TRION, Ga. - If a sense of deja vu came over the football team at Trion High School this week, it's entirely understandable. Coach Justin Brown hopes his players understood its meaning.
For the fourth consecutive season the Bulldogs enter week four undefeated and high in the GHSA's Class A public school power ratings. Those quick starts, at least the past two seasons, haven't been a harbinger of things to come. In fact, Trion is a combined 4-10 following week three, missing the playoffs last season.
There are, of course, tangible reasons, like the rise in quality of teams in Region 6-A, which last year included the state champion in Mount Paran Christian and a Mount Zion team that reached the quarterfinals. In a region that includes only two public schools, the competition is strong every week when league play starts.
Last season's collapse caused the Trion coaching staff to take a long look at what might be missing, and the answer was fairly obvious. As the competition has raised its level of play and coaching, the Bulldogs have been, well, grounded in their tradition.
This is a program known for its sometimes unstoppable ground game, with names such as Clark, Peace, Chapman, Blevins and Calhoun being legendary in these parts. In today's game, however, few teams can have sustained success being one-dimensional.
Therefore, the forward pass has been welcomed into the Trion offense, and the results have been spectacular. Understand, the run game always will be Brown's bread and butter, but too often the past two years he's watched defenses stack the line with success.
That's now a strategy Brown hopes to see on Friday nights.
"The difference is the fact we're a lot more versatile on offense," he said. "We've already thrown for more yards in three games than we did all last year. We've made teams pay for crowding us. We were 3-0 (at this point) last year, but we didn't look very good doing it."
Quarterback Jarrett Gill has thrown for 309 yards and four touchdowns, not big numbers for some programs. For the Bulldogs, however, the numbers are staggering. In 50 years of football Brown believes the program only rarely - if at all - averaged more than 100 yards passing a game.
"Jarrett Gill has come so far, not just physically with strength and size, but with all those reps he got this spring and summer, he's taken everything we've done and taken it to the field on Friday nights," Brown said.
With the newfound passing proficiency, the run game is even more dangerous, with talented backs Malik Martin, Gabe Howell, Jarrett Pierce and DeVonya Farmer combining for more than 250 yards per game.
The offensive tweak also has raised the players' level of enjoyment of the game, especially with a talented senior class trying to leave a legacy.
"We're having fun," said Martin, one of seven two-way starters for the Bulldogs. "We have a senior-heavy lineup, and I just feel we want it more and more than we have in the past and we're enjoying it. Coaches are already telling us to play loose, and when you do that, good things happen."
Like any coach, Brown would prefer not to rely on so many two-way starters, and if he didn't feel his guys could handle the work load he wouldn't do it. His players are well conditioned, and it's something they work on every week. Instead of giving his two-way players time off during practice, Brown pushes them harder.
"We go in with the mindset that we have to condition and we have to do it every week," he said. "This week we did 34 sprints Monday and Tuesday at the end of practice. We prepare them to play 100 snaps if they have to. We haven't had to do that yet, but it's coming."
That test could come as early as tonight as the Bulldogs travel to face a 2-0 Pinecrest Academy team that already has beaten a Class AAAAA team. And it's game four, Trion's Waterloo in past seasons.
"We've been trying to tell them we've been in this boat before," Brown said. "We've been 3-0 four years in a row now, and that fourth game has been our nemesis. We're going to challenge these seniors to pave a different path for us this year."
Martin, the team's leading rusher and tied with Farmer for the lead in tackles, says the Bulldogs are ready for any challenge. Friday nights are, he says, easier than practice days.
"Yeah," he said, "we do a lot of conditioning. Through the week the coaches make it harder on us in practice than it would be in a game. It's all part of us believing in ourselves and where we're going.
"We believe we can make it to the (Georgia) Dome (for a state final), and we're willing to do anything to get there."
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow at Twitter@youngsports22