10 stories that shaped the offseason ahead of high school football’s return
As the 2026 football season begins with the first official practices July 27, we review some of the most impactful moments throughout the offseason.
From coaching changes to forfeits to prominent event schedule changes, here are 10 offseason stories to revisit before we get another season underway.
Coming and going: Two coaches who won state titles in December took new jobs in January, and two others with multiple state titles in their careers retired. The reigning championship winners moving on were Rich Fendley from Bowdon to Rockmart and Kenny Dallas from Hebron Christian to full-time pastorship. The two decorated retirees were John Reid, who won two state championships at Rome, plus two in Tennessee, and Jim Dickerson, who won five at Clinch County. Bowdon hired Jamie Abrams. Hebron hired Quentin Davie. Rome hired Bill Stewart. Clinch hired Rance Morgan. Each of the 98 GHSA coaching changes will be chronicled in a class-by-class rundown over the first seven issues of Georgia High School Football Daily, which returns on Aug. 3.
Niblett out, Bryant in: The two biggest jobs on the market were opened and closed in 10 days in January. Josh Niblett, the Alabama coach who led Gainesville to two state runner-up finishes in his four seasons, resigned Jan. 5 with reports that he would be joining Colorado’s staff under Deion Sanders. Three days later, Gainesville announced the hiring of Grayson coach Santavious Bryant, who won a state title in 2024. Bryant was on Niblett’s first Gainesville staff in 2022. On Jan. 15, Grayson announced the promotion of defensive coordinator Greg Carswell.
Locust Grove forfeits and the 20-day rule: Also in January, the Georgia High School Association forced Locust Grove’s historic football team (first region title in history) to forfeit eight of its nine victories. The ruling brought to light two interesting GHSA bylaws — the 20-day rule and the follow-the-coach rule. The 20-day rule (bylaw 2.37) says the GHSA must wait until after the season to penalize schools for ineligible players if the investigation request is received within 20 days of the playoffs. The rule is meant to keep schools from withholding accusations until it inflicts the most forfeit damage on a rival. On the downside, the rule risks the embarrassment of a doomed team winning a state title, only to forfeit it all, but in this case, Locust Grove lost in the first round to Centennial, a No. 4 seed, 28-21. The follow-the-coach rule (bylaw 1.72) says a transfer athlete is ineligible for a year if he was coached by a member of the new school’s staff within one year of transferring. Participation in camps, clinics and offseason competitions, such as 7-on-7 contests, are included in this restriction.
Gainesville forfeits game: The GHSA in January forced Gainesville to forfeit its Class 5A semifinal football victory over Rome and vacate its state runner-up finish for using an ineligible player. The school violated the GHSA bylaw that says students who transfer to a new school after the regular season are ineligible for the playoffs. The player participated only in the fourth quarter of the 37-6 victory during a running clock. Gainesville became the first football team to vacate a runner-up finish or a championship since the GHSA staged its first title game in 1947.
Corky Kell gets early start: In January, the GHSA gave the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic permission to play four of its 11 games a week sooner than the rest of the state, on Aug. 12-13, a Wednesday-Thursday. Mercedes-Benz Stadium was unavailable on the GHSA’s opening week because of schedule changes related to the World Cup, so it offered the Kell + Hunter Classic the earlier dates. The games are South Gwinnett vs. Lanier and Grayson vs. North Gwinnett on Wednesday and Cambridge vs. Brookwood and Walton vs. Roswell on Thursday. The Aug. 12 games will be the earliest season openers in GHSA history, but only by a day, as last season opened Aug. 13. The GHSA moved the 12-week regular season back one week this year and eliminated the bye week in the playoffs that existed the previous two seasons. The first full Friday night schedule will be Aug. 21. Georgia’s Aug. 12 openers also beat Alaska’s by one day for the earliest scheduled nationwide this year.
