Calhoun hoping best is yet to come
For the Calhoun High School football team, the best is yet to come.
At least, that is what Jacket Nation is hoping for.
And that is what head coach Clay Stephenson and his staff and players are working for.
The open week is behind them. A fine 8-2 regular season is officially behind them as well with both losses coming to a team that was in a state championship game in 2020.
One in Tennessee — McAllie — and one — Cartersville — in Georgia.
Now things get really real this Friday night on Hal Lamb Field at Phil Reeve Stadium when they face their first hurdle in the 5A playoffs against the third seed school from Region 5.
And the goal is quite clear. They want to be 1-0 each Friday night for the next five weeks.
Five wins is what it takes to win the state championship in Georgia. So five wins is what they need. And five straight wins is what they are after.
“From here on out, every game we play will be a 48-minute dogfight,” Stephenson said. “But we know that and I think our kids understand that. So we’ve got to be at our best every time we tee it up.”
We do know that any and all opposing teams that may have scouted the versatile Yellow Jackets to try and get a handle on what they do may leave the Reeve asking the same question we do — where do you start?
If you take try and take away their running game, they can throw it. And if you can figure out a way to take away their downfield success, they can line it up and smashmouth you.
And if you do decide to take away their rushing attack, who do you focus on?
If you decide you want to stop sophomore Caden
Williams, who has rushed for nearly 1,000 yards this year, they still have senior Navy commit Gage Leonard who can hurt you. And if you decide to try and take away Leonard, Williams can drop the hammer on you.
If someone is able to take those two away, then the Yellow Jackets have Cole Speer and a couple of others they can hand the rock to.
Senior quarterback Christian Lewis can also run. The two-year starter seldom does just take off, but has shown he can when he needs to.
But suppose someone does find a way to stop their ground
attack, well then the Yellow Jackets can beat you down the field through the air with a covy of receivers.
Speer is a burner on one side who teams try to not let get away but senior Quin Smith at the other receiver spot is more than a handful to defend himself. They’re both averaging nearly 20 yards a catch.
Then there is 6-foot-6 Peyton Law, Brendan Gray, Dustin Kerns, Cam Curtis and three or four other guys who have shown good hands when targeted.
Throw in the Jackets adding a tight end in 260-pound freshman Amaree Winston, who has added more beef to the offensive line while also catching a few passes, and we go back to the question we asked a few minutes ago.
If you’re the coaches about to play Calhoun, and you want to take away some of the things they like to do, where do you start?
Defensively, the Jackets are not the biggest group around, but everyone on that side of the ball can run, is extremely physical, and the team has excelled all year at getting a lot of people to the ball carrier.
Up front, defensive ends Lex Walraven and Ben Nation are each around 200 pounds but have abused bigger opposing offensive linemen at times this year. Jai Hogan, at 6-foot-2, 280 pounds has done a great job of plugging the middle since replacing fellow senior Amari shoulders, who was playing very well before he got hurt, at nose tackle.
Linebackers Mason Green, Nathan Fuller, and Christopher Lewis have been active all year, roaming sidelineto-sideline and also holding up very well when teams have chosen just run it right at them.
Fuller leads the team in tackles and Green is right behind him.
In the secondary, the Yellow Jackets are a very experienced team with five seniors that are also playoff-tested.
Speer and Smith have been lockdown corners for the most part in 2021. Seniors Luke Hawkins at the stinger position and Blaze Hamlett at the rover spot have not let many get people behind them this year while also adding a lot of support in defending the run game.
Leonard has become a mainstay at free safety and the last couple weeks of the season, he seemed to play a lot more on defense than on offense. That is probably a byproduct of the coaching staff wanting to make sure the defense has its best personnel on the field at all times and also getting Leonard some rest by not playing him on both offense and defense.
But as we alluded to earlier, Leonard is very capable at the running back position and a nice option to have for his team going forward.
For these guys, it continues to be a matter of keeping the other team from scoring. At this point, everybody still standing has playmakers and everybody is probably going to make a couple of plays, but keeping them from crossing the goal line is the bottom line for the Jackets’ rundown crew.
So there’s more in the air right now in Calhoun than just a chill, there’s playoff fever.