Georgia
Top teams dig in for a playoff run
With only three weeks left in the regular season, the GPB Rankings have reached a point of stability. The top teams remain unchanged and there are only a few newcomers in the top 10. It sets up an interesting stretch run to determine the top seeds when the state playoffs begin in November.
“This stretch run is going to be interesting,” said GPB’s Jon Nelson. “You’re going to see some region shakeups and some surprises before it’s all over.”
One such change occurred last week on GPB’s Football Fridays in Georgia, where Gainesville defeated two-time defending state champion Milton 28-16. The win jumped Gainesville up to No. 4 in Class 5A and dropped Milton to No. 6.
Another big showdown came in Class 2A, where No. 1 Carver-Columbus defeated previously unbeaten Sumter County 8-7. Sumter dropped two notches to No. 7.
In Class A Division 1, Fitzgerald knocked off Thomasville 24-21 and entered the rankings at No. 10. Thomasville fell three spots to No. 8. In one of the most surprising games of the week, Oglethorpe County beat No. 5 Rabun County 28-19 and knocked the Wildcats out of the rankings.
The No. 1 teams all remained the same: Grayson in 6A, Thomas County Central in 5A, North Oconee in 4A, Sandy Creek in 3A, Carver in 2A, Worth County in Class A Div. 1, Lincoln County in Class A Div. 2 and Hebron Christian in Private.
Class 6A
- Grayson
- Buford
- Carrollton
- North Gwinnett
- McEachern
- Lowndes
- Douglas County
- Colquitt County
- Valdosta
- Hillgrove
Also receiving consideration: West Forsyth, Mill Creek, Harrison
Class 5A
- Thomas County Central
- Hughes
- Gainesville
- Houston County
- Roswell
- Milton
- Rome
- Lee County
- Northgate
- Sequoyah
Also receiving consideration: Woodward Academy, Lovejoy, New Manchester, River Ridge, Statesboro
Class 4A
- North Oconee
- Cartersville
- Creekside
- Central Carroll
- Marist
- Benedictine
- Ware County
- Cambridge
- Kell
- Blessed Trinity
Also receiving consideration: Southwest DeKalb, Lithonia, Jones County, Locust Grove
Class 3A
- Sandy Creek
- Peach County
- North Hall
- Calhoun
- LaGrange
- Troup County
- Jefferson
- Jenkins
- West Laurens
- North Clayton
Also receiving consideration: Oconee County, Liberty County, Westside-Augusta, Harlem, Stephenson, Pickens
Class 2A
- Carver-Columbus
- Pierce County
- Morgan County
- Carver-Atlanta
- Callaway
- Rockmart
- Sumter County
- North Murray
- Hapeville Charter
- (tie) Frankin County, Thomson, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe
Also receiving consideration: Columbia
Class A-Division 1
- Worth County
- Toombs County
- Heard County
- Bleckley County
- Swainsboro
- Lamar
- Northeast
- Thomasville
- Dodge County
- Fitzgerald
Also receiving consideration: Jeff Davis, Jasper County, Elbert County
Class A-Division II
- Lincoln County
- Clinch County
- Johnson County
- Bowdon
- Screven County
- Early County
- Treutlen
- Wheeler County
- ECI
- Wilcox County
Also receiving consideration: Seminole County, Taylor County, Atkinson County
Class 3-1A Private
- Hebron Christian
- Fellowship Christian
- Calvary Day
- Athens Academy
- Prince Avenue Christian
- Savannah Christian
- Greater Atlanta Christian
- Aquinas
- Holy Innocents’
- Wesleyan
Also receiving consideration: Lovett, Landmark Christian, Whitefield Academy
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Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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