VALDOSTA —
The Valdosta Wildcats have played each of their first six football games on their home turf this year. Tonight, they go on the road for the first time.
Valdosta will travel north on Interstate 75 to Tifton tonight to face longtime rival Tift County. The teams will kick off at 8 p.m. at Gene Brodie Field.
The Wildcats haven’t had a road trip since their preseason scrimmage in August, when they traveled to Waycross to face Ware County. They will play three of their next four games on the road.
“It will be different,” Valdosta head coach Rance Gillespie admitted. “We love playing at home. We’ve got to go into another team’s territory. That will be different for us. ... Tifton can be a tough place to play.”
Valdosta has a 6-1 record in road games in Gillespie’s three seasons as head coach.
Both teams will be looking for their first Region 1-6A victories. Valdosta (3-3) is 0-2 in region play, with losses to No. 1 Camden County (43-6) and No. 4 Lowndes (17-14). Tift (2-5) is 0-3 in the region, having lost to Coffee (24-7), Colquitt County (49-7) and Camden (47-0).
Tift is in its first season under new head coach John Reid. Reid won two state championships in Tennessee and posted a 60-15 record in six years at East Paulding before going to Tift.
Tift runs a pro style offense. TCHS will primarily line up in the I formation, but will also get in the spread at times.
“They’re not as spread-oriented as they were last year,” Gillespie said. “They’re a pro style offense, and they’ll get into some gun sets. (There is) a spread element. One of the quarterbacks has got a little bit more run-oriented stuff with his package.”
Tift’s best player has been running back Rashad Daniels. Daniels, a senior, has had several big games this season, including a 368-yard, five-touchdown performance against Houston County on Sept. 7.
“The back, Rashad Daniels, is probably the marquee player,” Gillespie said. “He’s had a couple of really big games. (In the) Houston County game, he rushed for (368 yards). He’s had an outstanding year. He’s made a lot of improvement from last year to this year. ... If you don’t stop him, he can hurt you.”
Tift has been rotating two quarterbacks, senior Kris Miller and junior Ryan Wedgeworth.
“They’re playing both quarterbacks, and both of them do some good things,” Gillespie said. “They can both throw the ball, and they have. ... One’s a smaller, shiftier kid and the other one’s a big kid. They’re both athletic; they can both move around, both can throw it around. They don’t look alike, but they share some common qualities.”
On defense, Tift plays a defense that is sometimes a 3-4 and sometimes a 5-2, depending on where the outside linebackers line up.
“They’ve got some guys that have played well for them defensively,” Gillespie said. “They play sound fundamental football.”
Valdosta’s West Coast offense is led by quarterback Shelby Wilkes, who has thrown for 809 yards and five touchdowns, and running backs Nelson Herring (506 yards rushing and four touchdowns) and Malcolm Joseph (482 yards, eight touchdowns). Joseph is also the team’s leading receiver, with 21 catches for 189 yards and one touchdown.
This is one of South Georgia’s oldest high school football rivalries, dating back to 1914. Valdosta leads the series 68-14-2.
What will it take for the Wildcats to win tonight’s game?
“We need to control the football game early,” Gillespie said. “(We have to) make sure we don’t have a hangover from the last game. (We need to) play with high emotion, high intensity. We can’t go up there and make a bunch of mistakes. If you’re playing Tifton, certainly you’ve got to stop that running back. Probably the biggest key is stopping him.”
Tonight, Valdosta defensive line coach Stacy Duckworth will be going back to his hometown. Duckworth played on Tift’s state championship team in 1983 and was an assistant coach at Tift from 1988-2011, before joining Gillespie’s staff this year.
Directions to Gene Brodie Field in Tifton: Take Interstate 75 north to Tifton. Exit at Exit 63B (Eighth Street), and turn right. Go one mile. The stadium is on the right, next to Eighth Street Middle School.
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Shelby Wilkes (4) has thrown for 809 yards and five touchdowns for Valdosta, which travels to Tift County tonight. file photo
Discussion
Wildcats hit the road to face Tift County
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