Macon Touchdown Club

Drew Cronic was named the 20th head football coach in Mercer University history when he joined the Bears in December 2019. Prior to joining Mercer, he spent the previous two seasons as the head coach at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina. Prior to that, he enriched the football programs at Furman University, Reinhardt University and James Madison University. He has been named AFCA Regional Coach of the Year for all four seasons and posted a 47-6 record in four years that he has been a head coach. He was twice named the Mid-South Conference West Division Coach of the Year and the AFCA NAIA Region I Coach of the Year. While a student at Georgia, he played wide receiver and was a member of the special teams. He lettered twice and participated in the 1995 Peach Bowl and the 1997 Outback Bowl. Cronic received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics education from UGA and his master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of West Georgia.

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OrthoGeorgia Lineman of the Week for October 22nd: Marquis Hughes, Senior Defensive End, Northeast High School. Marquis accounted for 8 tackles, 2 sacks and 4 tackles for loss in his team’s 21-7 win over Dodge County.

Marquis was recognized at the Macon Touchdown Club’s meeting on Monday, October 25th.

OrthoGeorgia Back of the Week: Clay Rowland, Senior Quarterback/Defensive Back, Tattnall Square Academy. At quarterback, Clay completed 11-19 passes for 190 yards and a Touchdown. He also completed a pass for the game winning 2 point conversion. On defense, Clay had 12 tackles and 3 assists in his teams 42-41 overtime win against Stratford Academy.

(Click on Link to go to the OrthoGeorgia website)

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OrthoGeorgia Co-Back of the Week: Jha’Rius Evans, Senior Quarterback/Defensive Back, Central High School. Jha’Rius went 9 of 16 passing for 137 yards and 1 Touchdown. He also had 9 rushing attempts for 75 yards and 2 Touchdowns. On defense, he accounted for 4 tackles and 1 pass breakup. He also had 3 punts averaging 38 yards per kick in his team’s 21-14 win over Sumter County.

OrthoGeorgia Co-Back of the Week for October: Blayze Dennis, Senior Quarterback, Windsor Academy. Blayze was 8 of 14 passing for 157 yards and 2 Touchdowns. He also rushed 29 times for 235 yards and 3 Touchdowns. Blayze also accounted for 5 rushing 2 point conversions on the night. In total, he combined for 392 all purpose yards in his team’s 58-33 win over defending State Champion Westwood.

OrthoGeorgia Lineman of the Week: Elijah Heald, Senior Offensive Lineman, Windsor Academy. Elijah graded out at 90% on the night, including 7 pancake blocks in his team’s 58-33 win over defending State Champion Westwood.

OrthoGeorgia Back of the Week for October 8th: John Alan Richter, Senior Quarterback, Jones County High School. John completed 29 of 37 passes for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also rushed 6 times for 37 yards and 1 Touchdown. He also caught the game tying 2 point conversion that send the game into overtime. The Greyhounds went on to score the winning touchdown in overtime for the win over Ola 48-42.

These players were recognized by the Macon Touchdown Club during our meeting on Monday, October 18th.

(Click on Link to go to the OrthoGeorgia website)

Another great night at the Macon Touchdown Club in the books. Our Featured Speaker tonight was Jared Benko, Athletic Director of Georgia Southern University, Jared shared with us the upcoming Infrastructure upgrades coming to Statesboro, and discussed the current Coaching search.

To join the Macon Touchdown Club, click on this link, and Click link in page for a Membership Application.
http://macontouchdownclub.com/join

Promoting High School football since 1946

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Beamer is a South Carolina native and USC’s 36th head football coach. He has been building programs all throughout his career, having been part of three coaching staffs where the head coach was in his first or second season at the school. He joined Lincoln Riley’s unit at Oklahoma in his second season, Kirby Smart’s program at Georgia in his first season and Sylvester Croom’s staff at Mississippi State in his first season. Beamer has been an assistant coach at seven Football Bowl Subdivision schools for 21 seasons, coached in 17 bowl games, posted 18 non-losing seasons (six of those with double-digit victories) and his teams have won 62.5 percent of its games. As a student-athlete, he was a member of five bowl teams and three Big East Conference championship squads on the Hokie football team as a long snapper and wide receiver. He was a long snapper on the 1999 Tech team that played for the BCS National Championship. Beamer is a graduate of Virginia Tech.

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OrthoGeorgia Lineman of the Week: Coleman Cauley, Senior Linebacker, First Presbyterian Day School. Coleman accounted for 16 tackles and had a forced fumble on a punt in his team’s 20-0 shutout of previously unbeaten rival Tattnall Square Academy.

