High School Sports

Gilmer's list of Division I recruits over the last half decade reads like a major Class 5A program -- Manuel Johnson, Tay Bower, Kevin Hollis, Curtis Brown, G.J. Kinne, Justin Johnson, Lamar Harris, David Snow.

The Buckeyes' record over the last five years is 63-5 with a state championship in 2004 and a state finalist finish last season. So, the word "rebuild" is not in head coach Jeff Traylor's vocabulary.

Reload is more like it.

But this year, especially on offense, might be different with just five returning starters and only one on offense.

Traylor doesn't seem worried, considering his lone returnee on offense is quarterback Darian Godfrey, who burst onto the scene in 2007 as a sophomore.

"He's a different kid than what I dealt with last year as a sophomore," Traylor said. "He's taken control of the field, you can tell he's the leader. Every rep he runs is as hard as he can."

Godfrey passed for 2,727 yards and 38 touchdowns last year in leading Gilmer to the Class 3A Division I state finals.

But that's in the past, as Traylor is quick to point out.

"He'd be the first to tell you he played with 10 great players last year," he said.

"This year he lost those 10, so we'll lean on him more for leadership."

Godfrey has taken on the responsibility that comes with being a returning standout.

"(I needed to get better at) handling adversity," Godfrey said. "(Last year) I would get down and let the team know I was down, and I didn't want them to see that.

"When things are going down, we just need to go on to the next play."

Godfrey (6-1, 200) also attended junior camps at Texas and Oklahoma, which he feels has him in position to have an even better season this year.

As Traylor mentioned, a lot is expected of his quarterback with so many new faces.

But Godfrey's confident in the task at hand.

"It's not really a big adjustment," Godfrey said of breaking in new players. "They all were in the program last year, they just didn't get varsity snaps. I worked with them in practice."

Being the quarterback in Gilmer bears high expectations. Just look at past signal-callers Johnson and Kinne, who both took their games to the next level after delivering during high school.

Traylor expects a lot from his QBs.

"He's got to be dependable first and foremost, you've got to have a kid you can count on," he said. "He's got be tough, he's got to be able to throw the football and he's got to be an athlete.

"We try to put one of our more dependable and better athletes there every year."

Traylor admits it's difficult to place Godfrey in a historical perspective in comparison to other quarterbacks in the program's history.

"We've never had one play as a sophomore," he said. "We'll see when it's all over with. Right now, he's on pace with a lot of them, but it's not over with yet.

"(His) goal is to win a championship and it always has been as long as I've known that kid. He's still upset that we got beat in last year's championship game."

Gilmer quarterback Darian Godfrey is his team's lone returning starter on offense.
(Staff Photo By Herb Nygren Jr.)