By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Rankings are from the Georgia High School Football Daily’s first composite poll of 2025.

Editor’s Note:
          Around lunchtime, come on back for The Central Georgia Sports Report’s first actual preseason football section.
          You remember the days of the print version, right? Well, let us pray for what’s needed – funds, bucks, lottery numbers, contributions galore - toward having a printed version next year.
          But almost 10 pages covering nearly four dozen high schools will be posted around lunchtime. More than a list. You’ll get a lot of what you remember from those football tabs (newspaper terminology).
          It has led to condensed coverage of the normal football week this first go ‘round. Coming Friday by lunchtime as well: a combination scouting report – abbreviated – and TSR predictions.
Another note: The football section will grow in the next few days with a variety of additional content, and if some coaches who battle getting those questionnaires out come through, team scouting reports will be expanded, and you’ll be told about new content.
Read. Enjoy. Share/retweet. Tell a friend (not everybody's on Facebook or X)
          All that said, the one-man show – yeah, one dingbat does all this every head-banging week – is more than ready for more people to join the small group of contributors appreciative of a community asset that gets more out there on kids – and others – than anybody else/everybody else in Central Georgia.
          It’s time. It’s needed. It’s easy. It’s appreciated. Oh yeah, it’s appreciated.

Kickoff at 7:30 p.m. unless noted

Thursday
Bleckley County v35, Rutland 13
dougherty 51, Central 14
Friday
GHSA
Jones County at Veterans
Baldwin at No. 12T/4A Perry
No. 5/5A Lee County at No. 10/4A Warner Robins
Union Grove at No. 14 Upson-Lee
Westside vs. Howard, Thompson, 8 p.m.
No. 14 Swainsboro at No. 6/A-1 Dublin
East Laurens at No. 15T/A-II Johnson County
No. 3T/A-1 Northeast at No. 2/3A Peach County
Southwest vs. Macon County, Thompson, 4 p.m.
Washington County at Jeff Davis
Taylor County at Jasper County
Telfair County at No. 10T/ A-1 Lamar County
No. 14/A-II Greene County at Putnam County
Marion County at Hawkinsville
Atkinson County at GMC Prep
Hancock Central at Glenn Hills
Treutlen at Twiggs County
Wheeler County at Wilkinson County
Crawford County at Pike County
GIAA
Eagles Landing Christian at *2 FPD
Bethlehem Christian at John Milledge
Mount de Sales at Loganville Christian
Piedmont at Thomas Jefferson
St. Anne-Pacelli at Stratford
Tattnall at Brookstone
Central Fellowship at Tiftarea
Westfield at Brookwood
Trinity Christian at * Brentwood
Flint River at Gatewood
Windsor at Pataula Charter
8-man
Georgia Christian at Covenant
Westwood at John Hancock

Saturday
No. 9/5A Houston County vs. Brookwood, Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Eagles Landing at Northside

🏈🏈🏈Maxwell Ratings Predictions🏈🏈🏈

Maxwell Ratings full predictions

Thursday

Bleckley Co. over Rutland by 28
Dougherty over Central, Macon by 35

Friday
Atkinson Co. over GMC Prep by 11
Dublin over Swainsboro by 10
First Presbyterian over ELCA by 4
Hancock Central over Glenn Hills by 14
Hawkinsville over Marion Co. by 2
Jasper Co. over Taylor Co. by 7
Jeff Davis over Washington County by 5
Johnson Co. over East Laurens by 9
Jones Co. over Veterans by 12
Lamar Co. over Telfair Co. by 8
Lee Co. over Warner Robins by 11
Macon Co. over Southwest by 10
Pataula Charter over Windsor Academy by 10
Peach Co. over Northeast by 7
Perry over Baldwin by 24
Pike Co. over Crawford Co. by 12
Putnam Co. over Greene Co. by 1
Treutlen over Twiggs Co. by 25
Upson-Lee over Union Grove by 15
Westside over Howard by 3
Wheeler Co. over Wilkinson Co. by 1

Saturday
Houston Co. over Brookwood by 7
Northside, W.R. over Eagle's Landing by 21

🏈🏈🏈Maxwell Rankings 🏈🏈🏈

Here are the Central Georgia teams’ spots in the preseason Maxwell Rankings in each classification. The number to the left is the ranking within the class and then the overall statewide ranking, out of 459 teams in all three state organizations.

Class 5A
9/27. Houston County           85.13
20/106. Northside                 69.14
26/143. Veterans                   63.21

Class 4A
8/31. Warner Robins           83.27
9/37. Perry                             81.99
17/64. Jones County             74.51

Class 3A
4/67. Peach County              74.13
14/126. Mary Persons           65.70
16/128. Upson-Lee                64.95
20/140. Baldwin                    63.32
35/211. West Laurens           56.85
34/220. Howard                     55.74

Class AA
16/178. Westside 60.04
44/365. Rutland 35.06

Class A/Division I
4/92. Dublin                            70.80
5/102. Northeast                    69.49
12/180. Bleckley County     59.84
13/187. Lamar County          58.94
14/191. Dodge County        58.80
18/225. Washington County 54.56
22/274. ACE Charter            50.14
19/239. Putnam County        53.43
28/303. Jasper County          46.81
29/314. Southwest                45.95
34/336. East Laurens            42.77
39/389. Rutland                    35.06
45/417. Central                     27.74

Class A/Division II
15/250. Macon County         52.70
29/339. Hawkinsville           42.72
31/342. Taylor County         41.90
36/364. Wilkinson County 39.63
40/391. Hancock Central     34.76
47/414. Crawford County    29.28
50/433. GMC Prep                21.72
54/447. Twiggs County       13.38

GIAA
1/214. FPD                             56.20
5/259. John Milledge           51.55
6/263. Tattnall                      51.30
8/282. Stratford                    49.16
9/293. Westfield                   47.98
1/316. Brentwood                 45.85
5/379. Gatewood                  37.10
20/409. CFCA                       30.60
20/410. Mount de Sales       30.26
21/418. Piedmont                 27.21
10/419. Trinity Christian     26.78
15/455. Windsor                   5.48