A heads-down approach, a tough pre-region schedule, experience and emerging talent has No. 2-ranked Oconee County poised for another great season.
Coach Travis Noland is impressed by his team on a weekly basis. The focus is on improvement for the Warriors, who enter a bye-week before hosting No. 7 Monroe Area on Oct. 22.
Apparently, that hasn’t been the tallest of tasks.
“This team seems to get better each week,” said Noland, who has coached Oconee County since 2014 and has three region titles (2015, 2019 and 2020) with a finals appearance in each of the past two seasons – 2020 in 3A and 2019 in 4A.
The team’s experience from those finals appearances has created a deep lineup, and it’s paying dividends this season. The Warriors are 7-0 overall and 2-0 in Region 8-3A after beating No. 9 Hart County 35-13 Friday.
“We worked really hard this fall on making improvements each day, each game,” Noland said. “We have a very long way to go and a tough road ahead of us.”
Senior quarterback Jacob Wright is 81-of-125 passing for 1,302 yards and 15 touchdowns and leads a Warriors offense which averages 190 passing yards and 150 rushing yards per game.
“He comes to work every day and has a workmanship quality about how he does things,” Noland said of Wright. “He never gets too high and never gets too low. He is just very consistent in how he prepares to play, and we always believe if you prepare well, you’ll play well. He has done that all year.”
That consistency has led the Warriors past higher and lower classification opponents -- 4A North Oconee (35-28), 4A Cedar Shoals (27-19), 5A Clarke Central (21-2), 2A then-No. 4 Thomasville (20-6), 5A Veterans (35-16) and East Jackson (35-7) in region play.
Consider it a pre-region test.
“We have played a tough schedule for the last four years, honestly,” Noland said. “We have always tried to schedule difficult pre-region games so that when you get into region play, you know you have at least been in close games with many quality teams, and hopefully that means something as you go down the stretch to the season.”
The growth Oconee saw during the offseason can be summed with a glance at junior running back C.J. Jones. Jones, 6-foot, 190-pounds, was productive in the pre-region and has hit overdrive entering region play.
“He has come so far in one year, both on the field and off the field,” Noland said. “He has learned to commit himself more to being consistent in how he works every day. That’s a big difference. He played some snaps for us as a sophomore, but he has obviously gotten stronger physically.”
In Oconee’s 35-7 region opening victory against East Jackson, Jones had 15 carries for 171 yards and four touchdowns. He has 141 carries for 773 yards and 10 touchdowns this season, with four games of 100 yards or more.
“He has a bright future, and he just has to continue to stay humble and stay hungry and show up to work every day,” Noland said.
Bottom line, the Warriors might not do everything perfectly. But they do all of it rather well.
They aren’t smothering opponents and holding teams scoreless. Oconee has given up points to each of its seven opponents and is outscoring teams 208-91. But the team’s intangibles across the depth chart have been paramount.
Senior Jake Johnson -- a four-star tight end headed to LSU -- has 33 receptions for 533 yards and six touchdowns through seven games. In his junior year last season, Johnson finished with 37 catches for 787 yards and 10 touchdowns in 15 games. As one of the best players in the state -- and the nation’s top tight end prospect -- Johnson’s contribution extends beyond the field.
But sometimes plays and players go unheralded.
“We have had some guys play really well,” he said. “But we also have a bunch of guys that might not be seen in the stat line who are doing their jobs, enabling some of the other people to have the success that they are.”
It has been said that in front of every Jones on a four-touchdown night, the unheralded are clearing the way. Monroe Area will try to stop both of them on Oct. 22.
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