No. 9 Putnam County will have its toughest test of the season to date on Friday against No. 6 Thomson. The War Eagles (6-1) and Bulldogs (6-1) are currently tied for first place in Region 4-AA standings.
Regardless, Putnam County head coach Shaun Pope said he doesn’t currently care about the standings. In fact, he wants his team’s focus to be on getting better, which is what they did last week.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Pope responded when asked if the War Eagles spent the last week getting back to the basics and focusing on improving themselves. “We approach it that way every day. It’s (about) trying to make Putnam better.”
Putnam County’s second bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. The War Eagles are coming off a tumultuous seven-week stretch which included four-straight region games.
They have cruised through their league schedule, defeating Butler, Josey, Westside and Glenn Hills with ease. However, their final three games of the season will be tougher.
After Putnam plays at Thomson this week, they face Laney at home the following Friday (Oct. 28), before closing out the regular season at Washington County (Nov. 4).
Pope said the bye week also gave his squad a chance to rest up.
“The bye week came at a great time,” Pope said. “We were able to get some guys rested and healed up a little bit.”
A lot rests on the matchup with Thomson as the winner may well be crowned region champion a couple of weeks later.
The Bulldogs of Thomson defeated Laney 16-14 this past Friday. That loss for the Wildcats knocked them to 3-1 in Region 4-AA play and into second place in the standings.
But according to Pope, anything can happen at this point in the season, especially because mathematically all three teams—Putnam, Thomson and Laney—could be the No. 1-seed out of Region 4-AA entering the GHSA Class AA state playoffs in November.
“I’ll be honest, when you watch Laney on film, Laney is really good, and Thomson is as well. I’d like to think we’re pretty good as well,” Pope said. “It’s going to come down to these last three games for us, and we’ve got to take it one game at a time.”
Thomson is an all-around solid team and can create some problems for the War Eagles. The Bulldogs have a high-scoring offense and a defense that’s as stout as Putnam County. It will truly be a tough road test for Pope’s squad against Thomson.
The Bulldogs run a two-quarterback system with juniors Jahkiaus Jones and Noah Story. They recently settled with Jones as the No. 1 option at quarterback because he’s a dual threat. He’s thrown for 393 yards and five TDs and has rushed more than 300 yards.
“They do use two quarterbacks. Now, they’ve recently been playing No. 5 (Jones), which is probably the better athlete,” Pope said. “He throws it decent and is pretty good. The other kid (Story) is not quite as mobile and athletic but throws a good ball. Recently, the last few tapes we’ve got on them, they’re running the ball a lot more, doing some stuff with that athletic quarterback because he’s a really good runner as well.”
Thomson also has a stable full of running backs that are just as talented, with Jontavious Curry, Tre’Tre Jeffery and Jordan Lane making up the Bulldog backfield. Curry and Jeffery carry the load, combining for over 1,000 yards and 20-plus TDs so far this season.
The Bulldogs are averaging 42.9 points per game so far in 2022 through seven games. They will face a War Eagles’ defensive unit that is No. 1 in scoring defense in Class AA. They’re allowing an average of 7.6 points per contest through seven games.
“It’s going to be a really good matchup,” Pope said. “The thing is, with everybody we play, we’re undersized. Everybody we play with is bigger than we are. They’re bigger than we are, but they’re very athletic as well.”
Thomson’s defense is pretty stout, too. The Bulldogs are giving up 11 points per game. On the other hand, Putnam County’s offense is averaging 32.1 points per contest.
The War Eagles’ rushing attack is the offense’s bread-and-butter. They hope to stick to it against a Thomson defensive front that showed some weaknesses against Laney.
The pair of Tamarion Peters and Rashod Daniel has been effective so far this season. They’ve combined for over 1,000 rushing yards and 17 TDs through their first seven games.
“We are who we are, and Thomson is really good, but I think that Putnam is pretty good, too,” Pope said. “Just continue to do what we’ve been doing. We don’t need to try and get outside of ourselves. That’s when I say we start out-coaching ourselves and out-thinking ourselves or getting our kids uncomfortable with what we’re trying to do. So, we need to continue to do what we’ve been doing, because we’ve been pretty good at it. I don’t think you can get outside of yourself because you are who you are.”