Exceeding expectations up front has Fitzgerald in the semifinals
There is always suspense as July turns to August, and high school football teams go from 7-on-7 camps and assorted clinics to full-fledged preseason practice.
For Fitzgerald, the suspense focused on the most important part of a football team, the offensive line.
The Purple Hurricane had defenders back, like Buck Lundy, Logan Sapp, and expectations were strong for returning place-kicker Raul Martinez. And, of course, J.D. King has a monster sophomore season at running back, cracking the 1,500-yard mark.
A question mark was at quarterback, with James Graham taking over Gerald Morgan. The transition at that position would be made easier or more difficult depending on one group of players.
“When we first started this thing, we’re standing their looking at this band of misfits,” Fitzgerald head coach Jason Strickland said. “We’re losing Gerald Morgan, we didn’t know what James Graham was going to be like.
“Our offensive line last year was just really pretty doggone good. They were not very big. But man, they just really got after you.”
And then they graduated, leaving a pretty big hole to fill to create holes. One senior was Muata Smith at right guard.
“He kind of showed those guys how to practice how tplay and how to prepare,” Strickland said. “They’ve taken his mentality and carried that one through this year.”
So the Purple Hurricane have been running behind David Echeverria, Jason Poge, Kobe Burch, Chandler Hough, Carl Smith and Lecitus Smith.
“The biggest surprise is that they’re playing,” Strickland said with a laugh. “But they play together, they’re very competitive.”
And they have Fitzgerald in the GHSA Class AA semifinals Friday at Jefferson County. Fitzgerald is 12-1 and ended the regular season fifth in the Georgia Sports Writers Association poll, while 11-2 Jefferson County was 11th.
The Warriors opened the season with two straight losses, to Thomson and Burke County, but haven’t lost since. They went through a five-game stretch of scoring at least 48 points but have had two close games in the playoffs, beating Wesleyan 23-21 and Rabun County 31-28.
But it was Fitzgerald, led by that line, King and Graham, that pulled off one of the best wins of the playoffs in any classification, hammering top-ranked and defending state champion Benedictine 54-28.
King had a big night behind that line, carrying 44 times for 335 yards and three touchdowns.
“I’ve never had a kid rush for 300 yards,” said Strickland, who went 27-18 in four seasons at Lamar County and is 40-11 in four seasons at Fitzgerald. “J.D. King was unbelievable, and the offensive line just poured their hearts out.”
King has 2,260 yards and 30 rushing touchdowns, while Graham adds 1,292 and 16.
The Purple Hurricane went to Benedictine two years ago and were flattened 51-7 after playing a solid first half, and they were reminded of as much during film review all week.
“It was 14-7 at halftime,” Strickland said. “We came out in the second half and laid an egg. We had some guys that we felt like might’ve laid down on us. We kept showing both halves. ‘What was the difference here? What’s the difference here?’ ”
It had an impact.
“This group of guys went over with the mentality that they were going to win the game, and it wasn’t (that) they were going searching for moral victories, or ‘Hey, we want to go play them close,’ ” Strickland said. “Maybe we were all just too dumb enough to realize we weren’t supposed to win.”
Now, boosted by an offensive line playing better than anybody expected, the Purple Hurricane are loaded with confidence and chemistry.
“High school football, especially when you get in the playoffs, the deeper you go the more emotional it gets, the more emotional attachment you get,” Strickland said. “Then all of a sudden it’s over.”
And players realize that this specific team will never be together again. Fitzgerald loses only 12 seniors, about half of the size of the class when they were all freshmen. About four play regularly, with a few others on special teams.
“It’s dwindled down to 12 that have been with us all four years,” Strickland said. “I don’t know that anybody in this group as missed a practice.”
The realization about finality seems to have a grip on the team.
“I just don’t think right now, they’re not ready to stop being around each other,” Strickland said. “It’s a special group.”
Friday’s playoff capsule
FITZGRALD PURPLE HURRICANE
Record: 12-1, second place in Region 1-AA, beat Putnam County 51-15 in first round; beat Heard County 24-7 in second round; beat Benedictine 54-28 in quarterfinals.
Opponent: at Jefferson County, 11-2, first place in Region 3-AA.
Series record/last meeting: Tied at 1/Jefferson County won 28-14 in 2013.
Next up: Pace Academy or Greater Atlanta Christian, GHSA Clas AA championship, 1 p.m., Dec. 12, Georgia Dome.
Scouting report: The Warriors are playing a 14th game for the first time in program history, which began with the 1995 season.
Jefferson County has had 10 or more wins three times in that span but not since going 12-1 in 2009. Head coach J.B. Arnold took over in 2001 and had three straight losing seasons but has had only one since.
While Fitzgerald is extremely run-oriented, Jefferson County is extremely balanced, with 319 pass attempts and 391 rushing attempts. TJ Bell leads the ground game with 1,129 yards and 21 touchdowns. He has 62 percent of the Warriors’ rushing touchdowns, but their yards after him are spread out. He stays busy, accounting for 2,083 passing yards and 21 touchdowns passes. The senior has been picked off only six times.
Linebacker Roitavious Boatwright, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior, leads the defense with 113 tackles, including 10 for loss.
Jefferson County is 7-1 at home this year, and was only 4-3 at home last year. Fitzgerald has won 12 straight true road games, including last week’s huge victory at Benedictine, thanks to more than 600 yards rushing.
This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Exceeding expectations up front has Fitzgerald in the semifinals ."