GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Josh Niblett always wants his teams to play with an edge, a toughness, if you will.
The Red Elephants will need all the toughness they can muster as they already have been embarking on the toughest week the program has faced in his two-plus seasons at the helm of Big Red.
They’ve been off for nearly three weeks answering, and asking, some of their own questions about inconsistent play at crucial times in big games. Gainesville (7-3) was within one score at halftime in losses to Carrollton, Milton, and Roswell before second half collapses.
Untimely penalties, especially after a play has ended, and turnovers have been an Achilles Heel for Big Red in 2024. They had designs on the Region 7-5A title. They finished third instead and face the possibility of playing the entire 2024 playoffs on the road, which may not be the worst thing since they are 5-2 on the road this season.
“There's a toughness that we have to play with, and sometimes you got to choose tough,” Niblett said. “But choosing tough is not always just about the physical part of the game, it's the mental part of the game as well. If somebody does something to you at the end of the play, you got to choose tough.
“Tough is not to get the last word or to get the last push. Tough is to understand you have to walk away from it. In the playoffs, it's about playing with discipline and choosing tough, but knowing at the end of the day we got to win, and what is it going to take to win?”
They will head to their Class 5A first round playoff showdown on Friday against Sequoyah needing to heed Niblett’s words more than ever. The Red Elephants will be without a key cog in the offense as senior running back Carmelo Byrd will be out for the entirety of the playoffs after being involved in a serious car accident on Monday.
Seniors Tre Brown and Dacien Cohen will move up to handle those duties behind sophomore quarterback Kharim Hughley, who has been one of the state’s most pleasant surprises in 2024.
“We hate it for Carmelo and of course we’re praying that he’s going to be okay,” Niblett said. “He’s such a great young man with a lot of talent that will play at the next level. Hate that the season ends for him like this.
“But that's why you want to create depth. We got a couple of guys ready there that we feel like give us an opportunity to win. It's all about players, not plays.”
Sequoyah (9-1) is making its ninth playoff appearance since 2012, but only once have the Chiefs gotten past the second round. Their nine wins are the most since 2018 when they advanced to the 6A quarterfinals. They are just 4-3 all-time, however, in home playoff games. The Red Elephants are just 2-8 in their last 10 road playoff games going back to 2014, but are 1-1 on the road under Niblett.
Sequoyah will offer a rare look to the Red Elephants, employing a wing-T attack. However, in Gainesville’s only other look at a wing-T offense in 2024, they routed Seckinger 41-0 at City Park last month.
The Chiefs’ offense is paced by junior quarterback Kolby Martin (1,772 yards, 18 TD, 2 INT) and junior running back Will Rajecki, who is a threat running and catching the ball (1,072 yards, 7 100-yard games, 15 TD rushing; 32 rec., 508 yards, 4 TD). Junior receiver Brooks Darling (36 rec., 573 yards, 9 TD) is their big-play guy.
“Sequoyah is a good football team that is very sound in what they do,” Niblett said. “(Sequoyah) does it a little different in that they run theirs out of a gun. And then they’ll take some shots downfield for sure.
“It'll be an electric atmosphere and energy there. And they've got a lot of pride. They're playing for the same thing we're playing for so we’ll need to be ready.”
But Gainesville also got some good news on the injury front this week in that junior defensive end Kadin Fossung, who has been out since the Milton game, will be ready to go on Friday. And junior linebacker Xavier Griffin, who has also been out since the Milton game, has been practicing this week and could see action as well.
Niblett said his team is using the Byrd accident for some extra motivation this week.
“Of course, anytime you have something happen to your brother like that everybody's going to be a little distraught,” Niblett said. “It was a tough day for all of us (on Monday). But when we heard that he's going to be okay, I think that lifted our spirits up.
“Everybody's disappointed about that, but at the same time, I think they know there's a sense of urgency now. I saw it (Tuesday) morning in practice, where our kids were saying ‘hey, man, we gotta go. We gotta go do this.’ They know they got an even bigger cause to play for now because these kids love each other. They care about each other, and they want to do well for each other.”
The emotions of the week and getting ready for the most important part of the season brought it back around to the composure needed at this stage of the season.
“It's about returning to the main thing. And the main things that we talked about in our program are the standards in which our program has to display,” Niblett said. “I want them to play physical. I want them to play with an edge. I mean, you want to do that, but at the same time, you got to know where to draw the line, right?
“The discipline and the focus. If you're focused on dominating your opponent and dominating your one-on-one matchup, you don't have time for all that other stuff. If we can get back to that in the playoffs, I have no doubt we have a chance to go pretty far.”
GAINESVILLE at SEQUOYAH
Records: Red Elephants (7-3, R7, S3); Chiefs (9-1, R6, S2)
Last week: Gainesville was off; Sequoyah was off
Where: Skip Pope Stadium, Canton
Radio: 94.5 FM The Lake
Time: 7:30 p.m.
The Statisticals: First-ever meeting. Gainesville is 5-2 on the road this year, with the 2 losses coming to No. 1 Carrollton (6A) and No. 7 Roswell (5A).
What to watch for: The Gainesville offense vs. the Chiefs defense. No one has truly been able to stop Big Red’s attack (39.2 ppg, 9th in 5A) behind QB Kharim Hughley, who finished in the top 10 in the state in passing (2,543 yards). Sr. Jeremiah Ware has 862 yards receiving. The Chiefs are giving up 21.4 ppg but only one team (River Ridge) is in the top 10 in offense in 5A. They surrendered 25.6 ppg over their final 3 games.
