Lowndes-Camden headlines a loaded second round
I can’t remember a better second round in the highest classification.
Lowndes-Camden County goes without saying. Playing a tougher schedule week in, week out, will help Lowndes, so I’m picking the Vikes on the road. I know Camden beat Northside last season in the same second round, but that was when Camden was the better team. This year, Lowndes is the better team.
Other amazin’ games in AAAAA –
MLK vs. Newnan (Mack Brown vs. Alec Ogletree)
Woodstock at North Gwinnett (I like both these teams a long and think either could’ve made the semis with another draw)
Roswell at Grayson (Is Pemberton hurt? How is Champaign? Good upset pick game here. Cool story about the backup QB at Roswell throwing the winning TD pass in OT. Who will cover Chris Boyd?)
South Gwinnett at Lassiter (Can anybody stop Hutson Mason?)
Colquitt County at Stephenson (Good news for Jags is that they get to see the spread offense before having to face Lassiter. Bad news is that they might not live to see next week. As Ron Gartrell said to me today, “We have so much trouble with South Georgia teams.’’)
Other stuff …
Team of the week: Liberty County. I really love teams that turn things around. Best win in program history against LaGrange last week. … I would’ve given the same kudos to Chattooga, btw.
Now, let’s discuss Carver of Columbus. OK, you beat Burke County 28-21. Burke is the best No. 4 team in the state, but still. Is this what a state-championship team would do to Burke? Is it too late to jump on the Gainesville bandwagon? I’m only now starting to realize how good Gainesville’s defense is. Carver didn’t want me on their bandwagon in the first place, but I’m curious to see how those two teams do this week.
In AAAA, it’s two teams – Griffin, SWD.
In AAA, it’s two – Carver, Gainesville.
In AA, it’s three – Fitz, Calhoun, Buford.
In A, it’s two – Wesleyan, Twiggs.
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338 comments Add your comment
Southern Girl
November 17th, 2009
10:27 am
Wolverine2Blazer: I for one am hoping both Lowndes and Woodstock win this week and do get a chance to play- but at Martin Stadium. We have family that attend Woodstock High and have cheered on Woodstock for a couple of years, even attended a game at the “rock” or “woodshed”. This would definately be a special night for our family for a chance for our teams to meet and play a game. Again, hopefully at Martin Stadum…as our family hasn’t traveled down to our stadium.
VBeckham
November 17th, 2009
10:32 am
Todd, with only two true south Georgia regions, why do they insist on eliminating one of the top teams from the south in the 2nd round every year by pitting region1 vs region3? It would seem much more fair to have regions 1 and 3 play regions from the North until the semifinals. Not a conspiracy theorist, just would like to see the south’s top teams have a chance to advance w/o taking each other out so early. You have six regions from the North who have many more elite teams than the South who usually have 3 or 4 that could actually vie for the title.
cane fan
November 17th, 2009
11:08 am
looking back on swainsboro web site, they have 5 seperate videos on different games, from what I take on their offensive scheme is that their qb is their offense, more or less all that they do is hike the ball to him and he runs, fitzgerald will eliminate him, fitzgerald will shut him down, they have not met up with a def. like fitzgerald, they have to many weapons, fitzgerald 49 – swainsboro 13
SportsFan31313
November 17th, 2009
12:10 pm
Greetings inthatrenches (from the sunbelt conference),
I gave my picks on the Georgia High School Football Daily Spotlight: Class AAAAA Playoff Preview
OedipusTax
November 17th, 2009
12:38 pm
An undefeated Brookwood team went to Lowndes in 2005 and got slaughtered 49-7 for the AAAAA State Championship. The previously undefeated 2008 Lowndes team took the reverse bus ride in 2008 and lost to Grayson 17-7 in the third round. Both visiting teams had to take an almost 500 mile round trip by bus in a single day, and fit in a football game in the middle of that trip, to play at the other team’s home field.
Many other states have their playoffs at neutral sites, but not Georgia, not until the Championship round (before it was just the semi-finals). If the south wishes to play north teams in round 1, then I’d say the only way fair way to do it would be to introduce neutral sites for the entire playoffs, with those neutral sites being as equidistant as possible between the two opponents. Due to the preponderance of larger schools in the north (Gwinnett will have as many as 16 AAAAA schools very soon), I’m not sure an equidistant choice would be always possible, but removing a home field advantage more often would help determine who really has the best team.
fred
November 17th, 2009
12:44 pm
I’m fired up for Friday night in Camden County. We will show prepared to defend our house no matter who they put on the field with us. Go CATS Go!!!!!!
chemflu2
November 17th, 2009
12:52 pm
Todd, you are partly correct. AAA is down to two teams. But Peach County will be in that final pairing. After beating both Cairo and Baldwin during the regular season and a blowout win last week, how can you not include them. Surely being two time state champions out of the last five years deserve a little more respect. Go Trojans!
