The top two teams in Class A-Division I will meet for their Region 6 opener when No. 2 Macon County travels to No. 1 Schley County; Douglas County and Hughes will try to establish themselves as the front-runner in Region 5-6A; and first-year Lowndes coach Adam Carter will face his former team when the Vikings travel to Grayson for a non-region Class 7A game.

For sake of creativity and civics, GHSF Daily has placed the GHSA’s 413 football-playing schools into their U.S. congressional districts and ranked them using the computer Maxwell Ratings. The idea is not that creative, actually. Georgia high school teams in various sports competed for district championships for decades and into the 1950s before the GHSA's region format took hold.

Prince Avenue Christian quarterback Aaron Philo passes for 408 yards and six touchdowns to guide his team to another lopsided victory; running backs Nick Woodford of Northeast and Zion Johnson of Newton lead their teams to important wins; and Bryan County's Austin Clemons and East Coweta's Deshun Horsley make their presence felt on both sides of the ball.

Boosted by a victory over No. 7 Westlake, Newton moved into the Class 7A rankings this week, taking Westlake’s previous spot, while Lumpkin County and Lanier County each are ranked for the first time in more than 50 years. Newton won 27-12 against what the computer Maxwell Rankings pegged as 18-point favorite. The Rams are 5-0 for the first time since 1950.

North Murray’s Skyler Williams and Judson Petty and Monroe Area’s Darrion Manuel are the GHSA’s yardage leaders after four weeks. Williams has thrown for 1,249 yards, and 687 of those have gone to Petty, a preseason all-state pick. The GHSA’s rushing leader, Manuel, has rushed for more than 100 yards in each of his four games, including a season-high 219 against Cedar Shoals.

Two pairs of unbeaten Class 7A teams will square off in Week 5 when Westlake travels to Newton and East Coweta visits Lowndes. Other top games include ACE Charter against Northeast in a game that will establish the team to beat in Region 2-2A, Marist against Blessed Trinity in a 6A battle of Catholic schools, and Stratford Academy against St. Anne-Pacelli in a rematch of last year's GIAA Class 4A championship game.

There are 38 teams undefeated teams that GHSF Daily does not have ranked four weeks into the regular season. These 10 are especially intriguing - Central (Carrollton), Dalton, Douglas County, East Coweta, Lanier County, Lowndes, Lumpkin County, North Atlanta, Ola and Peachtree Ridge

Two-way players Bryce Baker of Benedictine and Trelaine Maddox put up big numbers on both sides of the ball to lead their teams to close victories in Week 4, and Clinch County's Jeremy Bell accounted for 379 yards in a win over Cook.

Benedictine beat Ware County in a game between No. 1-ranked reigning champions last week. Both are still No. 1 in this week’s football rankings. Benedictine naturally kept its top spot in Class 4A after beating Ware 31-24 in Savannah. The Cadets are 4-0 after starting 2-2 each of the past two seasons, each ending in state titles. Ware’s 17-game winning streak is over, but its reign at No. 1 in Class 5A is not.

The Georgia High School Association’s reclassification committee voted Thursday to keep the 3.0 out-of-zone enrollment multiplier for the next reclass cycle and will decide next month on a proposal to add 18 schools to the highest classification. Using enrollment numbers for the current classification, schools that would’ve landed in a 64-school high class this year include Blessed Trinity, Houston County, Rome and Gainesville. They currently are in Class 6A, one from the highest.

The matchup of top-ranked teams Ware County of Class 5A and Benedictine of Class 4A is the headliner for Week 4 of the season. Other top games on the schedule this week include Milton vs. Roswell in a north Fulton rivalry, Marist vs. Woodward Academy in a Class 6A private-school battle, and Lee County vs. Colquitt County in a showdown for south Georgia supremacy.

More than 140 former Georgia high school football players are on active NFL rosters ahead of the league’s first game Thursday between the Chiefs and the Lions. Every NFL team has at least one Georgia player, and the Falcons have the most with nine. The Ravens are next with eight. The reigning champion Chiefs have six.

Arabia Mountain's Daniel Ndukwe and Discovery's Muhammad Alcine make game-changing plays on defense, Gainesville's Gavin Hall continues his hot start, and running backs at Jenkins County and Vidalia put up big numbers in Week 3 victories.

Gainesville and Thomson moved up to No. 1 in their classifications in the football rankings after three weeks of the regular season after previous No. 1 teams Hughes and Fitzgerald lost. Hughes was beaten by Butler, a Charlotte-area school, 30-27 on Saturday night at Atlanta’s Lakewood Stadium. Hughes, the defending Class 6A champion, had won 17 straight games.

It’s Sept. 1, and we’re talking playoffs. Loren Maxwell, creator of the Maxwell Ratings, publishes his playoff predictions weekly on ajc.com, where he talks playoffs. If nothing else, they’re newsworthy for the bracket alignment and region matchups, which change each year. And they’re great topics of motivation for the disrespected.

Creekside will take on the challenge of facing the nation's No. 1 team when it travels to California to face Mater Dei in a Saturday night game. Big rivalries also take top billing in Week 3, with Northside facing Warner Robins, Troup playing Callaway, and Athens Academy taking on Prince Avenue Christian.

The Georgia High School Association’s reclassification committee will meet for the first time this academic year on Sept. 7. That unofficially kicks off the every-two-year process that will result in the GHSA’s 450-plus member schools finding out which class they’ll be assigned for 2024-25 and 2025-26.

North Murray's Judson Petty sets the state record for receiving yards, Roswell QB K.J. Smith breaks the school record for touchdown passes, Sammy Brown and Demello Jones showcase their all-around skills, and Frederica Academy's Jordon Triplett has another big week.

Cedar Grove remained the No. 1 Class 3A football team in the AJC rankings despite losing to a Florida team Saturday night. The Saints were beaten 50-42 by Monarch, which plays in a Florida classification for its largest schools. No. 2 is Calvary Day, which has never been ranked No. 1 and lost to Cedar Grove 30-0 last season.

GHSF Daily will begin running a yardage leaderboard three weeks into the season. In the meantime, here are several GHSA players who hit milestones with 200 yards rushing, 250 yards passing or 150 yards receiving in the opening week of the season. At the top are Wayne County’s Matthew Fuller, Athens Academy’s Hampton Johnson and Turner County’s Kke’Arrin Dawsey.