Join us tonight for the Emmy Award winning GPB Sports Football Fridays in Georgia as GPB 5A No. 1 Blessed Trinity plays at No. 4 Marist. This is Week Three of our 14 weeks of high school football coverage on Georgia Public Broadcasting all the way through the GHSA State Championship games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in mid-December. 

If you can’t make it to Hughes-Spalding Stadium in Atlanta, join us 7:30 p.m. on GPB-TV, Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Legendary coaches, potential history-making milestones, incredible rivalry and once again the top prospect in the country are all wrapped up in tonight’s Football Friday in Georgia.  

Last week we saw Buford 5-Star DL Jalen Brewster, the overall No. 1 prospect in the Rivals and ESPN recruiting rankings. This week we’ll see Blessed Trinity 5-Star Edge D.J. Jacobs. He’s the No. 1 overall prospect in the country in the 247 Sports rankings and committed to Ohio State.  He is also the son of former Georgia Bulldog David Jacobs who is the Titans DL coach.

The two winningest active coaches in the state will be on opposing sidelines.  Marist Coach Alan Chadwick is second all-time and is now just 17 wins from tying Larry Campbell for the GHSA career wins record. This is Chadwick’s 42nd season as the War Eagles coach and his 51st overall at the school with a head coaching record of 460-84 and three state championships.

Blessed Trinity Coach Ed Dudley has the second most wins among active coaches and is 35th on the all-time list with a record of 243-130 in 33 seasons as a head coach.  Dudley is 31-10 in his fourth season with the Titans, the sixth stop of his head coaching career. He led BT to the state semifinals two seasons ago. Dudley has also been the head coach at Buford, Walton, Ware County, Carrollton, and Winder-Barrow.  

A win for Marist tonight would be the 800th in the War Eagles storied history which began in 1912. Only three other GHSA programs have won that many games, Valdosta, LaGrange, and Gainesville.  Furthermore, Marist has won 36 consecutive region games. The last team to beat them? You guessed it. Blessed Trinity 33-30 in 2019 as the Titans would go on to win their third straight state championship that season.

As for the rivalry, it isn’t that old, but it is intense. Blessed Trinity has only been around since 2001. The War Eagles lead the all-time series 5-4 but the Titans did beat Marist in the 2017 State Championship Game (the first of their aforementioned three state titles.)  The War Eagles knocked out BT in the second round of the playoffs last season 28-10. 

RRheader

Blessed Trinity Offense vs. Marist Defense.

            The Titans offense relies heavily on 5-9, 220, junior RB M.J. Craft who has rushed for 506 yards, averaging 126.7 YPG, with 7 TD. Blessed Trinity operates a two-QB rotation with 6-2, 215, junior Ty Page the No. 1 signal caller. He’s completed 70% of his passes and thrown for 586 yards with 6 TD and 0 INT. Page has been offered by Miami-Ohio. 5-10, 165, sophomore Luke Ray is the Titans “1B” QB and has completed 65.5% of his passes for 264 yards with 3 TD and 1 INT. BT has two dynamic WR in senior Quinn Smith (16-361 yards, 4 TD) and junior Andrew Cochran (14-263 yards, 4 TD). The starting offensive line is made up of four juniors and one sophomore led by 6-4, 270, junior LT P.J. Miller who’s been offered by Harvard, Liberty, and Miami-Ohio.

            The War Eagles defense is stingy, allowing just 57 rushing YPG and just 7.5 PPG with two shutouts. Weakside LB Owen Hare (22 TT, 2 TFL, 2 INT, 5 QBH) earned high praise from Coach Chadwick who said his 5-11, 182, senior is one of the best to come through the program in regard to “…seeing (the play), feeling it, closing in, and making the tackle.” End Matthew Greco and Tackle Lucas Rosser lead the defensive line and there’s another Harpring in Blue.  Junior Bobby starts at strong safety and is the No. 2 QB. Of course, his dad is legendary Georgia Tech basketball star Matt Harpring who went on to a long career in the NBA and who himself was once a War Eagles QB.

