Oglethorpe County is headed back to the Granite Bowl.
The Patriots will play at Elbert County in the first round of the Class A Division I playoffs (7:30 p.m. Nov. 14), meaning another trip to the Granite Bowl, where they lost 27-0 in a Region 8-A Division I game on Sept. 19.
Coach Michael Holland said this season’s playoff berth signals more than just progress on the field. The Patriots (6-4) are on a four-game winning streak and finished in a three-way tie for second with Elbert County and Rabun County.
“Everyone’s really excited about it,” he said. “There’s been a buzz around it for the past couple of weeks. We really got on a run after we beat Rabun. The kids have been playing with a lot of confidence. It’s better for the whole school when the football team’s doing well. A lot more school spirit and the student section has been great. It’s been a lot of fun.”
The Patriots’ finish was strong: four straight region wins to close the regular season and the first time the program has ended above .500 since 2005.
The momentum inside the locker room, Holland said, has been entirely self-driven.
“The kids have been motivating themselves,” he said. “There’s a lot of hope and a lot of excitement to practice and get better. I’m really happy for the kids that they’re seeing some of the fruit of their labor. They’ve been working so hard and for us to come back from the season we had last year, I’m really excited for this senior group.”
For senior running back and defensive end O’Maury Huggs, the chance to play past Week 10 still feels unreal.
“A couple years back, we played over at their (Elbert’s) place and it didn’t go the way we wanted it to (a 34-27 first-round loss in 2023),” Huggs said. “Our last season didn’t go as good as we wanted, either. So this year, us being 6-4 and making it to the playoffs really sparks a fire in us that we can do anything and achieve what we want.”
He said that belief only grew as the wins stacked up.
“We knew we had chips on our shoulders, people doubting us, people saying we weren’t going to make it,” Huggs said. “But we just kept everything inside of practice, came together as a team, and moved forward toward the goal we wanted. It paid off.”
As the Patriots prepare for another shot at Elbert County, Holland said the mood feels different.
“We got the film last night so we’ve been working on it,” he said. “We see where we went wrong and where we can do better. I do think we’re a different team. We were able to iron out some things that made us more efficient and a more complete football team.”
That confidence extends beyond X’s and O’s.
“The kids are excited for the opportunity because they felt like we didn’t play to our full potential in that first game,” Holland said. “They’re excited to get another crack at it. We’re going to have to show them that we are different.”
Huggs said that difference shows in the team’s chemistry as much as its execution.
“The bond between us, the chemistry we have — that’s what’s different,” he said. “We’ve made changes and adjustments to what we see on film, knowing that we can stop them and really put up a fight with these guys.”
The numbers back that up. Oglethorpe’s offense has surged to nearly 2,800 total yards during its late-season run, powered by a run-focused wing-T offense that Holland said was designed to get more players involved.
Jackson Tatum leads the Patriots with 622 yards rushing, but Paris Crowder has 538, Zion Pass has 398, Caden Hartrum has 378 and Huggs has 344. The Patriots average 228.6 yards rushing a game.
“We changed offenses from last season to this season,” he said. “We needed a more systematic approach that maximizes our playmakers. We were more traditional before but now we have multiple guys who can carry the football on any given play. Our offensive staff has done a great job making adjustments so that we’ve been clicking these past four games.”
Huggs said it all comes down to trust.
“The coaches trust in our guys in the backfield to move the ball down the field every chance we get,” he said. “They trust us to do what we’ve got to do.”