Andrew Blaylock, No. 50, holds a pad for a teammate during drills.REGION 7B-AA AT A GLANCE
Team on the rise: North Murray County had no seniors and won one game last year. The same crop of guys are ready for a bounce-back season.Nightmare schedule: Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe does not have a Class A team on its schedule and will play two Class AAA rivals in its first two weeks.Dream schedule: Calhoun will face the predicted three other 7B-AA contenders at home. Its divisional road games are at Sonoraville, North Murray and LFO.Best game: Chattooga and Dade County could be playing for second place at Chattooga on Oct. 28 in the last game of the regular season.Biggest shoes to fill: Gordon Central junior quarterback M.J. Reynolds steps into a role filled by Dre Prather last year. Prather accounted for more than 2,700 yards of offense.Playoff bound: Calhoun, Chattooga, Dade County, Pepperell.
Opponents for Region 7B-AA teams in Week 10 -- known as the region play-in game -- will be determined by outcomes of the first nine weeks.
In that last game of the regular season, a good year could all go down the drain.
"We could have been 8-2 and sitting at home last year," Dade County coach Bradley Warren said. "I remember that we beat Armuchee in the regular season then had to play them again in Week 10.
The Wolverines won 16-0 in the regular season then 20-19 in the rematch.
"I know that was very was a very stressful week," Warren said. "It felt like a ton of bricks off my shoulders after that game."
The top teams in 7B-AA and 7A-AA are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. They face each other in the last week with a higher seeding on the line. Then the next three teams from one side face squads from the other division.
Making the week 10 game meaningful is one of the goals each team strives for during the regular season.
Barring unexpected upsets, Calhoun appears poised to hold the top spot from 7B-AA and move on to the playoffs. But the other spots are up for grabs.
Dade County has done it once and can do it again. The Wolverines have only three offensive starters back.
"We're coming off a big season," center Gannon Hampton said. "But we still have to be hungry."
Chattooga finished third in the region but has two Division I players on its roster in lineman Luke Brantley and quarterback Nathan Schuster, who several coaches listed as the best offensive player in the region.
Gordon Central returns nine starters on each side of the ball but graduated quarterback Dre Prather.
"One of the teams you ought to look out for is Gordon Central," Warren said. "Calhoun is scary. Chattooga is always athletic and [Schuster] is a really good ball player.
"The last two years it's been a war between our two schools, and I expect the same this year."
Sonoraville has a new coach in Roger Gentry but could play a spoiler role and will certainly be underdogs.
North Murray County has its first crop of seniors, and they're all experienced. But they have little experience of winning games.
And Lakeview-Fort Oglethorp can only get better after a winless 2010 season with eight starters back on each side.
"Calhoun is tops, and after that I think it's wide open," North Murray coach Larry Cornelius said. "There is going to be a lot of parity. By week six you usually know who the best teams are, but I think it will come down to the last week to fill that playoff spot."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.