Packers 2024 football schedule includes game against Utah team

Published 12:36 pm Thursday, February 29, 2024

MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County football team has played plenty of out-of-state opponents over the years, but never one from as far away as West High School.

The Panthers will make the trip from Salt Lake City, Utah, to open Colquitt County’s  2024 season on Friday, Aug. 16.

West will be one of four new opponents on the Packers 2024 schedule, which will include six straight home games to open the season.

Counting the spring and pre-season scrimmages, the Packers, who are coming off a 12-1 record in 2023, are slated to play on Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium nine times this year.

Colquitt will not go on the road until Oct. 4 when it travels to Valdosta for its second Region 1-6A game.

“Our season-ticket holders have been so dedicated, we’re glad we can have a home schedule like this,” Edwards said.

Other teams that will play the Packers this fall who were not on the 2023 schedule are Monroe, North Gwinnett and Rickards High of Tallahassee.

Monroe and Rickards also will come to Moultrie in 2025. The Packers will travel to play at North Gwinnett and Lee County next year.

Those three will replace Stockbridge, Cedar Grove and Lincoln High of Tallahassee.

Tift County is on the schedule as a region opponent this fall after it rejoins Region 1 in the highest classification for the 2024-2025 school year.

Colquitt County met Deerfield Beach, Fla., at Lowndes in the short-lived Georgia-Florida Challenge in its 2022 opener and played host to Dutch Fork, S.C., last year at home to open the 2023 season in what was dubbed the Carolina-Georgia Challenge.

Those two teams had relatively short treks to Moultrie compared to the 2,073-mile trip West High will make.

According to Colquitt County athletic director Cleve Edwards, West is making plans to bring its volleyball team as well to play the Lady Packers.

West plays in Utah’s Class 5A and went 6-4 last season.

Over the past four years, the Panthers have gone a combined 32-12.

After the 2022 season, in which West posted a 9-3 record, 11 Panthers signed Division I National Letters of Intent.

Edwards said West had contacted him last year about coming to Moultrie to play a successful Georgia football program, but their schedules would not allow it.

“It worked out this year that we both could fit it in,” Edwards said. “We are expecting a good football team to show up and play.

“It might be a different style of football, but they should be a good measuring stick for us.”

When Monroe comes to Moultrie on Aug. 23, it will mark the first time the Packers and Tornadoes have squared off since 1987 when Colquitt County won 21-7.

Moultrie High held a 7-1 advantage over the Tornadoes; Colquitt County has gone 8-2.

Playing in Region 1-AAA last fall, the Tornadoes went 6-4 overall under coach Lacy Herring.

Monroe has not had a winning record since 2015 and has not been in double-digits in wins since the 2006 Tornadoes went 10-2.

North Gwinnett and Colquitt County have met seven times over the years, including in 2022 when the Packers defeated the Bulldogs 52-17 in the state quarterfinals in Moultrie.

The Bulldogs went 8-4 in 2023 in their first season under coach Eric Godfree, who had spent the previous nine seasons at Parkview.

Colquitt is 5-2 overall against North Gwinnett and has won the last three meetings.

Lee County has been on the schedule the last two years, with the Packers winning both meetings.

Colquitt County is 12-0 all-time against the Trojans.

Rickards has gone 3-7 and 4-7 over the last two seasons.

The meeting between the Packers and the Raiders will be their first.

In region games this season, the Packers will be home to face Lowndes and Richmond Hill and will travel to Valdosta, Tift County and Camden County.

Colquitt will play host to defending Class 5A state champion Coffee High on May 14 in the annual spring scrimmage.

The Trojans were 15-0 last season under Mike Coe to win the school’s first state championship

Bainbridge will come to Moultrie for the annual pre-season scrimmage on Aug. 2.

The Bearcats were coached last year by Jeff Littleton, who has left to become Tift County’s head coach.

A new coach has not been named yet.

2024 Schedule

May 14 Coffee (spring scrimmage) H

Aug. 2 Bainbridge (scrimmage) H

Aug. 16 West (Utah) H

Aug. 23 Monroe H

Aug. 30 North Gwinnett H

Sep. 6 OPEN

Sep. 13 Lee County H

Sep. 20 Rickards (FL) H

Sep. 27 Lowndes H

Oct. 4 at Valdosta

Oct. 11 at Tift County

Oct. 18 OPEN

Oct. 25 at Camden County

Nov. 1 Richmond Hill H