Number of hires: 15

Best hire: Joey King, Carrollton

Hardest to replace: Clint Jenkins, Dacula

Best job: Carrollton

Toughest job: Osborne

Most interesting: Normally it would be the return of Joey King, the two-time former state champion at Cartersville who’s now in Carrollton after a two-year venture into college football. But nothing in Georgia offseason history compares to Valdosta’s latest saga. After the GHSA hammered Valdosta with $7,500 in fines and banned the football team from the 2021 playoffs, the school board moved in April to fire Rush Propst by a 5-3 vote. Two weeks later, a board member made a motion to reconsider Propst’s ouster, believing he might have the votes to bring him back. The momentum stalled, and Valdosta canceled the meeting, ending a three-month drama that began in February with the booster club director accusing the famous coach of seeking “funny money” to secure transfer players. Propst denies the allegations.

*Valdosta hired former University of Tennessee assistant Shelton Felton as interim coach to replace Rush Propst. As a head coach, Felton led alma mater Crisp County to a 13-1 Class 3A semifinal finish in 2016, then coached four seasons in college, most recently as Tennessee’s outside linebackers coach. He ran Valdosta’s spring practices after Valdosta fired Propst in April. Felton had coached under Propst at Colquitt County (2013-14). Propst moved back to Alabama, enrolling his youngest three children at Piedmont High, about 20 miles west of Cedartown. Propst won't be coaching this fall but can be seen on the sidelines again in a Netflix reality series about Valdosta's 2020 season called "Titletown High.'' It features eight 30-minute episodes and premiers Aug. 27.

*Bradwell Institute hired Mitchell County coach Deshon Brock to replace Kyle Adkins. Brock’s Mitchell County teams were 33-11 with two region titles in four seasons. He had spent 10 seasons at Long County, where he was an assistant football coach and head boys basketball coach. Bradwell was 0-8 in 2020 and 3-7 in Adkins’ first season. Adkins is now assistant head coach at Sprayberry.

*Effingham County hired Bleckley County defensive coordinator and former Buford and Roswell head coach John Ford to replace Buddy Holder, who took another position in the school system. Ford’s best success came at Roswell, where his teams reached Class 7A finals in 2015 and 2016. At Buford, he was forced out despite a 21-5 record over 2017-18. Effingham County was 3-7 in 2020 and 43-42 over Holder’s eight seasons.

*Evans hired Southeast Bulloch coach Barrett Davis to replace Lemuel Lackey, who became head coach at Fox Creek in South Carolina. Davis’ Southeast Bulloch teams were 21-11 in three seasons and won Region 3-3A in 2020. Davis was defensive coordinator from 2014 to 2017 at Evans’ city rival, Lakeside. Evans under Lackey was 10-2 with a region title in 2020 and 40-26 in six seasons.

*Heritage of Conyers promoted defensive coordinator Eddie Snell as interim coach to replace Corey Johnson. Snell has been on Heritage’s staff for eight seasons and worked at Jackson the previous eight. He’s an Alabama native and former Alabama State defensive end. Heritage was 3-2 in 2020 and 24-25 in five seasons under Johnson, the former Georgia player who is now Ola’s cornerbacks coach and head boys basketball coach.

*Grovetown promoted defensive coordinator Cory Evans to replace Damien Postell. Evans also has assisted at Washington-Wilkes, Jefferson County and alma mater Thomson. Grovetown was 2-9 in 2020 and 24-31 in five seasons under Postell, who joined Augusta Prep's staff.

*Rockdale County hired Miller Grove coach Lee Hannah to replace interim coach Derek Coggin. Hannah has been a head coach at Baldwin (2014-16) and Miller Grove (2018-20) and holds a 21-41 record. Rockdale County was 0-5 last season and last had a winning campaign in 2013. Coggins remains a teacher at the school and still coaches golf, but not football.

