The only coach Grayson High School has ever known, Mickey Conn, has left for Clemson, but the Rams shouldn’t miss a beat in 2016 with Jeff Herron, who knows a thing-or-two about running a top-notch football program, taking-over the reigns of the Loganville, Georgia program. Herron has four Georgia state championships on his resume during his time as the head coach at Camden County and Oconee County. In 26 years as a head coach, Herron owns a record of 273-51.
Conn didn’t leave the cupboard bare when he left for the college ranks. Herron inherits a team that has several key returning players from last year’s squad that finished 13-1 and advanced to the Class AAAAAA semifinals, where the Rams lost to nationally-ranked Roswell 30-26 with :10 seconds to go in the game. At the time of the defeat, Grayson was ranked #33 in the High School Football America Top 50.
Heading the offense will be four-star quarterback prospect Chase Brice, who has committed to Conn’s new team, the Clemson Tigers. Last season, Brice, who will participate in the Elite 11 Finals in Los Angeles next month, threw for over 2,700 yards with 29 touchdowns and only nine interceptions. Brice has started since he was a freshman.
If Brice and several starters returning isn’t enough, Grayson has picked-up four players ranked in the ESPN 300 — offensive lineman Tony Gray who moved in from Central Gwinnett, athlete Jamyest Williams from Archer and receiver/cornerback Deangelo Gibbs and linebacker Breon Dixon, both from Peachtree Ridge. Gibbs is #11 in the USA TODAY High School Sports’ Class of 2017 composite rankings. Williams is the 49th best prospect in the composite rankings, while Gray is rated as the 107th best overall prospect.
How good will the Rams be in 2016? We’ll find-out pretty quickly on August 26th, when IMG Academy, which will be nationally-ranked in our preseason national Top 25 comes to Logansville. That will be the first of four out-of-state games for the Rams, including a late October match-up against 11-time Alabama state champ Hoover.
2016 Grayson Rams Schedule
8/26 – IMG Academy (Florida)
9/2 – at McEachern
9/16 – Deerfield Beach (Florida)
9/23 – Ramsey (Alabama)
9/30 – at Rockdale County
10/7 – vs. Shiloh
10/14 – vs. Archer
10/21 – vs. Newton
10/28 – at Hoover (Alabama)
11/4 – South Gwinnett
2016 also marks the start of Georgia having a Class AAAAAAA, which includes the top 48 programs in the state. Grayson is in Region 8, which includes Archer, Newton, Rockdale County, Shiloh and South Gwinnett.
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Editor’s Note: High School Football America will release its Preseason National Top 25 on August 1st and “The Other 25” on August 2nd. Leading-up to the unveiling of the polls, we will be previewing teams that will find themselves ranked somewhere in our Top 50.
