As the decade draws to a close, anyone who has a passing interest in Big 8 Conference football understands how drastic the changes the sports has seen the past few years.
At the beginning of 2010, Cedar Ridge was in the final four of the 2-AA State Championship tournament. After not fielding a team in 2018, the Red Wolves have opened the year 0-5. Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill also haven’t fielded varsity squads in the past two years, though both programs have varsity and JV teams this year.
It’s a far cry from 2013, where the quarterback play across the league was deep, talented and versatile. There was Garrett Cloer at Orange, who would graduate from Cornell. At Northwood, there were Ti Pinnix. Chapel Hill had Connor Stough, probably the most underrated.
Southern Durham had Kendall Hinton, the best prospect in the area. But he was surrounded by studs. Wide receiver Maurice Trowell (N.C. State), running back Jordon Brown (UNC) and William Brown (originally committed to West Virginia, ended up at N.C. State) all were skill players with Hinton.
Yes. Four Power 5 prospects on the same side of the ball. It’s little wonder why Southern jaunted out of the shadows of Northern Durham to become the power team in the Bull City for the 2010s—as long as they defeated Hillside.
(Ironically, the best prospect turned out to be just west of the Triangle. Jamie Newman was at Graham High and is now the starting quarterback for 5-0 Wake Forest. Hinton is one of his wide receivers.)
After Southern dropped down from 4A to 3A in 2013, they went from 6-5 in 2012 to 15-2 in 2013, the first of two consecutive Big 8 Championships. It also led to their crowning glory at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem, where they won their first 3-AA state championship over Shelby Crest. Hinton, who could flip Southern out of a 4th-and-32 hole with a 34-yard pass with a simple flick of his wrist, led the Spartans back from a 21-0 deficit to beat the Chargers.
Just as Phil Mickelson had to wait and watch Tiger Woods win eight majors before he claimed his first one, who’s to say Orange couldn’t have been a state champion if Southern hadn’t been so deep, so talented?
And had such for a flair for the dramatic?
From 2013-2015, Southern defeated Orange five consecutive times, twice in the playoffs. Orange’s class of 2015, which included Bryse Wilson, Garrett Cloer and Tay Jones, finished with a mark of 35-6 over three seasons. Five of the six losses were to Southern, but they defeated Cardinal Gibbons twice.
In 2014, the two undefeated teams met for the Big 8 Championship at Auman Stadium. Orange led 23-14 with 3 minutes to play, plus Hinton was carted off the field with a leg injury that had some of his teammates visibly shaken.
Yet Hinton somehow returned and led Southern to two touchdowns in the final 2:48 to give Southern a 27-23 win.
The most cruel of all came in 2015 during the 2nd round of the 3A State Playoffs. Southern had already won at Orange 34-16 on a night where Jalen Greene, Hinton’s heir apparent, threw touchdown passes to Brown and Myron Frazier. Even worse for Orange, wingback Eryk Brandon-Dean suffered a torn ACL in the first quarter. It not only ended his football career, but it also sidelined him for a promising senior basketball season where he was a starting point guard for then-coach Greg Motley.
The rematch took place two months later at Durham County Stadium. Orange put on a clinic in game tempo, slowing the game to a crawl. The Panthers threw one pass through three quarters. Wilson, playing running back and linebacker, somehow ran for 224 yards even though Southern constantly had eight men in the box.
Trailing 10-0 going into the fourth quarter, Wilson set up two Orange touchdowns in a span of 3:57, with separate runs of 59 and 57 yards. Drew Lemaster gave Orange the lead on a 31-yard carry around left end with 4:10 remaining.
Just as Hinton did before him, Green played the role of Southern hero, nicely. He converted two 3rd-and-10 situations. After Green was sacked by Orange’s Johnny Flynn for a 10-yard loss with 2:16 remaining, Southern coach Darius Robinson stepped in to call a trick play: the double pass.
They had run it twice all season. It worked against Hillside for a 49-yard touchdown to Jordan Mackins. The other time was against Orange, a harmless incompletion.
Orange’s defensive backs had keyed on Brown, holding him to 64 yards. Brown waited until the time was right to find Kaleb Barfield, who hauled it in at the goal line.
The following year was Orange’s breakthrough. The Panthers won 49-7 at Spartan Stadium in a game where Payton Wilson returned a punt for a touchdown, which was followed by a pick-six score from Rodney Brooks. The heartbreaks of years before were eased somewhat by a running clock when the Panthers’ Jackson Schmid scored on a quarterback sneak in the 4th quarter.
A year later, Francisco McKinley kicked a 28-year field goal in the final minute to lead Orange to a 16-15 win, which led to Orange’s third straight conference title.
Southern has struggled to replace Green, but junior Orion Smith has started to find his footing after a injury-plagued sophomore year. After missing the state playoffs in 2017 and 2018, the Spartans established themselves as the team to beat in the Big 8 Conference after beating Northern Durham last week 13-0
They’ll meet Orange on Friday night with a 4-1 record, its best start since their last Big 8 Championship in 2016.
The good news for Orange is they’ll be as healthy as they’ve been all season. For only the second time all year, leading rusher Machai Holt, wide receiver Zyon Pettiford and defensive end James McAdoo are expected to suit up together.
While Orange’s days as a state championship contender are behind them for now, they’re just focused on Southern Durham again in a game that could determine the Big 8 Championship.
Just like the good ol’ days of five years ago.