The first of five rounds of the playoffs begin this week with 127 games, five of them matching top-10 teams. More than 60% of the GHSA’s 412 football-playing schools are alive, so the first round provides safe passage for most elite teams. Here’s a closer look at the playoffs, which will be played this weekend in 73 of Georgia’s 159 counties and cover every region of the state.

Swainsboro’s Demello Jones and Brunswick’s Terry Mitchell turn in big nights in their teams’ region-clinching victories, and John Milledge Academy’s Briggs Eady did it all on both sides of the ball as the Trojans tied Buford’s state record for consecutive wins with 47.

Buford, Hughes, Cedar Grove and Prince Avenue Christian have maintained their top rankings since preseason, and Ware County, Cedartown, Fitzgerald and Bowdon will join them as No. 1 teams entering the playoffs this week. It’s about to get dangerous, though. In 2021, only three No. 1 teams from the end of the regular season went on to win state championships, and that’s typical attrition across five playoff rounds.

Keyjuan Brown of South Atlanta and Keegan Stover and Jaden Gibson of Rabun County are the GHSA’s leaders in rushing, passing and receiving yards through week 11, but while they sit this week out, others are poised to make a move on the final week of the regular season.

Region champions, playoff berths and playoff seeding will be at stake in every classification this weekend in the final week of the regular season. In Class 3A, Cedar Grove and Carver of Atlanta will face off in a rematch of the 2021 state championship game.

Claxton this week is playing its final regular-season game at the Pecan Grove, a 76-year-old stadium that is one of Georgia’s most charming and unusual venues. The stadium was built on a pecan grove, and trees rise above the bleachers on both sides. Six pecan trees are growing up through the concrete stands on the home side. 

Decatur quarterback Harrison Hannah and Gainesville wide receiver put up big numbers in their teams’ region-clinching victories, and South Atlanta running back Keyjuan Brown rushed for 327 yards and three touchdowns in a 46-12 victory over Washington to put him at 2,139 yards for the regular season.

Top-10 football teams were 55-1 against unranked opponents last week, creating little movement in the rankings entering the final weekend of the regular season. The only top-10 upset, a minor one, took place Thursday, when Jenkins County defeated No. 9 Emanuel County Institute of Class A Division II. No. 7 Jones County in 5A and No. 8 Dougherty in 3A also dropped out after losing to other ranked teams.

Keegan Stover of Rabun County is the state’s new passing leader and closing in on 3,000 yards while Nick Woodford of Northeast in Macon is poised to become the GHSA’s first 2,000-yard rusher this season. Stover passed for 301 yards, his average output, in a 52-7 victory over Athens Christian last week and raised his season total to 2,701. Woodford is the state’s rushing leader with 1,865 yards.