Jason Bishop
Spring Terror
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Glynn Academy Red Terrors are looking forward to another successful season in 2018.
Since Rocky Hidalgo was named the Terrors head man, Glynn Academy has won at least a share of the Region Title three straight years. In the previous four years with Hidalgo at the helm GA has finished in the Elite Eight twice, made a Final Four appearance and played for a state title.
The Red Terrors will enter the 2018 season in somewhat unfamiliar territory, Glynn will enter the season without having a clear-cut starter at QB.
GA just wrapped up Spring practice, finishing with the annual Spring game.
With so much young talent Hidalgo elected to play an intrasquad Spring game instead of scrimmaging another team. This allowed Coach Hidalgo to get as many of his players on the field at the same time to analyze what he has on the roster.
The QB competition certainly heated up in the Spring game. Senior Sam Wagner had taken most of the snaps in the Spring with the first team offense. However, Wagner did not play QB in the Spring game.
Instead, Hidalgo went with two younger QB’s both competing with Wagner for the starting job.
Sophomore TJ Lewis may have taken the lead in the competition with a pretty good performance in the Spring Game.
Lewis threw for 2 TDs and rushed for 1. The touchdown passes were long passes and put right on the money, one down the sideline and the other right over the middle. Lewis also scampered two yards for his rushing TD.
The final score was Red Team 4 TD’s and White Team 1 in the varsity segments of the game.
The Red Terrors will have Nolan Grant, Quantavious Bostic, and Caden Hutchinson taking the lion’s share of carries at RB.
One thing Rocky Hidalgo is very good at is getting his defensive unit to buy in to his system. Year in and year out Glynn has been a top 10 defense in the state and this year should figure no different.
A name for Red Terror fans to remember is Marlon Taylor. Taylor is a senior DT with great size and speed and already has offers from Cincinnati and Tulane, just to name a couple. He will be a nightmare for opposing QB’s and a bad match up for Offensive Coordinators.
There is still a long way to go before the season starts as the Terrors still have to go through Summer practice and then get ready come August to kick off.
One thing is for sure though, Rocky Hidalgo has built a perennial state power on Mansfield Street and the rest of the state has taken notice.
Dawgs’ New Tricks
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Gone are Sony Michel, Nick Chubb and Roquan Smith, Georgia’s best three players. All three will find themselves in the NFL very soon.
Despite losing those key pieces from last year’s run at a National Title, there are some familiar faces returning to the Georgia Bulldogs that were put on display during the annual Spring Game in Athens, G-Day.
Georgia fans will get to watch Jake Fromm return at QB, D’Andre Swift come back as the featured tail back in the 2018 season. UGA faithful will also get to see newcomers like Justin Fields, the number one QB in the country at the high school ranks last season.
Coach Kirby Smart took his team through the dog walk leading into Sanford Stadium to begin one of the most anticipated seasons in Georgia Football history and it all starts with G-Day.
A crowd of over 80,000 showed up to watch the Bulldogs spring scrimmage. In the game the Black team defeated Red team 21-13.
The Black team opened the scoring with a Deandre Baker pick-6 of Jake Fromm. A good sign from UGA’s secondary as most are predicting it will be the weak link for the Bulldogs in 2018.
Justin Fields was put in display for the fan base to see and he did not disappoint. Fields went 18-33 for 207 yards and a TD. He also did throw an interception.
Jake Fromm also put up decent numbers, going 19-38 for 200 yards and a TD. Fromm did end up throwing two interceptions.
Former Pierce County QB Stetson Bennett also out together an eight-play drive that covered 64 yards and ended with 3 points.
Georgia LB, Monty Smith had a great day. Smith ended up with 14 tackles and a sack. Smith will have big shoes to fill as most expect him to replace Roquan Smith at LB.
Overall, the Georgia defense had 4 interceptions. Baker, Richard LeCounte, William Poole and KJ Smith each intercepted a pass. The secondary will need to continue to be that opportunistic when the season starts on September 1.
The Bulldogs will open against Austin Peay at Sanford Stadium. Georgia will have to go to South Carolina on September 8th, host Tennessee on November 29th, go to LSU on October 13th, travel to Jacksonville to take on the Gators on October 27th, host Auburn on November 10th and then close the regular season out with in state rival, Georgia Tech coming to Athens.
The Bulldogs will also be looking for some help at WR. Coach Smart noted the wide receiver corps had a ton of drops in the Spring Game. Terry Godwin and Calvin Ridley look to step up for Georgia in those roles.
Georgia will still be tough to beat in the SEC East and I look for this team to at least make a return trip the SEC Title Game.
