Houston County football opens season at the Benz for second straight year

The Houston County Bears are once again headed to the state capital for the Corky Kell + Dave Hunter Classic to open up the season, and this time they’ll take on the Brookwood Broncos out of Snellville.

The Region 7-6A runner-up Broncos are no stranger to the classic — they’ve been in it every year since its inception in 1992 and even hosted two games in 1997.

The Bears, however, are still newcomers with only two appearances previous to this one in 2017 and 2024.

Here are a few things to watch as HoCo faces Brookwood for the first time in program history:

A handful for the defense

Four-star running back Brayden Tyson is going to be a handful for the HoCo defense to say the very least.

The junior is coming off of a Region Player of the Year selection in 2024 where he posted 209 carries for 2,123 yards (that’s 10.2 yards per carry!) and 26 touchdowns. He averaged 212 yards per game last year and had over 100 in eight games.

Not only that, but he led the team with 20 receptions for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns, too. Though, that should tell you about how much they throw the ball.

At 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds Tyson provides size and strength and is much faster than many his size.

He’s very good at staying on his feet through contact without any kind of moves, he just shrugs tackles off and keeps moving forward (though he does stumble often because of that, giving defenders an opportunity to catch up and take him down). He’s also exceptional at reading the field — knowing where his blockers are and finding and choosing the correct lanes.

In their scrimmage against Clarke Central (familiar name, HoCo fans?) Brookwood also used him as a decoy in a split back formation, so that’s something to watch out for.

Tyson can also catch the ball pretty much anywhere on the field. His longest catch last year was for 51 yards, but most of the time he’ll be out of the backfield on short routes.

When he’s off the field the Broncos emphasize a short passing game with flat routes or screen passes.

A defense with plenty to prove

Brookwood’s defense last year, on paper, was pretty good.

On average they allowed 22 points per game and held opponents to under 14 points four times. But when you take a deeper look there are some holes.

Many of the Broncos’ best defensive performances came against weak opponents:

A 52-6 win over 2-8 Berkmar. A 42-0 win over 0-10 Meadowcreek. A 51-13 win over 3-7 Parkview.

Their best win last year was 25-13 against Norcross, who was third in the region with an 8-4 record.

Against opponents above .500 their points allowed per game ballooned by about 50% to 33.25.

The numbers point to an inability to get behind the sticks against better opponents. According to MaxPreps the Broncos were below the national average with 13 sacks (13.4 average) and 25 quarterback hurries (31 average). They did have 64 tackles for a loss, though only 12 of those came against teams above .500.

The strength of their team is certainly the secondary of which they return all of their top contributors.

The highlight of the room is senior Western Kentucky commit Damyon Pearson, who was the only defensive back to be elected to the All-Region 1st Team for Brookwood last year.

Pearson can play outside corner but he also played plenty of strong safety, coming down to help in the box and making tackles after the play got to the second level.

He touts an impressive 50 solo tackles (59 total), fourth on his team. He also had one of the team’s six interceptions to go with 7 passes defensed.

Kris Brunson is another player to watch for with his length. He led the team with 9 passes defensed last year and had 34 solo tackles (41 total). On tape he had a knack for poking the ball loose if the ball came down with the receiver.

They also return Julian Elzey, Deyron Groce and Christian Bailey.

Getting comfortable with the quarterbacks

Both of HoCo’s quarterbacks got a half in the Crisp County scrimmage to build on their case to be the starter come the start of the regular season.

Ryan Maxwell, the sophomore, is supposed to have the coveted arm strength coach Jeremy Edwards’ offenses have been accustomed to in previous years. Freshman Keirion Tate is a dual threat option that provides a different wrinkle than opponents have seen in the past.

Edwards hasn’t ruled out playing both of them during the season, though all signs currently point to Maxwell being the starter with Tate potentially being sprinkled in for certain packages or situations.

The quality of Brookwood’s secondary will provide a suitable test for the two when it comes to the passing game.

Kickoff is set for Saturday, Aug. 16 at 1 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.