The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets are starting their 2024 post-season playoff run on Friday, November 15, as they travel to Ringgold, GA to take on the Heritage Generals. The last time the Yellow Jackets got to the playoffs was in 2021 when they defeated Long County in round one 42-16, then in round two fell to Cedar Grove 48-10, who went on to win the state championship that year.
The Yellow Jackets finished this season (8-2,7-2) overall and in region play. They finished third overall. Their only two losses on the season came from Calvary Day and Jenkins, who both ended up the one and two seed going into the AAA State Playoffs.
Grice Connect got a chance to talk to head coach Jared Zito about his lessons learned, and expectations going into this first-round matchup. Jared Zito began his stint as head coach with 2021 being his first season. Since then he has been to the playoff three times and made it to the second round once.
“From our two losses we learned, number one, we have to be ready to play top competition, and two, trust our coaching, trust our practice, play loose,” Zito said.
Zito felt like in his team’s two losses during the season, his team played tight and afraid to make mistakes. Zito and his coaching staff have been preparing their team for this moment all week, and hopes that his team has their game faces on.
“We talk each week about how it’s never about the opponent, it’s always about us,” Zito said. “We’re trying to get better each week at what we’re doing.”
The past two seasons were tough for the Yellow Jackets. They lost a really good senior class after that 2021 season, and then moved up to AAAA where they had to face some really tough teams like New Hampstead, Benedictine, Wayne County, and Burke County.
[In those two seasons,] “we had a lot of inexperience,” said Zito. “The good news is that last year I thought we competed at a much higher level. We came up short in one game of the playoffs, but a lot of these kids were on the sideline four years ago when we went to the second round.”
For Zito, a lot of his current seniors were eighth graders when he first got to SEB, so that means that through the past two seasons, a lot of his seniors have been battle-tested through some really good teams.
“Sometimes it wasn’t always fun then, but we’re getting the fruit of our labor at this point now,” Zito mentioned.
The fruits of that labor start with junior running back Colby Smith who leads the team in almost every category offensively. He has rushed for 1,165 yards with and 17 touchdowns for a total of 102 points, and also has 285 yards receiving with three scores. On the other side of the football, senior linebacker, Kyle Obrien who leads the team in tackles with a total of 94 and senior defensive end, Michael Dixon who leads the team in sacks.
“Offensively we are going to trust ourselves and be confident,” Zito stated in an interview. “Defensively, we have to be fundamental.”
The Heritage Generals are a run-first heavy team, but they do have a big play maker in junior wide receiver, Cody Bryan. Bryan was also region player of the year for Heritage’s region.
This means that the Yellow Jackets have to do a better job of tackling, and according to coach Zito, that was something he felt like they didn’t do well in their two regular season losses. On the offensive side of the ball, the Yellow Jackets have a somewhat “unorthodox” offense.
“Our offensive menu has a flexibility that we can take what a team is giving us, whether it’s a run game, the throw game, or the power game, or the option game,” Zito stated.
If there was one word to describe the Yellow Jackets this season, it would be adaptable. Being able to adapt and make adjustments is what keeps their offense so unorthodox and makes it harder for teams to prepare game plans against them on film.
“Our coaching staff has done a great job with knowing our offense and understanding it so we can make quick adjustments, but our kids have also never panicked,” said Zito.
His staff and himself have a running joke in pregame meetings on Fridays about how it honestly doesn’t matter what they are planning because their opponent could come out with anything and the Yellow jackets are just going to adjust to it because they’ve seen it all.
Southeast Bulloch will take on Heritage in Ringgold, GA, Friday, November 15, 2024. Kickoff is at 7:30 PM. If you can't make the game, you can click here for live score updates by the Grice Connect sports team during the game. You can also listen to the game live on The Boro’s 106.5 FM or CLICK HERE to listen live.
The SEB Football Booster Club would like to thank all who donated to the travel expense fund. The team raised all the money that was needed to pay for the buses!
