TIFTON — The Tift County Blue Devils rose in the rankings this week after their come-from-behind victory over Colquitt County.

The Blue Devils are fourth in the Georgia Sports Writers Association poll. They were also ranked fourth before the Lowndes contest.

The computerized Maxwell Ratings have Tift as the fifth best team in Class AAAAAAA and seventh best team over all classifications.

Score Atlanta ranked the Blue Devils sixth as did Georgia High School Football Daily and MaxPreps.

MaxPreps considers Tift to be the 64th best team in the United States and sixth best team in Georgia.

Tift County has not been ranked in the top five this late in a season since 1996. The Blue Devils, who fell that year in the semifinals to Roswell, were ranked second by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution entering that game.

The Devils can make even more history next week.

If they defeat Camden County, it will be the seventh time in school history that the squad has had nine wins in the regular season. They finished the regular season 9-1 in 2006, 1983, 1981 and 1979 and 9-0 in 1950, 1949 and 1940.