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The best of the best in Alabama High
School Football over the past 100 seasons.
Ten Best Football Programs 2010-2021
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What makes a football program great at any level? It is more than just wins and losses. It takes players, coaches, administration and fans. I think it all starts with the right head coach. Then we have to ask. What makes a head coach great?
I believe an elite head football coach first and foremost wins the games they are suppose to win. At the high school level that means defeating every opponent you are favored to beat. While there are no betting odds on high school football, at least not legally, there are ways to test this theory. What if we looked at the best football programs over the past twelve seasons (2010-2021) and evaluated how they performed against ranked teams?
That will give us an idea of how the best programs compare to each other. Sure we could look at the overall record of each team and put together a list that most knowledgable fans could almost recite off the top of their heads. We all know Fyffe, Hoover, Piedmont, Spanish Fort, St. Paul's and a few others have won the most games recently. But how did they perform when playing other ranked teams? And more importantly what is their record against unranked opponents? Did they defeat the teams they were suppose to beat?
Since AHSFHS.org has the score of almost every game ever played and every poll released by the ASWA it become easier to relatively quickly find most any statistic one can come up with. So as usual we will delve into the numbers to get a glimpse of how these top ten teams performed over the past twelve seasons on the gridiron. Our list is based on winning percentage over the past dozen seasons.
| #10 Central Phenix City Red Devils | ||
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Record since 2010: | 120-30 80.0% |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 96-24 | |
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 34-21 | |
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 13-3 | |
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 73-6 | |
| Central Phenix City has not lost a
game to an unranked team since dropping a 17-14 decision to
Enterprise in week ten of the 2015 season. During this time the Red
Devils lost five games during the 2020 season all to ranked teams.
As a matter of fact they played a total of nine games that year
against ranked teams. Their 73-6 record against unranked teams is second only to Hoover in 7A. In the past three seasons alone the Red Devils have played twenty two games against ranked opponents and gone 14-8. No bad at all in the state's highest classification. |
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| #9 Madison Academy Mustangs | |||
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Record since 2010: | 130-30 81.3% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 103-21 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 27-14 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 1-5 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 102-11 | ||
|
Seven of Madison Academy's twenty one losses to ranked teams came
against teams in a higher classification. They were 27-7 against the
other ranked teams. The Mustangs have only played seven ranked teams
the past five seasons finishing 3-4 against them. That's in contrast
to the 13-1 record they put together against ranked teams in
2013-14. The last time Madison Academy lost to an unranked team was 2021 when they fell to Oneonta in the semi-finals of the playoffs. |
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| #8 UMS-Wright Bulldogs | |||
 |
Record since 2010: | 132-30 81.5% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 116-23 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 35-23 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 0-0 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 97-7 | ||
|
Nine of the losses UMS-Wright has suffered against ranked teams came
against teams in a higher classification. UMS-Wright last lost to an unranked team this past season when they fell to Andalusia in the third round of the playoffs. They also suffered a loss to an unranked 7A Baker team to open the 2021 season. Three of their other losses came against 7A Mary Montgomery (2016), 6A Helena (2020) and 6A McGill-Toolen back in 2011. The other two losses came against Mobile Christian (2020) and Thomasville (2016). The Bulldogs have played more ranked teams over the past dozen seasons than anyone on our list except Hoover. |
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| #7 St. Paul's Saints | ||
 |
Record since 2010: | 131-29 81.9% |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 104-25 | |
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 33-18 | |
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 4-1 | |
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 94-10 | |
| St. Paul's
last lost to an unranked team this past season when they fell to
McAdory 21-7 to open the season. Three of their ten losses to
unranked teams over the past twelve seasons were against strong 6A Fairhope squads between
2011-2013. With the likes of Spanish Fort, Saraland, Jackson, Vigor and Blount often in the same region with St. Paul's they have the opportunity to play a lot of ranked teams each season. |
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| #6 Gordo Green Wave | |||
 |
Record since 2010: | 127-27 82.5% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 101-19 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 25-14 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 0-0 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 102-13 | ||
| Gordo is the only team on
our list to have not won a state championship over the past twelve
seasons. They last lost to an unranked team this past year by
dropping a game to Oneonta in the second round of the playoffs.
