High school football’s regular season is halfway done. Typically, an AJC Super 11 player or two is out with an injury by now, or not playing well or changing his college commitment for the second or third time. This year’s Super 11? No surprises. They’re just killing it. And their teams are a combined 45-11. Here’s a look at each of the 11.

Whitefield Academy’s Mason Hollingsworth rushed for a Cobb County-record 426 yards in a victory over St. Anne-Pacelli Friday night, and West Laurens’ Ty Cummings ran for 223 yards and two touchdowns in a big region win against defending champion Harlem. Other top performers from Week 6 included East Jackson’s Drew Richardson, Pickens’ McCord Purdy and Hebron Christian’s Max Steve.

One football team lost its No. 1 spot in this week despite winning, and six entered the top 10 — one for the first time in school history. Prince Avenue Christian of Class 3A-A Private was demoted to No. 2 in the AJC rankings after a 59-34 victory Friday night against Westside, a South Carolina, team that reached that state’s Class 4A championship game last season. The new No. 1 team is defending champion 3A-A Private champion Hebron Christian.

Winder-Barrow’s M.J. Dowdy took the state rushing lead last week with his 321-yard, five-touchdown performance in a 35-16 victory over Apalachee. Dowdy has 946 rushing yards on the season and 3,424 for his career. He is two yards behind CeCe Green for the school record for career yards. He can break that record and reach 1,000 yards in tonight’s game against Alcovy.

The four remaining unbeaten teams in Region 4-3A play will go head-to-head for a share of first place Friday night when West Laurens travels to Harlem and Westside-Augusta visits Aquinas for Week 6 games. Front-runner status in other region also will be decided, including Calvary Day at Jenkins in 3-3A, Denmark at West Forsyth in 6-6A, Fitzgerald at Worth County in 1-A Division I, and North Cobb at North Paulding in 5-6A.

Georgia has the most NFL players per capita among states for the fourth year in a row, according to NFL data. Hillgrove’s seven NFL players are the most among public schools nationally. There were 143 former Georgia high school players on opening-week active rosters. The 143 equaled one per 74,808 Georgia residents.

Running backs stole the show in Week 5 of the regular season as Greenville's Marquel Deering, Heritage-Newnan's Tyson Hamaker, Sequoyah's Will Rajecki, Westside-Augusta's Tamari Curry and Winder-Barrow's M.J. Dowdy were among those rushing for at least 240 yards and three touchdowns in their teams' victories Friday night.

Sandy Creek is the new No. 1 team in Class 3A after two teams ahead of the Patriots lost last week, and Sequoyah was the biggest riser in all classifications, going from No. 8 to No. 4 in Class 5A. In Class 3A, previous No. 1 Calhoun lost its second straight game last week – this time to Class 4A’s No. 9 team, Cambridge, 52-42. Calhoun lost to another ranked 4A team, Cartersville, 38-35 the week before.

New Dalton coach Chris Prewett inherited a team that just finished 0-10, and the Catamounts’ 0-4 record is proof of what he knew already. The fix won’t be immediate. But the offense looks like a winner, in large part because of quarterback Caine Woods. A sophomore who also started as a freshman, Woods has thrown for 1,219 yards, the most in the state by a wide margin.

Sprayberry travels to Sequoyah on Friday for a matchup of top-10 teams in Class 5A that will establish the favorite to win the Region 6. Sprayberry won last year and took the region title, although both teams made it to the state quarterfinals. No. 2 Buford hosts No. 4 Douglas County in a high-profile Class 6A non-region game, and Calhoun goes to Jefferson for a game featuring two state finalists from 2024.

Below are Georgia’s 459 11-man football teams by county and ranked by the computer Maxwell Ratings. The teams include those from the Georgia High School Association, the Georgia Independent Athletic Association and the Georgia Association of Private and Parochial Schools. The list provides a different way of looking at the state’s teams, grouping them as county rivals, and offers some insight into the strength of certain counties relative to others.

Rabun County's Reid Giles and Buford's Tyriq Green made a big impact all over the field in their teams' Week 4 victories, while quarterbacks Turner Stevenson of Aquinas and Traviion Miller of Clinch County and wide receiver Brady Marchese of Cartersville put up big numbers to help their teams remain undefeated.

Two No. 1 teams lost last week. One kept its spot; the other did not. Worth County is the new No. 1 in Class A Division I, replacing defending champion Toombs County, which lost 49-28 to Rome, the 10th-ranked Class 5A team. Toombs beat Rome last season. Maintaining its No. 1 ranking was Calhoun in Class 3A. Calhoun lost to Class 4A’s No. 4 team, Cartersville, 38-35 on a field goal with 12 seconds left. Calhoun won 3A last season.

North Cobb Christian’s Cooper Bazarsky and Newnan’s Brodie Campbell and John Matthews are the GHSA’s leading rusher, passer and receiver after three weeks of the regular season. All three play for 3-0 teams. Bazarsky has rushed for at least 150 yards in each of his games for a total of 662. Newnan's quarterback-wide receiver pair got most of their yards in a single game, a 60-56 victory over East Coweta on Aug. 22, when Campbell passed for 516 yards and Matthews had 257 receiving yards.

Region play heats up in Week 4 as Stockbridge and Eagle's Landing of 2-4A, Whitewater and Troup of 2-3A and Ringgold and Rockmart of 7-2A meet to determine the early pecking order in their playoff races. Elsewhere, south Georgia rivals Thomas County Central and Thomasville will face off for the 58th time.

More than 135 former Georgia high school players are on active rosters ahead of Thursday night’s NFL opener between the Cowboys and Eagles, according to GHSF Daily research. There are dozens more on injured reserve or practice squads. Hillgrove and North Gwinnett have the most active NFL players with six each. Three of North Gwinnett’s six are rookies Barrett Carter, Jordan Hancock and Jared Ivey. Hillgrove’s six include former first-round draft picks Myles Murphy and Bradley Chubb.

Wide receivers Josh Stanley of Bleckley County, Ty Kemp of North Hall and Kyle Cummings of Northwest Whitfield combined for more than 400 receiving yards and accounted for 11 touchdowns in their teams' victories in Week 3 of the high school football season. Parkview's Zandon Mullins rushed for 326 yards, and Mill Creek's Jayde Beasley ran for 269.

The football rankings remained largely the same after almost no upsets involving top-10 teams in the third weekend of the season. Thirteen top-10 teams were beaten, but only one lost to a lower-ranked, instate opponent from the same class. That was former No. 5 Colquitt County in Class 6A. North Gwinnett, playing at home, beat the Packers 21-7 and moved up one spot to No. 7 while Colquitt fell to No. 10.

It’s early to be talking playoffs with only 12 of 1,281 region games complete, but Loren Maxwell of the Maxwell Ratings churns out playoff projections each week on AJC Varsity, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s new high school sports product. The GHSA changes the region playoff pairings each year, so each new season brings a different landscape to the brackets.

Two of Georgia's defending state champions will be tested by top out-of-state competition Friday night when Thompson of Alabama visits Grayson and McCallie of Tennessee hosts Hebron Christian in top Week 3 action. Cherokee Bluff and North Hall will battle for supremacy in Hall County, and Colquitt County travels to North Gwinnett to renew a North-South rivalry.