Mike Brown, sports correspondent

Bryan County will be wasting no time in jumping into the frying pan when it opens its season on Friday against a veteran Treutlen County team coming off its first state playoff appearance in 18 years. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. at Redskins Stadium.

Treutlen returns 95 percent of its ground game offense and will provide a strong test for a Redskins defense which showed a vulnerability to the ground game last Friday in a 22-14 loss to Hardeeville in a pre-season scrimmage game.

It should be noted, however, that the Redskins led 14-0 at the half before Coach Cherard Freeman turned everything over to his freshmen and sophomores who played most of the second half. And with only 19 players suited up Hardeeville had its regulars in the game all the way.

“We wanted to get as many kids on film as possible,” Freeman said while discounting the final score. “We need to build a depth chart and find out who we can count on. They got their scores in the fourth quarter against our freshmen.”

The Redskins have 25 freshmen in the program, Freeman said, 17 of whom are listed on the varsity roster along with 13 sophomores, 10 juniors and 12 seniors.

The early going against Hardeeville was filled with mistakes – all fixable Freeman said – but once they settled into a rhythm the Redskins put two touchdowns on the board in the second quarter and the defense bent at times but never broke.

Bryan County’s two touchdowns came on big plays. Junior running back Gerome Lee bolted 28 yards for a score with 4:46 left in the first half. Three minutes later much improved sophomore quarterback Jamariyn Cosey hit senior running back Eli Koskela on a 16-yard touchdown pass.

J.D. Roberson, a senior playing his first year of football after playing soccer for three years, kicked both extra points with plenty of distance to spare, albeit there was no rush.

Cosey and Koskela are two reasons Freeman has an air of optimism going into his seventh season despite facing the most difficult schedule of his tenure.

Cosey started every game last year and was limited to primarily handing off the ball to either Anddreas McKinny or Gerbravion Collins. Those two are gone along with 1,464 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. Cosey completed 19 of 38 passes for 287 yards.

With a year’s starting experience under his belt and 20 more pounds on his frame Cosey’s role will be expanded this year, Freeman said. The Redskins are transitioning to a shotgun formation on offense which will better enable Cosey to take advantage of his running ability.

Lee is the returning leading rusher with 324 yards while Koskela had 208 along with 94 tackles in earning all-region honors. Junior wide receiver Gunner Ennis had 70 yards last year and sophomore Cameron Martin 18.

Koskela toyed with the idea of focusing on baseball where he’s an all-region performer and sat out pre-season practice. However, the closer to the start of school he got the itch to play and returned to the fold.

“Having Eli back makes us better,” Freeman said. “He’s going to help us a lot. Having him enables us to play some guys at other positions. We had some guys playing out of position until Eli came back so we can now put them back at their normal position.”

While Cosey’s skills as a passer have improved significantly the Redskins are still going to be a run-heavy team with Lee leading the way backed up by sophomore Stephens Roderick, freshman Kameron Joyner and sophomore Davion Butler all of whom had carries against Hardeeville.

The offensive line is still somewhat unsettled, Freeman said, with decisions to be finalized this week.

All-region pick Corey Collier is a lock and he is versatile as he can play tackle, guard and center. Senior Jonah Bruce is at tight end while against Hardeeville when the Redskins took the field senior Dylan Aldrich was at center, junior Brailyn Brown and sophomore Camden Beasley were the guards with Collier and sophomore Jacob Hendrix at tackle.

Koskela and sophomore Banks White will anchor the defense from their linebacking positions while Collier will be a mainstay up front. The secondary will be led by senior Jordan Carlos and junior Kmari Dixon.