Topper
November 17th, 2009
1:01 pm
VikingsOnAMission – I have found the i-75 to I10 to I295 to I95 the best route. You won’t have to worry to much about traffic from Jacksonville because this route kind of skirts right around it. I recomend you get here early I have a feeling this will be a packed house!!! Can’t wait to see how our boys perform…….. That being said hope to see alot of Lowndes fans and look forward to interacting with them! Good luck and a good injury free game to both teams!
Common Sense
November 17th, 2009
1:23 pm
My little brother lives in Michigan and if two teams are far apart they find a school who is pretty much even distance away to play at. Why doesn’t the GHSA do that? When the the Championship game goes back to a home field instead of the dome then yes play at the higher seed but til then find a place that is in the middle of the two schools.
dan
November 17th, 2009
1:27 pm
Todd,
I remember when Tucker lost to Marist 38-0 and then beat them in the state championship 15-3. I mean I don’t understand how a you can hang 38 on a team in one game and then only 3 the next, when it’s the SAME team. I mean how does that even happen?
Common Sense
November 17th, 2009
1:32 pm
I think whoever looks at this should go to http://www.espnrise.com and look at the high school rankings. The Peach State is not getting any love. Grayson, N. Gwinett, and Lowndes are the only ones in the top 50. What about Newnan, Gainsville, Northside?
SportsFan31313
November 17th, 2009
2:05 pm
Common Sense
Northside Warner Robins was in there but after the lost to Warner Robins, they fell out…
Wolverine2Blazer
November 17th, 2009
2:19 pm
Yeah. I’m def going to try to find a spot to sleep next fri and sat nights if Wood and Lowndes play down here. And our stadium is “The/Da Rock” and the Woodshed is, well the Woodshed we run out of. haha. I would love for Homefield or ENR to see it.
BulldawgBite
November 17th, 2009
2:20 pm
common sense. i dont know about gainsville but im positive that if newnan wins they will be in the top 50. they are in the honorable mention section already. if northside wins they will probably be in the honorable mention and if camden wins dont be surprised if they make the top 50.
Common Sense
November 17th, 2009
2:22 pm
What about the others. And Northside beat Lowndes, Carver Columbus.
Sports Fan you must not care about our GHSA football if you are willing to defend the site that has the worthless Miami teams on there. Northside beat Booker T Washington from Miami last year. If you live in GA then disagree with the site not favor it. Arguing with Georgia ppl is lose lose situation, you all just don’t get the point!
Mach Diesel
November 17th, 2009
2:25 pm
S-W-D, FEAR THE PANTHERS!!! ENOUGH SAID!!
Decatur 4 Life
November 17th, 2009
2:35 pm
Robert
SWD won in the highest classification in 1995, and why doesn’t the classes matter. You know you can choose to play up if you want to, that’s no excuse. Also people lose athletes to graduation every year so
that’s a problem everyone has not just NSWR. My point was all this winning you guys have done and no AAAAA championship yet. We don’t care about you not losing at home neither, how can you lose when your opponents have to play the referees also at the “Mac”. Too bad GHSA changed the site for the championship games because yall might have gotten a AAAAA championship if it was at the “Mac”.
BulldawgBite
November 17th, 2009
2:45 pm
those miami teams besides st. thomas aquinas are a lot like the stephenson team lots of D-1 talent except they have good coaching. and although northside has beaten some good teams they have lost to warner robins who by computer standings probably doesnt look very good. camden lost to hoover and grayson so that wont look as bad.
Decatur 4 Life
November 17th, 2009
2:53 pm
BlackandGold24
Man please, I’ll be here next week talking evn more. Colquitt is living in the past, I figured they closed the school or something because I haven’t heard anything from Moultrie. I’m glad you guys made it back but a championship won’t happen with Propst, heck he got run out of Hoover. I know you guys can spread it out but 10 points at Westlake? I’ll just have to see it, I didn’t go and see the Bradwell debacle just so I could make sure I’m in attendance for Colquitt. Trying to see what the “baby SEC” is all about, must admit I wasn’t impressed with Valdosta last week though.
Decatur 4 Life
November 17th, 2009
3:02 pm
yo
You’re way off, I could care less about region 2AAAAA winning their games. Stephenson will win but Union Grove and MLK have the odds against them. I just say nobody from the “baby SEC” will see the dome this year. Only someone who I honestly think won’t lose again is NSWR. But even they have no real success in the highest class, its just hard to beat them at the “Mac”. So try again, all the “baby SEC” talk this year is null and void.
mistermak
November 17th, 2009
4:19 pm
First of all we love to play Lowndes!! We don’t care what round it is in!
