Putnam County heads into the upcoming season with a chip on its shoulder, especially after losing to Fitzgerald for a second straight year in the playoffs and finishing behind Thomson in Region 4-AA.
Those two teams, the Purple Hurricanes and the Bulldogs, went on to play in the Class AA state title game.
Thomson rallied late to defeat Fitzgerald 32-27 to capture the Class AA state championship, although the Purple Hurricanes won the state title two years ago against Thomasville in 2021.
So, it’s safe to say the War Eagles are hungry to get after it under new head coach Joel Harvin in 2023.
Heading into this season, Putnam County is a younger team, and it lost a bunch of key players and production from last year. However, those younger War Eagles are ready to step up and fill those roles.
Players such as seniors Zacoree Wallace and Sharod White and junior Rashod Daniel are now all veterans. So, all three will need to learn to be leaders in the locker room and on the field this year.
Daniel, a running back and inside linebacker, feels like the War Eagles are being disrespected this year. He believes that he and his teammates can “shock” every opponent on the schedule in 2023.
“We want to shock a bunch of people, [especially] because they’re doubting us this year,” Wallace said. “I feel like we’re going to sneak up on a lot of teams this year. We have talent. It will show.”
Putnam County went 9-3 overall last season, with two of its losses coming to Fitzgerald and Thomson. The other War Eagles’ loss came against non-region opponent Oconee County early in the year.
Putnam County’s schedule is the exact same as last year, possibly setting it up for success. The War Eagles’ key games are against Baldwin (Aug. 25), Oconee County (Sept. 1) and Thomson (Oct 20.)
Daniel compared this year’s Putnam County team to the NFL’s Detroit Lions squads in the 1980s.
He highlighted that no matter what the result of the game is, Daniel expects opponents not to want to play the War Eagles again because of how physical they’re going to be on each side of the ball.
“This team this year is way more physical,” Daniel said. “We love to get in folks’ faces, so it’s better for us overall. We’re going to be like [the Detriot] Lions in the ‘80s, we’re going to beat you up.”
Harvin agrees with Daniel’s sentiment. He said both lines of scrimmage need to have a more physical presence, especially on the offensive side of the ball because of the War Eagles’ new offense.
Harvin brings with him to Putnam County an offensive system that primarily features the run game, so he challenges his players to be more aggressive, which starts up front in the trenches on offense.
“To be a good football team and to make the run deep into the playoffs, you have to be able to run the ball,” Harvin said. “You look at last year’s state championship game between Thomson and Fitzgerald, they are both run-heavy teams. Both of them are really good at what they do. In my 15 years of experience from running a spread offense to the Wing-T, the single-wing is the most important. If you can run the football and stop the run, you’re more than likely going to be successful.”
The first-year Putnam County coach said he wants his players to develop a hungry and physical mindset.
“We’re going to develop that physicality mindset,” Harvin said. “We want to impose our will on other teams when we play them. We want to try and be as physical as possible on the offensive and defensive lines. We want to play with good technique, too. That’s kind of going to be our mindset.”
Even though those painful losses might have plagued the Putnam County teams of the past, they don’t affect this year’s squad. Harvin has built a culture of toughness, whether it’s physical or mental.
His players don’t think about the past, but more about the present. The current War Eagles are taking also things day by day, and are being motivated by growing as a team while striving to be better.
Wallace, a fullback and defensive tackle, sees a lot of “potential” in this year’s Putnam County team. Regardless, he believes that they need to come together a little more before the start of the season.
“There’s a lot of potential, really,” Wallace said of his team. “The freshmen have shown a lot of it, but we need to come together more. We’re a little separate right now. We [need to create] a bond.”
Daniel echoed Wallace’s sentiment about potential, adding that there are also several guys to watch out for such as White, Mark Watkins, Kaleb Crawford, Jay Nelson and Bill Waters, among others.
“Most definitely Bill [Waters], he’s coming,” Daniel said. “He’s coming. We’ve got a lot of guys.”
All the players that Daniel mentioned were brought up by Harvin. He acknowledged that each is important to the team. White, Watkins, Crawford, Waters and Nelson are primed to have breakout years.
“They’ve all had a good summer, but overall, we have a good summer,” Harvin said. “We do expect big things out of all of our guys. They’re communicating well and are starting to grasp the offense and defense well. They’re all learning and adjusting well to what we are trying to do here.” White, a wide receiver and cornerback, acknowledged that this War Eagles’ team is coming together nicely. He also said their hungriness and wanting to be more physical fuels them.
“We’re gonna’ be physical on offense and defense,” White said. “Being physical, hungry. That’s it.”