Oneonta has the distinction of handing two teams on our list their
last loss against an unranked team last year. Four of the fourteen losses came against 6A opponents Northridge and Hillcrest Tuscaloosa. Six more of the losses came in the playoffs. So just three losses against ranked opponents were during the regular season. |
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| #5 Spanish Fort Toros | |||
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Record since 2010: | 140-27 83.8% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 110-18 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 36-20 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 2-0 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 102-7 | ||
|
The Toros lost six games against ranked schools in a higher
classification. Spanish Fort lost two games last year to unranked opponents when the fell to Saraland and then again to Opelika in the second round of the playoffs. Over the past twelve seasons they have lost to St. Paul's twice, Daphne, Vigor and 6A Fairhope. All were unranked when the two teams played. Between 2012-2018 the Toros only lost to one unranked team in 2014 to Daphne 7-0. |
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| #4 Hoover Bucs | |||
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Record since 2010: | 144-23 86.2% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 144-23 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 50-13 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 12-9 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 82-1 | ||
|
Hoover has been ranked every week since the beginning of the 2010
football season. As a matter of fact they have been in the top ten
of the ASWA poll every week since the 2000 season a total of 249
consecutive weeks. The Hoover Bucs last lost to an unranked team in 2015 when they fell to Vestavia Hills 20-13 in week eight. That is actually the only loss they have suffered to an unranked team since dropping a game to Pelham in the last game of the 1999 football season. If we look at the years between 2000-2021 the Bucs have gone 177-1 against unranked teams in the state of Alabama. Simply an amazing and unbelievable record. One note here is that we looked only at the results of games won on the field and overlooked the four forfeited contests in 2007. Hoover has been ranked #1 at some point in every season since 2001 except 2007, 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2020. That is sixteen of the last twenty one seasons. |
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| #3 Piedmont Bulldogs | |||
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Record since 2010: | 146-21 87.4% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 146-21 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 31-15 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 1-1 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 114-5 | ||
| Piedmont has
lost a total of five games to unranked teams over the past twelve
seasons. The last coming in 2021 when they dropped a 28-24 decision
to Ohatchee in week seven. The other four losses were to Flomaton in
the 2018 title game, 4A Oneonta in 2014, Rogers in the 2011 playoffs
and 5A Gulf Shores in 2010. Prior to the loss to Ohatchee in 2021 the Bulldogs had not lost a regular season game to an unranked team since falling to Section in week seven of the 2006 football season in Coach Steve Smith's first year with the program. |
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| #2 Maplesville Red Devils | ||
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Record since 2010: | 142-17 89.3% |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 142-17 | |
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 25-13 | |
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 0-0 | |
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 117-3 | |
| The last time
Maplesville lost to an unranked team was last season when the Red
Devils dropped a 20-7 decision to 4A Montevallo. Maplesville also did have one forfeit
loss in 2020 to Montevallo but we are not counting those games here.
Maplesville also lost to 2A Isabella in 2020 and their only other
loss was to McIntosh in 2012 in the second round of the playoffs.
The Red Devils last lost to a 1A unranked team back in 2008 when they fell to Holy Spirit by a score of 13-6 in week nine. |
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| #1 Fyffe Red Devils | |||
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Record since 2010: | 153-11 93.3% | |
| Record as a Ranked Team: | 153-11 | ||
| Record vs. Ranked Teams: | 34-7 | ||
| Record Against Out of State Teams: | 0-0 | ||
| Record Against Unranked Teams: | 119-4 | ||
| The Fyffe Red
Devils finally lost a game in 2021 after winning a school
record 51 games in a row. The 20-19 loss to Geraldine was the first
loss to an unranked team since the Red Devils lost to Fultondale in
the 2012 playoffs. The other two losses were to Woodland in the first round of the playoffs in 2010 and 2011. Since losing to Sulligent in the third round of the 2017 playoffs the Red Devils won every game against a ranked opponent until a loss to Saks last season also in the third round. That was a string of seventeen straight victories over ranked opponents. |
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While there does not seem to be any real surprises here I think it helps us understand how the top teams have performed against ranked and unranked competition over the past dozen seasons.
These schools all have one thing in common the past dozen seasons. They beat the teams they were suppose to beat. That makes each one great.
David Parker
AHSFHS.org
dparker@ahsfhs.org
Great Moments in Alabama High School Football History
From 1947 until his retirement in 1992 Glenn Daniel's teams won 302 games at Pine Hill and Luverne. He was the winningest coach in state history until 2010.
From 1947 until his retirement in 1992 Glenn Daniel's teams won 302 games at Pine Hill and Luverne. He was the winningest coach in state history until 2010.
