MOULTRIE — Colquitt County football coach Mike Singletary said he was no fun to be around on Saturday and Sunday, following the 35-28 loss to Tift County that ended the Packers season after just 10 games.

Singletary was in somewhat better spirits on Monday, but still appeared baffled by his team’s performance in the second half of the season.

The Packers won four of their five non-region games, with the only loss coming by a 14-7 score against Thomas County Central, a team that is currently 10-0.

But after an off-week before heading into the Region 1-AAAAA part of the schedule, the Packers won just one of their last five. And that came against Lee County, which did not win a region game.

“Those last five weeks are a mystery to me — why we couldn’t win one those we needed to win,” Singletary said. “For five weeks, whenever we needed to make a play, we couldn’t make one.

“The kids question what they could have done. And the coaches question what they could have done.”

The final five-game streak started with a 21-14 loss to Lowndes in which the Packers missed two opportunities to score from in close.

“I honestly believe we lost some confidence in the Lowndes game and never got it back,” Singletary said.

Colquitt finished with losses to Coffee, 3-0; Valdosta, 19-7; and Tift County, 35-28 in a game the Packers led 20-7 at the half and 28-14 with four minutes left in the third quarter.

The Blue Devils outscored Colquitt County 28-8 in the second half in a game that may have been emblematic of the Packers season.

“We just couldn’t finish,” Singletary said. “We had chances in every game we lost, but we just couldn’t play the last six minutes of the game.”

Singletary said he was unsure what caused that, saying perhaps it was a lack of intensity during practices.

The Packers played well offensively for three quarters on Friday, but after the Blue Devils had rallied for a 29-28 lead, the Packers could not get a first down.

“Offensively, when you score 28 points, you should win,” Singletary said.

And if Tift County quarterback Josh Allen had had a normal night, perhaps the Packers would have.

But Allen completed 15-of-23 passes for 240 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 107 yards and another score to rally the Blue Devils to the victory that sends them to Fayetteville on Friday to meet Starr’s Mill in the first round of the state playoffs.

“He did things you don’t see a quarterback ordinarily do,” Singletary said. “Every decision he made was the right one. And we didn’t even come close to making an intercept. We knew he had that kind of ability. And we knew our pass defense was our Achilles heel. But they didn’t throw it and catch it like that every game. Or they wouldn’t be 4-6.”

Singletary said the loss was especially hard on the team’s seniors: Montgomery Slaughter, Hilton Brinson, Brian Knighton, Anthony Ferrer, Michael Cutts, Lee Henry, Brian Gay, Jim Faircloth, Kenneth Bailey, Kyle Cooper, Alec Boring, Paul Herndon, Bernard Grant, Demarius Toombs, William Lattimore, Freddie Williams, Walter Grier, Nikul Parkh, Bobby Grant, Claeb Taylor, Sonny Braswell, Harry Greene, Octavious Slaughter and Isaac Jackson.

“Like I said before, I like these kids,” Singletary said. “The weren’t hard to coach. They’ve been a joy to be around. And we’ll miss those seniors.

“And the support I get from the kids, their parents and people who don’t have kids on the team has been wonderful.”

The Colquitt County staff will live with the disappointing 5-5 finish until after the Thanksgiving holiday, then begin getting ready for the 2003 season.

The Packers will have a number of holes to fill before next season. Only three starters will be back on offense — center C.A. Sanders, guard Curtis Jackson and wide receiver Sherard Reynolds.

One big question offensively will be who will be the team’s next quarterback. Reynolds and Will Southwell, who played there in relief of Slaughter this season, are possibilities. As is rising sophomore Sam Heath.

The defense will be somewhat moreexperienced, but def





ensive tackle appears to have the two biggest holes to fill.

“People are going to question the 5-5,” Singletary said. “My response is that we can’t do anything about the 5-5. We can go back to work, work harder and set the groundwork so you don’t end up in that situation again.

“If we are going to continue the kind of success we’ve had here, we’ve got to work harder.”