Southern Sports Edition
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick September 3 2025
The Reset
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Jacksonville Jaguars have spent all offseason telling us they’re different.
New head coach. New coordinators. A new general manager calling the shots. A bunch of new faces on the roster. It’s a complete reset.
But here’s the reality: in the NFL, it doesn’t matter how shiny things look in May or how sharp you look in a preseason practice clip. It only matters if you win when the real games begin.
And for the Jaguars, that moment comes this Sunday in Week 1 against the Carolina Panthers.
This game is more than just a season opener. It’s the first chance for Jacksonville to prove they’ve actually turned the corner after a miserable 4-13 season that cost Doug Pederson his job.
Fans are hungry for a team they can believe in again. And frankly, the players are too. You can sense that energy every time Liam Coen talks about setting the tone
Coen, who takes over as head coach after building one of the league’s most exciting offenses in Tampa, hasn’t shied away from the obvious. The Jaguars must start fast.
That’s something Pederson’s teams simply could not do. In 2022 Jacksonville dug itself a 2-6 hole before going on a miracle run to the playoffs. In 2023 the Jags stumbled to a 1-2 start and never quite found their stride again.
Even when the wins came later, the early-season stumbles kept the team from hitting its full potential.
Coen wants to flip that script immediately, and a lot of that pressure falls on Trevor Lawrence. Believe it or not, Lawrence has only one Week 1 win in his career. One.
That’s not the record you expect from a quarterback who was hyped as a once-in-a-generation talent coming out of Clemson.
He doesn’t need to throw for 400 yards to make a statement, but a clean, efficient performance that shows he’s in command of Coen’s offense would go a long way.
Now, the offense isn’t the only side of the ball with something to prove. The defense flat-out cratered last season, finishing bottom five in most major categories.
That’s why Anthony Campanile was brought in as defensive coordinator, and his challenge is steep.
The Jaguars don’t need to turn into the ’85 Bears overnight, but they have to be better at pressuring the quarterback and holding their ground against the run.
One player who could make a big difference is veteran defensive lineman Arik Armstead. Last year, he was misused badly and his production tanked.
This season, he’s back where he belongs, working inside at the 3-technique spot, and Coen has been glowing about what that does for the defense.
Armstead’s length, quickness, and experience can be a nightmare for interior linemen. If he’s healthy and disruptive, it changes everything about how opponents attack Jacksonville.
Of course, the matchup with Carolina also has some fun storylines.
The Panthers, like the Jaguars, are being led by a young offensive-minded head coach in Dave Canales. He and Coen have crossed paths before, and there’s mutual respect between them.
Both franchises are trying to prove their former No. 1 overall pick quarterbacks are worth building around. Both are filled with rookies and newcomers who want to prove themselves. In a lot of ways, these two teams are mirror images, which makes Sunday an even better measuring stick.
This game has to be about showing signs of progress.
Fans have been told for months that this is a new era in Jacksonville. That the franchise has finally found the right leadership. That the roster upgrades will pay off. Week 1 is the first real chance to back up all that talk.
If the Jaguars come out, play with energy, execute Coen’s system, and beat the Panthers, it’ll be the kind of early confidence boost this team desperately needs.
It won’t mean they’re suddenly Super Bowl contenders, but it will prove the rebuild is moving in the right direction.
If they stumble out of the gate again? If Lawrence looks shaky and the defense springs leaks like last season? Then it’s déjà vu, and the ghosts of 2024 will creep back in fast.
Week 1 won’t define the entire season, but for a franchise desperate to turn the page, this opener matters more than most.
It’s the Jaguars’ first real chance to show that, finally, things really are different in Jacksonville.
Gridiron Devil
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When the lights get flicked on at Womack Field in Statesboro each week, they shine on a Statesboro Blue Devils team that has been building over the past few years under third year Head Coach Matt Dobson.
A big piece of the growth being seen in Statesboro is the young quarterback Beckham Jarrard.
Jarrard has become a regular name with anyone around the Blue Devils program, and possibly even more-so around programs that have played Statesboro in the last year plus.
The now sophomore field general started right out of the gate. As a freshman, Jarrard was named the starter from the word go opening up the 2024 season with cross county rivals Southeast Bulloch and raised eyebrows.
The then 5’10” 145-pound freshman connected on 17 of 25 passing for 161 yards and a touchdown. Southeast Bulloch would end up with the win but coming away from the game both sides realized that this was the beginning of something special for the signal caller.
