Jasper County (2-1) visits Putnam County (0-2) this Friday in Eatonton for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff.
• Series History: Putnam County leads, 36-27-1
• Last Meeting: Putnam County defeated Jasper County 42-13 in 2022. Putnam County is off to its worst start in four years. In 2019, the War Eagles also began the year 0-2. However, Putnam hopes to rebound after a disappointing 51-14 loss to Oconee County with a win over Jasper County on Friday. The Hurricanes are coming off their first loss to Morgan County.
War Eagles’ head coach Joel Harvin has a lot of respect for Jasper County head coach Ashley Henderson.
The two faced off against each other at their previous jobs down in South Georgia when Harvin was at Early County, so the pair is very familiar with each other.
“Coach Henderson, he was at Thomas County Central, and I’ve coached against him for a couple of years while he was there. Very familiar with him,” Harvin said. “He’s a great guy and is doing a great job over as Jasper. He’s got a lot of kids out playing. He has them definitely going in the right direction.”
Putnam and Jasper’s offenses are very similar, with each team’s roots going back to a run-first offense. The Hurricanes run an almost identical wing-T approach on offense that the War Eagles use.
Jasper is led by quarterback Austin Young, with running backs Jalen Stewart and Chevy Sands in the mix. Young has totaled 258 passing yards as most are passes in the backfield to Stewart and Sands.
However, senior wide receiver Kaidon Whidby is a threat deep. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound wideout has hauled in seven catches for 117 yards and three touchdowns through three games in 2023.
Still, the bread-and-butter of Jasper’s offense starts with Young, who runs a lot of read-option plays. If he doesn’t have a lane to run, Young dumps the ball off to either Stewart or Sands in space.
On the other hand, Putnam favors its run game over passing, but it has struggled the past two weeks. As a team, the War Eagles’ offense is only averaging 3.9 yards per play rush through two games.
Putnam’s featured running back, Rashod Daniel, leads the team with 102 yards on 21 attempts but has yet to reach the end zone. He also was limited to just 21 yards in last Friday’s loss on the road.
The War Eagles are starting to place more on sophomore Bryson Foster’s plate. He is poised to have a breakout night against Jasper County and is the team’s second-leading rusher with 83 total yards.
Putnam’s defense is giving up more than 40-plus points per game, so it needs to have a solid showing against the Hurricanes, whose offense averaged 31 points per contest through its first two games.
Overall, Putnam County’s start to 2023 has been disappointing, but the War Eagles have played two playoff-caliber teams in Baldwin and Oconee County. They’re young and improving every week.
Harvin is hoping his players can play a mistake-free game following sloppy outings the past two weeks.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us. We need to get ourselves together and rally the troops,” Harvin said. “We need to get to where we can make it a tough game for [Jasper County] on Friday.”