By Kevin Eckleberry

kevin.eckleberry@lagrangenews.com

Only 12 wide receivers in the state, regardless of classification, have more receiving yards than Troup’s Jamari Thrash.

Thrash, a junior who is in his first season at Troup after transferring from LaGrange, has 45 catches for 1,015 yards.

Thrash is 13th in the state in receiving yards, and he is in the top 10 in the state with 14 touchdowns.

Remarkably, Thrash has had at least one touchdown catch in every game this season.

He had two touchdowns against Lamar County, Chapel Hill and Cedartown, and he had one scoring catch in the other seven regular-season games.

In the Lamar County game, Thrash had seven catches for 223 yards with two touchdowns.

Thrash has scored a touchdown in all but one game this season, and that was in a 35-6 road win over Bowdon.

Thrash’s wide-receiver mate at Troup, Kobe Hudson, is also having a fantastic season.

Hudson, a sophomore, has 35 catches for 742 yards with 13 touchdowns, and he has a scoring catch in all but one game.

Hudson’s best game was against Sandy Creek when he caught six passes for 239 yards with four touchdowns.

Both players found the end zone last week against the powerful Cartersville Purple Hurricanes.

In the first half, Hudson beat his defender in the end zone on a fade pass for a 20-yard touchdown.

It was a jump ball, and with the defender all over him, Hudson went up and snatched the ball out of the air for the touchdown.

On the opening possession of the second half, it was Thrash beating the Cartersville defense for a 40-yard touchdown.

It helps Thrash and Hudson that they’ve had Montez Crowe throwing them the ball this season.

Crowe, a senior, is one of the state’s most prolific quarterbacks.

Crowe averages 321 yards per game through the air, and he has thrown 35 touchdown passes.

Crowe has thrown for at least two touchdowns in every game this season, and during one two-week stretch against Chapel Hill and Sandy Creek, he had 13 scoring passes.

SEASON LOW: Cartersville quarterback Trevor Lawrence did his share of damage against Troup, but he didn’t produce the sort of fireworks he usually does.

The Clemson-bound Lawrence, in fact, was limited to a season low in passing yards (222), passing percentage (.548), yards per completion (13.1), and touchdowns (two).

Lawrence’s biggest play, a 52-yard touchdown pass, came on a flea-flicker.

Those numbers are especially impressive for Troup’s defense considering Lawrence played a full game for one of the few times all season.

“(Defensive coordinator Tripp) Busby and those guys did a good job getting a plan together,” Troup head coach Tanner Glisson said.

The one thing Lawrence didn’t do was throw an interception, and that’s not unusual.

Lawrence has thrown one interception all year, and that came in the season opener.

Cartersville’s number one offensive weapons was actually senior running back Rico Frye, who had 23 carries for 204 yards with four touchdowns.

Cartersville scored six offensive touchdowns, and many of them were the result of a short field.

HOPING TO BREAK THROUGH: Troup hasn’t had much success at state over the years.

In 2001, Troup made its lone appearance in the semifinals, and it reached the third round of the state playoffs in 2003.

Since then, Troup has won one playoff game.

In 2011 under head coach Charles Flowers, Troup beat Cedar Grove 28-20 in the first round of the playoffs before losing to Sandy Creek 42-14 in round two.

Beginning with the 2004 season, Troup is 1-9 in the playoffs.

One of those losses came a year ago when Troup, after finishing second in Region 5-AAA to earn a home playoff game, lost to West Hall 24-21.

This team, which will travel to Ringgold to play Heritage-Catoosa on Friday, would obviously love to improve on that record.

“It would be nice to get the monkey off our back this year in the playoffs,” said Tanner Glisson, who is in his third season as Troup’s head coach. “Year three, I think it’s OK to expect us to win a playoff game. Unfortunately for us, we’ve got to do it on the road against a 9-1 Heritage team that is really good. They’re only loss is to Ridgeland, and Ridgeland is undefeated at 10-0.”