Week 3 notebook: Questions abound for area teams after first two weeks

Some more stunning results in Week 2 has the crew at Friday Game Night trying to answer several questions we haven’t had to contemplate in a while.

East Jackson is undefeated, including a win over Commerce for the first time, while the Tigers are winless. Cherokee Bluff, Chestatee, and East Hall are a combined 5-0 right now. Those three Hall County teams won just six games collectively in 2023.

Jackson County and Habersham Central, teams we thought would be in the region title mix in Region 8-5A, have looked shaky so far, going 1-3, including a pair of disappointing losses last week.

Storylines are still developing in the early third of the season. We’ll keep our eyes open for more developments for sure.

Here is the Week 3 notebook:

WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON IN COMMERCE, YOU ASK? NOW WE KNOW!

We’ve been wondering that for two weeks ourselves. The Tigers are 0-2 for the first time since 2010. But the stats don’t really back up that start. They rushed for 424 yards in a loss to Wesleyan (who is 2-0) and had over 200 yards against a scrappy East Jackson team that is also 2-0 and earned its first-ever win over the Tigers last week (14-13). A missed extra point was the difference.

And they have been productive despite missing dynamic running back Jaiden Daniels, a two-time All-AccessWDUN first-team selection. But a tweet in the middle of the week answered several questions we’ve had.

The search for a quarterback to replace John Paul Allem, who ran their option attack to near-perfection the past two seasons, has been a work in progress to say the least. Daniels is set to return this week and will be in the backfield, just not where we expected.

Daniels tweeted out that he will be QB1 for the Tigers moving forward. After a brief pause to contemplate that move, the thought of Daniels in charge of the ground attack with Tysean Wggins still at fullback and now adding the speedy Jacari Huff into the mix could make the Tigers' rushing attack even more deadly.

They face a tough contest on the road against Class 3A Luella tonight but we’re more interested to see how the offense works with Daniels at the helm. If it’s as good as we think it could be, Class A Division 1 better look out.

QUESTIONS OR NOT IN BUFORD?

The Wolves are 1-1. They have taken on two stout teams in Milton (defending Class 7A state champs) and Benedictine (perennial state power).

The defense, which we expected to be a beast, has not disappointed. They held Milton scoreless over the final 18 minutes and set the stage for a massive comeback that fell just short. After falling behind 21-10 to the Cadets last week, they held them to just 7 points over the final 17 minutes in the second half. The defense is as good as anyone in the state and should keep them in every game.

But the offense, which we knew would be a work in progress, has been just that. Coach Bryant Appling was forced to go to his bag of tricks to somehow eek out a victory last week but they can’t rely on trick plays and 2-point conversions in the state’s largest, and toughest, classification for an entire season.

The Wolves’ usual bruising ground game has not materialized to this point, though they did rush for over 100 yards against Milton’s vaunted group. Getting their rushing attack unleashed seems to be a high priority moving forward.

They’ll have a week off to get ready for another stern challenge in Roswell on the road. 

SOMETHING SPECIAL BREWING AT GAINESVILLE?

The Red Elephants are less than two years removed from playing for a state title. That was a remarkable 2022 season as then first-year coach Josh Niblett guided an experienced and hungry-for-success team to the Class 6A title game.

But the 2024 squad, which features a slew of dominating change-changers on defense and a ton of new faces on offense, may be building to something just as special. Yes, we’re only two games into the season but the manner in which Big Red dispatched Marietta (41-3) and Moody Ala., (31-7) to open the season has had plenty of people buzzing.

The defense is downright nasty, led by Xavier Griffin (Alabama commit) and Julius Columbus (Duke commit), and will be a tough unit for any offense to crack if everyone stays healthy. They've yielded less than 400 total yards and just 10 points, with well over a dozen TFLs, including 7 sacks. The defense already is good enough to carry a team to a championship.

But the offense had plenty of question marks with a young, new signal-caller in sophomore Kharim Hughley being asked to run Niblett’s high-powered offense. But Hughley looks wise beyond his years and has been near-flawless so far. New running back Carmelo Byrd, who moved over from the defense, has been steady, and three new receivers in Jeremiah Ware, Shane King, and Taz Smith, are game-breakers. And definitely not least, a huge offensive line that can match up with any front-7.

The schedule is tough. They head to perennial power Westlake this week and still have Carrollton, ranked No. 1 in Class 6A, Milton, ranked No. 1 in Class 5A, and Roswell left to play.

So far, this group looks on track to make a deep playoff run. Are two games enough to judge if they can capture the program’s second-ever state title?

Perhaps. But we’ll know for sure following their trip to Carrollton on Sept. 13.

SPARTANS ON THE MARCH?

Last week, West Hall's 55-14 win over Northview marked the most points scored in a game by the Spartans since a 48-21 win over East Hall in 2021. Also, it was the first game the Spartans had not allowed 30 or more points since a 29-9 win over Johnson on Aug. 25, 2023.

The Spartans are averaging over 32 points per game so far on the young season. The last time they averaged over 30 points per game was the 2014 season, which brought the Spartans a region title.

MIXED BAG FOR AREA REGIONS IN EARLY GOING

With Tift County’s loss last week, there are no regions left in the state among the six classifications in the Georgia High School Association that are unbeaten as a whole. 

Region 1-6A, which has Camden County, Colquitt County, Lowndes, Tift County, Valdosta, and Richmond Hill are 10-1 overall, still the best among all regions in all classifications in the state.

It has not been a great first two weeks of the season for many of the regions housing northeast Georgia area teams. Two area regions, however, lead their classifications.

Region 8-3A sports an 8-4 record overall and sits atop Class 3A, with Cherokee Bluff, East Hall, and Monroe Area all at 2-0 so far. Jefferson and West Hall are 1-1.

Region 8-2A, which has East Jackson, also is 8-4 overall and sits atop Class 2A.

Region 8-4A is 10-3, second in Class 4A overall, with East Forsyth, Eastside, North Oconee, and Walnut Grove all at 2-0. Flowery Branch is 1-1. Cedar Shoals is 0-2 with the rest of the region going 10-1 collectively.

In Class 6A, Region 8-6A with Buford is a modest 8-6 overall but Region 6-6A, with North Forsyth, has the worst record in the classification at just 4-12, and one of those wins was a forfeit collected by the Raiders on Week 1.

Two more area regions also sport the worst records in their classifications. Region 6-3A, which has area teams Chestatee, Dawson County, Johnson, Lumpkin County, North Hall, and White County are 3-7 after the first two weeks. Pickens (2-0) and Chestatee (1-0) have the only wins to this point.

And shockingly, Region 8-A has the worst record (3-10) in Division 1. Banks County, Commerce, Elbert County, and Rabun County are a combined 1-5 to this point with the Wildcats earning that win in the opening week.