Archer's rise to No. 4 preseason ranking has taken just three steps and six seasons

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See highlights from the Archer High 2014 football season

If only it could be so simple.

Archer (Lawrenceville, Ga.) has climbed all the way to national football prominence in only six varsity seasons based on three clear and concise principals, says coach Andy Dyer.

1. Alignment – know where you're supposed to be.

2. Assignment – know what you're supposed to do.

3. Play your tail off.

Nobody has caught these Tigers, ranked No. 4 in the MaxPreps 2015 Xcellent 25 National Football Rankings and No. 1 in Georgia, giving anything less than 100 percent. That was true right from the get-go.

See the full preview for No. 4 Archer

Dyer had paid his dues for 11 seasons as an assistant split between East Coweta, Brookwood and Mill Creek before landing the head coaching job at the brand-new school in Lawrenceville, a city of 30,000 about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.

"Fortunately Dr. (Charles) Buchanan offered me the job and I was immediately surrounded by great men and coaches who shared the same philosophy on how to treat our kids," he said.

The staff of 17 was also connected on a highly competitive plain and though the team of freshmen and sophomores "more than took (its) lumps" the first two years, players were able to keep focused on the "light at the end of the tunnel," Dyer said.

It wasn't always easy. Following a makeshift 4-3-1 initial season against lower levels, the Tigers went 2-9 in their initial full varsity season.

"There were a lot of low parts and my wife prayed a lot," Dyer said. "My biggest challenge was making sure my coaching staff didn't have heart attacks. We had a bunch of competitive guys."

Luckily, so was the team's three-year starting quarterback Jarvis Holley, who led the team to a 5-6 record in 2011 and a first playoff game. The Tigers got drilled 49-3 by state power North Gwinnett but the table was set.

"(Holley) was one of the toughest kids I ever coached," Dyer said. "We just had a lot of tough kids who kept battling. We went 6-4 the next season, everything grew from there."

In 2013, the Tigers won their first 11 games only to lose an emotionally brutal 34-32 second-round game to that same North Gwinnett program, which ended up losing in the state final against Norcross.

"All those heartbreakers happen for a reason," Dyer said. "It helps you grow. It helps motivate you."

Last season, Archer's hearts were broken three times to start the season by a total of 16 points to Sandy Creek, Peachtree Ridge and Grayson, three state powers that won a combined 28 games.

The Tigers were in position to win all three games, but "we kept getting our knee caps blown off," Dyer said figuratively. At 0-3, Dyer was out of platitudes heading to a Week 4 game at Parkview.

"I met with the coaches real quick, came back to the locker room and all the kids were gone," he said. "We thought they all quit."

Instead, they all on the team bus, aligned, assigned and got ready to kick tail.

"I got on the bus and remember texting someone that we're ready to make a run," Dyer said.

Archer rattled off 11 straight wins by a 470-134 count to reach the 6A state final. The Tigers lost another heartbreaker, 28-24 to Colquitt County, which finished 15-0 and ranked sixth nationally.

But with the addition of 4-star offensive tackle EJ Price — a transfer from Central Gwinnett — to go along with South Carolina-bound receiver Kyle Davis, North Carolina State commit and defensive tackle Kobe Smith and two-way standout Dylan Singleton, who has a dozen offers, Archer appears to be anything but a start-up program.

"It's different because we'll definitely have the cross on our back this season," Dyer said. "It's different too because this is team No. 7 here. What team six did or team five doesn't matter. We're not falling back to our past. We've learned our lessons and are moving forward."