Murray County ends 21-year playoff drought as 51 teams return to Georgia football postseason
Three programs secure their first-ever berths this week, joining a large cohort of schools that missed the field in the 2025 season.
By Leila Reynolds ·
Murray County High School has waited 21 years to return to the Georgia High School Association football playoffs. The Mountaineers will face seventh-ranked Hart County on Friday, marking their first postseason appearance since 2005.
Jason Allen is in his second year coaching the program. The team finished the regular season with a 5-5 record. This result breaks a run of five consecutive seasons where Murray County posted either a 1-9 or a 2-8 mark.
Murray County is one of 51 teams entering the field this week that did not qualify in 2025. The group includes three schools making their first appearances in program history: Lake Oconee Academy, Mt. Bethel Christian, and Utopian Academy.
Several other schools are returning after absences of at least six years. Lassiter, Woodland of Stockbridge, and Walker have been out since 2016 and 2017. Howard, Bradwell Institute, Heritage of Conyers, and South Effingham last played in the postseason in 2018 or 2019.
The 2025 season saw a high volume of teams miss the playoffs entirely. Of the 200 schools in the state, 152 failed to qualify for the tournament. This represented a 77.0% miss rate for the previous year.
The current field is distributed across all weight classes. Class 7A includes Camden County, North Atlanta, Parkview, and South Forsyth. Class 6A features ten returning teams, including Loganville, Northside in Columbus and Warner Robins, and Tift County.
Class 5A lists Cedartown, Dutchtown, and Jones County. Class 4A contains nine teams, such as Adairsville, Baldwin, and Spalding. Class 3A includes Hephzibah, LaFayette, and Pike County alongside Murray County. The smaller divisions, Class 2A through Class A, account for the remaining 18 teams on the board.