SSE Minute April 6
SSE Minute March 23
SSE Minute March 16
SSE Minute March 9
New Captain Of The Ship
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
After interviewing several coaching candidates, the MCA Buccaneers have chosen their next head football coach.
Tony Glazer will take over as the head Buccaneer for the upcoming football season.
Glazer will be coming over from Liberty County where he served as the Defensive Coordinator for the last four seasons.
Glazer did a very good job as the DC for Liberty and coached Richard LeCount. LeCount, of course went on to commit to Georgia and was considered by many the #1 safety in the country.
Glazer also coached standout RaeKwon McMillan while filling the DC role for the Panthers.
Glazer will be the 5th coach in 7 years at MCA. With everything that program has been through with coaches this needs to be a long-term hire.
If Glazer is still at MCA in four years then it has been a successful hire. Stability is the key word for this hire.
There is potential to win at MCA, as proven by former coach Robbie Robinson as he took the Bucs all the way to the State Title game just two years ago.
The first step is to win the trust of the kids in the program and then get more kids to come out. McIntosh County is loaded with athletes, they just need to come out.
Tony Glazer will have a tough job in front of him. MCA’s best player, JP Palmer, has moved on to the next level and the Bucs’ starting QB, Denver Anthony transferred to Frederica Academy in the offseason. Those were the two best players for MCA from last season.
There is also the job of winning community support in McIntosh County for his new football team.
This is Glazer’s first job as a head coach.
MCA went 3-6 last season.
SSE Minute Feb 17
SSE Minute Feb 2
Another Mutiny In Darien
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When will it end for the MCA Buccaneers?
Head Coach Terel Toomer was let go/resigned as head coach for the program. The next coach the Bucs hire will be there 5th in seven years.
This firing/resignation feels more disgusting than the rest.
Toomer was brought in to give some stability to the program that was still in the wake of the controversial firing of former Head Coach, Robbie Robinson.
Let’s rewind things a bit. Robinson had just been fired for allegations of misappropriation of money and allegedly instructing a player to intentionally injure another player. By the way, we are over a year removed from those allegations and there is not any concrete evidence of either offense, but that is another story for another day.
MCA was coming off a state championship appearance when the decision was made to fire Coach Robinson after his second year back at MCA.
Coach Toomer, who had been the Defensive Coordinator, was hired to stabilize a program that was in peril. Some even wondered if the Bucs would even be able to field enough players to have a team last season.
This was the right hire, a guy that was familiar with the kids, the community, the system and the school.
Coach Toomer went to work. Toomer convinced kids to stay in the program and was able to hold on to several boosters.
MCA went 3-6 on the season, but with everything that happened no one was concerned about the record. Toomer had brought together a program in disarray and brought back some stability.
So, instead of thanking Coach Toomer, Principal Chris Wolski informed him that he would not be back as the football coach next season.
That decision comes after Wolski had reportedly told Toomer “he did a great job coaching the team under the circumstances”.
I sent a text to Coach Toomer and asked if he had been relieved of his coaching duties. I was told “Correct, this new principal is not having me back, so its best that I resign. Nothing to do with wins or losses. It’s because we didn’t see eye to eye on some issues.”
I called Principal Wolski and left a message with my name and number for him to return my call, which he did and below is a dialogue of our conversation:
Wolski: Hello Mr. Bishop. This is Principal Wolski at MCA returning your call.
Jason: Good afternoon. I was calling in regards to the rumor that Coach Toomer had resigned. Any truth to that rumor?
Wolski: Not be crass, but who are you? Who are you with? I don’t want to give confirmation on anything to anyone I don’t know.
Jason: I am the owner of The Bishop Media Sports Network. I am the publisher of The Southern Sports Edition. I am the host of The Jason Bishop Show with Kipp Branch, which is the most popular sports show in this area. And my company is the company that put on the Terel Toomer Coach’s show this past season. I am very surprised that you don’t know who I am, as principal of your school since I worked so closely with your football program this past season.
Wolski: Ok. I apologize. But Coach Toomer has not as of yet turned in a resignation to me but I can tell you that he will not be coaching track this season.
Jason: Did you tell Coach Toomer you did want him back as the football coach next season?
Wolski: That is a personnel matter and I do not want to discuss personnel matters.
Jason: Ok. Do you expect Coach Toomer to be your coach next season then?
Wolski: Again, that is a personnel matter and I am not going to discuss personnel matters.
Jason: Ok. Thanks for your time.
Wolski: No problem. What station does your show air on?
Jason: 93.7 WBQO. Saturday mornings at 10am. You should tune in and take a listen, we had Coach Toomer on several times this past season and talked MCA Football a good bit.
Wolski: I will.
