First place will be on the line in Week 9 when undefeated teams in region play match up in Friday night in eight regions across the state. Among those are four games featuring two top-10 teams - 1-2A (Carver-Columbus at Sumter County); 2-A Division II (Clinch County at Brooks County); 7-5A (Gainesville at Milton); and 6-3A (North Hall at Greater Atlanta Christian).

Five football teams from Class 6A’s Region 1 would’ve earned top-12 seeds and played at home in the first round last season under the GHSA’s new playoff model approved Monday. Playing at home – all against metro Atlanta opponents – would’ve been Camden County, Colquitt County, Lowndes, Richmond Hill and Valdosta. In 2024, only Colquitt and Lowndes played at home, and Richmond Hill missed the playoffs despite a 7-3 record.

Quarterbacks Hudson Hulett of North Murray, Cayden Benson of Creekside and Justin Murphy of North Clayton and linebackers McKenzie Graham of Colquitt County and Jaylon Deal of Richmond Hill put up big numbers in their teams' important region victories in Week 8 of the regular season.

Kell, Thomson and Bleckley County entered the football rankings this week after victories over top-10 teams in a weekend of limited upsets. Kell of Class 4A beat No. 8 Blessed Trinity 3-0 and moved into the top 10 at No. 9. Also in 4A, No. 10 Cass (6-2) fell out of the rankings after losing to No. 3 Cartersville 56-28. In Class 2A, Thomson beat previous No. 7 Burke County 24-14. Thomson (4-3) is now No. 10.

Rockmart’s Gavin Green became the state’s leading receiver this week while Whitefield Academy’s Mason Hollingsworth and Dalton’s Caine Woods maintained their leads in rushing and passing, respectively. Green, a sophomore, had only three receptions in a 50-28 victory over Sonoraville last week, but those three went for three touchdowns and 148 yards. Green is averaging 25.7 yards per reception for a total of 746 yards.

Although it's still relatively early in the region portion of the 2025 season, front-runner status will be at stake in several regions across the state in Week 8. Among those are 4-2A (Burke County at Thomson), 7-4A (Cartersville at Cass), 7-6A (North Gwinnett at Peachtree Ridge) and 1-A Division I (Thomasville at Worth County).

The Georgia High School Association uses an in-house ratings model that it calls the Post Season Rankings to help select and seed playoff teams in classes 3A, 2A, A Division I and 3A-A Private. Below are those rankings through seven weeks for the classes that use them. The top four finishers in each region are guaranteed playoff berths, but lower-finishing teams are eligible for at-large playoff berths.

Ty Cummings' record-setting rushing night stole the headlines in Week 7, but there were other outstanding all-around efforts around the state. Among the best were Athens Academy's Keyon Standifer and Baldwin's Kam Patterson, who were each responsible for five touchdowns, along with North Clayton's Justin Murphy (113 yards passing, 237 yards rushing) and Thomas County Central's Deuce Lawrence (210 yards rushing, 54 yards receiving).

Lowndes and Valdosta — county rivals that are 6-0 simultaneously for the first time since 1996 — jumped inside the top five of the Class 6A rankings after beating top-10 opponents in region play last week. Lowndes moved up one place to No. 4 after beating No. 9 Colquitt County 31-14 in a Region 1-6A game. Hillgrove is new to the Class 6A ratings after a 5-0 start, replacing Camden County.

Whitefield Academy’s Mason Hollingsworth and Aquinas’ Jack Rhodes are the new leaders in rushing yards and receiving yards, respectively, through six weeks of the regular season. Hollingsworth rushed for a Cobb County record 426 yards last week in a victory over St. Anne-Pacelli. That gave him 1,247 yards rushing in five games. Winder-Barrow’s M.J. Dowdy also broke 1,000 yards last week.

South Georgia matchups headline the schedule for Week 7 of the regular season. Four top-10 teams from Region 1-6A will go to head-to-head when Colquitt County travels to Lowndes and Valdosta visits Camden County. Lee County will face Thomas County Central in a matchup of top-10 teams in Region 2-5A, and Benedictine will visit Ware County for front-runner status in Region 1-4A.

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.