By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

There were some raised eyebrows back in late March of 2022 when it was Kip Burdette emerging as the new West Laurens head football coach.

GHSA Class AAA
Semifinal
West Laurens, 13-0, at Jefferson, 12-1

He was young, had minimal coordinator experience, and no head coaching experience on any level. Speculation was heavy that his bloodline dazzled West Laurens and Laurens County School District officials more than his resume.

After all, his grandfather was Mary Persons coaching legend Dan Pitts, and his dad Pat a career coach with a solid three-year stint as head coach at Jasper County in the early 1990s and years coaching wins.

But everybody knows that bloodlines don’t automatically convert to the same level of success, right?

Well …

Burdette is showing that there might be something to all that, making the right hires and enforcing the right plans to go from 1-9 – the Raiders didn’t even crack 100 points, for the first time since 2003 – to 2-8 to a dazzling two-year run of 21-3.

A run that’s still going with the Raiders’ GHSA Class AAA semifinal visit to Jefferson on Friday night.

The gamble on a young coach with a nice resume has more than paid off, with West Laurens’ historic season, engineered by somebody who – finally – turns 40 next Sunday.

To a point, it’s no big deal for Burdette, who simply paid attention as a high school and college player, and young coach.

The secret to this epic season is no secret. Find a plan, and stick with it, keeping it basically simple.

Most of Burdette’s staff has been at West Laurens for three of his four seasons. And that stability began to trickle down to the players early on, before it actually became stability.

“I got a really good staff (and) we’re all on the same page philosophically,” said Burdette, a defensive back and quarterback in his playing days at Mary Persons. “The continuity and all has been because of this coaching staff.. Almost everybody on our staff is in their third year.”

Burdette isn’t sure that the Raiders are ahead of any schedule. He didn’t have a timeline, so to speak, but saw from the players early on that there would be steady progress.

“We knew this class right here was going to be our class,” Burdette said of the freshmen his first year that are now seniors, 20 strong. “In the hard times, you could see this was going to be a good class.

“They were solid and they never had bad attitudes when we were losing. They were just like, ‘All right, y’all wait till we get our turn, we’re going to turn this thing around.’”

And they turned words into action.

Burdette was a defensive back at Mary Persons, and then at Valdosta State, finishing with the Blazers in 2008. Little did he know that a philosophy back then would be his motto a decade and a half later.

“I kind of took it from Chris Hatcher when we were at Valdosta State,” Burdette said of his college coach. “Expect to win. You don’t hope to win, It’s not a hopeful thing, it’s an expectation.”

It took a little while for that to became reality, but that’s been the case for two seasons.

Perhaps more than ever before, Burdette saw it this year before Game 10, against region co-leader and favorite Westside-Augusta. He’d already seen a variety of signs that showed confidence and progress.

“It was a short week, we played on a Thursday, and the kids didn’t hardly miss a beat at practice,” Burdette said. “I go down with the first group at pregame, and the coaches said that when it was 6:45, the rest of the group goes down.

“But you didn’t have to go get them. They were already lined up and ready to go, at the door. They expected to win that game.”

There were nice wins and a similar vibe for other games, like Howard and Baldwin and Richmond Academy. But this time, the Raiders put it all together and knocked off the Patriots 27-3 with a complete performance.

“We took care of business,” he said. “Beat a team I thought was pretty good 27-3. I, I kind of felt we might be all right.”

It’s not like there was a huge tradition to inspire such stubbornness and confidence among the players. Only twice in program history had West Laurens won at least eight games in consecutive seasons (9-4 & 8-4 in 2014-15 and 11-2 & 9-4 in 1990-91).

Coaching stability had improved, with six years from Stacy Nobles and then five from Kagan McClLain before Burdette. Nobles was the Raiders’ seventh head coach since the start of the century when he took over in 2011.

The program started showing some promise and consistency under Nobles and McLain, now assistants at Bleckley County, the pair combining to go 69-54 in 11 seasons.

