When Matt Dobson took over the reins as Statesboro High’s head football coach, his goal was to try and get the Blue Devils back to their glory days. After taking Statesboro to the state playoffs in two of his first three seasons, Dobson was able to lead his team to an 8-4 record last year and the second round of the state playoffs. The eight wins marked the highest win total since 2013.

"I feel like there are added expectations after having the kind of season we did last year,” Dobson said. “The expectations have unfortunately been pretty low here for a while. I have told our coaches we want high expectations here and now we have them and I feel like that is what we all want, to meet and exceed expectations.”

The Statesboro offense was able to put up 30 points per game last year and could be even better this season. The Blue Devils lose running back Keon Childers who had 28 touchdowns but return six starters from last year, including most of their offensive line. They also return quarterback Beckham Jarrard who threw for 1,200 yards and rushed for another 450, and tight end Davis Harrison. Key additions include Southeast Bulloch transfer D.J. Brooks at running back, Lakeside transfer Matthew White at receiver, Portal transfer Gideon Fulcher at receiver and quarterback and Kevin Sello who moves from defensive back to slot receiver.

“We had three guys that started on the offensive line last year back and two other guys who played quite a bit in Payton Brihm, Chandler Tyson and Jeremiah Kegler,” Dobson said. “They will be a key strength for us as well as our skill positions. We are deep as receiver and have a couple solid running backs who could be special in D.J. and Jamon Chavers. We haven’t had the kind of weapon Matthew White is at 6-0 and almost 200 pounds and Gideon Fulcher is another big, strong kid who can also play quarterback and then there is Todd Easter who can go up high in traffic and pull a ball down. I loved what I saw from D.J. Brooks in seven-on-seven as he can catch the ball out of the backfield and make people miss as well as run them over with his power at six feet tall and over 200 pounds. Beckham seems to have taken another step forward at quarterback. He has also built chemistry with the new receivers and has taken a much more vocal role in our offense.”

Defensively is where the Blue Devils were hit the hardest by graduation. Statesboro returns only two starters from a squad who gave up over 25 points per game.

“I have liked the progress I have seen from our defense from our spring game to our most recent padded camp at Richmond Hill,” Dobson said. “They did a lot better job at fitting the run and playing well in the box. We have a lot of guys that played on the freshman team that are stepping into varsity roles now and there is a learning curve but their effort is there. On the defensive line J.R. Palmer has looked good at nose guard and Jacoby Walker has had a great summer at defensive end. Levon Jones is one of our returning starters at linebacker and we will be counting on him to be our quarterback of the defense. In the secondary our two seniors with playing experience are Caleb Scoggins and Dalen White and they are playing really well and counting on.”

This year there will be a new region and a new playoff format. Power polls will decide state playoff seeding and who advances to the state. The Blue Devils region includes a few teams that have been very successful including Benedictine, Ware County and Jenkins HS but that is actually a positive this year as playing these teams should help power poll numbers even in a loss.

“There are a lot of things more out of our control, like our opponent’s success which will affect us,” Dobson said. “The benefit is we play tough teams in our region and in our non-region schedule as well. The biggest change is that the non-region games we play will count. An August game against Southeast Bulloch counts as much as a November 6 game against Wayne County. We have to be ready to play August 21 because that game counts as much towards playoff eligibility as the ones at the end of the season.”

Statesboro opens the season at Southeast Bulloch followed by non-region games at home against ECI and Burke County before starting region play Sept. 18 at home against Benedictine.