South Gwinnett vs. Lanier. Grayson vs. North Gwinnett.
High school football is back, baby.
Keep tabs on ajc.com/varsity today for all the latest intel from the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Kickoff Classic (and watch on Atlanta News First).
In the meantime …
CAN ANYONE AROUND HERE CRACK THEIR LAX SACK ATTACK?
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
No, you’re right. That headline doesn’t quite make sense. But neither does the dearth of dudes putting quarterbacks on their keisters around here.
The Falcons … well, you know how that’s shaping up.
But there’s some hope the college kids — Yellow Jackets and Bulldogs alike — can turn things around in 2026.
Take Georgia Tech: The Jackets mustered just 26 sacks last season, bowl game included. That two-sacks-per-game average tied for 69th in the country.
Not ideal!
Brent Key & Co. hit the portal.
They brought in Taje McCoy from Oklahoma State and Noah Carter from Alabama (a former Top 100 recruit lost on the depth chart in Tuscaloosa) … but might the real prize be a gentleman named Jordan Walker?
The former walk-on was a team captain at Rutgers. And while he didn’t put up gaudy numbers (9½ tackles for loss, five sacks over his last two seasons), he has the physical gifts to do more.
Walker came in at No. 43 on Bruce Feldman’s annual (and deeply enjoyable) “Freaks List.” No other Tech men made the cut.
🗣️ “He’s now 6-4, 280,” Feldman wrote in the Athletic. “This offseason, he hit 20.58 mph on the GPS, back-squatted 675 pounds, bench-pressed 445, and power-cleaned 375.”
Yeesh.
🗣️ Kyle Pope, Tech’s defensive ends/outside linebackers coach, recently put it like this: “He flies around; he’s a big body that runs around, that plays fast and then plays physical. The motto’s ‘Fast and violent,’ and he epitomizes that in everything that he does each play.”
As for Georgia: The chart below puts the Bulldogs’ pass rush problems in pretty clear context.
Credit: Rahul Deshpande
Credit: Rahul Deshpande
With just 20 sacks last season (a paltry 1.43 per game), it ain’t pretty in Athens. And the coaching staff knows it.
They spent the offseason harping on it. They also brought in Larry Knight, an assistant with a strong pass rush resume.
🗣️ “I feel like they’re doing a good job changing stuff to make stuff more simpler on the defense to where people can just go out there and play fast,” linebacker Raylen Wilson said in the spring.
The Bulldogs are also hoping for a breakout season from linebacker Chris Cole.
Cole led last year’s Georgia squad with 4½ sacks but feels like he “left a lot on the table.” (As DawgNation’s Connor Riley points out, only 2½ of Cole’s sacks came against SEC opponents. One of them involved bringing down a wide receiver on a trick play.)
The former 5-star recruit played safety in high school and remains plenty versatile. Prioritizing the pass rush could certainly behoove the Bulldogs, though.
🗣️ “He never saves up. He’s the consummate ‘I’m gonna lay it all on the line the first 10 plays’ (player),” coach Kirby Smart said. “And if I fade out during practice and cramp up and have to get an IV, I do it.”
“He doesn’t save up anything.”
Rivalries aside: May Cole, Walker and their respective crews find and punish opposing quarterbacks with aplomb this fall.
Football’s a lot more fun that way.
TRIVIA TIME
Quick question: Who’s the last player to record double-digit sacks in a season for either Georgia or Georgia Tech?
Read carefully, then find the answer at the bottom of the newsletter.
WE FOUND ANDRUW JONES’ CHICKEN GUY
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Well … our columnist friend Ken Sugiura did.
After I wrote a chicken-based rant about Jones thanking “my clubhouse kids that always did the run to KFC for me” in his Hall of Fame induction speech, Ken picked up my slack and tracked both of them down.
Only one — Tony Farmer, now the Braves’ assistant manager of clubhouse operations — wanted to talk.
It’s really a lovely, heartfelt piece, with bonus input from ex-skipper Brian Snitker. You should read it.
🍗 For now, a few savory details:
As for the KFC errands, Farmer recalled getting to know Jones when he worked in the visiting clubhouse at Turner Field and made visits to the Braves clubhouse when opposing players tasked Farmer with getting autographs from stars such as Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.
That led to Farmer becoming a precursor to Uber Eats for the star center fielder.
“I don’t remember exactly how it started, but it just kind of started to become a thing,” Farmer said. “He wanted KFC and I think I was the only one that was available at the time to go get it.”
As he remembered, trips to the Colonel were made before every home game.
“I think, like, four-piece chicken,” said Farmer.
🍗 Rough numbers here. But if we’re doing a four-piece before every home game during Jones’ 11 full seasons in Atlanta … that’s, like, 3,500 pieces of KFC.
SOME OTHER GOOD STUFF TO KNOW
😮💨 Spencer Strider and Hurston Waldrep both started “throwing progressions” this week. That’s certainly a positive sign as they recover from their respective arm issues, but don’t confuse it with a suggestion they’ll be back this season. Wouldn’t count on Spencer Schwellenbach either.
- Meanwhile, at Triple-A: In two starts since his brief stint in the big leagues, AJ Smith-Shawver has allowed two runs and struck out 13 batters.
🤨 The Indiana Fever and their road show of never-ending pseudo-controversies don’t arrive in Atlanta until Sunday, but we’ve already uncovered the WNBA’s next big scandal: The Dream’s Angel Reese drinks Canada Dry ginger ale? On the sidelines? During games?
- Actual journalism: Dream have 12 games left to improve playoff position
🙄 Please join me in remaining skeptical, but the Alpharetta planning commission narrowly OK’d plans for a North Point Mall megadevelopment that could include a 20,000-seat arena aimed at hosting pro hockey. Full details in the docs, if you’re into that, but remember: There’s another pitch out of Forsyth County … and the NHL’s top priority seems to be expanding in either Houston or Austin, Texas.
TUA’S GIG TO LOSE?
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
The competition isn’t fair, exactly.
While Michael Penix Jr. remains relegated to 7-on-7s, Tua Tagovailoa is posting his best days of practice. He said he’s “feeling good” physically and “comfortable” with the Falcons’ offensive system.
He may suit up for Friday’s exhibition opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, too.
“I think the biggest thing is you can tell he’s a veteran,” quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said of Tagovailoa. “He can see the field really well. If the defense makes a mistake, he can see that and exploit it.”
Being healthy doesn’t hurt either. Columnist Michael Cunningham believes Tagovailoa could claim the starting gig pretty soon.
- “Penix has said that he could be medically cleared for contact two weeks from now,” Michael wrote. “That timeline would keep him out for the joint practices with the Colts and the second exhibition game on Aug. 22. The Falcons will play their final exhibition game on Aug. 28 at Miami. It’s possible that Tagovailoa will have the job locked up by then. Stefanski has taken measures to create fair competition for Penix, despite his physical limitations. But, at some point, Falcons coaches must decide on the starter and get him ready for the season opener Sept. 13 at Pittsburgh.”
Don’t count on a clean, one-and-done decision here … but all that makes sense to me.
Now, let’s get that blind side shored up, k?
📺 Kickoff arrives at 7 p.m. Friday. Watch on Fox 5.
TRIVIA TIME, CONTINUED
Remember the question?
OK, here’s the answer: Georgia Tech’s Jeremiah Attaochu, who finished with 12½ sacks in 2013, is the most recent from either school to break double digits.
Georgia’s Jarvis Jones posted a school-record 14½ sacks in 2012.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of the Win Column. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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