It’s no surprise that the Lowndes football team has one of the best offenses in the state of Georgia.
The unit has everything a coach could dream of — an offensive line with three senior starters who were members of a state championship team as sophomores in 2007, a bruising fullback and two of the fastest running backs around.
Oh yeah, the Vikings have a dangerous passing game, too.
Let me repeat that. Lowndes, a team known around the state for running the ball at will, has a passing game. And not just some passing game. It may be the most effective passing game in Region 1-AAAAA.
Junior quarterback Cole Parker has been a diamond in the rough, a trump card for Lowndes head coach Randy McPherson. Look at Parker’s numbers this year: 55 percent completion percentage, 780 passing yards (71 yards per game) and the most impressive stat of all, 11 touchdowns to one interception.
Parker has been the ultimate game manager. In most offenses, when a quarterback is called a game manager, it’s a bad thing. Not in Lowndes’ offense. Make no mistake, the Vikings’ bread and butter is the running game. They averaged an obscene 303.6 rushing yards per game in the regular season.
That doesn’t seem to bother Parker. He has fit into the exact mold the coaches want him to fit in. Most of the night, he takes the snap and hands the ball off to Robert Anderson or pitches it to Khary Franklin or Troy Braswell. But when his number is called, he’s been money.
Take the Warner Robins game. The Demons came into Martin Stadium red hot, having beaten then-No. 2 Northside the previous week. The Demons had one of the best players in the state in defensive lineman Jeffrey Whitaker, along with other athletes all over the defense. Lowndes and Warner Robins were locked in a defensive battle all game long, with each team having figured out the other team’s wing-T offense. The Demons moved their linebackers to the outside to take away sweeps. They relied on Whitaker to hold fullback Robert Anderson in check.
Eventually, if Lowndes was going to win that game, Parker and his receivers were going to have to make a play. They did. The Vikings faked a run to the right late in the third quarter, but Parker threw back to his left to Josh Clemons on a screen. Clemons picked up one block and raced to the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown.
Perfect play call, perfect throw, perfect catch, perfect block. I’d expect this from Valdosta State, not from the Vikings. Well, at least not from Viking teams of the past.
While that pass-and-catch was relatively simple, the one the Vikings put the game away with was a thing of beauty. Parker dropped back and threw a laser that hit Troy Braswell in stride in the back of the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown. The coverage was pretty good. The pass was great.
East Coweta coach Clint Wade had to be scratching his head watching the film of that game. How in the world does any team stop Lowndes if the Vikings can throw the ball? The running game gives teams enough fits. Lowndes slinging the ball around is just plain unfair.
McPherson has said the same thing all year long. He thinks the Vikings have a good passing game, but he wants them to use it on their own accord, not when they’re forced into it.
That wasn’t the case last year against Grayson in the state playoffs. The Vikings handed the ball off time after time to Greg Reid, hoping their electric playmaker would break off a big run. He did it once, but once isn’t enough when you get deep into the playoffs. You need something else up your sleeve. The Vikings didn’t have it that night. They fell behind, which forced Tyler Hunter to throw the ball when the entire stadium knew that wasn’t the Vikings’ best option. Unfortunately, as effective as Grayson’s defense was that night, that was the Vikings’ only option.
Not this year. The Vikings can pound it up the middle, run it to the outside and bounce it back to the inside. When they lull a team to sleep with the run game, boom, Parker hits Clemons, Braswell or Aaron Winston, and it’s over.
Camden County, another solid defensive team (and the defending AAAAA state champion), stands in the Vikings’ path this week. I’m sure Parker and his receivers are relishing the idea that they could be the difference makers. At this point, it wouldn’t surprise anybody if they were.
Local Sports
Column: The Lowndes Vikings’ X factor
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