*Tucker hired Northview coach James Thomson to replace Bryan Lamar, who became South Gwinnett's head coach. Thomson’s Northview teams were 15-25 in four seasons. Thomson was a head coach for six seasons in Florida and led Gainesville High to the Florida Class 6A championship game in 2012. Thomson served as an offensive analyst at UCLA in 2016. Under Lamar, Tucker was 3-5 last season but 83-29 with four region titles and two state finals appearances in nine seasons. (See GHSF Daily intern Abbey Walton's interview with Thomson here.)

*Alexander hired Westover coach Olten Downs to replace Matt Combs, who is now teaching at Lithia Springs. Downs was 12-14 in four seasons at Westover. He’s best known for leading Creekside to a 2013 Class 5A championship. Alexander was 6-4 in 2020 and 63-56 in 11 seasons with Combs.

*Carrollton hired University of South Florida tight ends coach Joey King to replace Sean Calhoun, who became head coach at Vestavia Hills in Alabama. Before a two-year stint in college ball, King was Cartersville’s head coach for five seasons, and his teams won region titles in each of them and state titles in 2015 and 2016. He was the fastest football coach in state history to reach 50 wins, in 52 games. King was on Carrollton’s staff from 2008 to 2013, coaching quarterbacks and running the offenses, under Rayvan Teague. Carrollton reached the state finals in 2010 and 2013 when King was on staff. Carrollton lost in the quarterfinals each of the past five seasons.

*Dalton promoted defensive coordinator Kit Carpenter to replace Matt Land. Carpenter, a Dalton graduate and former N.C. State linebacker, has been on Dalton’s staff for nearly 20 years. Dalton was 2-7 in 2020, the Catamounts’ first losing season since 1959 when not counting 2011 forfeits, but was 80-43 in 11 seasons overall under Land, who was the 2019 Don Shula High School Coach of the Year, an award that recognizes impact on players’ lives. Land is taking time away from coaching but remains a seventh-grade teacher in the Dalton school system.

*Osborne hired Hillgrove defensive coordinator Luqman Salam to replace Russell Isham, who retired. Salam had been on Hillgrove’s staff since 2008. Salam had coached four seasons at Wheeler before joining Hillgrove’s staff. Osborne has won two games in the past five seasons, one of those last season, a 29-8 victory over Forest Park.

*South Cobb hired Harrison defensive line coach Thomas Hanson to replace Terry Jones. Hanson was on Harrison’s staff since 2017 and assisted at Marietta the three seasons prior. He’s a former Wofford player who first coached in Maryland. South Cobb was 6-34 in Jones’ four seasons and last had a winning season in 2012. Jones is now Wheeler's offensive coordinator.

*Dacula hired Northside (Warner Robins) assistant Casey Vogt to replace Clint Jenkins, who became head coach at Morgan County. Vogt was on Mercer University’s staff from 2013 to 2019, serving one season as offensive coordinator. He also was on staffs at Colgate and Youngstown State. Vogt, the son of a 46-year football coach in Pennsylvania, played at Slippery Rock. Dacula was 7-4 in 2020 and 31-8 in Jenkins’ three seasons, including a state semifinal appearance in 2019.

*Lanier promoted defensive coordinator David Willingham to replace Korey Mobbs, who became head coach at Knoxville Catholic in Tennessee. Willingham had been Lanier’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator and joined the staff when the program began in 2010. He previously assisted at Collins Hill. Lanier was 58-22 with two region titles in Mobbs’ seven seasons and was 4-5 in 2020.

Coming Wednesday: Class 5A

1. It has been seven months since Buford won the 2020 state title. With time to reflect, what was special about that team? “First and foremost, I think you have to admire the grit and toughness of the 2020 team. The way they fought once again, coming back from a deficit late in the state championship game, finding ways in our two-minute offense and once again in overtime to just make big play after big play when it mattered most. We just had a bunch of kids that had experienced a lot of the same pressures in a championship game the previous year, and I think it showed in their poise when things may have not necessarily looked in our favor. In terms of last year's state title and its uniqueness, I think I'll always remember and appreciate what our kids, coaches and community did to help us get to that point in the midst of a pandemic. We were disciplined and intentional in going through protocols, wearing masks, distancing and other areas throughout the season to ensure that we kept our players as healthy as possible. Even when some issues arose, because we stayed diligent in these guidelines, we were able to minimize the ‘circle’ affected. I can't thank my coaching staff enough for holding the line, our board of education and administration for allowing a digital option that some of our players chose to opt into, and even other teachers in our building for their support. I mean, we spent the entire year meeting as a team in our school's theater that seats 950 in order to social distance properly. That only happens because those in our arts programs are also supportive of our kids and our football program in allowing us to use their facility each week, and that's just one small example of how the faculty and staff at Buford continually supported us.”

