Bryan County football coach Cherard Freeman played for two of the best coaches to ever hang a whistle around their neck: Larry Campbell at Lincoln County and Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern.

Those two coaches passed on lessons that Freeman puts to use every day. One in particular stands out and that’s paying attention to and coaching the smallest of details.

“When you do the little things right it leads to big things,” Freeman said. “That’s something Coach Campbell and Coach Johnson harped on all the time.”

It’s doing those little things right in their last game, a 35-14 win over favored Jenkins County, that now gives the Redskins a chance to advance to the Class A-DII state playoffs for the third time in the last four years.

The Redskins (5-4, 4-3) end Region 3A-DII regular season play at Metter (4-5, 4-4) at 7:30 p.m. Friday with a possible playoff spot on the line.

A win over the Tigers—the playoff scenarios became complicated after last weekend’s results and are explained in a separate story found elsewhere in the Bryan County News—is no guarantee as coaches and fans will be following not only two region games but three games outside the region.

But the fact the Redskins are in a position to extend their season is a credit to their perseverance and willingness to lay it all on the line against Jenkins County.

“The win over Jenkins was because we did enough of the little things right that we gave ourselves a chance,” Freeman said. “We were down (14-0) but we didn’t quit and we did some things to create opportunities.”

An excellent example, Freeman said, came with one minute left in the first half when the Redskins, trailing 14-0 and looking to be out of it as halftime approached, had to punt.

With the half winding down it would have been easy to take a cursory going through the motions trot down the field. Instead, it seemed as if the entire team descended on the return man who bobbled the ball.

The Redskins recovered at the 27 and three plays later Ger’Bravion Collins streaked in for a touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff it was a repeat scenario as a gaggle of Redskins slammed into the kick returner.

When the ball popped into the air Collins was Ger’Bravion On The Spot as he caught it and ran to the four-yard line. He scored on the next play and it was game on. The Redskins won going away.

“We work on special teams every day,” Freeman said. “It’s not always the fun part of practice but they did what they were supposed to do and it led to big things.

“Now we have a chance to go to the playoffs again.”

Bryan County will be a slight favorite to beat the Tigers although Metter has been a hard place for the Redskins to win over the years.

Freeman, however, will look to his seniors and juniors to draw on the memories of their last trip to Metter. Two years ago, the Redskins pulled out a 21-20 win over a very good Metter team that led to winning the only region championship in school history.

The Redskins are coming off an open date which Freeman believes came at a good time for both coaches and players.

“The win over Jenkins gave our kids some confidence,” Freeman said. “The way we came from behind and played so well in the second half was a big boost. We always talk about adversity and then we got down but they kept playing, made some plays and got back in the game.

“Last week was a good week of practice,” Freeman said. “We just focused on Bryan County and worked on fundamentals. We didn’t practice Monday and Friday.

“It was a good mental break for the players and coaches and we came back Monday (this week) with a fresh slate. We all just got away from football for a couple of days.”