Say it in your best Bruce Buffer voice, the guy who has been telling UFC crowds "It's time" for twenty-some years now. Draw it out. Feel it.
Because it is time, Jacket fans, and I have been ready for a while.
New seasons are good for every sports fan, but football just hits different. We get at most fifteen of these on the very best years, and that first Friday is the one you circle in August and count down to like a kid waiting on Christmas. One kickoff and the whole thing is live again.
For a program that manages change as calmly as this one does, a new season still arrives with new questions and higher expectations. So let me lay out the case in three parts: why this team is built to stand out, the players worth learning before Week 1, and the schedule Hanna has to survive to make 2026 the kind of year people talk about for a while.
What Makes This One Different
Start with the pedigree, because it is not even close.
Over the last five seasons, Hanna is 49-11. Four of those years they finished 10-2. The lone exception was 2024, a 9-3 season that would anchor most programs' trophy cases and barely raises an eyebrow around here. The Jackets have won a region title four years running. Across every classification in South Carolina, Hanna owns the eleventh-best win percentage over that stretch at 81.67 percent, and only Northwestern, Dutch Fork, South Florence, and Sumter sit in Hanna's classification or higher on that list. Hanna is also one of a very short list of programs statewide to claim four or more region crowns in the last five years; company that includes Dutch Fork, Northwestern, and Sumter (only four in the two highest classifications).
That is not a hot streak. That is a standard. And nothing about this year's expectations dials it back.
Then there is the returning talent. A returning quarterback lives at the top of every coach's wish list, and the Yellow Jackets have theirs back, with experience around him at the skill spots. That combination is usually where offenses go from good to a problem for everybody on the schedule.
The defense is where I think this team can really make a statement. Hanna returns starters at all three levels, and the key ones sit right where it matters most: the middle of the field. If you can control the middle, whether that is interior runs or throws over the ball, you take away the easiest thing an offense wants to do. Hanna can do exactly that, from veteran nose guards to a downhill linebacker group to safeties with range. This side of the ball is set up to shine.
Last, the youth. Thirty-five of the sixty-two players on the roster are underclassmen, and ten of those are sophomores. In most programs a sophomore count like that means a rebuild is coming. Here it means the opposite. Hanna runs both a C-team and a JV squad, so if these young players were not ready to help, they would be down there getting reps and developing at a lower level. Instead they pushed their way onto varsity. That kind of youth usually shows up as excitement rather than a warning label, and this group has me watching right now, not next fall.
The wait is almost over. I hope you are as fired up as I am.
Players To Know Before Week 1
Every year I like to point the spotlight at a few names, some from what they put on tape last season and some from what they have flashed already in the preseason. This is a short list. There is a lot more talent on this roster than these eight players, and we will get to more of them as the fall goes on.
Jaylon Watson. Watson's season ended early last year with an injury, but before that he made himself felt on both sides of the ball. On offense he ran for 145 yards at 7.6 a carry with three scores, and added 70 yards and a touchdown through the air. On defense he averaged three tackles a game and picked off a pass. Watson brings a two-way dynamism that opposing coaches have to plan around.
Brock Cole. Cole led Hanna in rushing last season with 808 yards, and he did it at 8.4 yards a pop. For anybody who still thinks this offense is three yards and a cloud of dust, Cole is the counterargument: the explosive run is a feature here, not an accident. Now a senior stepping into a bigger workload, he should have every chance to pile it up.
Demarcus Duck. I will admit I wanted a player named Duck on the list, but the name is the least interesting thing about him. He is a sophomore already carrying the frame of a prototypical fullback in this offense, maybe with a little extra height. He ran hard and downhill in the scrimmage against York, and I expect him to be one of Hanna's leading ball carriers this year.
Tristan McCauley and Ja'sean Williams. I am grouping these two because they are both physically impressive football players. Both are north of 6-foot-4 and both can move. Working mostly at the tackle spots, they can drive ends off the ball, wash down interior linemen, and climb to the second level to make a linebacker's afternoon miserable. Williams is a sophomore. McCauley is a junior. Let that sit for a second.
