Life on top at Rome High

February 4, March 4, and April 8 at 10:00am

For the past year, Rome football proved people wrong and showed it can compete against the best. Now, the goal is to prove it can stay at the top.

The past fall saw the Wolves reach the mountain they had been climbing for 25 years, beating Buford 16-7 in the GHSA Class 5A state championship at the Georgia Dome. It was the first team state title Rome had won in any sport.

And now, Rome is looking to build further off of that win and championship. Coach John Reid wants to prove to his fans and the state that there’s still plenty more to improve on.

“We want to be known for quality whether it is our sideline demeanor, our special teams, the way we field a punt or whatever it is,” Reid said. “We want to be known as the very best at that. And that’s something you can work on every day.”

Most fans are still trying to figure out how Rome’s turnaround occurred so quickly. Since Reid and his staff took over two years ago, the Wolves have gone from a team with a losing record to a state champion.

While Franco Perkins made the playoffs three different times, his final year in 2014 was a struggle. It featured losses such to teams like Cass and Villa Rica, and the team finished 3-6, the first time in 20 years Rome won less than four games.

Things changed pretty quickly once Reid came to town, but Rome still struggled in 2015 with a 3-3 start. The team then won its next five games, making the playoffs and advancing to the second round of the postseason.

The final win was a 7-6 first round victory against Stephenson, a region champion many thought of as a state championship contender. Senior lineman Zach Kadum sees that moment as one of the biggest changes in the Reid era.

“That Stephenson game last year was just huge,” Kadum said. “Coach has always said that playoffs are like ice cream, and everybody loves ice cream. So once we got a taste of it, it kind of showed us what type of chance we had for this season.”

There’s been no adjustment period this season, with the Wolves winning their last 12 games, with 10 of them by 17 points or more. The team did not blink in the postseason, winning three games by an average of 43 points.

The biggest difference in year two was the defense, which allowed 15 less points per game compared to 2015. The potential to shutout any opponent is the thing Reid knew needed to happen for his team to be great.

“I told everybody when I got here, ‘When you see our defense playing good, you’ll know the kids have bought in,’” Reid said. “Defense is the heart and soul of what we do.”

The crowning achievements of the turnaround came in the final two weeks, with wins against an undefeated Stockbridge team and Buford, playing in its 10th straight state title game.

The Stockbridge win was a back-and-forth offensive affair, with

Rome High football player Moriek Ramsey (54) smiles as he enters the field at the Georgia Dome with the rest of the team prior to their Class 5A state championship game against Buford on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016.

Rome scoring 21 points in the second half and going ahead 28-21 with 6:40 left on a Jamious Griffin 14-yard run. The game was sealed when Rome’s Marquis Glanton recovered a muffed punt return by Stockbridge’s Marquez Ezzard at the Rome 48 with 1:32 left.

Rome fell behind 7-0 against Buford on the second play of the state championship, but Reid’s team did not allow a point the rest of the way. Then, thanks mostly to quarterback Knox Kadum’s 207 total yards, the offense did what it needed to preserve the win.

The victory was sealed when Kadum, already with one touchdown under his belt, scampered in from 17 yards out on fourth down with just more than a minute left in the game.

“That last touchdown was just all about heart, none of the hits mattered,” Kadum said. “God I wanted that touchdown.”

But the state championship was months ago, and now Rome stands in the middle of the offseason. And as Reid and his staff points out, the offseason can sometimes be busier than the actual season.

The staff has already dealt with recruiting, or at least this year’s senior class. Three graduating players, Zach Kadum, Jaylen Griffin, and Malik Davis, all committed on signing day, with Griffin signing with Virginia Tech.

But the Wolves still have plenty of talent returning, whether it is offensive players Knox Kadum, Jamious Griffin or Jalynn Sykes or defensive players like Adam Anderson or Jamarcus Chatman. And that means plenty of college coaches coming in to see Rome play.

Reid has been a coach for decades and has gone through the recruiting phase countless times, but he admits things have certainly changed.

“College recruiting is just so different from what it used to be, let’s just put it that way,” Reid said. “The approach has just been changed with kids announcing scholarships on Twitter and different things. It is just a whole new dynamic these days.”

The offseason also allows the staff to look at

Steven Eckhoff / RN-T.com Rome High quarterback Knox Kadum (12) avoids a Buford defender during the Class 5A football state championship game in the Georgia Dome on Friday, Dec. 9, 2016.

more things surrounding the program than just the games on the schedule. That includes facilities, which Reid hopes in the coming years can have some improvements.

The coach is not hoping for any broad or sweeping reconstruction of facilities, but instead a few improvements. He hopes his players can have a little more functionality with what they do.

“We want to make this a program that is consistently good, and that includes improving the facilities,” Reid said. “We won state, but it was grueling with such a small coaching staff and sometimes not having a lot of equipment.”

Perhaps the biggest thing Reid and the Wolves now deal with are outside expectations, something relatively new to the team. The public now sees Rome as one of the best teams in the state, and a team that may have a target on its back.

But that’s exactly the kind of reputation Reid wants with his team, knowing that the underdog persona could not last forever. Whatever other teams

label them as, the Wolves are still going to play the same way.

“There’s going to be expectations and we want those expectations,”

Reid said. “We talked about it when we started to build this thing that it is our job to represent this city. It’s not so much about Jeremy Stewart / RN-T.com

going for the tite again, it’s just about going at it again and seeing what happens.”