GHSF Daily prides itself in its statewide coverage of Georgia high school football, but nobody knows local schools better than hometown newspapers and radio stations. GHSF Daily reached out to members of the Georgia media this week to get their observations about the new season.

Douglass and Kell opened the 2024 football season with victories Wednesday in the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic at Kell High. Douglass, ranked No. 8 in Class 3A, beat Class 3A’s No. 3 team, LaGrange, 18-3. Kell beat North Atlanta 29-15 in the nightcap.

The Georgia high school football season begins today with Douglass vs. LaGrange and Kell vs. North Atlanta in the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic. Those are the first two of 190 games in the season’s opening week. From a preseason vantage, here are the five most intriguing storylines to the 2024 season.

Rome’s football team pulled out of this week’s opening game with Creekside because of Thursday night’s bus crash that sent 15 players to the emergency room, Rome coach John Reid announced Monday morning. Rome, ranked No. 7 in Class 5A, was to play Creekside at home Friday night.

Reigning state champions Milton, Pierce County, Prince Avenue Christian and Bowdon are ranked No. 1 to start a football season that should be more unpredictable because of reclassification. Also No. 1 are Buford, Benedictine, Jefferson and Toombs County.

With four players from Gwinnett County and nine from metro Atlanta, this year’s AJC Super 11 team is closer to “big city’' than “small town.” It’s cyclical in Georgia. In 2021, three Super 11 players were from South Georgia, three from Northeast Georgia and none within 30 miles of downtown Atlanta.

Rome’s football team has no plans to alter its season opener Aug. 16 against Creekside despite a traumatic rollover bus crash Thursday evening that sent up to 15 students and adults to the hospital. “The team is doing fine,” Rome coach John Reid said Friday morning.

Pierce County’s Caden MaGatha and Rockmart’s Tristan Anderson vie for the honor of best player on GHSF Daily’s Class 2A preseason all-state team, while Anderson and Prince Avenue Christian’s Hudson Hill beat out four other returning all-state players for the two spots at wide receiver.