OrthoGeorgia Special Teams Player of the Week: Evan West, Senior Kicker, Jones County High School. Even went 4 for 4 on Field Goals, including 2 from 44 yards, a 39 yarder, and a 32 yarder. He was 2 for 2 on PAT’s. His kickoff yardage totaled 405 yards with 2 touchbacks on the night. He also averaged 49 yards punting and had a touchdown saving tackle on a kickoff in his team’s 48-42 overtime win over Ola.

These players were recognized by the Macon Touchdown Club during our meeting on Monday, October 11th.

OrthoGeorgia Back of the Week: John Alan Richter, Senior Quarterback, Jones County High School. John completed 29 of 37 passes for 307 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also rushed 6 times for 37 yards and 1 Touchdown. He also caught the game tying 2 point conversion that send the game into overtime. The Greyhounds went on to score the winning touchdown in overtime for the win over Ola 48-42.

(Click on Link to go to the OrthoGeorgia website)

Another great night at the Macon Touchdown Club. We had the pleasure of having former UGA and NFL punter Drew Butler as our featured speaker.

To join the Macon Touchdown Club, click on this link, and Click link in page for a Membership Application.
http://macontouchdownclub.com/join/
Promoting High School football since 1946

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Jared Benko, from Watkinsville, Georgia, earned a bachelor of science in sports studies from Georgia in 2005 and then a master of public administration in Athens in 2007. He got his start in the athletic business field as an intern at Georgia from 2007 to 2008. He also spent seven years in sports communications at Georgia, including five years as a student and two years as a graduate assistant, while assisting with the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Braves.

Jared Benko was hired in March of 2020 as the Athletic Director of the Georgia Southern Eagles and began his new role on April 1. Benko, who has more than a decade of progressive leadership experience in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), comes to Statesboro from Mississippi State where he served as Deputy Director of Athletics/Chief Financial Officer for nearly four years (2016-2020).

His first year was unprecedented in more ways than one as Benko had to navigate a college landscape altered by COVID-19. The Eagle football team was one of two FBS teams (Alabama) to play 13 games and just one of two (Texas State) to play all 12 regular season contests. The football season was capped by a win over Louisiana Tech in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. Three Georgia Southern teams captured conference championships (rifle, women’s tennis, men’s golf).

*From gseagles.com

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OrthoGeorgia Back of the Week: Travion Solomon, Senior Quarterback, Northeast High School. Travion was 19-27 passing for 207 yards and 1 TD. He added 16 rushes for 164 yards, and 2 TD’s. On the night Travion accounted for 371 All Purpose yards in his team’s 27-23 win over Washington County.

OrthoGeorgia Lineman of the Week: Trey Butts, Senior Center/Defensive Tackle, Mount de Sales Academy. From his Center position, Trey graded out at 96%, including 10 pancake blocks. From his Defensive Tackle position, Trey had 8 tackles in team’s 35-7 win over Aquinas.

OrthoGeorgia Special Teams Player of the Week: Jake Prather, Junior Kicker, Academy for Classical Education. Jake had 3 kickoffs for Touchbacks, a 40-yard FG, and he had a net punting average 47 yards on the night. Two of his punts were downed inside the 10 and 15 yard lines, in his team’s 30-14 win over Crawford County.

These players were recognized by the Macon Touchdown Club during our meeting on Monday, October 4th.

OrthoGeorgia Orthopedic Specialists https://www.orthoga.org/

Another great night at the Macon Touchdown Club. We had the pleasure of having Coach Chris Hatcher of Samford University as our speaker tonight. Chris is a Macon native, and played his high school football at Mount de Sales Academy. On the night that he won Player of the Week at the Macon Touchdown Club, he was offered a chance to play at Valdosta State University. He ended up being a 2 time All American QB and winner of the Harland Hill Trophy, which is the Heisman for Division II.

https://samfordsports.com/sports/football

To join the Macon Touchdown Club, click on this link, and Click link in page for a Membership Application.
http://macontouchdownclub.com/join/
Promoting High School football since 1946

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Drew Butler is the son of Kevin Butler and attended Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee Georgia. He was an All-American punter for the University of Georgia under head Coach Mark Richt from 2007 to 2011. He led the nation in punting in 2009 and was a unanimous first team All American and winner of the Ray Guy award.

In 2012, Butler signed with the Pittsburg Steelers and punted 77 times for a 44 yard average. Butler played for the Pittsburg Steelers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and Arizona Cardinals.

He now runs his own consulting business, called 4^th Down Consulting and hosts two college football shows, the Punt & Pass Podcast and CampusLore Live. His career has always been focused on the intersection between media and sports, and his unique perspective will serve him well as Vice President , Collegiate at Icon Source as the major contender in the college space.*

*From Business Wire

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