Buford scored four touchdowns last Friday and did not have the ball for any of them.
That is not a fluke, it is the identity of a program that went 15-0 last season and outscored people 662-158 doing it. The Wolves beat Mallard Creek 41-7 in Charlotte with 219 total yards of offense, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's count, and every long score came off a turnover.
Miami Central comes to Phillip Beard Stadium tonight at 7:30. We have Buford fifth and Central 24th, and the team ranked 19 spots lower owns the better single win.
The four touchdowns, and the commitments behind them
Jameer Cantrell is a senior safety committed to Arkansas out of 29 offers, and against Mallard Creek he returned fumbles of 39 and 31 yards for touchdowns, caught a 27-yard touchdown pass and intercepted another. Buford's own athletics department and the AJC both have it that way, down to the clock: the first came at 2:22 of the first quarter, the second at 3:20 of the second.
Ethan Hauser, a senior linebacker committed to Vanderbilt out of 38 offers, returned a fumble 47 yards. Jewlyan Dillard took an interception 41.
Four defensive touchdowns in one half.
Joshua Echols, a senior linebacker headed to Middle Tennessee, had 99 tackles and 12 for loss last season. Luke Nabors is a four-star junior edge, ranked 192nd nationally with 31 offers, and he is uncommitted.
Buford is replacing almost everybody and has not slowed down
Twenty-one players from last year's team signed with college programs. The AJC noted in August that Buford graduated its top seven defensive tacklers, along with a quarterback who threw for 4,221 yards.
DJ Hunter has that job now, a senior committed to James Madison out of 22 offers, and he leads Buford in rushing at 43 yards a game while throwing it. In his first career start he ran for two touchdowns. Braylon Williams, a junior with nine offers, caught four touchdowns last season.
Bryant Appling took over in 2019 after fifteen years as a Buford assistant and became the first coach in GHSA history to win state championships in each of his first three seasons. He is 63-6 since 2021.
He was not selling anything after the opener.
"We're a very young football team compared to where we were last year, so we've just got to keep chopping wood."
Buford won the Class 6A title last December, 28-21 over Carrollton, and moved up to Class 7A in this year's reclassification. The Palm Beach Post reports the Wolves carry a 17-game winning streak into tonight.
Miami Central's quarterback has thrown for 7,700 yards
James Perrone is a senior committed to Pittsburgh, and the number that matters is not this season's.
Last year, at Southridge, he completed 65 percent for 3,231 yards and 33 touchdowns against five interceptions, and ran for 636 more with nine scores. The year before that he threw for 2,966 and 30 and shared Miami-Dade Offensive Player of the Year. Career: 7,702 passing yards and 79 touchdowns.
On August 21 he took Central to Orange Coast College against Orange Lutheran, which is 33rd on our board, went 14 of 30 for 180, and then with 28 seconds left ran 40 yards for the winning touchdown. Central 23, Orange Lutheran 22.
Nino Joseph carried 20 times for 106 yards and a score in that game and is averaging 106 rushing yards a game.
The Central secondary is the deepest unit in the game
T'ari Miller is a 6-4 senior corner committed to Missouri out of 29 offers, ranked 625th nationally and 63rd at his position. Trezavant Boyd is a senior corner committed to Illinois, ranked 750th. Quartavius Lyons Jr. is rated 87 and ranked 55th among safeties with 25 offers, and he is uncommitted.
Solomon Efunbajo, a senior edge with 17 offers, transferred in from Connecticut. Demetrius Ingram, a junior safety, is unrated and already holds 25 offers including Auburn, Florida and Florida State.
Derrick Gibson is in his second season back at Central, where he was the defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2018. He played safety at Florida State and was a first-round pick of the Oakland Raiders in 2001. The program he inherited has nine state championships.
Central went 10-2 last season and lost the Class 3A regional final to Miami Northwestern 50-29. Both of its losses were to the same team.
What tonight actually tests
Buford has beaten Gainesville and Mallard Creek. Neither carries a number on our board. That is a schedule, not an insult.
Central has beaten Orange Lutheran and St. Brendan, and one of those is a ranked win, on the road, in another time zone, in a one-score game decided by the quarterback's legs.
So tonight is the first time either team meets a top-25 opponent. It is also the first time Buford's rebuilt defense faces someone who has thrown for 7,700 yards, and the first time Perrone faces a unit that scores as often as its offense does.
Central has not lost since last November. Buford has not lost in 17.
Reporting drawn from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Palm Beach Post, USA TODAY Sports, 247Sports, MaxPreps, Buford High School athletics and ITG Next.
