Trojans to battle Bulloch at home

Published 10:24 am Wednesday, September 11, 2024

The relatively short football history between John Milledge Academy and this week’s opponent Bulloch Academy has been one-sided.

In six meetings, all since 2015, the Trojans have trapped the Gators of Statesboro. The two schools are set to meet for a seventh time Friday as 1-3 John Milledge gets ready to host a 4-0 Bulloch team looking to notch its first win in the series.

The Trojans are coming off a 47-14 shellacking at the hands of Athens Academy, who was already up 47-0 at the half last Friday. What the scoreboard doesn’t tell you is JMA was without All-State quarterback Kolt McMichael and two of his best offensive weapons in Jamel Cooper and Bryce McDonel. John Milledge head coach JT Wall was asked Tuesday where his team stands on the injury front heading into week five.

“I don’t know that much has changed,” he said. “We’re still beat up and a few weeks away from getting some of these guys back.”

Asked if this is some of the worst injury luck he’s seen in the program over his 14 years as head coach, Wall responded, “Mixed with the depth, yes. It just shows you how fortunate we were all those years when depth was always an issue and we somehow dodged the major multiple injury bug. Everybody deals with it. We’re just having to deal with it right now.”

The injuries coupled with having to play more freshmen and sophomores than ever have the Trojans in a rebuilding year the likes of which haven’t been seen over the last decade. A tough early slate of games hasn’t made things any easier. The three L’s in John Milledge’s record are all to teams that are undefeated heading into the midpoint of the regular season. Opening opponent Bethlehem Christian is the No. 1 team in the GIAA Class 4A rankings. Tiftarea Academy, the Trojans’ Aug. 30 loss, is No. 2 in JMA’s Class AAA behind defending state champ Valwood.

This week’s opponent Bulloch enters as No. 2 in 4A behind Bethlehem. The Gators have garnered their 4-0 mark with wins over Portal, Claxton, Augusta Christian, and Robert Toombs Christian. Augusta Christian is a common opponent with the Trojans. Bulloch won their bout 28-0 while JMA defeated AC 39-19 on a Thursday in week two.

The Gators feature a run-heavy offense that operates out of the wing T.

“They’re big up front on both sides of the ball and have a lot of depth there. They’re nasty,” Wall said, giving the big guys one of the best compliments a football coach can give. “They’ll line up and try to run it right down your throat. They do enough option to keep you honest. They’re sound everywhere. They’ll show you multiple formations early to find the best one where they have the advantage.”

With much not changing on the injury front as Wall said, the veteran head coach and his staff are using what they learned last week to try and make improvements ahead of Friday.

“You try to coach the guys up and fix the things that you can,” said Wall. “Some of the stuff is fixable, some isn’t. At the same time, we as coaches have got to do a better job of putting our guys in better positions to be successful.”