Marist Offense vs. Blessed Trinity Defense

The War Eagles offense is the thing of nightmares for defensive coaches. The triple-option is just something teams don’t see any more as Coach Dudley pointed out, they (like everybody else Marist faces) just can’t duplicate the “speed and intensity” of their offense in practice (which makes it very difficult to prepare for). It’s all about the QB with the Marist offense and this season it’s senior Hayes Rollauer, he follows a lengthy line of War Eagles quarterbacks in what Coach Chadwick calls “The Long Blue Line,” a line that includes now-Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay. When Rollauer isn’t running the ball he quite often hands the ball to halfback Cullen O’Leary, the grandson of former Georgia Tech Coach George O’Leary. The War Eagles are averaging less than four pass attempts per game. The line is led by 6-5, 283, junior Cooper Martenson who has 19 offers including Georgia and Georgia Tech.

            The aforementioned D.J. Jacobs leads Blessed Trinity’s defense. Coach Dudley calls the No. 1 overall prospect in the country, a “bigger, stronger, faster” version of the great Chase Thomas, who Dudley coached at Walton and went on to an All-American career at Stanford. D.J. has racked up 315 tackles in his career with 70 TFL and 15 QB sacks. His younger brother Dawson joins him on that side of the ball at NT and is a 4-Star rated as high as the No. 15 DL in 2028. He has 30 offers including Notre Dame and Ohio State. Dawson has 171 career TT with 39 TFL and 11 QB sacks. Quinn Jacobs lines up next to Dawson at DE but is not related. Quinn is the son of former Auburn Tigers and New York Giants star RB Brandon Jacobs. Bishop Dameron leads the LB corps and is the son of former Cherokee Head Coach Brian Dameron who is now an assistant on Dudley’s veteran-laden coaching staff. CB Noah Willis is a 3-star committed to Cincinnati and leads an exceptionally good secondary.

            Special Teams

If the game comes down to kicking, Marist has one of the best in the country in Tyler Baradel who is committed to Wake Forest. He is rated the No. 5 kicker in 2027 by Chris Sailer Kicking who Coach Chadwick says has a range of 60 yards (and he was joking when he said it). Every one of his kickoffs so far this season has gone for a touchback.

Here’s more details on each team’s prospects with offers.

Blessed Trinity Prospects

#15 D.J. Jacobs – 6-5, 235, Senior – Consensus 5-Star rated as high as No.1 overall prospect in the country and No. 1 Edge in 2027 – Committed to Ohio State over 37 other offers (98.54 Rivals Industry Ranking)

#99 Dawson Jacobs – 6-3, 265, Junior – 4-Star rated as high as No. 15 DL in 2028 – 30 offers including Ohio State and Notre Dame (90.71)

#4 Noah Willis – 6-0, 165, Senior – Consensus 3-Star CB – Committed to Cincinnati over Kansas State (Official Visit) and 23 other offers (85.47)

#11 Quinn Jacobs – 6-4, 245, Junior – 3-Star Edge in 2028 – 12 offers including Clemson (84.67)

#6 Isaiah Ritzmann – 6-3, 200, Junior LB – Five offers including Georgia, Tennessee, and Louisville

#7 Julian Haynes – 6-0, 180, Senior DB – Offered by Memphis, Southern Miss, and Texas Southern

#76 P.J. Miller – 6-4, 270, Junior OL – Offered by Harvard, Liberty, and Miami-OH

#2 Ty Page – 6-2, 215, Junior QB – Offered by Miami-Ohio

 

Marist Prospects

#56 Cooper Martenson – 6-5, 283, Junior OT – 19 offers including Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Texas A&M

#35 Tyler Baradel – 6-1, 175, Senior – Rated the No. 5 Kicker in the country for 2027 by Chris Sailer Kicking - Committed to Wake Forest.

 

Blessed Trinity vs. Marist - 9.2526 Game

So, join Wayne Gandy, Jon Nelson, and me for our Emmy Award-winning Football Fridays in Georgia Game of the Week as the No. 4 Marist War Eagles host the No. 1 Blessed Trinity Titans.  

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

If you miss the game live or just want to watch it again, 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 September 18, 2026, Football Friday in Georgi