Central climbs up USA Today’s national high school football poll

As the Central Red Devils draw closer to a state championship game appearance, their work on the football field has gained more national attention.

USA Today’s latest Super 25 Computer Rankings has the Red Devils as the No. 14 team in the country. Central is the highest ranked team from Alabama and the fourth-highest in the Southeast behind No. 2 IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.), No. 8 (Armwood Seffner, Fla.) and No. 12 American Heritage Plantation (Plantation, Fla.).

“We talk all the time in our program about trying to overachieve and reach goals you don’t think you can achieve,” Central head coach Jamey DuBose said. “We talk early in the year about winning region, area and a state championship, and we always mention, ‘Why not be No. 1 in the nation?’ We kind of laugh about it when we talk and things like that, but it’s something that we shoot for. It’s something that if you believe in, I believe you can achieve it.”

The computer rankings judge each team by strength of schedule, power, offense and defense. According to the ranking, Central has a 66 offense, a 40 power, a 39 strength of schedule and a 32 defense. For reference, No. 1 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) has a 73 offense, a 61 power, a 61 strength of schedule and a 41 defense.

The Red Devils are 11-0 so far in a season that featured a region championship and the first undefeated regular season in DuBose’s 12 years as a head coach. He explained that his team understands there are two types of fear: the fear that makes you keep working for what you want, and the fear that makes you scared and holds you back.

There’s been no sense of anything holding the Red Devils back this season, which is why folks outside of Alabama are starting to really pay attention. DuBose’s team may move even higher in the polls Friday when they face undefeated McGill-Toolen with a state championship appearance on the line.

“We ask every group that comes in that you’ve got to better yourself and this program from the year before,” DuBose said. “This is the fourth year, and I can honestly say that every team has made the program better.

“Hopefully, this is the year we set that standard and that bar really, really high.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2017 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Central climbs up USA Today’s national high school football poll."