Just what is it that these football players are doing out there between the lines?

Trying to win a ball game, of course.

What is it that the fan base wants to see out of its favorite team?

Well, experience shows me that all they have to do is move the football, score points and prevent the other team from getting more to get a positive reaction.

Is the real purpose of a football game to entertain the crowd? Maybe at a higher level, when the admission price is sky high, you would expect more of a show.

There was nothing really ‘entertaining’ about the Friday night championship football game where Valdosta High defeated Tucker High – both common opponents of the Colquitt County High Packers – 17-7 in the Georgia Dome. But, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good football game from a purist perspective. It would take a load of research to come up with an answer – if there is an answer – to the question of how rare was this type of win by the Wildcats. That question is: how many times in, say, the last 20 years has a team just in Georgia won a title game without scoring in the second half?

Valdosta-Tucker was the 6A final. There was one other grind-it-out game before that when Rome upset Buford 16-7 in 5A. That game was 10-7 for the longest time, but Rome went ahead in the second half and didn’t allow Buford anything after the first minute of regulation.

ECLA and Fellowship in the private school game to start Friday’s slate would appear to satisfy those looking for a shootout, 34-27 in overtime with ECLA winning.

But getting back to Valdosta beating Tucker, we saw the Tigers of Tucker fall behind 17-0 at the half. That should have told any Packer fans watching that the game was not over, for we saw them come back on our home team and win by one. We also saw the Wildcats blow an 11-point lead in the second half at home and suffer their only setback of 2016.

Tucker, however, never could generate the running game on a consistent basis, especially going around the edges. They made some good third-down and short yardage plays on defense to force Valdosta to punt; the Wildcat D had its moment as well picking off a pass in one-on-one coverage in the end zone.

You may also have noted the interesting way VHS coach Alan Rodemaker and his offensive staff utilized their two-quarterback system. Josh Belton was the one who threw the deep pass that Shawn Shamburger picked off and returned end zone to end zone in the Colquitt game. Belton did not start that contest, but played the majority of it and gave his team a big lift.

On Friday, Belton started and connected on two similar type of passes in the first half, only this time his receivers made the receptions for the winning team’s only touchdowns. Maybe it was due to Belton taking a hard shot or two, or maybe it was by design, but Hunter Holt checks into the Tucker action in the second half. Holt started for Valdosta against Colquitt, a fact that may be hard to remember since he had no real impact that September night.

This will be an interesting comparison, but in Atlanta Holt played the role of a baseball relief pitcher. He’s on the field before Tucker can probably even realize it, taking the football into his own hands and churning up yardage. You run the ball, you gain decent yards, you keep the clock moving. In that sense, Holt was the football equivalent of a closer.

Do what you have to do to win a football game and nobody who roots for you will leave disappointed.

Let’s move up one level and share some comments on recent college football developments.

Thank goodness for the media. Just like there are media and coaches polls, there are media and coaches All-Southeastern Conference teams. The coaches completely shut out the Georgia Bulldogs for 2016 honors, but the reporting types like myself found a way to get one on the AP list. For the record, that would be second-team All-Purpose performer Isaiah McKenzie.

When the playoff pairings came out, my No. 1 rule for this new system was violated for the first time in its three years. That rule is: A conference champion gets in before any other team from that conference.

So yes, there should be two Big 10 teams among the four. Many would agree and say that second team should be Michigan.

Wait a minute! They didn’t play for the conference championship either. We might as well take that Big 10 title game moniker from the Penn State-Wisconsin clash and put on the Ohio State-Michigan classic the week before.

One more level: The NFL is having ratings problems. That was first attributed to the more entertaining presidential race. Maybe it’s really because four out of the eight divisions aren’t even mediocre. Tennessee vs. Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl … it could happen!