There were 87 first-year coaches when the football season started and 37 of them will be taking teams in the state playoffs.

Six of the new coaches brought home region championships in their first season: Tucker Pruitt at Appling County, Jarvis Jones at Carver Columbus, Kenny Dallas at Hebron Christian, Andrico Hines at Hughes and Jonathan Thompson at Roswell. Carver and Hebron won state championships last season.

Among the biggest improvements came at Dalton under first-year coach Chris Prewatt, who built the program at Roswell. Dalton went 3-7 and made the playoffs after going 0-10 in 2024.

Sprayberry went 9-1 under new coach Pete Fominaya, who took over from Brett Vavra, whose team was 11-2 in 2024. Fominaya had guided Hiram to the playoffs in four of his seven seasons. 

Griffin had won only one game in each of the last two seasons, but improved to 7-3 this year under Bernard Goodrum. The Bears have their best record since 2020 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Flowery Branch went 7-3 under coach Michael Perry. The Falcons had endured three straight seasons with a losing record. 

Michael Nash became the fifth coach in five seasons at Chattahoochee County and went 5-5 to earn a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2022. 

On the horizon 

Gainesville  needs one more victory to become the third Georgia school to record 800 victories. The Red Elephants open the playoffs at home against Dunwoody. Valdosta is the winningest program with 968 victories, followed by LaGrange with 818. 

Lamar County needs one victory and Aquinas needs two wins to reach 300 wins. Lamar opens the playoffs against Berrien. Aquinas meets Darlington in the first round. 

Mitchell County coach Dondrial Pinkins needs one victory to reach 100 for his career. The Eagles open the playoffs against Warren County.