Why did the AAAAA brackets get revised? I bet it is so the N. Ga teams wouldn’t have to travel!!!
mistermak
November 17th, 2009
4:22 pm
Where can I find the new region allignments for next year?
SportsFan31313
November 17th, 2009
5:01 pm
Mistermak,
Where have you been all year my friend? haven’t heard from you. Camden County will have a huge fight on their hands this week.
Wolverine Fan
November 17th, 2009
5:10 pm
New region allignmenets will not be out until after 1/12/10. Go to GHSA.org
Wolverine Fan
November 17th, 2009
5:11 pm
GHSA.net……sorry
cane fan
November 17th, 2009
5:12 pm
coach mcpherson I believe will have his team ready this friday, this is nothing new to him I bet camden is more worried about this game than lowndes.
mistermak
November 17th, 2009
5:22 pm
Howdy to all! Good to be back! I was reading on here about how Camden will have to play other schools than Savannah so I thought the new classifications were out. I hope we do get to play other schools, I havn’t been to a game all year because they are not worth the ticket price. I never liked 50-0 blowouts. I like to watch a competitive game.
Still no answer for why the playoff brackets changed sometime during week 1 of the playoffs!
mistermak
November 17th, 2009
5:25 pm
Topper I a suprised you are going all the way thru Jax to get to Camden. Talk about taking the long way!
inthatrenches (from the sunbelt conference)
November 17th, 2009
5:29 pm
ENR ok? have not seen a post since Saturday?
Topper
November 17th, 2009
5:54 pm
mistermak- Last time I went the other way I found a construction nightmare have never went that way again! The drive time isn’t that much more and 70 all the way.
reality
November 17th, 2009
5:58 pm
Brookwood is a better team than all you guys believe…
OedipusTax
November 17th, 2009
6:12 pm
reality, you’re right. I had them as a 4-6 team and out of the playoffs. Instead, they’ll be a 6-6 team . . . and out of the playoffs. So, you’re right, and I was wrong.
mistermak
November 17th, 2009
6:17 pm
Topper– Just curious, how much further is the drive thru Jax?
PEACHCOUNTYTROJAN
November 17th, 2009
6:59 pm
let’s go peach county let’s go..
Darry High School Football Fan
November 17th, 2009
7:01 pm
Guy’s let’s be realistic Stephenson has the athlete’s every year but want get it done,None of you who have followed H.S. football really believe otherwise. SWD is also loaded with bluechippers but of course Buck will find away to screw it up.Their players are not well coached nor do they possess game time discipline to many mental mistakes.Sorry guy’s those are facts for the last 8-10 years. But good luck anyway.
wildcat fan
November 17th, 2009
7:13 pm
GO WILDCATS,,This will be a awesome game. My friends and i are leaving work at noon, to tailgate and cheer the CATS on. Its a shame these two teams are facing each other this early in the post-season. Please rember Camden was not favorite in the play-offs against Northside, Newnan, or PeachtreeRidge last year. They will not roll over, the winner of this game will be GEORGIA 5AAAAA CHAMPS. My prediction is 34 to 26 Camden. I believe our backs will will continue thier great play, and now we can throw the ball if we have to. And we have two very good wideouts. And now we have better quarterback play. Strong arm kid. And a tight end that can catch the ball. Please travel safe Vikings and Vikings fans. Bring plenty of fans and lets have some fun. Good luck also.One of these two teams will be State Champs. Camden, Lowndes doesnt get any better than this. Think how awesome this game could have been if it was in December.
Todd Holcomb
November 17th, 2009
7:24 pm
Vbeckham: If you pair north and south teams as early as the second round, travel is increased substantially. The folks whom the GHSA must answer to (principals, superintendents, ADs) don’t want that.
re: SWD and Stephenson. Stephenson has had quite a few big recruits this decade and has failed to make a state final, so I that’s a valid point to bring up. But SW DeKalb has not had overwhelming talent this decade, until now perhaps.
SouthGARules
November 17th, 2009
8:07 pm
dan: The same way McEachern drops 42 on Brookwood in the Corky Kell Classic & then drops 10 in a first round playoff game. It’s real hard to beat the same team twice in the same season. Outside of Brookwood beating Dacula twice in 2005? & North Gwinnett beating Brookwood twice in 2007?, I don’t know of any other teams beating another team twice in the same year.
yo
November 17th, 2009
8:29 pm
wildcat fan just one observation for you and every one else who crazily sees Lowndes giving up 24, 28, 34, etc points. It doesn’t happen. Period! If you should beat Lowndes it will be because your defense held Lowndes down, but not because you scored more than 17 points. You will not. The only way a team gets more than 17 points is if Lowndes already has 50. Can Lowndes be beat? possibly but not by the other team scoring a lot of points. Will not happen.
