VALDOSTA — One of Utah’s best football teams is ready to play Georgia’s most famous team.

Jordan High, the No. 3 team in Utah’s largest classification, 5A, has come to Winnersville to face Valdosta High, the nation’s winningest high school team. The Beetdiggers (2-0) face the No. 6 Wildcats at 8 p.m. at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

It will be a battle of two football programs from two different areas of the country who have each won their share of state championships. Jordan has won 11 state championships, while Valdosta owns 23 titles.

Jordan head coach Alex Jacobson has said the trip will be like a bowl-game experience for his players.

“This is a great opportunity for us, to come to Valdosta and play a team with the tradition that Valdosta has,” Jacobson said.

“It’s going to be fun,” Jordan quarterback Sean Taylor told The Salt Lake Tribune earlier this week. “It’s a new brand (of football). They’ve got a good reputation, a lot of national titles and stuff.”

Jacobson has a tremendous amount of respect for the Wildcats’ football program.

“They’ve got a great program, a first-class program,” Jacobson said. “We’ve tried to model our program after Valdosta’s. If you saw our weight room, it would remind you a lot of theirs. Valdosta’s got 23 state championships and a great history. They’re the kind of program you want to model your program after.”

Jacobson had been wanting to face a big-time program, and in February, he called Valdosta athletic director Warren Weeks and asked if VHS still paid teams to come to Bazemore-Hyder Stadium. The teams worked out the details, and now the Beetdiggers are in Valdosta to play the Wildcats tonight.

Valdosta has paid Jordan $12,000 for the trip. The team still had to hold fund-raisers and the players had to come up with $300 apiece to make the trip, but their coach says it was worth it.

“It wasn’t a hard sell for the kids. When they heard about Valdosta, and the chance to play a team with that kind of history, they were excited about it,” Jacobson said.

“This is a chance for these kids to see a part of the country they’ve never seen before, not to mention they get to play a great football program. This will be a great learning experience for them.”

Jordan runs a spread offense, with some option plays mixed in, much like the University of Utah. The Beetdiggers use a variety of defenses, getting in three-, four- and sometimes five-man fronts, depending on the situation.

“We’ll spread it out,” Jacobson said. “But we also want to be able to run it. I believe you have to do both. We want to play old-school football, and that means blocking and tackling.”

Jordan is blessed with playmakers at the skill positions. Taylor, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound quarterback with a strong arm and 4.5 speed, was an All-State quarterback last year. Running back Houston Cassita also has 4.5 speed, and he used it to rush for 1,019 yards and 19 touchdowns last year. Jordan’s top two receivers are junior Cody Raymond, another 2005 All-State selection, and Scotty Ebert, who has verbally committed to BYU.