I’m not particularly good with numbers. I’m certainly no statistician. I don’t do well collecting stats, interpreting stats, and drawing intelligent conclusions from stats.
But my lack of intelligence has never stopped me from stating opinions in the past, and I’m not about to let it get in the way now.
I’ve looked at a lot of statistics and history over the course of the 2023 Coffee Trojans football season. There are some really surprising stats out there. And they’re not terribly difficult to find. Here are a few facts and figures, in no particular order, that caught my attention over the last few months.
53: The number of football seasons Coffee has played since becoming the Trojans.
595: The total number of games, regular season and playoffs, the Trojans have played.
10: The number of head football coaches the Trojans have had: John Stephens, John Landing, Bonwell Royal, Charles Winslette, Jim Keith, Kevin Giddens, Jerry Odom, Ken Eldridge, Robby Pruitt, and Mike Coe.
3a.: The number of coaches who only led the Trojans for one year: Stephens, Landing, and Winslette.
69 percent: The winning percentage of Coffee’s winningest head coach with at least three years of service. That belongs to Robby Pruitt, who went 83-38 from 2012-2021.
3b.: The number of head coaches with at least three years experience who have winning percentages over 60 percent: Pruitt, Odom (65 percent), and Royal (61 percent)
89 percent: Current head coach Mike Coe’s winning percentage. After two seasons, Coach Coe is 25-3 with a region title and state championship.
23 percent: Coffee’s average winning percentage against the big three South Georgia teams: Colquitt (6-23), Lowndes (6-22), and Valdosta (8-23).
29: The number of wins Coffee has over the Ware County Gators, the team the Trojans have beaten the most often over their history. The record in that rivalry stands at 29-22. Interestingly, before Waycross and Ware consolidated, the Trojans had a losing record against Waycross High (11-12).
33: The number of playoff games the Trojans have won in their history.
11.2: The average number of games Coffee has played each season since 1970.
129: The number of games the Trojans have played since 2014, the most successful time period in Coffee’s history.
13: The number of games per season that the Trojans have averaged over the last 10 seasons.
52: The number of football games the Class of 2024 has played over the last four years. That amounts to an extra season plus two games. This senior class has effectively played 5.2 seasons over their four years.
1,811/28: Though Coffee High School recognized Louis Smith’s 1,287 yards as the school’s rushing record prior to senior Fred Brown breaking the record this year (while still others recognized Demetrius Davis’s 1,486 yards in 2016 as the record), an article from the Atlanta Journal in 1982 credited Andre “Pulpwood” Smith with 1,811 yards and 28 touchdowns that season. He was named the Class 4A Back of the Year at the end of the ’82 season.
2,488: Fred Brown’s rushing total from 2023. He carried the ball 358 times for an average of almost 166 yards per game and seven yards per carry. He scored 24 rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown.
16/2: Quarterback Maurice Hansley’s touchdown pass to interception ratio this year. Hansley is the unsung hero of the Coffee offense and finished the year with a 1,551 passing yards and a 136.2 QBR.
153: Total number of tackles between the Trojans’ two leading tacklers this season: End Elgie Paulk (78) and linebacker Jyarious Carter (75). Paulk is a senior but Carter, a junior, will be back next season.
5.7: The average number of points the 2023 Coffee defense allowed per game, best in the state regardless of classification.
2: The number of Coffee High graduates who have played in a regular season NFL game: Willis Crockett (Dallas Cowboys) and Tyreek Hill (Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins). Several former Trojans have signed free agent contracts and played in preseason games but none played in a regular season game except these two. Wyatt Miller was on the Dallas Cowboys’ 53-man roster in 2019 but he didn’t play in a game. A few others, including Lindsey Wolfe and Koreen Burch, played in various arena leagues. And two other former football players — Greg Walker and Riccardo Ingram — played in Major League Baseball. But only Crockett and Hill have seen action in regular season NFL games.
0: The number of playoff games the Trojans won from 1983-2005. This postseason winless streak, the longest in Coffee’s history, finally ended when Jerry Odom’s 2005 team defeated Hiram in the first round of the playoffs.
1a. The number of Coffee head coaches with a winning record over the Valdosta Wildcats — Eldridge, 2-1.
1b. The number of times the Trojans have played 15 games in a season. When Coffee played for a state championship in 2017, the Trojans only played 14 games; the game against University Christian that year had to be cancelled.
1c.: The number of state championships the Trojans have won in their history.
2011: The year Dr. Morris Leis was named superintendent of the Coffee County School System, which paved the way for the football success to come.
The Georgia High School Football Historians Association and MaxPreps contributed to this story.