The Statesboro football team had their best season since 2013 as they finished the year 8-4 and advanced to the state quarterfinals for the second time under head coach Matt Dobson.
The Blue Devils return the nucleus of last year’s team and bring in a couple of talented newcomers as well. Dobson is hoping the Blue Devils can take the next step in a new region next season and is hoping to build depth this spring.
“We have a lot of guys returning especially on the offensive side of the ball,” Dobson said. “So, the biggest thing is creating depth which is something we haven’t had the luxury of really the past few years. On defense we are trying to find guys that can start for us Friday nights and build depth on that side of the ball as well.”
On offense, the Blue Devils lose running back Keon Childers who led all of 5-A in the regular season with 28 touchdowns. Dobson will also have to find a replacement for leading receiver Gage Newsome. The good news is they had a couple of players move into town that should be able to make an instant impact.
“We had D.J. Brooks move into town and he’s a rising junior who is about 6-1 and 205 pounds so that will give us a little more size at that position,” Dobson said. “We also have Matthew White who moved in from Lakeside in Augusta. He is 6-0 and 205 pounds and gives us size and strength outside that we haven’t had since I have been here. We also moved Brian Cello over from defensive back to slot and we return Davis Harrison who will be exclusively our tight end which gives us a lot of weapons.”
The Blue Devils will also return starting quarterback Beckham Jarrard and Portal quarterback Gideon Fulcher returns to Statesboro where he will back up Jarrard, as well as play receiver. The Blue Devils return three of their four starting linemen and have a couple others with some starting experience. On defense, they return only two starters but have moved a few players around and have some sophomores ready to make the jump from junior varsity.
“We had a great senior class on the defensive line that we will have to replace,” Dobson said. “We have had quite a few sophomores and juniors step up who played a little last year as well as a couple seniors who didn’t play too much. We have a few talented kids at defensive back and linebacker who can run to the ball and we are excited to see what they look like with game experience.”
Dobson got his chance Friday when Statesboro hosted Johnson and Effingham County in a scrimmage.
“We are going to play kind of a jamboree style game with Johnson and Effingham. We don’t play Effingham this year so it’s a chance to get to see a good team who we are fairly familiar with. This gives us a chance to see our guys against someone besides their own teammates and gives us some film to evaluate and work on over the summer.”
