The biggest offseason drama in Georgia high school football over the past eight months surrounded the state’s most prominent program.
Valdosta, four months removed from a trip to the state semifinals in its first season under Rush Propst, fired its coach after the Georgia High School Association declared five players ineligible, hit the Wildcats with $7,500 in fines, forced the team to forfeit seven 2020 victories and banned the Wildcats from the 2021 playoffs.
In a deposition taken Feb. 19, Valdosta Touchdown Club executive director Michael “Nub” Nelson stated that Propst sought the club’s help paying $2,500-a-month rent in cash for Jake Garcia, a star quarterback who transferred from California last fall. Nelson said that Propst also sought $850 in monthly rent for another transfer quarterback, Amari Jones. Nelson said Propst met with him within weeks of being hired in April 2020 to discuss “funny money” that Nelson indicated Propst intended to use to secure players transferring to Valdosta. Nelson was fired as executive director three days later. Propst has denied the allegations.
The Wildcats have since hired former University of Tennessee assistant Shelton Felton as interim coach. Felton led alma mater Crisp County to a 13-1 record and a Class 3A semifinal finish in 2016, then coached four seasons in college. Felton, who had coached under Propst at Colquitt County (2013-14), ran Valdosta’s spring practices after Propst was fired.
Propst has since moved back to Alabama.
Here are five things to watch in Class 6A this season:
*Going for a three-peat: Buford will be seeking its third consecutive state championship in Bryant Appling’s third year as head coach, and the Wolves will begin from a position of strength as the No. 1-ranked team in Class 6A. The Wolves will be led by eight players who rank among the top 100 seniors in Georgia, according to the 247Sports Composite. That’s three more than any other school in any classification. Buford defeated Lee County 34-31 in overtime last season to win the 6A title and won the Class 5A title in 2019 before moving up in reclassification. Another championship this season would give the Wolves at least three consecutive titles for the fourth time this century (they won four straight from 2007 to 2010) and would be the school’s 14th overall title.
*Teams to beat: Loren Maxwell’s preseason region projections for the 2021 season have been released, and his computers expect to see some familiar faces at the top of the final region standings. Maxwell’s projected region champions are Lee County (Region 1), Richmond Hill (Region 2), Evans (Region 3), Westlake (Region 4), Carrollton (Region 5), Allatoona (Region 6), Creekview (Region 7) and Buford (Region 8). Six of the eight favorites also were No. 1 seeds from their regions last year. The exceptions were Richmond Hill, which finished in a three-way tie for first place in Region 2 but settled for the No. 2 seed after tiebreakers, and Creekview, which finished second in Region 7 behind River Ridge.
*Back for an encore?: There was no bigger surprise in Class 6A last season than the success of River Ridge, which won its first region championship, won a playoff game and reached the quarterfinals for the first time, and finished with a school-record 11 victories in 12 games. The Cherokee County school, which opened in 2009, had had just one winning record (8-2 against a non-region schedule in 2011) and one playoff appearance (2012, which it finished 5-6) in the program’s first 11 seasons. Amehre Morrison, a first-team all-state selection in 2020 after leading Class 6A in rushing with 1,958 yards, returns for his senior season and is an AJC Super 11 pick.
*Top players: Ten of the top 50-ranked seniors in Georgia will play in Class 6A this season, and three are committed to Georgia Tech. The highest-ranked member of the group is Lee County LB Jaron Willis (No. 16), who will head to the Yellow Jackets along with Hughes RB Antonio Martin (No. 28) and Johns Creek OT Tyler Gibson (No. 50). Other 6A seniors ranked among the top 50 in Georgia include Valdosta CB JaDarian Rhym (No. 17, committed to LSU), Buford ATH Isaiah Bond (No. 23, Florida), Lee County OT Qae’shon Sapp (No. 31, Florida State), Allatoona TE Bennett Christian (No. 32, Ohio State), Buford S Jake Pope (No. 37, uncommitted), Carrollton QB M.J. Morris (No. 41, N.C. State), and Houston County CB Caleb Coley (No. 45, Vanderbilt).
*New coaches: Valdosta’s Felton is one of 15 new head coach in Class 6A this season. The most prominent of those is Carrollton’s Joey King, who is coming off a two-year stint as a college assistant to replace Sean Calhoun, who became head coach at Vestavia Hills in Alabama. King was head coach for five seasons at Cartersville, teaming with quarterback Trevor Lawrence to win state titles in 2015 and 2016. Other new coaches in the classification are Bradwell Institute’s Deshon Brock, Effingham County’s John Ford, Evans’ Barrett Davis, Heritage-Conyers’ Eddie Snell, Grovetown’s Cory Evans, Rockdale County’s Lee Hannah, Tucker’s James Thomson, Alexander’s Olten Downs, Dalton’s Kit Carpenter, Osborne’s Luqman Salam, South Cobb’s Thomas Hanson, Dacula’s Casey Vogt and Lanier’s David Willingham.
About the Author
