Chip Lindsey impressed the Lassiter community last year by leading the Trojans into the second round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs in his first season as head coach.

Now, Lindsey will get the chance to impress his former mentor when he visits Frank Fillmann Stadium on Saturday.

Rush Propst will bring his Colquitt County team north for a scrimmage as the former Hoover High School co-workers match up on the gridiron for the first time since going their separate ways.

Before coming to Cobb County, Lindsey served one year as the offensive coordinator at Hoover in 2007. Lindsey entered a program of success at the suburban Birmingham, Ala., school, which saw a long streak of success under Propst, including five state titles in nine years.

The program also earned national attention when MTV chronicled the team for its "Two-A-Days" series in the 2005 and '06 seasons.

But despite his success at Hoover, Propst began to encounter controversy by the end of his tenure with allegations of grade-fixing and the use of ineligible players. He announced his resignation in October 2007, though he coached the Buccaneers through that fall's state playoffs.

Looking for a fresh start, Propst relocated to the south Georgia town of Moultrie as he looked to turn Colquitt County into a contender in a Region 1AAAAA crowd that includes perennial state title contenders Lowndes, Valdosta and Northside-Warner Robins. That region has combined to win five of the last 10 state titles in the state's highest classification.

In his second year at the Colquitt helm, Propst will get a chance to see where his Packers are when they face one of the state's top up-and-coming programs in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. scrimmage.

"We're excited about coming to Lassiter," said Propst, who coached Colquitt to a 4-6 record last season. "It will be a good exhibition. Chip and I have known each other a long time."

It will actually mark the second time the two have faced off on opposing sidelines. Lassiter and Colquitt played each other during a preliminary-round game last month in the National Select 7-on-7 Championships at Hoover.

The two coaches say they chat two to three times a week, but it will be a reunion of sorts between two mentors leading once-downtrodden teams.

Lassiter depended mostly on the run before Lindsey arrived and introduced the spread offense. The Trojans flourished with their new aerial attack, led by quarterback Hutson Mason, who threw for Cobb County-best totals of more than 3,200 yards and 25 touchdowns.

Not only was Lassiter's nine-win season a school record, its trip into the postseason was its first in eight years.

Lindsey credited much of his success with the Trojans to what he learned with Propst.

"I definitely learned as much as I did anywhere during the year I spent with (Propst) at Hoover," Lindsey said. "He's the best I've seen at organizing programs and is very driven. In just one year, I learned a lot about how to practice. I think he's the biggest innovator in Alabama High School history. That's definitely the reason I went to Hoover - to work under him."

Lassiter will face a Colquitt County team that plays a similar brand of football under Propst.

"We have a lot of folks back, but our weakness is that we don't know how to win yet," Propst said. "We're stronger, faster and quicker, but I don't know how talented we are yet. We're going to better, but (1AAAAA) will also be better. This region is definitely tough, no question. There are no pansies."

Propst went on to praise the job his former protege has done in turning the Trojans' program around

"He's committed to Lassiter and wants to do what he did at Hoover in (east Cobb)," Propst said. "To do what he did at Lassiter was phenomenal. He's a heck of a football coach. He went in there and turned it round."