By: Jason Bishop

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The Camden County Wildcat football program underwent a metamorphosis this past offseason.

Bob Sphire resigned as Head Coach and Camden hired legend Jeff Herron to replace him. The Spread Offense becomes a thing of the past for Camden and they will re-institute the Wing-T Offense. You will also see less finesse play and more of a ‘smashmouth’ brand of football in Kingsland.

Sphire was coming off of a 5-6 season with the Wildcats. He took Camden to 3 playoff appearances during his 4-year tenure. Those 3 playoff appearances ended up all being losses in the first round to Walton, Marietta and Parkview, respectively.

Sphire was 23-20 during his time at Camden, but was 3-9 in the region. Sphire’s only wins in the region were against Tift County. He was 3-1 against the Blue Devils.

Sphire went 0-8 against region foes and powerhouses Lowndes and Colquitt in his time as head coach.

And so, the page turns and enters the Camden new coach, Jeff Herron.

Herron was the head coach at Camden from 2000-2012. During his tenure with the Wildcats, he won 12 straight region titles and 3 state championships.

The legendary coach returns to Camden with a career record of 312-54.

During Herron’s first stay in Kingsland, he had a record 154-18. At one point the Wildcats won 58 straight regular season games under Herron, which is a Georgia record.

Herron had the Wildcats ranked inside the top 25 nationally six different seasons and the Camden program was named the program of the decade in the state of Georgia in the 2000’s.

The Wildcats are going to get back to being a run-oriented team and will have Senior, Jamie Felix to lead the way at running back. Felix has been recruited by everyone that matters and will be the main weapon in Jeff Herron’s offense.

Camden will head over to TitleTown, USA to take on Valdosta in a scrimmage on August 13.

The Wildcats kickoff for real the next week on August 20^th against Columbia at Chris Gilman Stadium in Kingsland.

Camden will host Beacon Hill (VA), Oakleaf (FL), Warner Robins, Colquitt and Lowndes. The Wildcats will pay visits to Glynn, Marietta, Coffee, and Tift.

My prediction is that Jeff Herron will be able to get the building blocks in place this season to make state title runs in the following two seasons. Look for Camden to finish 8-4 with a #2 seed in the region, a home playoff game in the first round and a playoff win.