By: Josh Aubrey

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets enter the 2018 football season with their third coach in three years.

Barrett Davis takes over after Steve Pennington filled in on an interim basis in 2017 and inherits a Yellow Jacket team that lost a few key contributors but return 19 seniors for the 2018 campaign.

“We are extremely excited about this year’s Southeast Bulloch football team,” Davis said. “We have a great senior class and a lot of versatility, so we are ready to pull up our sleeves and get to work.”

The Yellow Jackets will have a new look on offense this season and for the first time in four years it will not revolve around fullback Chase Walker, who left Southeast Bulloch with over 6,000 yards rushing and 91 career touchdowns.

“Replacing someone like Chase Walker will be tough to do but we feel like we are going to be able to take advantage of what we do have talent wise,” Davis said. “We will be running our offense out of the wishbone but we will be throwing the ball a little more and not be quite as reliant on the fullback position.”

This year’s offense may not have Walker – or much of his talented offensive line – but they do return a talented trio of skill position threats in quarterback Blaize Minick, running back Jontrell Wells and receiver Tyler Bailey.

“We’ve got a quarterback in Blaize, who is pretty versatile,” Davis said. “Tyler has done a great job at receiver, but it also solid in the secondary, and Jontrell is a great athlete who can not only help us running the ball, but also at outside linebacker. Our offensive line will be doing different little things scheme wise, and we are stressing technique with them.”

Defensively the Jackets return eight starters from a year ago anchored by linebacker Logan Gomez, and quite a few players playing on both sides of the ball.

“Defensively we will work out of a 3-5 stack, allowing us to send pressure from different directions,” Davis said. “Logan has been doing a great job as well as Jabari Daniels, Rashode Hobbs, as well as a few other guys that will be counted on to go both ways.”

The previous two coaches each led the Jackets to the state playoffs but were unable to do something that still hasn’t been accomplished since 1974, and that is win a state playoff game.

“With us having 19 seniors that were around last year we are hoping they understand what it takes to win a state playoff game,” Davis said. “I think last year was a wakeup call for them to really see what it takes and I feel they have been putting in the work.”

While this may be the third head coach in three years for the players, there are a few familiar faces on the coaching staff as Brandon Peterson returns on offense, along with Chris Pye, while Jeremy Gantt returns to SEB after a year at Lincoln County.

“Jeremy Gant is back and will be joining coach Chris Pye and Brandon Peterson in running our offense, while I will be heading up the defense,” Davis said. “I feel like, along with our other coaches, we have really started to come together and are on the same page.”

Not only will coach Davis have to deal with the growing pains of being a first-year head coach at a new school but he will also have to deal with the new kid on the block in Region 3 AAA, the former AA state champion Cadets of Benedictine.

“The guys started off a little slow last year with a tough schedule and then built up some confidence and finished strong,” Davis said. “We know the kind of talent and tradition a team like Benedictine brings to our region and it will be a challenge but I feel our team is hungry and ready for a challenge.”

The Yellow Jackets open the 2018 season at home Friday August 24th as they host the Screven County Gamecocks.