Hurricane fails to dampen MCA’s quick turnaround

Robby Robinson faced an unusual situation during the heart of the season.

In the course of a month, between a Sept. 16 win over Jenkins County and an Oct. 19 victory over Portal, Robinson’s McIntosh County Academy football team played just one game, a 31-12 victory over Savannah Christian.

Hurricane Matthew caused football season to take a pause along the Georgia coast. In part because of the shared stadium situation in Savannah, as well as the days lost from the storm, teams had to get creative in order to get as much of their seasons in as possible.

Beginning with the Savannah Christian game, MCA played games on Thursday, Wednesday, Monday and Saturday before reclaiming the traditional Friday night schedule.

In the midst of all of that, controversy broke out when the school’s first-year principal, former Putnam County principal Barry Lollis, was reassigned by the McIntosh County School Board as, according to multiple media reports, Lollis and the GBI were beginning an inquiry into activities surrounding the MCA athletics program.

Still, MCA went on a run that few thought possible two years ago when the team went 0-10 in the year before Robinson’s return. The Buccaneers (10-2) will be playing for the GHSA Class 1A public school championship at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Georgia Dome against Macon County.

“After what we have been thrown, with the various things we’ve had with the hurricane and having three weeks without playing and then four games in 17 days, (the early kickoff) is not going to be a factor whatsoever,” said Robinson, who is in his second stint at MCA after four seasons at Washington-Wilkes.

Robinson, whose coaching career includes head coaching stops at Pike County, Jackson, Metter and Fitzgerald, went 54-24-1 in his eight seasons at MCA from 2004-10. He went 33-14 at Washington-Wilkes before returning to MCA in 2015 after Gary Mintier went 0-10 in his only season with the Buccaneers.

MCA went 4-7 last year, making the playoffs after going 4-3 and finishing fourth in Region 2-2A. This season, the Buccaneers finished second to Calvary Day in Region 3A-1A, earning the No. 6 seed.

“It’s been an unbelievable ride,” Robinson said. “Turning around an 0-10 program was a hard job. I had no idea how bad of shape things had become. We had a lot of work to do, but the kids got on board and believed in what we were trying to do. They deserve all the credit.”

A couple of position shifts led to some positive momentum offensively for MCA.

Robinson’s son, 6-foot-4 junior Major Robinson, became MCA’s starting quarterback four weeks into the season, with the quarterback he was splitting time with previously, Dustin Anderson, moving to receiver.

Major Robinson has completed 95-of-154 passes (61.7 percent) for 1,731 yards and 15 touchdowns, throwing six interceptions in the process. Anderson is the top receiver, with 31 catches for 631 yards and five touchdowns.

MCA has lost just once since the switch, falling 21-14 to Class 1A private quarterfinalist Calvary Day.

“That made our offense better,” Robby Robinson said. “Things have clicked since then. The last three or four weeks, we’ve improved the run, and we needed improvement there.”

After a playoff run that includes a 14-7 win over Lincoln County, a 39-22 victory over Greene County and a 24-8 win over Clinch County that avenged a 32-7 loss in Week 2, MCA faces what could be far and way its biggest test in a Macon County offense that features a quarterback (K’hari Lane) who is challenging the single-season passing touchdown record.

MCA is playing for its first state title. This will be the program’s second trip to the Georgia Dome, having lost to Buford in the 2000 Class 1A semifinals.

“Macon County is loaded,” Robinson said. “They have a great coach in Dexter Copeland. His name spells success. And their quarterback and his touchdown-to-interception ratio, I’ve never seen anything like that.

“They have a great corps of receivers, and they have big play ability on ever snap. They’re solid in all phases of the game. We’ll have our hands full.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Hurricane fails to dampen MCA’s quick turnaround."