Lassiter’s Mason, Centennial’s Yankey lead a talented group on the AAAAA preseason All-State team

This is part of Friday’s Georgia High School Football Daily, a free email newsletter produced by Todd Holcomb and Chip Saye.

Chip Lindsey, the former Hoover (Ala.) offensive coordinator who came to Marietta’s Lassiter High last year, had no idea what the Georgia record for passing yards in a season was.

If he had, perhaps Hutson Mason would’ve broken it. Instead, the junior quarterback threw for 3,705 yards, five short of Jeremy Privett’s record set in 2003 with Charlton County.

Mason does hold the record for Class AAAAA and leads our tentative preseason all-state team.

Remember that we plan to come back in August with our official preseason teams. Thanks for the feedback that will allow us to fine-tune it before the season gets under way.

In The News

The case for North Paulding’s Conley

One of the more interesting choices for our tentative preseason all-state team in Class AAAA was Christian Conley, a wide receiver was North Paulding, a school that opened in 2008.

One metro Atlanta head coach commented: “If you put a kid on the all-state team that is an unproven junior who has only played a nonregion schedule, he had better be good.”

GHSF Daily asked North Paulding coach Heath Webb to make a case for his star player. Here are his seven reasons (one for every pass that Conley averaged catching per game in 2008): 

1.Chris had 70 catches last year with a team that had no juniors and no seniors. All the linemen and running backs were sophomores. The quarterback was a sophomore. His supporting cast of wide receivers was made up of freshmen and sophomores.

2.Every team focused on shutting him down, yet Chris still averaged seven catches a game for almost 100 yards per game.

3.Chris has plenty of verbal offers already from [ACC and SEC] schools as a sophomore. However, his parents don’t choose to recognize the offers since they aren’t in writing and won’t be until Sept. 1. His parents prefer to keep his recruitment low-profile so as to keep him humble.

4.One SEC coach from a school of major prominence has told me that they have no wide receiver like Chris on their campus. He even went as far to say that Chris could help his national championship-caliber team now.

5.Chris was a starter for Team Georgia in Scout.com’s national 7-on-7 tournament along with Markeith Ambles, Tai-ler Jones and Brian Vogler. There were other rising seniors with SEC offers that Chris beat out on the field for this honor.

6.Look at the film. Chris is not a pretty, skilled wide receiver. He’s a tough, hard-nosed FOOTBALL PLAYER. His film will show you that.

7.If you’re looking for the best player regardless of class, he’s your guy. If  you’re looking to name a rising senior who is also pretty good, then you could go with someone else.

Georgia seeks revenge for 41-0
Tennessee defeated Georgia 41-0 last year in the All-Star Football Classic between the states.
 
Though it’s a new class of seniors for both teams for Saturday’s 7 p.m. game at Ridgeland High School, some Georgia players know the game’s history.
 
”Yeah, 41-0 has been brought up a few times already this week,” Gordon Lee defensive linemen Kyle Farmer told Walker County Messenger sports editor Scott Herpst. ”Everyone’s fired up about that. The tempo at practice has been really high, and I think we’re all ready to play.”

Note some big-name players on the Georgia roster this season – Alabama signee Michael Bowman of Ridgeland and Rome’s P.J. Greene, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Class AAAA offensive player of the year.

“I’m sure they didn’t get everyone they wanted because some college coaches don’t allow their signees to play in this game,” Herpst told GHSF Daily. “But they do have Michael Bowman. Nick Saban gave his OK for Bowman to play, which is huge. He’s the biggest profile recruit we’ve ever had in this game.”

The game, in its sixth season, features players from northwest Georgia against those from southeast Tennessee.
 
Here is the Georgia roster, courtesy of Herpst: 
 
1, Michael Bowman, WR, Ridgeland
2, Brian Owens, QB, Cass
3, Jamalcom Griffin, QB, Rome
4, Cole Morgan, WR, Ringgold
6, Tim Smith, LB, Ridgeland
7, Blake Clay, TE, Cass
8, Robbie McAfee, CB, Sonoraville
9, Dionta Hardy, WR, Cass
10, Josh Zeigler, CB, Murray County
11, Michael Lopez, K, Murray County
12, Trent Payne, SS, Sonoraville
15, Jordan Afman, WR, Gordon Lee 
16, Desmond Clarke, FS, Rome
18, Tyler Hendrix, TE, Ringgold
22, Darius Walton, DB, Ridgeland
23, Terryl Freeman, RB, Ridgeland
25, Steven Washington, LB, Rome
28, Trevarious Washington, RB, Sonoraville
30, Ethan Watson, LB, Murray County
31, Matt Talkington, LB, Ringgold
33, Blake Garab, LB, Model
36, P.J. Greene, RB, Rome
38, Logan Fields, LB, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
42, Cody Cox, SS, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
52, Kyle Farmer, DL, Gordon Lee
54, David Creamer, DL, Rome
55, Devin Gainer, OL, Ringgold
56, Corry Pritchett, OL, Murray County
57, Mark Rhinehart, LB, Gordon Central
58, Michael Dunn, DL, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
64, Caleb Johns, OL, Gordon Central
68, Jonathan Benton, OL, Gordon Central
69, Genesis Dupree, DL, Ridgeland
73, Richmond Booth, DL, Rome
77, Chad Smith, OL, Ridgeland
79, Cedric Weaver, DL, Ridgeland
90, Damien Goosby, OL, Rome
91, Michael Roberson, TE, Ridgeland

We Hear …

Sophomore Ryan Dillard, who started at cornerback at Woodward Academy last season as a freshman, has transfered to Buford. He will line up at cornerback, running back and punt/kick returner for the Wolves this season. His father, Oscar Dillard (a running back for the 1975 Douglass High team that went 12-1 and lost to Central of Macon in the Class AAA final) says the family could no longer afford the tuition at Woodward.