Upsets in Georgia high school football aren’t as uncommon as the word suggests. There is a very good chance that one out of every two or three teams will suffer an upset at least once during the regular season. That’s the nature of the game. A playoff upset, though, is much less likely. The few that do occur each year tend to involve teams that may have lost anyways in the following round. However, in 2005, the state may have witnessed the greatest upset in high school football playoff history.
The Dublin Fighting Irish have been synonymous with success for a long time. The school opened in 1919 and won three state titles by 1965. A fourth state championship almost arrived in 2004, but future powerhouse Buford ended the Fighting Irish’s dreams in the semifinals. All signs pointed to a vengeful 2005 campaign, but no one expected the level of dominance and suffocation on the horizon.
Dublin opened its 2005 campaign against Johnson County. The Fighting Irish rolled to a 48-0 victory over the future Class A semifinalists. They followed that shutout with one more against Jones County, 63-0. Metter didn’t pose an issue as well, and the Fighting Irish dropped 63 more points on the Tigers. Through five games, Dublin had outscored their opponents 288-0.
The seventh game of the season brought Dublin’s first true challenge, a date with 2nd-ranked Vidalia. The final score? 58-0 in favor of the Fighting Irish. By the end of the regular season, Dublin had amassed a 10-0 record and outscored its opponents by a whopping 549 to 3. That’s an average of almost 55 points a game while allowing only a field goal in the entirety of the regular season.
It was a shock to see Dublin allow its first touchdown in 343 days in the first round of the playoffs against Manchester. But, of course, that minor flaw was overwritten by a 41-point blowout victory. This brought a matchup with Cook to the forefront. The Hornets entered the game at 9-2, but lost to both ranked opponents they faced and survived upsets against Thomasville, Worth County and Early County.
Dressed in all green, the Fighting Irish welcomed the Hornets to the Shamrock Bowl. In front of a sold-out crowd, Cook used excellent play calling and misdirection to score an early touchdown. What followed was both a masterclass by the Hornets and a breakdown in all three phases of the game by Dublin. A simple QB sneak by Cook turned into a 59-yard touchdown scamper. A poor kickoff return by the Fighting Irish resulted in a wasted possession. One big play after another pierced the previously invincible Dublin defense. Then, with momentum swinging to the Fighting Irish, Cook executed one of high school football’s most brilliant fake punts, fooling every member of the Dublin return team. The halftime score favored Cook, 20-7.
There were still 24 minutes for Dublin to mount a comeback, but Cook kept the pressure on. The defensive line notched several sacks and manhandled an offensive line that had been recognized as one of the state’s elite throughout the season. Dublin cut the deficit to just six in the third quarter, but needed one final drive in the fourth quarter to take the lead. On fourth down, the Cook defensive line again got into the backfield, forcing a short pass that came nowhere near the first down marker. That sealed a 20-14 Cook victory and one of the largest playoff upsets ever.
What makes this different from any other playoff upset? Simple: Dublin’s all-around dominance. The Fighting Irish’s 50.9 points per game on offense is 5th all-time in the Georgia record books. They are the only team since Manchester in 1984 to allow a field goal or less in an entire regular season. Dublin dominated on both sides of the football all season long against both easy and tough competition. If there were ever a textbook example of the perfect high school football team, Dublin fit the bill.
Unlike some playoff underdogs that pull off a massive upset and ride that momentum to a title or runner-up bid, Cook lost by three touchdowns in the next round to Greene County. This was the perfect upset on the perfect team. In fact, the magnitude of the upset may not have even been realized in 2005, with all these statistics and records unavailable at the time. Now, it becomes clear that Cook’s stunning takedown of a generational Dublin squad was no ordinary upset; it may be the greatest high school football playoff upset of all time.