Newest Hall of Fame class: The Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame in May announced its 2026 class of 33 players to be inducted Oct. 24. Among them were Clarke Central’s Chuck Smith and Redan’s Terance Mathis, key figures on the Falcons’ 1998 NFC Championship team. Other widely known inductees include Georgia offensive analyst Stacy Searels of Trion and Auburn and longtime former NFL players Drew Hill of Newnan and Georgia Tech and Mo Lewis of Murphy and Georgia.
State finals lose money: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first to report in March that the GHSA lost money on the football championship games in 2025. The shortfall, the first of its kind in finals history, prompted the GHSA to spend $150,000 from its reserves to ensure the 16 participating schools got their usual payouts, which averaged $9,910 this year. The three-day paid attendance for the Dec. 15-17 weekday event was down 10.6% — to 46,132 from a record 51,588 in 2024 — leading to $125,813 less in ticket revenue. The GHSA was down another $57,134 for the rising cost of Mercedes-Benz, which charged $705,262 for rent and $138,396 in fees ($3 per ticket). That $843,658 bill was 7.3% higher than in 2024 and 44.8% higher than in 2023, the first year back at Mercedes-Benz after a four-year run at Georgia State’s cheaper Center Parc Stadium.
Private schools unite: An attorney representing 20 smaller private schools sent the GHSA a letter in April saying the group was prepared to seek judicial and legislative solutions if the GHSA does not reconsider the private-only playoff format in place since 2024. “I don’t see the private schools suing the GHSA,” Darlington head of school Brent Bell told the AJC. “That’s not our goal. What we’re trying to do is figure out how we can be heard.” He added, “What we’re concerned about is student safety and creating imbalance unnecessarily without thoughtful conversation.” According to the full-time equivalent numbers the GHSA uses to measure school enrollment, football-playing schools in the Private division range from Westminster’s 828 students to Christian Heritage’s 208. By comparison, the gap among Class 2A public schools playing football region schedules spans from Jasper County’s 841 to Gordon Lee’s 382.
In case this happens again: Among the bigger stories of the 2025 season was an altercation among dozens of Gainesville and Brunswick football players during the quarterfinals. It led to a suspenseful 11-day drama of player suspensions, reinstatements, postponements, lawsuits and injunctions. In the offseason, the GHSA made changes to deal with future tussles, on and off the field. In one, the GHSA incorporated itself, meaning that lawsuits against the GHSA must be heard in its home county, Upson, instead of the plaintiff’s home court. A Hall County judge, representing Gainesville, issued an injunction that forced GHSA to reinstate suspended Gainesville players before the quarterfinals. In a bylaw update, the GHSA made it clear it can assess sit-out penalties after reviewing video or testimony following a game. Gainesville’s attorney exploited a poorly written bylaw regarding that authority. Further, under the updated bylaws, the GHSA “may review video recordings and statements of contest officials, school officials and law enforcement to determine which players were … involved.” The GHSA also broadened its jurisdiction beyond the final whistle, stating, “the prohibition against players … involved in a fight shall continue until all players have left the … venue where the contest takes place.”
New schedules: It was thought that the GHSA’s Post Season Rankings, which count non-region games in seeding the playoffs, might discourage good teams from playing each other outside of region play, but it appears the opposite occurred, by necessity. Buford or Grayson, the past two champions in the highest classification, are an almost-certain loss and PSR penalty for most teams, so the two Gwinnett County giants are playing for the first regular-season time in history on Sept. 18. Thomas County Central, the 2025 Class 5A champion, is playing Colquitt County for the first time since 2012. Sandy Creek, the 2025 Class 3A champion, is playing Grayson and Douglas County. “Some of the teams we reached out to didn’t want to play us, so we were forced to play schools that were also looking for games because nobody wanted to play them either,” Sandy Creek coach Darius Smiley told the AJC. Other notable games between teams that have never met in the regular season, until now, are McEachern vs. Gainesville and Jefferson vs. Calhoun.