Today’s interviewee is Lowndes coach Jamey DuBose, whose team opens its season Saturday against Walton in the Corky Kell Classic at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. DuBose led Lowndes to the Class 7A semifinals in his first season in Valdosta. DuBose previously coached for 14 seasons in Alabama, winning state titles at Central of Phenix City (one) and Prattville (two).
Jamey DuBose, Lowndes head coach
1. What does Lowndes get out of playing an event like the Corky Kell Classic? “It’s a good prestige and honor to be in an event like this. It’s good publicity for our school and our community. I think it will be great for our kids to be able to come to an event that’s run like a championship event that hopefully will get us ready for a state championship game maybe down the road in December. There’s a lot of positives out of it, but just being able to be asked to be in it, that’s an honor, and we’re real excited to be here to represent South Georgia.”
2. How does your team look this season? What do you feel will be a strength? What is a question mark? “The biggest question mark I always come up with this year is our youth. We graduated quite a bit last year. Both our defensive line and our offensive line, we graduated everybody, so we’re going to be young up front. We’ve got some talented guys, and we’ve got some guys eager to play and I like to say playing with a chip on their shoulder to prove themselves right now. I’m excited to see what they’re going to do. As far as a strength on our team this year, it’s going to be our backfield action with Jacurri Brown and with Chase Belcher, who was a big player at wide receiver last year we moved to the running back position. We feel like we’ve got a lot of exciting players in the backfield that can do a lot of things for us, but we’re going to have youth in a lot of areas on our team, and we’re going to have to really get the most out of it. I think this is a team this year that’s going to grow by quarters. I think every quarter we play we’re going to be a better football team, and that’s what we’ve talked about in preseason camp, and that’s just getting better every day, and they’ve done that so far.”
3. Many people will be watching this game to see Jacurri Brown, your quarterback. For those who haven’t seen him, how would you assess what he brings to the table, his skill set? “Very talented young man. When he’s got the ball in his hands, there’s always excitement. A lot of times a pass rush breaks down for us, and it turns into a punt return. We’re talking about a guy that’s 6-4, 215, 220 almost, and got a tremendous amount of strength and power. He’s tough to bring down by high school DBs, so if he gets in the secondary, a lot of things can happen. One of the things that a lot of people don’t understand about him, everybody knows his running ability, but I think he’s a tremendous passer. This summer we went to two really elite 7-on-7 camps. We finished second in one. And we were the fourth seed in another that we did really well in. So I think he’s proven himself as a passer. It was just something he wasn’t asked to do a whole lot before I got there, and now we’ve put a little bit more on him in the pass game. He’s a big-time student of the game. He’s constantly learning and seeing what he can do. I think he’s still progressing as a true quarterback in the pocket, but I think he’s really ready to show what he can do in that area.’’
4. How would you compare coaching in South Georgia to that in Alabama and football overall in the two states? “The biggest thing about being in South Georgia and being in Georgia over Alabama is the heat. I’ve had to get ready for that every day. That’s a big difference. I tell you, football is football. I tell everybody that. You kick it off, and you don’t know what state you’re in. You’re competing. But the one big thing that jumps out at me in South Georgia more than Alabama football that I was in, and I was all through the state in Alabama, is just the fan base, the support that you have for high school football in our area, in South Georgia, is just unbelievable. I tell everybody, I do talk shows on the radio, and 365 days out of the year, we’re talking Lowndes football, we’re talking the upcoming year, we’re talking spring training, we’re talking offseason, and it’s call-in shows, and there’s constantly fans that are involved. And our support at a ball game, the tailgating outside, the event, the environment, it’s just, I can’t explain it. I went through a COVID year, and I’ve seen video of the past, so I’m looking forward to seeing what a regular year might be like, but at the end of the day, I always tell everybody there are probably more athletes per capita in Georgia. You look at the NFL, there’s more athletes in the NFL than there is in Alabama, but football’s football. It’s great in both states. I think it’s important to the coaches in both states. But at the end of the day, I think the fan base where I am is just incredible, and the just support that we have by our touchdown club.”
- Interview by Abbey Walton
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