TIFTON — Football season is five months away, but Tift County is already looking to its 2018 schedule. Head coach Ashley Anders has revealed who the Blue Devils will play during the upcoming campaign.

The schedule will be an arduous one, starting with the scrimmage game. Tift will take on 2017 Class AAAAAA state champion Lee County in the warm-up. Tift has not seen Lee since 2015 and has a 3-3 record in the series. Anders said the scrimmage will be played on a Thursday at Brodie Field.

The Blue Devils move from one state champion to a runner-up to start the regular season: Warner Robins, last year’s runners-up in Class AAAAA.

“Our deal is preparing for the region,” Anders said. “I knew Warner Robins would be a good test.”

The Demons were 14-1 in 2017, the only blip being the title game. The biggest returnee for the squad is a quarterback with a very familiar name: Dylan Fromm. Brother of University of Georgia starter Jake Fromm, the younger quarterback threw for 3,500 yards last year and 35 touchdowns.

The squads last met in 2009. The Blue Devils hold an 8-6-2 record in previous contests.

Tift will have its first home game of the regular season the next week against Valdosta.

Anders expects the Wildcats to fully bounce back from a 4-7 record a season ago.

“They’ll be a lot better,” he said.

Tift beat Valdosta, 20-10, in 2017. It was their first win in the series since 2008 and the first win at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium since 1993.

The Blue Devils renew relations with Worth County at Sylvester this season, the first time they have seen their neighbors to the west since 2013. The Rams, members of Region 1-AAA, were 0-10 in 2017 for first-year head coach Ben Simmons, their closest losses by 13 points.

Anders expects Simmons to have a much better team this year. A former Tift assistant, Simmons had back-to-back eight-win seasons at Turner County in 2015-16.

The locals are to engage a second 1-AAA squad during the year: Crisp County.

Once regular opponents, the Devils have seen Crisp only twice since 1979, winning games in 2004 and 2005. Tifton and Cordele first met in 1922. This will be the 50th meeting between them since then. The Cougars have gone 22-3 over the last two seasons, reaching the semifinals in 2016.

Crisp is not the only other old friend Tift sees for the first time in years; the Devils will be going to Bainbridge this season.

The Bearcats and Blue Devils last renewed acquaintances back in 2001, which was the end of 14 straight years of games between them. Bainbridge was 8-4 last year, mainly on the strength of Dameon Pierce, a running back who signed with Florida.

Parkview remains on the schedule this year, with the Panthers coming to Tifton. The Devils won for the first time against Parkview last year, a virtual track meet with a 50-37 final score. It is after Parkview that the Devils will have their first open date.

Besides Parkview, there will be another metro Atlanta team coming to town in Lithonia-based Miller Grove. The Wolverines will actually visit Tift twice, as they travel here in 2019, too.

Miller Grove has been a playoffs team the past two seasons. Though they have yet to win a state game, Anders pointed out, “They finished in the top half of their region.”

Miller Grove finishes up the non-region schedule. Without a break, the Blue Devils move into region and a road game with Lowndes. The Vikings lost quarterback Michael Barrett, whom Anders is happy to not have to face again, but he assured they will return lots of talent.

Tift follows Lowndes with a home game against Colquitt County, Class AAAAAAA’s runners-up in 2017.

“Colquitt is going to be loaded,” said Anders, heavily emphasizing on the ‘loaded’ part. Steven Krajewski and J.J. Peterson are gone, but running back terrors Daijun Edwards and Ty Leggett are back. Anders also believes the Packers return nine starters on defense.

The end of the regular season will be at Camden County.

For the past two years, there has been a week off between Colquitt and Camden, but that may potentially change.

Region 1 is hopeful of changing the Georgia High School Association’s stance on regions with four or fewer football teams. The GHSA’s rules are that in this scenario, the fourth playoff seed is not guaranteed in football and the final spot is up for grabs through power ratings. Currently, Tift is the only region in the state with this issue.

If region coaches can change the GHSA’s mind and get the fourth place finisher to automatically qualify, the schedule will change and Tift and Camden will play one week earlier. If things stay the same, the teams will take an off week before playing each other.

Offseason workouts have Anders encouraged about what the Blue Devils will bring to the table. Multiple players are squatting 500 pounds and he has declared this to be “the strongest group of kids we’ve had.”

“They do a great job in the weight room,” he said.