Every year, a few high school football teams make a strong case to be state champions in their classification, but fall just short. Whether these programs are victimized by playoff upsets or simply aren’t given a favorable path in the state tournament, several generational teams never grasp the trophy that many believe they should have earned. Recently, the number of teams matching this description has grown, especially in the past half decade. Here are 4 powerful Georgia high school football teams that fell just short of glory:
2017 Lowndes
This year of Lowndes football marked a return to dominance for a once-feared program. After winning three state titles in four years, the Vikings drifted away, failing to grasp a single 10-win season from 2011 to 2015. 2016 brought some hope, but a playoff upset to Westlake ended dreams of a state championship.
With an extremely talented roster on both sides of the football in 2017, the Vikings turned up the heat. Lowndes’s defense pitched 4 shutouts in the first 5 games of the year, including a 45-0 thrashing of then-#1 Valdosta. The offense provided a great complement, averaging over 52 points a game. Lowndes was by far the best team in Georgia and a top five team nationwide. Then, in the second round of playoffs, the Vikings blew a 24-point lead at home to unranked McEachern, ending their season in a stunning 36-31 collapse. Had Lowndes won the state title that year, they might have been one of the greatest Georgia football teams of all-time.
2016 Dalton
Since 2005, there has been only one season in which the Catamounts have won at least 10 games: 2016. Dalton opened that season with a double-digit win over #1 Calhoun and never looked back. Although Dalton’s running game became popular under current Alabama RB Jahmyr Gibbs, it was Ahmaad Tanner who led the Catamounts back in 2016. His 1,560-yard, 23-TD season helped Dalton cruise through the regular season, defeating a top-three Harrison team by 17 along the way.
Ultimately, after a rocky playoff road, the Catamounts finally fell to Alan Rodemaker’s Valdosta Wildcats, who would eventually win the 6A state championship. However, many forget this legendary 2016 team’s success because of the recent seasons of underperformance.
2016 Colquitt County
There are high standards at Colquitt County, especially in the season following a state and national championship. In 2016, the Packers sported an 8-5 record. It was the lowest number of wins Colquitt County had in eight years. However, there was much more to this Packer team than the record indicated.
Colquitt County lost its first four games to open the season, all against top-notch competition: Mill Creek (7A semifinalist), Florida’s American Heritage (undefeated 5A state champions), Tucker (6A finalist), and Roswell (7A finalist). After that rough stretch, the Packers rolled to eight straight wins, including victories over rival Lowndes and 6A state champion Valdosta. The run finally came to an end in the quarterfinals against Grayson, one of the most talented state champions ever. This Colquitt County team certainly had more potential than their record showed, and it became clear in 2017 and 2018 when they made back-to-back state title appearances.
2018 Mary Persons
The Brian Nelson era at Mary Persons started off on the right foot and carried successfully into the late 2010s. 2018 was the last of three consecutive 10+ win seasons for the Bulldogs, a season in which offensive production reached its peak and gelled with a physical and imposing defense.
The Bulldogs rattled off ten straight wins in the regular season, claiming blowout wins over 3A state finalist Peach County and then-#9 Lovett. Their offense showed no mercy, scoring at least 40 points in all but two regular season games. The Bulldogs were defensively sound as well, holding opponents to 21 or less points in every game.
Mary Persons crushed their first two playoff opponents by a combined score of 124 to 21, but fell just short in a defensive quarterfinals showdown to Marist, 10-7. With the eventual state finalists (Cartersville and Blessed Trinity) both almost suffering upsets twice in the regular season, the Bulldogs may have had a second state championship ring to display had their offense scored just once more against Marist.
These are only a few of the several teams who could have made a case to be the best in the classification based on resume alone, but fell just short. However, great seasons such as these tend to fall into obscurity because of a lack of championship status. What other team do you think had a season worth remembering that is often forgotten?
