What a mess of an opening week of high school football.

About everybody in the state broke curfew Friday and/or Saturday night.

Am guessing Washington County young ‘ns turned lights out around 4 a.m., considering the 42-7 win over Baldwin ended a little short of 1:30 a.m. at Mercer, to be followed by a lovely two-lane, deer-watching ride home to Sandersville, and then from the school to home.

And few Golden Hawks likely fell right to sleep, so impressive was their win.

Hopefully, we’ll not have another weekend like that this season. Hopefully if we do, teams and game officials will communicate game status updates a whole lot better, and tell people if a game went four quarters or was stopped or will be resumed.

Quit keeping secrets.

All that weatherness – and the humidity returned Saturday night at Mercer after things cleared up – and we get mid-70s on Sunday?

Central Georgia Football 2019

Good night for Westside and Washington County

Friday’s Roundup

GHSA, GISA scouting reports

Coaches on the move

Preseason All-Central Georgia team

Preseason state polls

This week's predictions

Thank ya, Lord, for the mid-70s on Sunday. We’ll take a few more surprises like that before it becomes normal.

See ya

The odd Central Georgia offering of the weekend is courtesy of – not terribly surprising – Twiggs County.

Granted, the Cobras are amid quite a rough stretch anymore, but to just up and leave Toombs County after a delay Friday night? And not give it a try Saturday?

Not a good look.

Even if you know you’re going to get beat, play another quarter or so, because, well, you’re going to have to play a full game sooner or later, and nobody gets better by not doing something.

Maybe a good thing

Dublin’s visit to ECI projected to be a nice game. Upon further review, maybe not.

The Irish had 144 yards in total offense in only a little more than a quarter, and were hammering the ECI offense, sending it backwards.

It was already 21-0, so that game had “it’s gonna get ugly” written all over it.

Still, the Irish are replacing a number of skill people and needed the Friday night reps against a quality program. Not that the lack of Friday night reps are likely to slow them down much.

The Region 2-4A mess

This is an enjoyable region to pay attention to, mostly in the race for second the past several years.

Now? Good luck guessing.

The region went 1-5 Friday night, with one close game, Mary Persons losing by six at Gainesville, which no doubt surprised many even though the Bulldogs are clearly way down after losing a team-load of seniors.

Mary Persons hasn’t missed the playoffs since actually back-to-back 10-game seasons in 2009-10, going 7-3 and 6-4. The last sub-.500 seasons was in 2006.

Yup, the Bulldogs have a solid chance to repeat that this year, a hiccup that sets them up to return to normal next year.

The only team that’s a clear lock for the playoffs is West Laurens. Howard is next.

After that? We’ll see how players develop from Game 1 to Game 2, which will tell us a little bit. After a few more weeks, region play starts, and that’s likely to be one dizzying Friday night after another.

Upson-Lee took a big graduation hit. Jeez, the team one could put together of the seniors gone from Upson-Lee and Mary Persons would be pretty burly, and deep.

West Laurens and Howard meet in the region opener in Dexter on Oct. 4.

It all worked out

The Macon Touchdown Club Middle Georgia Kickoff Classic started on time, but it was a mess after that.

Eventually, the weather cleared and football was played uninterrupted the rest of the night. No doubt there were a few hundred players, coaches, refs, game workers, TD Club and Mercer officials mighty pooped by the end of the night.

By all accounts, things went pretty well, weather mess aside and some grumbles about not being allowed in the stadium during lightning issues.

Folks, it’s called “liability” and it’s pretty important. Inconvenient, but important.

Naturally, attendance took a huge hit, although the reality is the second game was going to outdraw the first had things gone normally.

That hurt the TD Club, which uses proceeds – after payouts – for scholarships. Teams keep the money from tickets they sell, and then the entities involved split the money from tickets sold at the gate.

The Club will probably have to do a little more fund raising for this year’s scholarships, since gate receipts will hardly pay for much of anything.

The surprises

If you had Houston County beating Perry by 31, you better have written proof.

If you had Northside thumping Centennial by 33, you better have written proof. If you had Washington County over Baldwin by 35, written proof, please.

Warner Robins came up with an impressive win in Marquis Westbrook’s debut as head coach, knocking off 7A Tift County (8-5 last year, a 40-29 loser at Warner Robins on the road by a couple touchdowns).

Lamar County has been a coaching turnstile the past several years, but a three-touchdown win over Mt. Zion is a huge step.

As expected

Among the weather messes was Jones County and Howard, which ended up about the way it should have.

It was a close game for a half, and then the Greyhounds got going on offense. Jones County opened this season far ahead of last year at this time, and Howard had key players to replace.

The Huskies won’t face anybody in the region with as many offensive weapons or consistency on offense, so that wasn’t a step back. …

Tattnall beat Our Lady of Mercy 59-15 last year and 55-15 this year? Dang, where’d those four points go?

Note to keepers of standings, results

All standings should include an asterisk for weather-shortened games, because teams are going to get credit for scores that, well, are miiighty deceiving.

Would that MaxPreps and Georgia High School Football Historians Association be able to do that.

Dear beloved Friday night gamecasters

One at a time. Please. One person talk at a time. When one person is done, the other person can start. Otherwise, well, the brilliance gets lost because of people talking over each other for no apparent reason other than the glory of hearing one’s voice.

And the now-weekly reminder: time and score, score and time, and school name rather than nicknames. Go into a break, time and score. Come out of a break, time and score. Awaiting for the next flash of an attempted Munsonism, time and score.

It’s appreciated. It reeeeally is.