Rivals High Article on Hoover-Colquitt Game

Dallas Jackson is the Senior Analyst for RivalsHigh. Email him your question, comment or story ideas to DallasJ@Yahoo-Inc.com and follow him on Twitter.

By the time Rush Propst leads Moultrie (Ga.) Colquitt County onto the field against Hoover (Ala.) High to open the 2013 season it will be five full football seasons since his departure from the Alabama program he helped build into a national power.

Propst has had to fight the public perception that has stained him since allegations of grade-fixing, use of ineligible players and adultery were first brought against him in 2007. The allegations ultimately cost him his six-figure job and possibly a legendary career at a name brand school.

At the time Propst said his final days at Hoover were like being at the Alamo: Everyone was looking to ride him out of town on a rail. But if time actually does heal all wounds, then the game between the two out-of-state powers will go without a hitch.

Rush Propst led Hoover (Ala.) High to five state titles (and seven title games) in nine years at Hoover. CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

"It is time for the game to be played," Propst said. "For both schools, and for me."

Propst admitted that the junior varsity players that played were ineligible but has maintained that he was never involved in grade-fixing. The extra-marital affair that seemed to follow him more than the on-field allegations has since turned into a happy marriage that is seeing Propst through his battle with cancer.

He has moved on from Hoover; raising Colquitt County from a once-proud program that turned into an also ran back into a real threat to win the state title. Colquitt County has been nationally ranked in the RivalsHigh 100 and has increased its efforts in out-of-state games under his watch.

But that is not to say he has not longed to come back to the Birmingham suburb.