Lowndes fired football coach Zach Grage on Tuesday after a 5-6 finish, the Vikings’ first losing season since 1994. “This was an extremely hard decision and not one entered into lightly or without a lot of thought,” superintendent Shawn Haralson said in a statement from Lowndes County Schools.

J.B. Arnold, Jefferson County’s coach the past 22 years, announced his retirement Monday after 33 seasons on high school football sidelines. Arnold led Jefferson County to seven region titles, two semifinal appearances, four quarterfinals and 21 consecutive playoff berths and compiled a 168-89-3 record.

North Atlanta, Walnut Grove and Lanier County won their first playoff games in history last weekend, while Cass and Harlem broke droughts of longer than 40 years. s expected in the first round, top-10 teams were dominant, going 72-7. Five of the seven that lost – Brooks County, Brunswick, LaGrange, Whitewater and Valdosta – were beaten by other ranked teams.

Nick Woodford of Northeast, Aaron Philo of Prince Avenue Christian and Jaden Gibson of Rabun County are the GHSA’s regular-season yardage champions. Woodford finished with a 242-yard rushing effort in his final game, a 51-13 victory over Rutland, and had 2,262 yards for the regular season. Philo had 3,143 yards passing, and Gibson had 1,576 yards receiving.

The GHSA playoffs begin this weekend with 127 games around the state. Among the best of those games are three high-profile matchups between teams from regions 1 and 2 in Class 7A (East Coweta at Camden County, Lowndes at Carrollton, Valdosta at Westlake) and regions 3 and 4 in Class 4A (Burke County at LaGrange, Trinity Christian at Wayne County and Whitewater at Benedictine).

The first of five rounds of the playoffs begin this week with 127 games, five of them matching top-10 teams. More than 60% of the GHSA’s 412 football-playing schools are alive, so the first round provides safe passage for most elite teams. Here’s a closer look at the playoffs, which will be played this weekend in 73 of Georgia’s 159 counties and cover every region of the state.

Swainsboro’s Demello Jones and Brunswick’s Terry Mitchell turn in big nights in their teams’ region-clinching victories, and John Milledge Academy’s Briggs Eady did it all on both sides of the ball as the Trojans tied Buford’s state record for consecutive wins with 47.

Buford, Hughes, Cedar Grove and Prince Avenue Christian have maintained their top rankings since preseason, and Ware County, Cedartown, Fitzgerald and Bowdon will join them as No. 1 teams entering the playoffs this week. It’s about to get dangerous, though. In 2021, only three No. 1 teams from the end of the regular season went on to win state championships, and that’s typical attrition across five playoff rounds.

Keyjuan Brown of South Atlanta and Keegan Stover and Jaden Gibson of Rabun County are the GHSA’s leaders in rushing, passing and receiving yards through week 11, but while they sit this week out, others are poised to make a move on the final week of the regular season.