'Having Gainesville across our chest, we did it for the city': Gainesville getting ready to recognize 2012 state championship football program

Oct. 27—At Gainesville High, there's been lots of wildly-successful football teams, eight have played for a state championship since 1947.

However, the group from 2012 stands out above all the rest as the only one with a state title.

On Friday, to mark the 10-year mark since the Red Elephants won the Class 5A state title, it will hold a reunion for players and coaches during Friday's region-championship game against North Forsyth at City Park Stadium.

"Just thinking about it, it feels like it was just yesterday," 2012 junior linebacker Devan Stringer said. "That's an accomplishment we'll cherish a long time, for sure."

Ten years ago, Gainesville was led by phenom junior quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was already a nationally-acclaimed star and the No. 1 prospect in the country for the next year's senior class.

However, the story of the 2012 state champions at Gainesville goes much deeper than being a star-led program, even though it certainly helped abundantly in tight battles.

"We all grew up together," said Alex Muckle, who was a senior outside linebacker in 2012. "Those were my brothers."

"You would never catch us by ourselves," said Tray Harrison, who was one of Gainesville's leading wide receivers. "We were always together, on and off the field. It was a brotherhood we had since we were kids playing Pop Warner football."

And they're still the closest of friends, even though they are all now in their mid-to-late 20s.

The 10-year reunion celebration will include a ceremony at halftime, Gainesville athletics director Adam Lindsey said, in addition to a tent for them to eat and catch up on the pavilion of the PK Dixon Field House.

None of the players involved will forget Dec. 14, 2012.

It started with a spirited send off and tour of all the elementary schools for the younger kids to show their support (some who now play on the varsity team) in the Gainesville City Schools district and included a drive by City Park Stadium, where players saw 'a couple thousand' fans cheering them on for the trip down to play at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

"We were kind of in awe to see that many people there," senior linebacker Michael Pittman said. "We felt like celebrities. After that, we knew we were going to win."

Pittman added that the championship season played out like a movie, one with a fantastic finish but plenty of moments in between where the direction of the season was up in the air.

The championship game didn't have nearly the drama of films like 'Friday Night Lights' or 'Varsity Blues.'

Thanks to a fast start, Gainesville rolled to a 49-13 win against Ware County in Atlanta.

Winning the state championship was a once-in-a-lifetime thrill for the Red Elephants and a big heap of redemption for the seniors, who were first-year players with their squad that came up a point short on the same field against Peach County in the 2009 championship game.

There were many stars on the big stage in the 2012 state title contest.

The eventual all-classification Player of the Year Watson, who is now quarterback with the Cleveland Browns, went over 4,000 passing yards for the season in the title game.

His main target that night was Caleb Hayman, who had 164 yards receiving and a pair of touchdowns.

And defensive leader Fred Payne, a senior, had a fumble recovery that went for a touchdown and an interception from his safety spot against the Gators.

After the game ended, Gainesville coach Bruce Miller and seniors Chase England, a center, Payne and Pittman were on the stage to receive that state championship trophy.

That moment lasts forever in pictures that ran in The Times and was put in countless scrapbooks as keepsakes for players, coaches and fans.

"It was just a flood of emotions after we won the state championship," Harrison said. "Having Gainesville across our chest, we did it for the entire city."

Gainesville dominated in the first four rounds of the playoffs, outscoring those first four postseason opponents by a 243-83 margin.

And once they made it to the biggest game of the season, they treated it like all the rest: a business trip.

"Winning that state championship was way bigger than us at the time," Pittman said. "The city really needed it."

Despite the domination late in the postseason, there were certainly moments of uncertainty in earlier rounds.

None were more nerve-racking than the second-round game against fourth-ranked Kell.

Trailing 35-21 at halftime in Marietta, the Red Elephants remember a melancholy halftime with plenty of self reflection and thoughts about what it would take to get it turned around.

And that, they did.

In the second half, Gainesville held a 40-7 scoring edge and won 61-42.

That night was one of the best by Watson, who was a two-time Heisman finalist and national champion at Clemson.

He finished the game throwing for 235 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for 163 and five more scores in the second-half comeback.

The next week, Gainesville played like an entirely different team, dominating from beginning to end with a 64-13 win against Harris County in Hamilton.

Gainesville's only home playoff game in 2012 was its 41-14 win against Rome, on a mild but rainy night at City Park Stadium.

After that, the Red Elephants had to go on the road as region runner-up, due to losing the final two games of the regular season to region champion Flowery Branch and Loganville.

In fact, Gainesville became the first team to win the state title in football after dropping its final two games of the regular season since Marietta in 1967.

However, most of the regular season was a resounding success for the Red Elephants after a narrow loss against West Forsyth to open the regular season.

The following week, Gainesville picked up a 19-15 win at Tom Riden Stadium against No. 2 Buford, which would go on to win the Class 3A championship.

Following that memorable victory, the Red Elephants would score more than 40 points in each of its next six wins, marked by a season-high 69 points in a shutout win against Winder-Barrow on Sept. 14.

The unsung heroes of Gainesville's championship, according to Stringer, were their offensive and defensive linemen.

"We were always a little smaller than guys on some of the teams we faced, so I praise those guys (the linemen) for what they did for the team," Stringer said.

Once the season ended in 2012, the accolades starting pouring in for the Red Elephants.

Four of Gainesville's players (Watson, wide receiver Rodney Lackey, Payne and Stringer) were all First-Team All-State selections, while Miller was tabbed the Coach of the Year.

And, then there was Watson, who broke the state record for career passing yards (9,063) in the championship game and would finish his prep career in 2013 by shattering the previous record with 13,135 passing yards.

"Deshaun always had great ball placement and such a strong arm," Harrison said. "He's a great guy, on and off the field."

Watson, a first-round selection in 2017 NFL draft, would go on to play in three Pro Bowls with the Houston Texans (2018-2020), before sitting out the 2021 season and being traded to the Cleveland Browns.

Watson is in the midst of an 11-game suspension stemming from 22 separate accusations of sexual misconduct by massage therapists in Houston where no criminal charges were ever filed. He's settled 20 of 24 civil lawsuits filed against him.

Meanwhile, Payne is in his first year on the Red Elephants coaching staff, after a standout college career at Western Carolina and several years playing professionally in Europe.

Stringer also had a superb college career at Appalachian State.

He's now working in the private sector, but hasn't ruled out still playing professionally overseas.