2. Buford has won a title the past two seasons as merely one of the favorites. But now as a two-time defending champion, with several key players back, most everyone is going to say Buford is the team to beat from the start. Do you talk to your team a little differently this season to warn of the pitfalls of high expectations? “Ever since I've been at Buford, the message to each team is about THIS year's team. That was something I learned from Coach [Dexter] Wood and Coach [Jess] Simpson as an assistant. Winning a state title is always special. But this year's team didn't do that. This group of kids, no matter how many you have returning, didn't compete for that title as this year's version of themselves. It is a tremendous blessing to have some of the experience we do returning, but as we've always told our teams here, ‘You are only as good as your seniors will allow your team to be.’ This group of returning players, particularly our seniors, must now step into leadership roles that some have not experienced before. The bottom line is, we are Buford. Expectations are high every year. Our kids desire them, our coaches expect them, and our community relishes them. There's no place like it, and it definitely isn't for everyone. But the message is always the same each year.”

3. Your schedule is as good as we can remember. Was there a concerted effort to beef it up, and is there a story behind securing the Myers Park and Chaminade games? “You are correct about our schedule. Arguably one of, if not the, toughest non-region schedule we've ever had. There wasn't necessarily an intention to make it the most difficult, but some games began to fall into place that just opened opportunities for us to compete against some great programs. First, we have a chance to compete against North Cobb again in the Corky Kell. Coach [Shane] Queen has a tremendous team coming back himself, and we played in a great environment up there last year as they have tremendous fan support and the Wolves always travel well. Myers Park actually reached out to me early this year looking for an opportunity to play an out-of-state team. They sought us out as someone with a game open, and we were excited to bring in a really talented program from North Carolina to Tom Riden Stadium. In regards to Chaminade, we were still one game short of a full schedule pretty late in the game and had some assistance from a company, Prep Gridiron Logistics, that helped put the game together. Again it was a situation where Chaminade was willing to travel up from Florida to play, so we jumped at the chance to compete against another really strong football program.

4. What does Buford bring back this season, and how might this team be different than in 2020? “Obviously, on offense we are going to rely on our experience at quarterback, running back and receiver to begin the year as we look for some younger linemen to gain game experience. Ashton Daniels and Dylan Wittke are both proven winners, and we have trust in both of those young men helping to lead our offense. Victor Venn and C.J. Clinkscales will be joined by a couple others continuing our tradition of featuring multiple backs throughout games. Isaiah Bond and Jake Pope are electric on the outside and kids that have made big play after big play for the Wolves. We have some experience coming back on the offensive line, led by Jackson Favors, but will definitely be asking a lot of some younger players to grow up quickly. As far as throwing the ball more, I go back to Coach Wood introducing me to the book, ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins and the Hedgehog Concept of focusing on where your strengths lie and being the best at them. We have always prided ourselves on being a multi-dimensional offense that utilizes the run game to enhance the passing game. I think when people in the state of Georgia think about Buford football, the ability to run the football goes hand in hand. I do think that Coach Condon [offensive coordinator Gus Condon] does a great job of utilizing the talent we have around our quarterbacks. We have been tremendously successful over the years with some quarterbacks that were great athletes and some that were just trustworthy game managers, so to have two dynamic young men that can do so many things from the quarterback position is definitely a luxury. That's where I think this team can be different than in 2020. Our playmakers are one year older, stronger, faster and confident in what they bring to our program.”

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