Carver to face team from Columbia (S.C.) in 2020 Cam Newton football classic
Carver’s football team will take part in this year’s Cam Newton C1N Classic, Tigers head coach Corey Joyner told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Joyner said the “contract has been signed.”
Carver will face Spring Valley (Columbia, South Carolina) at 2 p.m. EST on Saturday, Sept. 5, a source told the Ledger-Enquirer. The teams will play at Lakewood Stadium in Atlanta.
2020 will be the third year of the classic, and the first time teams from outside Georgia and Alabama are in it.
The Tigers will not be the first team from the Chattahoochee Valley to compete in the classic. Last year, Central beat Cedar Grove 24-20 in overtime.
Carver enters the 2020 season off a successful 2019. It won region 1-4A for the first time since 2015. The Tigers compiled a one-loss regular season and were the only team in the region to finish with an unbeaten region record.
The Tigers scored 40 or more points in seven games. They didn’t lose a region game, and beat Cairo in double overtime on October 11, a game in which the Tigers overcame a 22-8 second-half deficit. That game was a changing of the guard in region 4-4A and a game that provided a real watershed moment for a program that hasn’t won a state championship since now-Georgia Bulldogs running backs coach Dell McGee roamed the sidelines in 2007.
The Tigers lose the bulk of their offensive production, though.
Senior Khiari McCoy, the Ledger-Enquirer’s All-Bi-City Player of the Year who ran for nearly 2,000 yards in 2019, signed for Valdosta State on National Signing Day. McCoy, at one point, scored 11 touchdowns over two games.
Senior UCF receiver signee Ja’Cyais Credle has also left the program.
Spring Valley went 6-6 last season and made it to the second round of the South Carolina class 5A playoffs.
The Vikings will return a majority of their team from last season that moved from the flexbone offense to a wide-open passing offense. Quarterback D.Q. Smith broke several school marks last year.
Spring Valley has produced high quality talent over the years, including Peter and Michael Boulware, Pro Bowler Andre Roberts and Carolina Panthers linebacker Christian Miller. It also is the alma mater of Georgia linebacker Channing Tindall.
