DON’T EVEN ask Jefferson coach T. McFerrin about his team having already clinched a spot in next week’s 8-AA playoffs — those all-important games that will determine what teams go to state.
Only East Jackson is on the radar of the veteran coach who owns 324 career wins.
“I’m too superstitious to even look at that … We’re not going to even talk about that,” McFerrin said. “We’re focusing on trying to beat East Jackson.”
Jefferson (6-2, 3-2) faces East Jackson (3-5, 1-4) on the road Friday at 7:30 p.m.
For starters, McFerrin points to East Jackson’s offensive scheme. He said the Eagles’ version of the spread offense is “very different from what we’ve seen.” In fact, he said he has accumulated seven pages worth of notes on East Jackson formations.
“You can’t rep all of that in three days and a walk-through … It’s going to be a challenge,” McFerrin said.
East Jackson, coming off a 45-14 loss to Elbert County, is led by running back C.J. Allen who is shooting for a 1,000-yard season. McFerrin said the Eagles have an assortment of skill players for his team to worry about.
“They’ve got a lot of good skill people,” McFerrin said. “We’re certainly aware of that.”
Jefferson is coming off a not-so-crisp performance in its 31-14 win over Jackson County. While he was happy, ultimately, with the win, McFerrin saw areas of concern — some poor tackling very early on (though he said the defense played better for the remainder of the game), some dropped balls and some bad blocking on the perimeter.
“It was a sloppy game for us, but I’m glad we won,” he said. “I’m not disappointed in that at all … We’ve got to do a better job on all the little things.”
Bragging rights are, of course, on the line in this game with the unofficial title of “county champion” at stake. Jefferson has already beaten Commerce and Jackson County this year.
“We’re trying to go 3-0 in the county, for sure, like we did last year, and we’ll be pumped up for that game,” Dragon quarterback Bryant Shirreffs said. “It’s at East Jackson, so we’ve got to get ready for the road.”
McFerrin said going unbeaten in intra-county play provides plenty of motivation for Friday’s game.
“It ought to be motivation because it’s a pride thing because that would be a big accomplishment for us do to that,” McFerrin said.
First-year East Jackson coach Brian Smith is new to the rivalry but said these teams obviously know each other well.
“It’s a big game because these kids know each other,” Smith said. “So many of them have good friends on both sides … But these games are kind of fun and you want to play well.”
Smith said that Jefferson “is very solid in what they do” and had a lot of praise for Shirreffs.
“You can’t say this about every quarterback we see, but he looks like a quarterback,” Smith said. “He looks like a kid that was groomed to play that position — fundamentally, technique-wise, just the way he handles himself — he looks like a quarterback.”
Smith added that Jefferson “has some big kids” and is well-coached.
“Coach McFerrin, he’s won a few ball games in his time,” said Smith, who said he had heard of McFerrin even before coming to Georgia. “He didn’t win that many games for being a bad football coach. He’s a great football coach. He’s a legend in this state and he’s still working hard and doing a great job.”
Rivalry aside, this is a chance for East Jackson to finish strong in what’s been an up-and-down 2011. The Eagles won three of their first four but have since lost four straight.
“No. 1, it’s a chance to win a game,” Smith said. “And no. 2, it’s a chance to go out and get better and build a program. Like I told our kids Friday, we can’t afford to wait until the offseason to work on building a program. We’ve got to continue to build it now.”
With a 1-4 record in subregion play, East Jackson is locked out of the Region 8-AA playoffs next week. The Eagles will either play in the round of consolation games against the North subregion or in a non-region game against Athens Academy if it finishes as the no. 7 seed. It all depends on how Friday’s subregion games shakeout.
“We’re going to finish five, six or seven on tie-breakers,” Smith said.
