Mount Zion of Jonesboro had lost 20 consecutive games when Willie Binyard became head coach in the summer of 2022, just weeks before the first game. “I had a lot of mentors say don’t take it. It’s a losing program, you can get stuck there,” Binyard said.

Toombs County was the preseason No. 1 team in Class A Division I in multiple human polls, including GHSF Daily’s. The Bulldogs’ only losses last season were to Class 2A finalists Pierce County and Rockmart. Now, Toombs is one class lower while returning QB T.J. Stanley and DB/WR Lagonza Hayward, their two most prominent players.

It’s never easy to win in Moultrie, and 14 points isn’t usually enough to do it. North Gwinnett won with defense Friday night, becoming the first team to hold Colquitt County without a touchdown since 2017 in a 14-3 victory.

Fannin County added more adventures to its new-heights tour last week under seventh-year head coach Chad Cheatham, an alumnus. The 28-7 victory over Rabun County was Fannin’s first over a ranked team since 1995. Fannin’s new ranking, No. 5 in Class A Division I, is the highest in school history.

Douglass was 11-2 as recently as 2019, but the program crashed during the COVID-19 season of 2020, going 0-5 and canceling several games. The Astros hired an alumnus, Arabia Mountain coach and former NFL player Stanley Pritchett. It took a year to make the playoffs, three to have a winning season and four to beat a top-10 team for the first time.