TIFTON — Good news for Tift County football fans in 2025. There are no bad expeditions. Bad news for Tift County football fans. Because all long-distance expeditions are scheduled for this fall.
The Blue Devils announced their 2024 schedule on Monday night. This season will feature four extended trips to greet new head coach Jeff Littleton, two of which are part of the new Region 1-6A conference schedule, including Richmond Hill on September 27th and the final week of the regular season. Heading to Camden County on November 1st. .
The matchup with Richmond Hill will be the first meeting for both schools. Thanks to its proximity to both savannah and the coast, Richmond Hill has grown rapidly over the past 30 years, rising from Class A in 1994 to falling out of the maximum class due to isolation.
In 2022, the Genie of Isolation stopped granting wishes and the Wildcats were placed in 1-7A. Last fall's reclassification left it at 6A, making it the state's largest classification for at least two years after 7A was removed. But Lamp had more wishes, and Effingham County successfully appealed from 1-6A.
Richmond Hill is the only completely new team for the Blue Devils. The other one, Tifft, I have only seen once at home. The scrimmage is also a school the Devils haven't seen on the field in a while.
Tift's scrimmage will be Aug. 9 at home against Brooks County.
His last regular season game with the Trojans was in 2009. Brooks went 8-6 and reached the Class A Division 1 state semifinals in 2023 due to a conflicting non-district schedule with larger schools. Brooks won the state championship in 2022.
The regular season begins one week later at Griffins Memorial Stadium. Tift had only seen the Bears once, losing in the 1990 state playoffs.
Griffin was a 1-9 school last year with only a win over West Lawrence.
After Griffin, the Devils will have a non-region opponent return for Senior Night on Aug. 23. The old Havana football team. Gadsden County, Florida. The local team is 2-0 all-time against Gadsden, going 17-0 last year, but surprisingly the Jaguars finished 6-5 overall.
Tift County will play its former regional rival from the past two years over three weeks. They will face Lee County on August 30th and Houston County will play in the red, white and blue Devils game on September 13th.
Lee has had the advantage in the series over the past 10 years. The Houston Bears went 9-3 in 2023, but struggled to shake Tift. The Blue Devils got within 19-14 midway through the fourth quarter on a touchdown catch by Dijon Hayes, before Houston added a second-half touchdown.
In between these games is a second long trip to Coach Littleton's former home in Bainbridge. Tift played against the Bearcats in 2018 and 2019, winning both times. Overall, TCHS leads the series with his 21-12 record.
Tift will have a bye week on September 20th and then open regionals in Richmond Hill.
On Oct. 4, they will host Rounds. The Vikings went an unusual 4-6 last year and didn't win a Region 1-7A game. Although they were not regional opponents, they scrimmaged each other in 2022 and 2023, with Tift coming out on top in 2022.
Homecoming is Oct. 11 against Colquitt County. The two old rivals have been playing against each other for nearly 60 years. Colquitt went 12-1 a year ago, with its only loss coming to Milton in the state quarterfinals.
The Devils will rest again after Colquitt before heading to Valdosta on October 25th. They last played in 2021. Valdosta is gone. The Wildcats, one of three teams with that nickname on the regional ledger, went 8-4 last season and fell in the standings. The second round was against Carrollton.
Tift ended the regular season against Camden County on November 1st, finishing in 3rd place with 1 win and 7A at the end of the regular season. Camden shocked everyone with a state semifinal appearance and an overall record of 10 wins and 4 losses. . Tift won the last tournament in 2021 and now has a total of 4 wins and 7 losses in the series.
