QUITMAN — Brooks County chases its first trip to the state championship game in 14 years tonight.
Brooks (12-1) hosts Calhoun (11-2) at 7:30 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The winner will head to the Georgia Dome next week to play the Fitzgerald-Buford winner for the state title.
The Trojans are excited to be in the semifinals, a round they have not reached since 1997. Calhoun last played in the semis in 2005. “We’re excited to be in this, and we’re going to give it our all,” Brooks head coach Maurice Freeman said. “The last time we were in the semifinals, it was in the Dome, so it feels a little unusual, because we’re not going there. But if we win Friday, we’re playing for the state title in the Dome.”
Instead of the Georgia Dome’s synthetic turf, the Trojans will be playing on their favorite gridiron tonight: their own. Brooks earned the right to host the game when it won a coin toss Saturday morning. That means Calhoun, located about 20 miles south of Dalton, must make a drive of around 320 miles for the game.
“It’s at home for us, and we’re comfortable here,” Freeman said.
Having the home field means that the stands will be packed with Brooks County fans tonight.
“That’s our 12th man,” Freeman said. “(The community) is so excited. Every day, I look over at the fence, and there are tons of people watching practice. They’ve been cheering us on, encouraging our kids.
“The superintendent came out yesterday and said, ‘Hey guys, I just want to tell you I appreciate the effort, and more than that, I appreciate you being gentleman-like when we have another team in here.’ That means a lot to me when the superintendent takes time out of her schedule to come out here and talk to me.”
The Trojans will need all the help they can get when they face Calhoun, a perennial playoff team and one of Northwest Georgia’s top programs. The Yellow Jackets have been the Region 7-AA champions for each of the past eight years. They also have eight straight seasons of 10-plus victories.
Head coach Hal Lamb has a 104-40 record in 10 seasons at Calhoun.
“It is a very good program. They’ve been winning forever,” Freeman said.
For the ninth time this season, and for the third straight week, Brooks will have to face a spread offense. The Yellow Jackets like to spread out their receivers and let quarterback Michael Johnson find the open man. They average 36 points per game.
“They throw the ball all over the place,” Freeman said. “They run a spread, four and five wide all the time out of the shotgun, and a single back. They’ve got a good running back and a good quarterback, and some good receivers.”
Defensively, Calhoun uses a 3-3 stack, a flexible defense that can be anything from an eight-man front to a nickel defense, depending on where the rovers line up. The defense uses primarily man and cover-3 pass coverages.
Calhoun’s defense is led by 295-pound defensive tackle Eric McDaniel, who has committed to Purdue. McDaniel is a three-star prospect and the No. 25 defensive tackle in the country.
“Defensively, they’ve got some hard-nosed kids,” Freeman said. “Their nose guard (McDaniel) is going to Purdue. They’re going to be tough for us.”
Tonight, the Yellow Jackets will probably be stacking the box, trying to contain Brooks’ option attack. Quarterback Jeremy Cody (1,000 rushing yards, 700 passing yards), tailback Keith Christopher (1,400 yards rushing) and a strong offensive line have helped the Trojans average 35 points per game.
Calhoun has three straight convincing wins in the playoffs. The Yellow Jackets steamrolled Banks County 63-0, beat Westminster 38-20, then hammered Toombs County 41-14 last week.
Brooks won its first two playoff games pretty convincingly, beating Tattnall County 41-13 and Jefferson County 27-7, then had to rally late in the game to beat Lovett 33-32 last week.
So what must Brooks do to win tonight’s game?
“We’ve got to play much better than we did last Friday. I don’t think we played that well on Friday,” Freeman said. “We’ve got to play much better on defense. We’ve got to tackle. We were (allowing) nine points a game before that. We’ve got to continue to sustain long drives, and keep their offense off the field. And we’ve got to be solid on special teams.”
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Trojans take on Calhoun tonight
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