Flowery Branch will be fighting for its playoff life Friday night when the Falcons host the Gainesville Red Elephants in the final regular season game of the season on GPB. Flowery Branch (5-4, 4-4) is currently tied for fifth in Region 8-AAAAA while Gainesville (7-2, 7-1) has already clinched second place in the region.

The Falcons clearest path to clinching the fourth and final state playoff berth out of Region 8-AAAAA would be to upset the Red Elephants while also hoping that host Cedar Shoals (0-9, 0-8) surprises Salem (5-4, 5-3). In other words, a lot of things have to happen for the Falcons, who have won three straight after starting the season 2-4. That winning streak includes a 7-6 win at Salem last week which would give Flowery Branch the head-to-head tiebreaker in the event of a tie in the standings.

Meantime Gainesville has already secured a first-round state playoff game at home and will host the number-three team out of Region 7 when the GHSA post-season begins November 14th. The Red Elephants have rebounded from a tough 39-0 loss to Grayson in their opener to win seven of their last eight games with the only loss coming to region champion Lanier 26-23. Gainesville has since won three straight and their seven region wins have come by an average of 30 points.

The Red Elephants are led by Coach Bruce Miller who is in his 13th season at the legendary program that first began playing football in 1905. Miller is 137-28 since taking over in Gainesville in 2002 and led the Red Elephants to their first GHSA state championship in 2012. Miller also led Gainesville to the 2009 state finals, beating Flowery Branch in the semi-finals that season, and has reached the state semi-finals as well on three other occasions.

Flowery Branch is coached by Chris Griffin (20-11) who is in his third season since replacing Lee Shaw, who started the program in 2002. In Shaw’s final seven seasons with the Falcons, they went 73-17 and reached the 2008 state finals and that aforementioned 2009 semi-final appearance when they lost to Gainesville.

This will be the 12th all-time meeting between the two programs dating back to 2002 with Gainesville leading the series 8-3 including a 55-45 home victory last season. The Red Elephants have won four of the last five meetings between the two rivals with Flowery Branch’s lone victory during that stretch coming ironically when the Falcons beat Gainesville 35-34 in the Red Elephants 2012 state championship season.

Recruiting players to watch for Gainesville include safety Lewis Cousins who’s been offered by Troy, cornerback Chad Williamson who is committed to Louisiana-Monroe and linebacker Jadarius Sosebee who just committed to Charleston Southern last Friday night.

It will be another great GPB Football Friday in Georgia live from Falcon Field in Flowery Branch. It all starts at 7:00 p.m. with our GPB All Access Pass show hosted by Mark Harmon and Claire Simms and then join me, Larry Smith, Jon Nelson and Grace Olson on the game call starting at 7:30 pm. It’ll be fun. Be sure to tune in.