89viking
November 17th, 2009
9:06 pm
topper,,,trust me,,you can go thru waycross and folkston,,its quicker,,,and i go that way every tuesday,,,there is some construction however,,,by the time most of us travel that way friday afternoon,,,theyll be off work,,,no log james over that way at all.
camdenblue
November 17th, 2009
9:31 pm
i think people are underestimating us cause we lost two close games and we dont have the talent we had last year. i think we will beat Lowndes cause the Five times coach Herron coached against Lowndes we won 2 games at home and 1 game at Lowndes. so we are undefeated against Lowndes at home and at there place.
Quinn of the Ridge
November 17th, 2009
9:42 pm
TJ, Peachtree Ridge doesn’t run a Wing T. We run mostly out of the Flexbone and run a lot of Triple Options (Similar to GA Tech or Navy), but we do have a few more formations that we run out of.
sports fan
November 17th, 2009
9:49 pm
Stephenson will win if they score 20 points or more .MLK has good chance of beating Newnan with a healthy Mack Brown. Both of these teams are a victim of the region they play in, when u dont play teams that are a threat to beat you in the regular season it stunts your coaching in game time situations.When ever you get two good teams going against each other its who ever makes the adjustments and has a back up plan in case the initial game plan isnt working. Coaches also must depend on what their assistant coaches are telling them because you can only see so much at field level.Im a Mlk fan and I hope that they do well ,my main wish for the playoffs is that none of these kids get a serious injury during the games.Go Lions
HomeFieldAdvantage
November 17th, 2009
10:10 pm
COMMON SENSE – Quit trying to beat a dead horse. It makes no “common sense” to stage playoff football games at neutral sites. The team that is higher seeded deserves to host a lower seeded team.
Have you ever thought about the preparation it takes to host a playoff game involving 10,000 to 15,000 fans? There are concession stands to hire people to staff. Janitorial people to clean up. Restrooms must have paper etc. Where would the players dress before the games and where would they go at halftime? High schools are not going to open up their field houses to two other teams. How about the training rooms? The suanas and trasining tables. Who is going to clean them after the game? High schools would have to move out everything from their own locker rooms etc. And who cleans up the next day from all the trash left in the stadium and in the parking lots? Who pays the light bill? Who provides food and drinks for the referes? Who sells programs?
Neutral playoff sites for football? This ain’t gonna happen. Hosting playoff games is a huge income producer for highschools and they need that revenue. Get on a bandwagon about an issue that makes sense. If your blog handle means you have real commen sense, you’ll understand what I’m trying to tell you.
neutral observer
November 17th, 2009
10:31 pm
After reading these blogs, it is obvious that most people believe that the state champ will probably be Lowndes. I have to agree with one of the comments about the metro teams getting no respect and South Ga feels like they rule high school football, well time will tell who can hang in the end. May the best team win, north, south or middle Ga. Good luck Camden.
OedipusTax
November 17th, 2009
11:05 pm
HomeFieldAdvantage – last year I was thinking exactly as you are now. However, I’ve since learned that the States of Ohio and Texas play their playoffs in neutral sites. So, in spite of all the things you’ve said, and what I said before myself, other States figured out how to do it. Neutral sites would “level the playing field.”
Hornet Dave
November 17th, 2009
11:43 pm
Neutral sites do not “level the playing field.” I saw first-hand in 2006 what happened to Tift County and Warner Robins when forced to play lower-seeded Metro Atlanta teams in the Georgia Dome. If you want to play at a geographically neutral site, how would that work? Would Lowndes play Camden County at Atkinson County?
SouthGARules
November 18th, 2009
7:59 am
HomeFieldAdvantage: Not only is it a big revenue producer for the high schools, but the towns also benefit with out of town guests coming in to eat at restaurants & to a lesser extent stay at motels (especially with a metro Atlanta school traveling to Valdosta or Camden).
Hiram #56 Dad
November 18th, 2009
8:16 am
I have to agree (grudgingly,lol) with Yo. No way anyone hangs more than 15-20 on Lowndes in a close game. Their defense is too solid for that.
As for my predictions:
Lowndes over Camden
Newnan over MLK
Stephenson over Colquit Co.
Peach Co. over WACO
Cairo over Baldwin
Hiram over Rockdale Co. (bias pick)
Griffin over Ware Co
SWD over Clarke Central
Sandy Creek over Tucker
Buford over Jefferson
Grayson over Roswell
Lassiter over S. Gwinnett ( would love to see that game, whoever has the ball last should win 61 -60)
Wolverine2Blazer
November 18th, 2009
8:18 am
SouthGARules, I think Valdosta gets enough of an economic boost from us metro ATL kids going to ValState.
Just sayin