Jarrard would finish his freshman season with the most passing yards in the state for a freshman racking up over 1,600 yards and 15 touchdowns in Statesboro’s 10 games while rushing for 200 more and a couple of scores. The growth of Jarrard was unmistakable throughout the season and that’s just the beginning.
He has dove into the deep end to become the best quarterback he can be…literally. It was while he was on vacation to the beach that a random connection turned into the next step in the progression for Jarrard.
While on the annual family vacation in the summer of 2024, he started throwing the football with a family friend that was with them at the beach. A few minutes went by before someone asked if he could join. After throwing and exchanging stories and getting to know them better, turns out the random encounter would be Jarrard meet Gino English (former quarterback at Florida State and East Tennessee St).
Gino was impressed by the then rising freshman and invited him to come train with him at his childhood home nearby. There he would meet Gino’s QB coach, Pat O’Hara.
Pat O’Hara is a well-known quarterback coach in football to say the very least. After a playing career with the Buccaneers, Chargers, and Redskins, O’Hara ended up in the Arena Football League.
For a few years, Pat would be getting into the coaching side of the game while also still on the roster before a couple stints as a head coach in the AFL.
Then O’Hara would break into the pinnacle of the sport with the NFL.
In February 2015, O’Hara was hired as an assistant coach by the Houston Texans. After 3 seasons in Houston, O’Hara would be named quarterbacks coach (and later pass game coordinator) for the Tennessee Titans.
O’Hara has also worked in broadcasting for UCF radio and CBS Sports Network along with working in the movie scene as a football guru teaching actors how to play in films like The Longest Yard, Invincible, We are Marshall and most recently serving as the football administrator for the TV Series Chad Powers.
So, from the football mind that helped mold Paul Crewe, Marcus Mariota, Ryan Tennehill, Brock Osweiler, Deshaun Watson, O’Hara’s insight is now going into Beckham Jarrard. While it’s not feasible to make the trip to Florida much during the season, O’Hara works weekly with Jarrard via zoom on breaking down game film, helping teach how to break down defenses along with the mental side of being a quarterback.
While other rising sophomores in the summers are playing video games, going to the pool, Jarrard is heading to Florida to work with Pat O’Hara.
The commitment to the game is as impressive as the skills he has already (again, reminder, he’s a sophomore).
Now as a sophomore at 6’0 and 165 pounds (gained 20 pounds from the start of Freshman year), Jarrard has developed relationships with so many high-profile quarterbacks’ coaches and soaking up as much as he can.
Charley Loeb of QB Country (former Syracuse QB) is the main mechanical coach to help mold the young quarterback to someone that is now a big problem for defenses.
Having seen him live a handful of times, in addition to on film and through the eyes of others, there’s no doubt in my mind that on June 15th (the date that college coaches can legally begin full contact with recruits), the phone of Beckham Jarrard will be lighting up almost constantly with coaches from all of the southeast.
Camden County Wildcats Coach’s Show w Travis Roland September 2 2025
Let’s Play Nine
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Four years after the nine-game debate heated up, and over two years after SEC commissioner Greg Sankey compared the decision to landing a plane, they finally did. They finally landed the plane.
The SEC recently announced that it is officially going to a nine-game schedule, ending a long saga with a vote of school presidents. Now comes the saga within the saga: Who are each team’s annual rivals? They get three now.
The nine-game format has two main components:
Three games against annual opponents.
Six games against non-annual opponents, rotated such that everybody plays each other twice in four years, home and away. (Other than neutral-site games: Georgia-Florida and Oklahoma-Texas.)
This format will begin in 2026 and will be on a four-year cycle.
Sources reiterated that the three annual rivals could be revisited and revised. That gives the conference flexibility to change those annual opponents — either because rivalries evolve, competition standards evolve, or financial needs evolve.
The SEC did not announce the three annual rivals for each team. Sankey pointed to an announcement in December, since those announcements have worked well the past few years.
He added that the schools themselves will be notified earlier, which indicates that the proposed list from years ago has already changed.
That list was done in 2023, and it prioritized historical rivalries and competition. The conference worked with an analytics company to develop a metric that took into account every team’s 10-year record in an effort to balance schedules.
The result was keeping each team’s top one or two rivalries, but sometimes not their third.
