Catching up with Bremen Head Coach Davis Russell
Sports, TeamFYNSports August 4, 2022
CARROLLTON GA- On Gradick Sports media day, I had the chance to sit down with Bremen Football Head Coach Davis Russell. Coach Russell gave us some insight on the Blue Devils as they prepare for the upcoming season.
When asked about changes to the offense and the offensive line:
“One of the reasons we went to this offense is we got tackles like Evan Brown who are 6’1” or 6’2” that are 200 pounds and start on our basketball team, so they can really run, gap-down-backer and run. Barrett Greenhaw and Doc Pearson who played fullback and tight-end last year, they’re playing tackle, and those guys can run.”
“We got a couple kids in Logan Mann and Watson Hembree, that didn’t play last year that are big guards. Big punching guards.”
“Another Lineman that is just phenomenal, he’s going to be our next D1 player, a division-1 offensive lineman in my opinion is Cole Norred. He’s just a sophomore. David Norred, who was head coach at Villa-Rica a couple years ago, it’s his son. Cole is 6’3” or 6’4” and 265 lbs. and he’s just a sophomore. He’s going to be a phenomenal player.”
“We got a good group of offensive lineman and Sam Robison is leading the charge there. He’s my co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. He’s won a State Championship as OL coach with Calhoun and played in this offense, it’s a good group.”
Coach’s thoughts on the Bremen Defense:
“Doc Pearson and Barrett Greenhaw, both play edge for us, they’re great players. Parr Folsom plays mike-backer, he’s really good. “
“We got a team of corners; I’ve got about 6 corners. They play hard and their good kids to. Cayden Sweatt is really good on defense to, we’re going to play him in spots because he will be running the ball a bunch, but he’s a really good defensive player. Cam O’Neal is a D-lineman that’s another great player. I could name a bunch of them”
“Nobody stands out as far as there’s just one guy better than the other. Just a bunch of blue-collar kids that work their butt off. That’s what we prided ourselves on.”
When asked about last season’s 5-6 finish:
“We hit the reset button in February, people think when you have a bad football season that you need to do more football, we did less. We started focusing on being great teammates, being great people, being great leaders, being great workers, and being un-common. That’s our thing this year, we’re going to be uncommon. We’re going to be real with one another, and this is the most fun summer I’ve ever been a part of.
This team is an ultimate team, and that’s been our focus. That’s what we always wanted at Bremen, Tough hard-nosed kids that get after it and don’t want to let their teammates down. We got away from it at spots and we aren’t going to let that happen again.”
On Cayden Sweatts move to fullback:
We were doing this thing called Devil Games, and at the end of one of the mornings we were running pro shuttles and he just started whipping everybody. He was out running our skill guys.”
I called our Offensive Coordinator Coach Tim Hanegan and our Co-OC Sam Robison and I said one of y’all is going to love me for this and one of y’all is going to hate me, but I think Sweatt needs to play fullback.”
“Our quarterback is going to be a great player, he’s 15 years-old—he’s a lefty that throws a baseball 88 mph. He’s a really good player named Aiden Price. He’s going to be outstanding, in 3-years he’s going to be the talk of this whole place, but we got a bunch of small guys to. Our running backs are great players, Parr Folsom is an outstanding player. Trent McPherson, outstanding player, outstanding. Cleaned 290, he was our Iron Devil, he’s just a sophomore, he’s a stud.
Our problem was we didn’t have that big fullback that dotted that flexbone, so what we did was we just put Cayden there. Coach Hanegan and Coach Robison said I think we just got a lot better, and you know Cayden’s happy, he ain’t quit smiling yet.”
Bremen will have a scrimmage at Rockmart August 5th and will open Regular season play on the road against Heard County August 19th.
The Shockwave of a potential 11-team region is far Reaching
North Murray Football, Team FYN Sports November 26, 2021
The GHSA has recently approved adding Gilmer and Pickens to the already crowded 6-AAA region. If the decision is finalized, the new region will have a total of 11 teams.
The proposed new region schools would be North Murray, Murray County, Gilmer, Pickens, Adairsville, Bremen, Coahulla Creek, Ringgold, LaFayette, LFO, & Ridgeland.
The move could force Region 6-AAA schools to play an all region Schedule, with no out of region games. The games that would be cancelled are some of the areas top rivalries.
Bartow County rivals Adairsville and Cass first met in 1956. This in-county rivalry would now be cancelled for the foreseeable future due to Adairsville having a Region only schedule.
Due to Covid, this years Heritage vs Ringgold game was cancelled. The matchup has taken place every year since Heritage High School has opened. The biggest game in Catoosa County could also be cancelled for the foreseeable future.
North Murray and Dalton have had to scrap their plans for their first ever matchup in week two of next season. A highly anticipated matchup that many projected as a new rivalry in the NW Georgia area.
Whitfield County Schools Coahulla Creek, Southeast Whitfield, and Northwest Whitfield have played against each other for the last several years. The games were relatively close to Home for Coahulla Creek, all within 16-miles of each other. Region 6-AAA school Coahulla Creek, will now replace these games with Bremen and Pickens.
Southeast Whitfield, which is a member of Region 7-AAAA, would be hit especially hard. Southeast has played at least three of the proposed Region 6-AAA schools over the past two seasons. In the seasons prior to 2020, Southeast played as many as six of the schools that will now be in the new 6-AAA. Those games will need to filled on their schedule, but will have to be filled with teams outside of the local area.
Then there comes the playoff spots. Each Region is awarded four playoff spots. If the current realignment plan is approved, Region 6-AAA would have the lowest percentage of teams eligible to make the playoffs in AAA. Regions 1 & 3, which are 5-team Regions would see 80% of their schools make the playoffs. Region 6-AAA would only see 36% of their teams qualify for the playoffs.