 2013 and led the Tigers to a 4-6 finish, twice the number of victories as the prior season.
 
*Newton promoted Camiel Grant to replace Terrence Banks, who took the head coaching job at Tri-Cities. Grant was Newton's interim head coach for the first round of the playoffs last season after Banks stepped down following the regular season. Grant primarily had coached the offense and quarterbacks the past five seasons at Newton. He also has been an offensive coordinator at M.L. King and Mundy's Mill. Banks' teams were 38-27 in six seasons, all ending in playoff appearances.
 
*Shiloh hired Palm Beach Central (Fla.) head coach Tino Ierulli to replace Ryan Andrews, who is now defensive coordinator at Griffin. Ierulli's Palm Beach teams were 33-24 over five years and 11-2 in 2018. The program won three district titles in Florida's highest classification. Ierulli has been a football coach for 16 years, starting with a semipro outfit called the Orlando Guardians. Shiloh was 8-32 in four seasons under Andrews and hasn't had a winning season since a 6-5 mark in 2003.
 
Coming Friday: Class AAAAAA
Four Questions
GHSF Daily's first Four Questions of the season features Adam Clack, head coach of defending Class AAAAAAA champion Milton. His team became only the second outside of Gwinnett County or south Georgia to win the title in the highest class over the past 20 years when the Eagles defeated Colquitt County 14-13 in the Dec. 12 championship game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
 
Adam Clack, Milton head coach
1. What has the offseason been like as defending state champion compared to previous seasons? "It's all uncharted territory for me and the staff and the community with all the things that have gone on with the state championship, from getting the rings to going to the capitol and the board of education to be recognized. We finished in the top 50 of MaxPreps' national rankings and they came to a basketball game to honor us. We've continued to do what we're supposed to do in January, February and March to follow the process that got us successful in the first place. As good a season as it was, we don't want to be one of those programs that can't answer the bell."
 
2. Teams from outside Gwinnett County and south Georgia almost never win state titles in the highest classification. Is this a signal of a new era? "I think you're seeing parity start to take shape in the landscape of Georgia high school football, whether it's Fulton County or Cobb County or teams in the middle of the state. I don't know if this is a signal that football is not as great in Region 1 or particularly Gwinnett County. They've been good because they made football and athletics important decades ago. They're still bearing fruits of that today. They really jumped ahead of everybody, and now you're seeing different counties catching up. I know in Fulton County, in every region that Fulton County competed in last season, we won it. Maybe there's something to be said about that. Time will tell." [Fact check: Clack is correct. Fulton County school district programs won the seven regions that housed their 16 schools -- 2-AAAAAAA (Westlake), 4-AAAAAAA (Roswell), 5-AAAAAAA (Milton), 5-AAAAAA (Creekside), 7-AAAAAA (Johns Creek), 6-AAAAA (Banneker) and 6-AA (Hapeville Charter).
 
3. How realistic is another deep run in the playoffs? "I don't know how realistic running the playoffs is. It's not something we talked a lot about last year, and it's not something we've talked about this year either, as cliché as that sounds. We want to give ourselves a shot to have a shot. That just means take care of business in the regular season to get into the tournament, and once we get there, get to where we can win on any given night. What's exciting this year is we could be built to be a November-December kind of team that's able to run the football and is stingy against the run. I think we'll be disciplined. I think we'll buy into our core values of brotherhood, effort and toughness, and when we show up and our backs are against the wall, we can count on the guy to the right and left, that he'll fight for 48 minutes. We have a great non-region schedule to test ourselves, and we'll take it from there.'' [Milton opens with Buford in the Corky Kell Classic.]
 
4. What do you think of the GHSA's move to Georgia State for the finals? "It's kind of a shame that we made a run through the playoffs last year and didn't put away the money financially that I've heard other teams have made in the third round. We technically had three home games, and I've never seen a crowd like we drew to Mercedes-Benz. Fans came out in droves. But it costs money to make those runs. It is definitely a very cool experience to play at Mercedes-Benz, but if they cannot make it affordable for the GHSA and the schools, it isn't worth it, in my opinion. Georgia State was a fun venue to play in last year [for the Corky Kell Classic.] But if we're fortunate to get to the championship again, we'd play in Piedmont Park if that was more beneficial for my program."
 
Choice Hotels is the preferred Hotel Partner of the GHSA. All schools, teams, officials, families and friends receive a 15-percent discount staying at participating Choice Hotels when booking by using GHSA promo code 00213510. Click here to learn more.
Classifieds
Groves seeks assistant coaches
Groves High School in Savannah is looking for best-fit coaches for both sides of the ball. Possible defensive coordinator position available. Contact head coach James Latimore for more information.
 
Cedarwood Tavern returns for fourth season covering Cherokee football
Get all the pregame and postgame coverage of Cherokee County teams on the Cedarwood Tavern Football Show. This season's broadcasts will start on Aug. 23 with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. and the postgame show at 10:30 p.m. The show will broadcast on Twitter Live and Periscope. It will also be carried on WLJA 101.1 FM. Email Von Brown for more information.
 
High school football coaching headsets for sale
North Oconee High School is selling its headsets. It is a PortaPhone ComSTAR System that includes13 wireless headsets & two base stations, fully customizable to operate on the sidelines and in the press box. Also includes batteries, charging stations & two Pelican Cases for transport. This system has been serviced annually and is in mint condition. $5,500 - email Kurt Doehrman if interested.
 
Scrimmage game needed Aug. 16.
Norcross is looking for a scrimmage game on Aug. 16. Contact head coach Keith Maloof by email or call 678-910-5990.
GHSF Daily classified ads
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About Us
GHSFD logo Georgia High School Football Daily is a free e-mail newsletter produced   and owned by Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye. Holcomb is a former lead high school football writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and co-founder of the Georgia High School Football Historians Association. Saye is a 30-year veteran of the newspaper industry who has covered high school sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Athens Banner-Herald, Anderson (S.C.) Independent-Mail and Gwinnett Daily News.