Carson Cole. Cole returns as Hanna's leading tackler after averaging better than five stops a game, and he anchors a linebacker group that runs deep. He plays downhill like the rest of that group, but he can also flip his hips and make tackles in space, which is the part of the job modern linebackers cannot skip anymore. If this defense is as good as I think it will be, a lot of that rides on him.
Connor Ash. Ash is moving from the defensive line to linebacker, and he brings real physicality to the switch. He is stout against the run, but where he stands out is bringing pressure up the middle from the second level. An interior rusher who arrives fast changes what an offense is allowed to call.
Jamarion Williams. Williams is coming off a strong junior year in which he finished third on the team in total tackles. At free safety he plays the run and the pass equally well, athletic enough to cover shifty slots and fast enough to run with the burners outside. I expect him near the top of the defensive stat sheet, and I will go ahead and say it: do not be surprised if he comes down with five interceptions this season. That one is my prediction, not a promise on his behalf, but I like the odds.
Keep these names handy as the season opens next week.
The Road Ahead
Now the schedule, or the road to the promised land if you want to be dramatic about it. Living in one of the highest classifications in the state means Hanna's slate is annually one of the toughest around, and 2026 keeps the tradition. Let me pull out the crystal ball and walk it, game by game.
BHP. Hanna opens on the road against BHP, the first meeting between these two since 2021. The Bears are coming off back-to-back Upper State titles in 3A and have been one of the more dominant programs in the state, going 54-13 over the last five years with seven of those losses crammed into 2021 alone. Plenty is changing at BHP, though. David Crane takes over as head coach, a strong graduating class is gone, and one of the state's best playmakers, Tajeh Watson-Martin, transferred out and landed at Westside. That is a lot of turnover to sort through early. Then again, you do not build what the Bears have built without a pipeline stocked with talent, so the cupboard is far from bare. We will dig into the actual matchup in next week's preview. As a season opener, this one is a gift for fans, maybe more of a nightmare for both sides’ coaching staff.
Powdersville. Another 3A power. The Patriots ended last season in the Upper State championship against BHP and returned real firepower, with Xavier Huggins and Nasir Waldrop giving them two of the most explosive offensive players in Anderson County behind a big, athletic line. I like how Hanna's defense can match up here, but it will be a tough test early. I would still look for a strong night from the Yellow Jacket backs.
White Knoll. Here is one people may be sleeping on. White Knoll could be the best team Hanna sees in the regular season. The Timberwolves went 8-4 a year ago, and their only losses came to Camden, Dutch Fork, and twice to Irmo, which is about as respectable as a loss column gets. It was just two years ago that White Knoll went 14-1 with its lone defeat coming in the state championship game, a 21-6 result against Dutch Fork. They are breaking in a new head coach in Victor Floyd and a new quarterback, and I think that transition is a reason Hanna keeps rolling.
Wren. Hanna finally comes home to show off the new field turf and the scoreboard upgrades, and the housewarming guest is an old Anderson County neighbor. The Jackets have met the Hurricanes each of the last five seasons and thirty times all told. Wren drops a classification this year, but the talent has not gone anywhere. They return running back Muntu Brown, a punishing runner and one of the better backs in his class in the state. First home game of the year, though, Hanna gets it done.
Mauldin. Talk about familiar. Hanna has played Mauldin thirty times, going back to 1996 (every year except 2018 in that span), and none of them cut closer than last year's 28-21 overtime finish that went the Jackets' way. This is the last non-region game before the midseason bye, and I look for Hanna to close the non-conference slate strong against the Mavericks.
