Today we continue with our weekly segment of Eight Greats Around the State. Each week, we will take 8 of the more intriguing match-ups and preview the games. Because there are so many great games across the state in week 1, we are breaking this up into 4 parts and previewing 16 games. This is Part 4 of 4. As always, please feel free to share and comment.
The Skinny
The Manchester Blue Devils open up the season on the road against a Taylor County Vikings team that graduated several skill players last season. The Vikings will rely heavily on their defensive line combination of Todric Cain, Rashad Wonnum and Jamal Howell. Wayne Wimbush and Travis Gooch are a couple of backs that may be called upon to fill the void left by graduation. The Manchester Blue Devils also lose talent to graduation, but do return a trio of running backs led by Deenizeo Gamble. Last season Gamble racked up 1,100 yards on the ground and 14 TDs. Even though the Blue Devils will be breaking in a new starter at QB, we think they return enough talent in the backfield to win on Friday. We like the Blue Devils by two touchdowns.
The Skinny
The Macon County Bulldogs and Pelham Hornets locked horns last season in the playoffs, with the Bulldogs advancing to the quarterfinals before being ousted by Irwin County. Macon County is another team that lost a lot of production to graduation. Newcomer DeShawn Cumby is poised to take over at quarterback, but most of all the other skill positions will feature new faces. Pelham looks to be poised to shift momentum in the series this season. They return Kendrick Patterson at quarterback. Patterson passed for 1,890 yards as a sophomore. He will have his top receiver, Jordan Bennet and top rusher, Javoris Williams back with him on offense. The Pelham defense posted three shutouts last season and they’ll certainly be looking to start out strong in 2018. We think Pelham is poised for a deep playoff run this season. We also believe that Pelham wins this one by two touchdowns.
The Skinny
Much of the success for Mt. Vernon will depend on the ability of Austin and Justin Douglas getting cranked up on offense. Austin Douglas finished 2017 with 965 yards rushing and 8 TDs. Meanwhile, Justin Douglas led the Mustangs receiving corp with 876 yards and 8 TDs of his own. Mt. Vernon features a new quarterback this season. Much like Mt. Vernon, Prince Avenue Christian will be breaking in a new quarterback as well. Brock Vandagriff is set to be the signal caller for the Wolverines this season. Vandagriff will have a couple of reliable receivers in Christian Parrish and Mac Simmons to help ease the learning curve. Parrish led the team with 15 receiving TDs. This will be a great test for Mt. Vernon to see where they stand against a team that reached the semi-finals last season. We think the Wolverines have a little too much talent for the Mustangs this week. We like Prince Avenue by 10.
The Skinny
The Baker Woodward era begins at Savannah Christian tonight. The former Benedictine offensive coordinator will look to continue the success that the Raiders have generally enjoyed in the past. The Raiders feature a big time lineman in Dylan McMahon. He and Colby Quinney will be tasked with making holes for running back Marquell Brown, who is poised to be one of the impact players on offense. Athens Academy played in the state title game in 2017 and sport a pair of talented backs themselves in Payton Bowles and Len’Neth Whitehead. Whitehead is a big back, that stands in at 6’2″ 228lbs who rushed for over 1,200 yards last season for the Spartans. We believe that coach Woodward will get things rolling at Savannah Christian. However, this week, it will be the Athens Academy Spartans that will prevail by two scores.