It was a pleasant change from the first decade of the 2000s, which included a winless season and 1-win year, and only one playoff trip.

This year’s team cruised past the program record for points scored with 512, topping the 443 in 2019, also in 13 games. The point differential of 319 points is also a record, the Raiders winning by an average of 24.5 points.

The attention getter has been running back Ty Cummings, who has left defenders flat-footed and frustrated en route to 2,557 yards in 13 games, an average of 196.7 yards a game.

The amazing stat? In 219 carries, he has all of 54 lost yards en route to leading the state in rushing. He just past Jahmyr Gibbs – now with the Detroit Lions – by three yards and will have the 20th-best single season in state history with his 47th yards. And, of course, there was that record 615 yards and eight touchdowns in the dizzying 70-55 win over Baldwin.

Not bad for somebody who spent time his first two seasons at quarterback.

“He could have kept doing that, really,” Burdette said. “He could have been an excellent quarterback. He has a freaking cannon on him.

“I think he kind of wanted to play running back, and move out into the slots.”

Cummings, who signed Wednesday with Georgia Southern, has 6,002 career rushing yards, becoming the 31st player in Georgia history to pass 6,000.

“He can do so much more,” Burdette said. “I still think one of the most deadly things we do is just to read stuff with him. It’s just hard to deal with.”

No running back, of course, goes it alone, and the Raiders’ offensive line of Christian Rozier, Grady Howell (another GSU signee), Tramel Tobler, Trey Williams, and Jonathan Toney plus tight ends/H-backs Rashod Dixon, Evan Holmes, and Evan Williams has been steady.

Just as important in an offense that runs 83 percent of the time is the downfield blocking of receivers Juvon Hill, Janile Browder, and Jeremy Brownlee.

And lost are the Raiders’ other ground threats. Brandon Brooks averages 8.5 yards a carry and has 692 yards and three touchdowns, while Braylen Robinson adds 264 yards and four touchdowns.

Linebacker Shannon Adkins, another Georgia Southern signee, is quite the effective short-yardage threat, with a touchdown every 3.6 carries. Quarterback Cason Pollock’s arm has gotten more action lately, upping him to 742 yards on only 49 completions, with 14 touchdowns, a score every six attempts, and no interceptions.

Adkins is the top playmaker on a defense loaded with playmakers. He leads with 11.6 tackles a game, and trails Ethan Cason-Guyton and Maxx Chafin in tackles for loss.

Justin Blash, the latest Blash to suit up for West Laurens, leads with five interceptions and Hill is right behind with four, West Laurens picking off 16 passes.

The Raiders went through a spell as a defensive powerhouse under McClain, and are turning in similar numbers in a less powerful way.

“We weren’t quite as talented on defense that second year,” Burdette said. “But everybody that played on that defense was either a sophomore or junior or freshman. So we know that if we kept it together - we were going to be junior-heavy last year, that we had a chance to be competitive.”

The Raiders have been a bit of the exception, progressing as they – on paper, at least – should have progressed, with experience, leadership, and coachability as well as chemistry all coming together.

Burdette is in the fifth month of the dream season, and it’s not just because the Raiders are undefeated and in their first semifinal.

It’s those kids, especially the older ones.

“The (senior) class makes it easy,” Burdette said. “Our best players are our hardest workers. To me, that’s leadership.

“When you don’t got to say anything …. You just go do what you’re supposed to do, and then everybody else kind of follows suit.”

Of course, this is a collection of teen-agers.

“I ain’t gonna lie,” Burdette said. “We got our problems just like everybody else does. But they make my job easier when your best players are lifting weights. Our best players like practice. Our best players listen to coaching.”

Having coached at his alma mater as well as a power like Lowndes and in a small community at Pierce County, Burdette has seen the spectrum, and knows how unique his situation currently is.

“I’ve coached talented teams before, but they were hard to coach, you know?” he said. “When it all comes together, and you’ve got some character and you’ve got some work ethic and some competitiveness about you …”

You have a historical season.