TIFTON — It has been 23 years since the Tift County Blue Devils football team accomplished the feats they have a chance for this season.

The Blue Devils are one win away from winning a region championship for the first time since 1983. The Devils would also be 9-1 as they enter the state Class AAAAA playoffs, Tift’s best regular season record since winning the state title during that same 1983 campaign.

However the Devils face a huge roadblock in their attempt to make school history — the Colquitt County Packers.

Colquitt is 6-3 overall on the year, but only 2-3 in Region 1-AAAAA play. With their league mark, the Packers are out of the running for a chance at the state playoffs.

Tift County head coach Jay Walls still feels like the Packers are a dangerous squad.

“Colquitt is fast, athletic, and they have big-play ability,” said Walls. “They are intense on defense. They have a lot of outstanding athletes.”

Offensively for Colquitt, Walls lauded the play of University of Georgia commitment Vance Cuff, Orion Ponder, Channing Hudson, B.J. Howard and Jarvis Lambright.

“On defense, 19 (Derek Illian) stands out, also 98 (Javaris Jackson), 66 (Terance Grant), and also 17 (Dontrell Johnson), their safety is quite an athlete,” Walls said. “You are also going to see Cuff and Ponder in the secondary.”

Illian is second on the team with 67 total tackles. He also leads the team in sacks with six and tackles for loss yardage with seven.

Jackson has 43 total stops, including six for loss yardage. Grant has 19 total tackles, one sack and three tackles for loss yardage. Johnson leads the team with 95 total tackles. He also has one sack and four pass breakups.

Cuff has 26 total tackles, five pass breakups and three fumble recoveries, while Ponder has nine total tackles and two pass breakups.

Last season, Tift fell 21-10 at Colquitt. In the contest, Cuff had a 30-yard touchdown pass from Hudson on a fourth-and-14 play in the second quarter. Cuff would then later add another touchdown on an 8-yard run in the third quarter.

Johnson scored Colquitt’s third touchdown when he recovered a Tift fumble and went in from two yards out for the score.

The Packers scored those three touchdowns after Tift broke out to a 10-0 lead with less than three minutes gone in the first quarter. The Tift scores came on an Israel Troupe 84-yard touchdown return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown and on a 30-yard Charlie Edwards field goal that was set up when Tift’s Zach Brown intercepted Hudson deep in Packer territory.

After the game, Walls said, “We got outplayed, outcoached and outhit.” A year later, the game is still not warmly remembered by the Tift head coach.

“Colquitt is tough at home,” Walls said. “Last year they kicked our butt. It looked like in the first two minutes that we were going to have a good night and then after that they proceeded to dominated the game, especially their defense. They just handled us offensively.”

Tift only had 76 yards of total offense in the contest, 49 of which came late in the game on a pass play from Scott Shuman to Marvin Chaney.

This year Tift is hoping for better offensive luck against Colquitt.

Kaream Hess leads the team in rushing with 858 yards on 171 carries. He also has 26 catches for 220 yards.

Troupe has 31 catches for 360 yards, while Chaney has 15 catches for 118 yards. Worth Ellis also has 13 catches for 112 yards, while Jared Davis has nine catches for 49 yards.

Senior quarterback Sean Baxley has completed 103 of his 166 passes this season for 987 yards.

On the year, Tift has shown a lot of balance on offense with 1,014 yards rushing and 1,013 yards passing.

Game time Friday night in Moultrie is 7:30 p.m.