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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The All-Time biggest underdogs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Perusing the brackets, it occurred to those of us at Take Ten that at least one of the teams still sitting out there will become the proverbial Cinderella of 2007.
And while we’re terrible at looking into the future (We would have bet the house that Notre Dame was a shoo-in for the national title this year), we’re all about looking into the past and judging what happened.
That led us to wonder, who were the least likely state champions of all time? There’s almost always at least one team at the Dome nobody saw coming, but how many of those teams can take it all the way?
This is the list of the ones nobody expected, especially us.
10. Morrow, 1987 The Mustangs came into the playoffs ranked No. 5 behind four undefeated teams — Valdosta, McEachern, Evans and Effingham County. They went on the road to take down McEachern in the second round, and then fortune turned toward Morrow in the quarters. That’s where Evans was eliminated by forfeit when its quarterback was caught with a radio in his helmet and an excellent Valdosta team was upset by Carver-Columbus. That left only Effingham, who Morrow took out 21-0 for the title.
9. Marietta, 1967 It’s Cobb County’s only state champion ever, and it probably shouldn’t have happened. This looked like a great team through much of the season but appeared to be splintering a bit down the stretch, losing its final two regular-season games, including a 17-14 loss to Rossville that would have kept the Blue Devils out of the playoffs if the region tie had been broken by head-to-head result as it is today instead of playing a region final. Winning that second game against Rossville got Marietta into the playoffs, and the Blue Devils eventually beat undefeated Columbus 14-7 in the state final.
8. Peachtree Ridge, 2006 The Lions got out of the gates slow (they were 4-3 on Oct. 13) and were unranked when postseason play began. But they got hot on the road in the playoffs, racking up a series of close victories against Wheeler (17-3), Campbell (16-14), Stephenson (12-9), Warner Robins (13-7) and then the infamous 14-14 tie against Roswell in the final that split the title.
7. Lowndes, 1999 This team didn’t look much like a state title squad when it started 3-3 and wasn’t looking much better when the playoffs started. The Vikings weren’t even listed in the AJC’s top 15 poll at the start of the postseason, yet they won at Lovejoy before squeaking by undefeated Southwest DeKalb 28-27 and undefeated Northside-Warner Robins 31-28, then took down a third straight undefeated team Brunswick, 17-0 in the state final.
6. Griffin, 1978 Griffin wasn’t a bad team. As the playoffs started, the Journal had the Bears No. 5 in the state and, by the time they got to the final, they had won 11 in a row since a 1-2 start to the season. But nobody was supposed to beat Valdosta. No opponent had scored more than seven points all year against the Wildcats, and they looked poised to win their first title since 1971. But a tough Griffin defense held Valdosta to a season-low seven points while the offense got the one touchdown it needed to forge a tie and a split title.
5. Westminster, 1971 This is another team that stumbled coming out of the blocks, starting 3-3-1. But a solid run in the region got the Wildcats to the Region Final against Marist, where a 16-7 victory got them into the playoffs. Once there, they had to beat the No. 3 and No. 5 team before shutting out undefeated No. 2 North Fulton 13-0 to take home the school’s first state championship.
4. Athens, 1969 It’s another one that revolves around Valdosta. There wasn’t anything wrong with this Athens team, which entered the final against Valdosta 11-1, but the Wildcats looked unbeatable. They had shut out 11 of their first 12 opponents, giving up just seven points all season. Valdosta was riding a 26-game winning streak and was expected to cruise to its second consecutive title and fifth of the decade. But somehow, the Trojans inexplicably scored 26 points to tie Valdosta in the final game the school ever played.
3. Thomas County Central, 1992 The AJC never ranked the Yellow Jackets once until the one poll that mattered — the final one. They started 1-5 and basically fell off everyone’s radar even as they somehow found their way into the playoffs at 5-5. By that time, they had won four in a row and were rolling. They won their first two playoff games easily before surprising undefeated No. 1 Stephens County 20-14 in the semis and then holding off a late rally by undefeated No. 2 Peach County to win 14-13 and start a run of five state titles in six years.
2. West Rome, 1965 The Chiefs started the season 0-3-1 and extended that to 3-5-1 but made the postseason partly because two of those five losses came against teams from Tennessee. Once St. Pius took out No. 1 Thomasville in the semifinals, it looked like the Golden Lions would win their first state title, but West Rome had suddenly found a defense. After surrendering 20 or more points four times during the season, the Chiefs gave up just 14 total points over their final four games, including a 6-0 shutout of St. Pius to win the title.
1. Douglass-Montezuma 1981 This is the king of the Out-of-Nowhere champs. While they existed, the Hornets were one of the worst programs in the state. In 30 years of play, they won six games only three times, including the amazing 1981 season. When they started 1-2, it didn’t raise any eyebrows, but then they started winning. And winning. They won eight in a row before taking down undefeated No. 3 Emanuel County Institute by penetration in the semifinals, then beating Palmetto 20-0 in the final. The Hornets went 0-10 the next year and never again won more than three games in a season before the program dissolved in 1995.
Go on. Take Ten. What deserving out-of-the-blue champ did we forget? What do you remember about the ones we did include? Did any of these unexpected title teams break your heart? Let us know all about it.
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