Fountain Inn. The first thing to know about the Fury is the name running their offense: quarterback Sam Holliday. Holliday threw for over 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns last season while adding more than 750 yards and 16 scores on the ground. By the time Hanna hosts them, he will have cleared 4,000 passing yards and 40 passing touchdowns for his career. In just their fifth season of existence, Fountain Inn is out to prove it can be the best team in Greenville County. The Hanna way tends to find a way, and I think the Jackets move past the Fury.
Laurens. Laurens is climbing out of a rough patch, two straight 1-9 seasons, but year three under Greg Porter looks like the rebuild is starting to take hold. The Raiders bring back their leading passer, Logan Bragg, who started all ten games as a freshman, along with their leading receiver, Damajia Crooks. Porter's teams, going back to his Hillcrest and Greenville stops, have given Hanna memorable battles before, so this is not one to file under gimme. I expect Coach Tone and company to make that point clearly.
Greenwood. The headline here is who is missing. Tristan Lewis, Greenwood's quarterback a year ago, is now wearing garnet and black for the Gamecocks in Columbia, and the Eagles have to replace a generational talent who starred at both quarterback and safety. Greenwood has also seen some players head across town to Emerald. None of that has ever slowed the Eagles down for long, and the talent well there stays full. That is the whole point of M.I.G, Made in Greenwood, the slogan you will hear all night. I like Hanna's defense to step up the way it did in the second half of last year's meeting. The Jackets keep rolling.
Easley. This is Hanna's fiftieth all-time meeting with Easley, and the real challenge is not looking past the Green Wave toward the finale the following week. Easley enters year three under Sam Houston chasing its first winning season since 2022, which would be just its second of the decade. Hanna is not in the business of helping anyone get there, and I have the Jackets winning on the road.
Westside. And here it is. The Electric City Showdown. If both sides hold serve, this is an undefeated meeting with a region championship on the line, and Ingles might as well start selling parking passes now because all of Anderson will be in attendance for this one.
The Rams are the real deal. Last season they started 0-4, then reeled off nine straight before falling to eventual state champion South Pointe in the second round. Somewhere in that run the young pieces clicked, and now they have them back and reloaded with some transfers. You know the names. Bear Woods threw for more than 2,300 yards. Tajeh Watson-Martin, the BHP transfer, went for over 1,100 receiving yards, added three return touchdowns, and picked off four passes, taking three of them back for scores. Jae White, a rising sophomore, was second on the team with 672 receiving yards. On defense they return leading tackler Malachi Peterson and Christian Webb-Scott, who led the team in sacks as a sophomore.
Westside is, flat out, the best team on Hanna's schedule, and maybe the best the Jackets see anywhere, postseason included. The Rams are a legitimate championship contender. So are the Yellow Jackets. Keep that offense off the field, rattle the sophomore quarterback, and Hanna takes the region crown.
The playoffs. Then comes the part seeding decides. Last season made that lesson plain, and with a schedule like this one, Hanna's RPI should stack up with the other top seeds. Upper State 4A is top-heavy, with South Pointe and Gaffney the clear favorites out of their regions. A high enough seed could mean avoiding South Pointe until the Upper State final, and once you get that far, everybody's cards go to the middle of the table. When it gets cold and the Jackets are rolling, nobody wants to see them.
One More Thing
So there it is. I just walked you through the 2026 season, and yes, some may say I did it wearing gold-colored glasses. Guilty. But what I am seeing lines up pretty closely with what the people paid to be objective are seeing, because Hanna already opens the year ranked inside the top ten in 4A from the state media poll. One or two games do not make or break a fall, but look at how this one is set up to start and finish. The pedigree is real, the roster is loaded on both sides of the ball, and the schedule gives this team every chance to prove exactly how good it is.
That is the promise of a new season. Not certainty, but possibility, and this one carries more of it than most. So stick with us all season long. We will break down every matchup as it comes, starting next week when the first preview drops and Hanna opens the year on the road against the BHP Bears. There is a whole fall of Friday nights in front of us, region banners to chase, and a Westside showdown already circled on the calendar. The wait is almost over. For me, it cannot get here fast enough.