Georgia, for instance, would play Florida and Auburn, but then Kentucky, rather than Tennessee or South Carolina. There was also the odd matchup between Florida and Oklahoma.
These odd matchups may still end up being these team’s three annual rivalries.
But sources indicate that the SEC will not follow the earlier proposed 2023 matchup list.
Sankey, appearing on the SEC Network on Thursday, emphasized tradition: “We’ll look at historical rivalries. That’s a really important component,” Sankey said. “We have a lot of those. In fact, in many ways, we’re uniquely positioned to honor those historic rivalries. So those become annual opponents on a schedule. Not everyone has three, but that’s the basis, is three annual opponents.”
The last point is key: Not every school has three teams they would consider historic or geographic rivals. Some have over four. It’s going to be hard to create everyone’s ideal list.
On the other hand, it’s better than the alternative: The eight-game schedule had one annual rival, which meant games like Texas-Texas A&M, Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia might not have been played every year.
Yes, Sankey said this year they had a way of continuing to play those games in an eight-game schedule, but it would have created a headache for schedule makers.
That also may have been Sankey’s way of signaling that they were going to end up protecting those rivalries through a nine-game schedule.
So how will it look?
Here is a potential list, prioritizing tradition and geography, not competition. The seemingly most important rivals are listed first:
Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, LSU
Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Kentucky
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Florida
Florida: Georgia, Auburn, South Carolina
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Tennessee, Mississippi State, Arkansas
LSU: Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M
Mississippi State: Ole Miss, Kentucky, South Carolina
Missouri: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Vanderbilt
Oklahoma: Texas, Missouri, Texas A&M
Ole Miss: Mississippi State, LSU, Vanderbilt
South Carolina: Georgia, Florida, Mississippi State
Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Alabama, Kentucky
Texas: Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Arkansas
Texas A&M: Texas, Oklahoma, LSU
Vanderbilt: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Missouri
This isn’t perfect. It leaves out some natural geographic rivals like Alabama and Mississippi State, which are only about 90 miles apart.
It also leaves out historic rivals like Florida and LSU, who developed a good cross-division rivalry during the SEC East-West days. But it does restore Auburn and Florida, who were annual opponents until 2002.
There are also “fill-in” games, such as South Carolina-Mississippi State. It would be great to have Mississippi State play Alabama, but who would Alabama ditch among Auburn, Tennessee and LSU?
Television matters. ESPN is set to pay each school an estimated $5 million extra for adding the ninth game, per multiple sources.
A driving force of this decision was to enhance the viewership of the regular season, sources confirm.
This makes the most sense as the conference enters the College Football Playoff expansion, which would seem to erode the impact of the regular season.
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Arch Manning has not even played his first full season as the Texas starter and the talk has already shifted to his future.
Will he be a one-year starter who takes off for the NFL in 2026, or will he do what Peyton and Eli did and stick around for four full years before making the leap?
It is not an easy question, but it is one that shows just how unique Arch’s situation is.
The NFL is obviously interested. Everywhere you look you see him ranked as the number one or number two overall prospect for 2026 and the top quarterback on the board.
People who study the game see the arm strength, the mobility, and the calm presence that stood out when he stepped in last year.
His limited stats still popped off the page. Eight touchdowns, only two picks, and more than 800 yards on just 72 passes.
In today’s game, where guys like Caleb Williams and Bryce Young left school after two years of starting, Arch could very easily go early too.
But there is a catch. Arch has barely played. He has fewer than 250 career snaps, which is the same as about three and a half games. Even if he starts every game this season, that still leaves him with only 18 career starts.
When you look at the current NFL, almost every starting quarterback had 25 or more starts in college. That experience matters when you are running the most important position on the field.
This is where family history comes in. Peyton went back to Tennessee for his senior year even though he was already projected as the first pick. Eli stayed at Ole Miss when he could have gone out early.
Both of them believed in being patient, in developing more before cashing in. Arch has shown the same kind of mindset. He stayed at Texas behind Quinn Ewers instead of transferring. That tells me he is not in a rush.
Money also does not change the equation like it used to. In the past, leaving early meant you secured your first big contract sooner. Today, staying in school can be just as profitable thanks to NIL.
Arch is already tied in with brands like Red Bull, Panini, Uber, and EA Sports. His family is more than secure financially and being the quarterback at Texas brings seven figures in NIL deals anyway.
