Habersham Central has waged two hard-fought battles with Madison County over the last two years, and that is all the Raiders will have to base their assessments on for tonight’s game.
With the cancellation of scrimmages across the state, no one has film to exchange on other teams and what their makeup looks like for 2020.
“We are going in blind,” Raiders coach Benji Harrison said. “You usually get to lay eyeballs on a scrimmage or something at least, but not this year. We know them fairly well and they know us, but year-to-year, personnel can change and so can schemes too, depending on who you have.”
The Raiders will hope to get this season off to a good start after a 3-7 mark in 2019.
Madison went 6-7 last season and made the third round of the playoffs. The Red Raiders won last year’s matchup with Habersham County, 26-20, while dropping the previous contest 42-35 in 2018.
Many of the current Raiders were sophomores on that victorious 2018 team and will bring plenty of experience to this season, whatever it may end up looking like.
Division I prospect Josh Pickett will take over at quarterback for the Raiders after playing wide receiver and defensive back the last two years.
“We are excited to see how he does there,” Harrison said. “We expect that he is going to make that transition just fine.”
Another key position could be right in front of Pickett at center, where Ethan Tomlin returns from a torn ACL last season to anchor the middle of the offensive line.
“He could be really huge for us after not getting to play last year,” Harrison said.
On defense, Sutton Dover is moving from defensive end to middle linebacker, where he will be expected to use his athleticism to make plays at the second level.
“We think (Dover) is moving better than he was last year and we thought he was up to the challenge of being our MIKE linebacker this year,” Harrison said.
Tonight’s game begins at 7:30 p.m. after a short ceremony recognizing the 2020 Ring of Honor inductees.