The most talked about high school football game in Georgia this week is without question Colquitt County at Hoover (Ala.). The Friday night game will be televised on delay at 10:00 p.m. on ESPNU, two hours past its 8:00 p.m. kickoff. Colquitt County head coach Rush Propst left Hoover in 2008 to take his current position with the Packers. He won five state championships with the Buccaneers (2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005). Propst’s successor, Josh Niblett, has led the Hoover to state titles in 2009 and 2012 and, according to most rankings, this game is a matchup of Georgia’s No. 1 6A team vs. Alabama’s No. 1 6A team.
The No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup does not write the whole script, however, and there are many other factors that are adding excitement to the game. Colquitt is in its 100th year as a football program and became the first school in over 40 years in Georgia’s top classification to reach the state semifinals four straight years after last year’s playoff run. A former MTV Friday Night Light’s reality star, Propst is in his 25th year of coaching, a milestone in its own right. The (1-0) Packers are coming off a 21-6 win in their season opener over Grayson in the Georgia Dome, a venue in which the Packers had lost their previous five games.
The matchup will feature some of the best players in the southeast, and defensively, Ole Miss commit Jamiyus Pittman heads the hunt for Colquitt County. Joining Pittman is Mike Parrish, who stands 6-foot-3, 315-pounds. Parrish will be playing to continue his rise in the recruiting rankings on the national stage.
“Phenomenal” is the word that Propst used to describe this year’s schedule due to its wealth of state champion and playoff opponents. Propst claims he has become a different person since arriving in Moultrie, and recently told AL.com in a sit down interview that, “I felt like at Hoover my priorities were football one, two, three and four. It is not win-at-all-costs to me anymore…I want to show people I have changed. I am different. I am compassionate. I am a better person, better husband and better father. I may not be as good of a coach as I was at Hoover and that’s okay.”
Hoover won its preseason game 27-6 over Florence. Darrell Williams is the Buccaneers’ defensive leader, and the pass rusher had three sacks in his limited action. Hoover surrendered just 86 yards to Florence in the first half with the starters seeing snaps.
Last weekend, Norcross trembled on the national stage, falling 55-0 to Florida’s Booker T. Washington. While the Packers battle for their own southeastern supremacy on Friday, a meaningful homecoming awaits their championship coach.
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