There is also the idea of legacy. Texas is ranked number one to start the season and they believe they can win a national championship.
If they fall short, does Arch decide he wants one more crack at it in 2026? It is possible. He has talked about how much he loves Austin, his teammates, and the program. That could make it easier to stay.
NFL scouts are excited but also cautious. They know he looks the part, but they want to see how he handles the road trips against teams like Ohio State, Florida, and Georgia this year.
They want to know if he can stay calm when the spotlight is brightest. Until then, he is still more potential than proven.
The Mannings have always played the long game. Eli held out on draft day because the Chargers were not the right fit. Peyton turned down the NFL as a junior even though he was a lock to go first overall.
Arch may make his decision based more on where he might land in 2026 than when he could be drafted. If the right team has the top pick, maybe he goes. If not, sticking at Texas makes sense.
If you ask me, Arch should wait. Give it another year, get more starts, build up confidence, and maybe bring Texas a national title.
He does not need the money and he does not need to race his uncles to the NFL. What he needs is to be fully ready when he gets there.
And if history tells us anything, patience has worked out pretty well for the Manning family.
Brantley County Heron Coach’s Show w David Shores August 28 2025
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s Show w Garrett Grady August 28 2025
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show w Brandon Derrick August 27 2025
Panthers on The Prowl
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia State hired Dell McGee as their head coach in February of 2024. He got a late start on recruiting and the Panthers went 3-9 last season.
McGee coached at University of Georgia from 2016-23 as the running backs coach and assistant head coach.
The Panthers added many new faces in 2025. They signed 34 high school signees and walk-ons and 43 transfers via the portal.
“We feel like those 77 new additions have supplemented our program,” McGee said at the Sun Belt’s Preseason Media Days event in New Orleans. “But ultimately, the direction of our program is going to be spearheaded by the 45 guys who return.”
This is his first real recruiting class he has signed. “I really can’t compare (to where we were last year), but I can say the 77 additions, we’ve created competition in every single room, and we feel like the competition will push the needle from a standpoint of accountability and competitiveness,” McGee said.
Some of the top incoming transfer players are CB Tyler Scott (Auburn), RB Jordon Simmons (Ole Miss), RB Rashad Amos (Memphis), RB Branson Robinson (Georgia), S Jordan Huff (East Carolina), IOL Deandre Duffus (Maryland), CB Isiah Dunson (Baylor), CB Bernard Causey III (LSU), OT Obadiah Obasuyi (NC State), QB Cameran Brown (Texas Tech), WR Javon Robinson (Georgia), WR Leo Blackburn (Georgia Tech) and LB Zavier Carter (UCF).
As you can see, they have added several players from Power 4 programs. The problem with building a team with transfers is maintaining the program’s culture. You also have to worry about not having a cohesive team if things get rough. A great example of this would be last year’s Florida State team that went 2-10.
Four of GSU’s losses in 2024 were by a touchdown or less, so they were competitive. They have been picked to finish last in the East Division in the preseason poll conducted by the coaches.
The Panthers have two players selected to the Sun Belt’s preseason all-conference team; wide receiver Ted Hurst (first team) and defensive lineman Henry Bryant (second team). Hurst is a senior from Savannah and he transferred in from Valdosta State. He led the team with 56 receptions for 961 yards and a school-record nine touchdowns.
Bryant is a redshirt senior from Delray Beach, Florida. He transferred in from Louisville in 2023. Last year he played in all 12 games and had 30 tackles, 5.5 TFL, 4 sacks, 1 FF and 1 FR.
“Holding our team accountable is really one of the tiers that our players must uphold,” McGee said. “With the leadership of our 45 returning guys, they understand how we practice. They understand what it takes in the off-season, in the weight room and in summer conditioning. They’ve done a great job pushing that agenda forward.”
Georgia State will start the season August 30th at #21 Ole Miss. They play Memphis and Murray State after that. Memphis was 11-2 last season and Murray State is an FCS team that only won one game last year.
Week 4 is a trip to Vanderbilt. GSU beat Vandy 36-32 last season so I expect them to be looking for revenge.
They start conference play October 4th against James Madison. They were picked to finish first in the East Division and Georgia Southern was picked second
The games after that are Appalachian State, @ Georgia Southern, South Alabama, @ Coastal Carolina, Marshall, @ Troy and @ Old Dominion.
I don’t expect the Panthers to win six games but they should improve on the three wins from last season.
