Join us for Week Four of GPB Sports Football Friday in Georgia as the Newnan Cougars take on the second-ranked Hughes Panthers in an important Region 3-5A matchup at Willie Cannon Field in Fairburn.

This game matches two of the highest-scoring offenses in GHSA Class 5A football. The Panthers are third in the classification, averaging 46 points, while the Cougars are fourth at 44.2 points. 

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Hughes is 5-0 and hasn’t won a game by fewer than 13 points while winning by an average of 31 points. The Panthers are already 2-0 in the region. Newnan is 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the region after getting upset a couple of weeks ago by Coweta County rival Northgate. This will be the Cougars first road game of the season after playing their first five at home. Newnan will play four of their last five regular season games on the road.

Since 2021, the Panthers have not only been one of the best teams in the state but one of the best teams in the country. Hughes has reached the state finals in three of the last four seasons, winning it all in 2022. Which brings us back around to this year’s team. The success of the last four seasons came under Head Coach Daniel “Boone” Williams who left to become the head coach at Northside-Warner Robins.

The Panthers brought in the offensive coordinator of that 2022 state championship team, Andrico Hines, to be the new head coach. Hines had spent the last two seasons at Berkmar in the first head coaching opportunity of his career. Three years ago he was in charge of an offense that set the state single-season scoring record with 792 total points and also became the first team in state history to score at least 35 points in every game.

The freshman quarterback on that 2022 team, Darnell Kelly, left after that season for Peachtree Ridge where he was the starting QB for the last two seasons. He’s returned for his senior season and the Panthers offense has been nearly as potent as that 2022 state championship team although not as efficient as Coach Hines would like. His standards are high.

Newnan is a long-time name in Georgia high school football. This is the program’s 120th season dating back to 1907 although the Cougars have never won a state championship. The Cougars have been state runners-up three times but not since 1981.

In 2017 the Cougars hired one of the best coaches in the state in Chip Walker who won three state championships at Sandy Creek and won 11 State Coach of the Year Awards in his 12 seasons there. It was a rebuild but by his fourth season Newnan went 9-2.

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The following spring in March 2021 an F4 tornado virtually destroyed the school and most of the football facilities. The Cougars would spend most of the next three years with no place to hold team meetings, no place to watch film and weightlifting equipment under a tent. Newnan would go 10-20 in those 2021-23 seasons.

The school has been rebuilt brand new and so have the football facilities. The Cougars have come out on the other side of that disaster and enter tonight’s game having gone 13-4 in their last 17 games. But is it enough to hang with the powerful Panthers who’ve won the last three meetings in blowout fashion not to mention six of the last seven games in the series on top of that? In remembering those last three games Coach Walker said they were in those games until self-inflicted mistakes doomed their chances. The message to his team this week, “Let’s play a full four quarters and see what happens.” Indeed we all shall see.

That’s the game preview. Now here’s the Top Prospects to Watch.

Hughes Prospects

Kelsey Adams, Hughes

Kelsey Adams, Hughes

Credit: 247 Sports

#71 Kelsey Adams – 6-6, 300, Junior – Consensus 4-Star rated as high as No. 5 OT 2027 by 247 Sports – 27 Offers including Georgia

#11 Xavier Tiller – 6-5, 215, Senior – Committed to Florida State over 34 other offers including Auburn – Consensus 4-Star rated as high as No. 4 TE 2026 by ESPN

#2 Carsyn Baker – 6-2, 210, Senior – Committed to Florida over 53 other offers – Consensus 4-Star rated as high as No. 7 RB 2026 by Rivals

#5 Darnell Kelly – 6-2, 185, Senior – Committed to Colorado State over 24 other offers including Middle Tennessee and Georgia Southern – Consensus 3-Star QB

#1 Qwantavius Wiggins – 5-10, 190, Senior – Committed to FIU over 20 other offers – Consensus 3-Star RB

#23 Julian Byrd - 6-1, 195, Senior – Committed to Tulsa over 10 other offers including Gardner-Webb and Charlotte – 3-Star CB

#8 Kijon Brown-Braxton – 6-1, 220, Senior Edge (Plays DE) – Committed to Eastern Michigan over 8 other offers including Wake Forest and Memphis

#16 Cannon Kirksey – 6-4, 195, Senior WR – Committed to Austin Peay

#4 Aji Griggs – 6-1, 205, Senior LB – Offered by Arizona State, FIU, and FAU

#10 Dale Perry – 6-2, 160, Sophomore DB (Plays SS) – Seven offers including Colorado and Oregon State.

#7 Prince Aminu – 6-0, 185, Sophomore QB – Offered by Georgia State and Morehouse

Newnan Cougars Prospects

Rodney Colton

Rodney Colton, Newnan

Credit: 247 Sports

#0 Rodney Colton – 6-1, 220, Senior – Committed to Colorado over 33 other offers including Florida State and Ole Miss – 4-Star rated as high as No. 15 LB 2026 by 247 Sports

#4 John Matthews - 6-0, 180, Sophomore – 3-Star WR with 6 offers including Georgia State, Auburn, and Georgia

#11 Josiah Smith – 5-11, 210, Senior LB – Committed to Cornell over 14 other offers including Navy and App State

#1 Ashton Lawless – 6-2, 220, Sophomore Edge (Plays OLB) – Five offers including Tennessee, Georgia Tech, and App State

#2 Brodie Campbell – 6-3, 185, Junior QB – Offered by Cincinnati, Troy, Delaware, and Georgia State

#6 Kari North – 5-11, 180, Senior CB – Offered by Southeast Missouri State

#55 Javeon Hinton – 5-11, 270, Senior Center – Offered by Morehouse

#3 Jaylen Britt – 5-9, 165, Junior WR – Receiving interest from Georgia Southern and Georgia State

So join Wayne Gandy, Jon Nelson and me for our Emmy Award-winning Football Fridays in Georgia Game of the Week as the Hughes Panthers host the Newnan Cougars.

Remember, there are many ways you can watch Football Fridays in Georgia. Traditional TV (GPB), online at GPB.org, GPB Sports app, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch.

Now if you miss the game live or just want to watch it again, don’t worry, we replay the entire Football Fridays in Georgia Game of the Week at 11:15 p.m. or you can watch it on demand anytime at GPB.org. 

Enjoy your Sept. 26, 2025, Football Friday in Georgia.