GAINESVILLE, Ga. — If there was any pressure on the 2025 Gainesville football team, it came last week.
It was hard not to remember the Red Elephants’ disappointing, unexpected, and stunningly quick first-round exit from the 2024 playoffs at the hands of a rising Sequoyah team. They could not afford another early upset, least of all at City Park Stadium this year.
After Big Red walloped Dunwoody 48-3 last week, you could almost feel the collective sigh of relief all around town.
So, what about this week? Are they feeling even more pressure as they gear up for a monster road trip to Brunswick to take on the Region 1-6A champion Pirates in the second round?
Not so much. At least not the way senior linebacker and Alabama commit Xavier Griffin explains it.
“Pressure? No, sir,” he said. “It’s not pressure because we expect to win. About last week, a lot of people might think it was big, but that’s what we expected in ourselves.
“Our expectation is to win state. We gotta go get another one this week. But that’s the expectation.”
The expectations are high. But to meet them, the Red Elephants (9-2) will certainly need to bring their A-game, especially the defense. The Pirates feature an offense that is in the top five in Class 5A in scoring.
Brunswick (9-2) has scored 525 points (47.73 points/game) and is averaging 551.8 yards/game (309.2 ypg rushing, 42 TDs; 242.6 ypg, 29 TDs passing). The Pirates have scored 41 or more in six of their last seven games.
Senior QB Grant Moore (137-of-201 2,639 yards, 29 TD, 5 INT passing; 48-332 yards, 4 TD rushing) is a dangerous dual-threat but the real driving force are junior running backs Josiah Gibbons (99-1,288 yards, 12 TD rushing; 22-358 yards, 3 TD receiving) and Nigel Gardner (101-1,205 yards, 17 TD), who have powered them to over 3,400 yards rushing on the season. Junior WR Waseem Murray (30-708 yards, 5 TD) and senior TE/WR Heze Kent (37-674 yards, 10 TD) give Moore a pair of big targets in the passing game.
Gainesville figures to be pushed to the limit, much like the Roswell game at the end of the regular season, which ended in a 37-35 Hornets victory.
“Brunswick does a phenomenal job with what they have and the great players that they have,” said Gainesville defensive coordinator Kasey Smith, who is charged with trying to find a way to do something no one has been able to this year. “They have elite speed on the perimeter and elite speed within the box. The No. 1 thing for us is to contain those two (running backs) to the best of our ability.
“We also have to do a great job this week of containing the quarterback and understanding his escape routes. (No. 6) is elusive with his feet. We’ve got to keep them off schedule for sure.”
Gainesville (9-2) can counter with a defense that features one of the best front-7s in the state, led by Griffin (73 tkl, 12 TFL, 5 sacks, 16 hurries). The defensive line has another Alabama commit in senior Jamarion Matthews (49, tkl, 18 TFL 8 sacks, 8 hurries), senior Duke commit Ayden Cain (37 tkl, 8 TFL, 3 sacks, 7 hurries), along with seniors Kadin Fossung (37 tkl, 13 TFL, 6 sacks, 9 hurries) and Marshall Leonard (35 tkl, 10 TFL, 5 sacks, 14 hurries). Junior LB Darryn Williams (71 tkl, 9 TFL, 7 hurries, 5 INT, 4 PD, 1 FF) has had a breakout season, and the backend is led by junior CB Zachary Ingram (1 INT, 13 PD) and senior CB Elijah Watson (1 INT, 8 PD).
“It’s going to be the ultimate test for (Ingram and Watson). For those corners, they have to have an elite level of confidence in what they’re doing and let their preparation be their separation,” Smith said.
But Smith and Griffin both agreed that, as much as they will have to try to contain the Pirates’ powerful attack, Brunswick will have to find a way to slow down the Red Elephants’ attacking defense.
They know it will be a hostile environment. They also know the squad thrives in those situations and gives offenses more than enough weapons to try and contain themselves.
“You can’t just pick one guy among us to stop. That’s what I like about our defense,” Griffin said. “It’s four people that can get to the quarterback on every play.”
“We love the hostile environments,” Smith said. “Our guys have that dog mentality when their backs are against the wall, they’re going to bite back by any means necessary. But I don’t think there’s one guy (on our defense) you can totally focus on.
“Everybody kind of feeds off of each other. It’s a big-time game, like (Gainesville) Coach (Josh Niblett) says, because we’re in it. When it comes to those things, we embrace it.”
And speaking of Niblett, he did not hesitate to chime in on what could eventually decide who moves on to the Elite 8.
“We have got to be able to run the football,” Niblett said. “We’ve got to win the line of scrimmage. We’ve got to protect (Kharim) when they bring pressure, and we’ve got to be able to get the ball out to those guys (in the passing game), and they’ve got to win their one-on-one matchups.”
But as much as Niblett likes to say they “call players, not plays,” he did say it may be a referendum on which program as a whole is best equipped for the moment.
“It’s our program versus theirs. And you know, our culture versus their culture,” he said. “At the end of the game, we’ll figure out who has the best one. Our kids are excited, and they understand what the task is in front of them. And you know, you get an opportunity to go play on Thanksgiving if you can win this one.”
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