Just when you thought the Silly Season was behind us
Let’s start off by welcoming Bob Sphire to Kingsland, Sean Pender to Brunswick, Jason Strickland to Pierce County, and Von Lassiter to Bleckley County (just recently moving on from Houston County to Bleckley County).
In a year of stunning coaching moves, here’s the larger question now: JUST HOW MANY MORE STUNNING COACHING MOVES IS THIS OFF-SEASON GOING TO PRODUCE?
Your guess is now as good as mine.
So, Dear Reader, here’s this month’s question: What coaching change has been the most shocking or surprising to you in this off-season?
Answer on all the social media channels for everyone at In The Game and join all the pages if you haven’t so you can share your views of the state with the rest of the state.
Let me hear you!
Now, to the most recent sports-based national holiday: National Signing Day – and we’ll take this in pieces.
First, to see the school in Athens keep more than double the folks home than any other school in the country did was special. And, frankly, I have always thought that when you have one of the top-five states in high school football from year-to-year, you HAVE to keep as many kids at home as you can. And I don’t just mean in Athens. I’m talking Atlanta, Statesboro, Valdosta, Rome, Savannah, Carrollton, Waleska, and all places in between.
But at the same time, it’s just as rewarding to someone who has seen the sport grow as much as it has to have student-athletes going to service academies, Pac-12 schools, Ivy League schools, schools inside the southeast, and Big 12 schools (Kansas State and Oklahoma State got some good ones).
Here’s my lone question in all of this, though:
But, I will preface it by saying I talked to one Division I-AA (sorry, “FCS”) coach who didn’t disparage the athlete I am about to talk about one bit – his talent was recognized. This one coach was already locked in at the position.
How is it that Macon County QB K’Hari Lane did not have one solid Division I offer and was unable to sign some paperwork in Montezuma on NSD 2017? He set records. He won a state title. He and his team had a season that’s amazing in Class-A (Really, class is irrelevant, but it was an amazing year regardless of class.), and there’s nothing to show for it with all the schools that we all see on a Saturday that need QB help.
I am STILL scratching my head on that one.
In early February, the list of schools that were interested in Lane were Grambling State, Southern, Hampton, Savannah State, and Division II Morehouse.
All I am going to say is this: One school, somewhere, is going to get a motivated young man at QB.
Play it safe, everyone. I’ll talk to you soon.
Silly Season Continues:
For More Than One Reason
Written by: Jon Nelson
Photography courtesy of mag.bleacherreport.com and savannahnow.com
