Tift County’s Ricky Perry sandwiches a Crisp County player on top of a Blue Devils teammate earlier this season. The defense will have a tough task ahead of it tonight in dealing with Lowndes’ Travis Tisdale.

TIFTON — Tift County had an unexpected bye last week, but football games resume for the Blue Devils tonight when they travel to Lowndes for an 8 p.m. game at Martin Stadium.

The contest comes a week later than scheduled. Last Tuesday, one day ahead of Hurricane Michael, Tift, Lowndes, Colquitt County and Camden County agreed to reroute the region schedule. Fortunately, that was easy to do as the only regular season opponents remaining for all four schools were each other and they had one month to play three games.

“It works out that we had one (bye week) built in,” said Tift County head coach Ashley Anders, whose team is shooting for its sixth win against two losses in 2018. Anders described last week as “chaotic” and felt fortunate to have everyone and everything back.

Tift and Lowndes were delayed by a week, but Anders does not see any of the excitement going away.

“It’s region time,” he said. “I told the kids it’s for real now.”

This first game could make for a monstrous impact in Region 1, where three of four teams are guaranteed state tournament slots. The fourth can make it via power ratings, but are matched up against all other non-qualifying schools in the classification. Starting off 0-1 in Region means an uphill climb, but one win might be all a school needs to make it.

Getting that win over Lowndes (6-1) will be a battle the Blue Devils have not seen this year.

Lowndes and Tift are longtime opponents, but there will be an air of mystery in one aspect of the Vikings’ attack. Which quarterback will they use?

Junior Andrew Koenemann has battled injuries all season and while he has participated in all seven of Lowndes’s games, he has not attempted more than five passes in any of them since Sept. 7 against East Coweta, according to stats on MaxPreps. In his absence, freshman Jacurri Brown has done most of the heavy lifting.

“We’re prepared for both,” said Anders, who thinks they might see more of Brown. Brown is a dual threat, he said. To go along with 358 passing yards, Brown has run 361. He has topped the 100-yard mark on the ground twice. In contrast, Koenemann is “more polished in the passing game.”

Quarterbacks will almost assuredly not be the focal point of the Vikings’ offense.

That’s what happens with a talent like Travis Tisdale.

Tisdale, a 175-pound senior, is committed to play for the University of Kentucky (as is Tift linebacker Kadarius McDaniel). He has run for 1,201 yards this year, more than any other player in Class AAAAAAA. In Lowndes’s 71-35 win over Valdosta, Tisdale ran for a school record 414 yards and six touchdowns on only 21 carries. With the exception of the Sept. 28 game against Ware County, he has had at least two touchdowns per game.

“As good as I’ve seen,” said Anders of Tisdale’s ability. “He’s so fast it’s unbelievable. He’s able to create stuff out of nothing.”

At Tisdale’s rate, he will top 1,700 yards in the regular season and if Lowndes goes far at all in state, he will achieve well over 2,000.

Protecting both Tisdale and Lowndes’s quarterback of choice will be as big an offensive line as many colleges. Six Lowndes linemen are listed as 290 pounds or bigger. None is shorter than 5’11”.

This will affect Tift’s defense, which will be looking to get pressure off the edge, Anders said.

Tift County’s offense has been working on limiting turnovers. The Blue Devils had a few miscues against Miller Grove, including a fumble on the 1 yard line, which cost them a touchdown. Fortunately, it did not make any difference in the end, as Tift won 45-0.

The Blue Devils enter with a chance to get running back Mike Jones over 1,000 yards. He currently has 838, to go with 10 touchdowns after a 148-yard performance against Miller Grove. Quarterback Patrick Felton was just behind him, with 143 rushing yards. He is now third on the team in that category.

Felton has completed 47-of-81 passes for 649 yards and gotten better and better since an early season knee injury.

Anders said Lowndes bases its defense out of a 3-4 set, with three down lineman and four linebackers.

Tonight’s other region game is Camden (6-1) at Colquitt (7-0). Colquitt comes to Tifton next Friday for Tift’s Senior Night.