By: Joe Delaney

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

When you play high school football for over 100 years and win a lot more games than you lose, the expectations are always high.

The town of Jesup, Georgia absolutely loves the hometown Yellow Jackets. And fall in the air in Jesup means FOOTBALL.

The Wayne County Jacket faithful are some of the most knowledgeable and gung-ho around. They live and breathe it.

That makes things a lot harder to stomach when you have a year like the Jackets had in 2024. It was ugly and brutal. And those are some of the nicest things a lot of people would say.

The Jackets lost nine games. A very tough pill to swallow.

Even worse was the fact that they were largely uncompetitive in the majority of those games. The Jackets scored a total of 51 points in 9 games while giving up 356. They gave up 40 points or more in six of those nine games. Like I said, it was ugly.

Coming off of a seven-win season the year before, hopes were high with a new Head Coach in John Mohring.

Mohring is a well respected young coach. Having been a small college All-American linebacker right up the road at Georgia Southern. He knows the X’s and O’s.

What he ran into was unexpected. The Jackets were young and played a very tough schedule. It showed particularly on offense.

The question is can the Yellow Jackets rebound? A lot of young kids got playing time in 2024. Let’s hope it helped because most of those same teams are on the 2025 schedule.

Throw in a 33-9 loss to Crisp County in the spring game and It’s time to batten down the hatches in Jesup.

Below is the 2025 schedule along with results from last year if applicable.

8/15     @ Glynn Academy: (lost 16-10) Red Terrors should be better this year than last.

8/22     @ Brunswick High School: (lost 49-7)  Pirates are VERY good.

8/29     Appling County: These teams don’t like each other.

9/5       @ Pierce County: (lost 35-0)  Pierce was 11-2 last year.

9/12     Richmond Hill: (lost 42-0)  Always a powerhouse and growing.

9/26     Warner Robins: (lost 36-3)  No rest for the weary

10/3     Perry: (lost 56-7) Ditto.

10/17   @ Benedictine: (lost 40-0) Cadets are always tough.

10/25    New Hampstead: (lost 40-7)  a chance here?

10/31    @ Ware County: (lost 42-7)  No chance.

It is an incredibly difficult schedule with teams with an overall record of 73-44 from last year.

Work hard and play hard. Good luck Jackets.