Four No. 1-ranked teams lost in Week 1 of the 2024 season, but two of the team - Class 6A Buford and Class A Division II Bowdon - held on to the top spots. New at No. 1 are Marist, which replaced Benedictine at the top of 4A, and Sandy Creek, which moved to the top of 3A after a loss by Jefferson.

GHSF Daily prides itself in its statewide coverage of Georgia high school football, but nobody knows local schools better than hometown newspapers and radio stations. GHSF Daily reached out to members of the Georgia media this week to get their observations about the new season.

Douglass and Kell opened the 2024 football season with victories Wednesday in the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic at Kell High. Douglass, ranked No. 8 in Class 3A, beat Class 3A’s No. 3 team, LaGrange, 18-3. Kell beat North Atlanta 29-15 in the nightcap.

The Georgia high school football season begins today with Douglass vs. LaGrange and Kell vs. North Atlanta in the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic. Those are the first two of 190 games in the season’s opening week. From a preseason vantage, here are the five most intriguing storylines to the 2024 season.

Rome’s football team pulled out of this week’s opening game with Creekside because of Thursday night’s bus crash that sent 15 players to the emergency room, Rome coach John Reid announced Monday morning. Rome, ranked No. 7 in Class 5A, was to play Creekside at home Friday night.

Reigning state champions Milton, Pierce County, Prince Avenue Christian and Bowdon are ranked No. 1 to start a football season that should be more unpredictable because of reclassification. Also No. 1 are Buford, Benedictine, Jefferson and Toombs County.

Rome’s football team has no plans to alter its season opener Aug. 16 against Creekside despite a traumatic rollover bus crash Thursday evening that sent up to 15 students and adults to the hospital. “The team is doing fine,” Rome coach John Reid said Friday morning.

Pierce County’s Caden MaGatha and Rockmart’s Tristan Anderson vie for the honor of best player on GHSF Daily’s Class 2A preseason all-state team, while Anderson and Prince Avenue Christian’s Hudson Hill beat out four other returning all-state players for the two spots at wide receiver.

Lumpkin County quarterback Cal Faulkner and wide receivers Thomas Blackshear of Calvary Day and Jack Rhodes of Aquinas are the headliners on GHSF Daily's Class 3A preseason all-state team. Calvary Day and Sandy Creek have three representatives each on the team.

Warner Robins LB/DE Isaiah Gibson, Central of Carrollton RB Jonaz Walker and four of the state’s best defensive backs headline GHSF Daily’s Class 4A preseason all-state. The defensive backs are Jones County’s Javion Butts, Warner Robins’ Rasean Dinkins, Cedartown’s Tae Harris and Jonesboro’s Cortez Redding.

Lee County running back Ousmane Kromah, five offensive linemen ranked in the top 300 nationally, and a seven-man contingent of Milton players headline GHSF Daily’s Class 5A preseason all-state team. Selected from Milton were QB Luke Nickel, WR C.J. Wiley, TE Ethan Barbour, PK Alex Nover, DL Caleb Bell, DB Dylan Lewis and DB Ty Redmond.

GHSF Daily will be announcing a preseason all-state team for each classification, beginning today with Class 6A. Five-star quarterback Julian Lewis of Carrollton, who reclassified as a senior in the offseason, and four defensive linemen that rank among the state’s top 100 players lead the way.

Five Georgia teams will be nationally televised over 10 days this month during ESPN’s 15th High School Football Kickoff series of six games, the network announced Thursday. The teams are Carrollton, Woodward Academy, Grayson, Milton and Rabun Gap-Nacoochee.

Since the final horn blew on the 2023 high school football season, the GHSA has hired a new executive director, warned athletes about illegal NIL deals and given football teams Thanksgiving week off for the first time in more than 100 years. Seventy-four GHSA teams hired coaches, one after a 300-game winner retired, another when a coach with five state titles unretired.

The Georgia High School Association’s board of trustees is expected to amend its bylaws Thursday to make clear that name, image and likeness collectives that pay athletes are illegal and can cost students their eligibility.

The Georgia High School Association warned schools this week that athletes signing up for a certain name, image and likeness (NIL) company are risking their eligibility if boosters pay them for their online news and content.

Kevin Giddens, a former GHSA associate director and Colquitt County athletic director and football coach, died Wednesday at age 59. GHSA executive director Robin Hines confirmed the news to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Giddens joined the GHSA in 2018 and was the association’s football coordinator from 2019 until retiring in June 2023.

The 2024 high school football championship games will be played Dec. 16-18, five days later than last season, and the five playoff rounds will have an unprecedented Thanksgiving week off, GHSA executive director Robin Hines confirmed Friday morning. The playoff dates will be Nov. 8-9 (first round), Nov. 15 (second round), Nov. 22 (third round), Dec. 6 (semifinals) and Dec. 16-18 (finals).

Chip Kell, a former University of Tennessee football All-American who was an inaugural inductee into the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame in 2022 for his days at Avondale in DeKalb County, has died at age 75. Kell was a star lineman for Avondale teams that never lost more than one game in a season in the 1960s.

Nine former Georgia players and eight from Georgia Tech are among the 30 selected for this year’s Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame inductions. Another state school, Morris Brown, which shut down its football program in 2003, remarkably had three former players make it, all high school stars from the 1960s