This is the time for the Columbus High School football team to continue its season of new beginnings.
Coming off an overtime victory against two-time defending Class 5A champion West Point, Columbus will see how it fares in the role as “favorite” at 7:30 tonight when it plays host to New Hope.
A victory would help the Falcons (2-0) start the season 3-0 for the first time since 2000, when the team opened the season 6-0 en route to a spot in the second round of the Class 5A North State playoffs.
Columbus has had just three winning seasons since then and has four head coaches since Roy McCrory directed the program to some of its most successful seasons.
Now in his second season as coach, Tony Stanford feels the Falcons have been building to this point for a number of years. He just hopes they are ready to hit the home field after such an emotional victory against a tradition-rich opponent.
“The new beginning is coming along real good,” Stanford said. “Our kids have a real good attitude and are working hard. It has taken four years, but I finally feel like they have bought into what we are doing and they are playing real well.”
A sign that says “New Season, New Beginnings … This is Our Time” reminds the Falcons this season is supposed to be different. Victories against two-time Class 3A state runner-up Aberdeen and West Point have given the Class 6A Falcons reason to believe this is the season they will be able to earn a return trip to the playoffs. Columbus” first district test won”t come until Sept. 23 when it plays host to Tupelo, but Stanford, who was an assistant coach for two years to former coach Bubba Davis, feels the opening portion of the schedule, which also includes a game at Class 4A power Louisville next week, will prepare the Falcons for what is one of the state”s toughest districts.
Stanford said the trick this week will be to avoid getting caught up in the hype of the victory against West Point and suffering a letdown knowing on paper his team is favored to win the game.
Stanford said his team had a “real bad” practice Tuesday and improved a little Wednesday. After 36 years as a coach, Stanford is scared his team won”t be able to duplicate the focus, intensity, and effort it showed in beating one of the state”s premier programs.
“We have a lot of seniors who have played since they were sophomores, and they have had the ups and downs where they have played good and not real good,” Stanford said. “We really don”t know how it feels to play back-to-back weeks (this season), so we hope because we”re a senior-laden ballclub that our seniors will step forward and get us where we need to be.”
Stanford credits senior quarterback Cedric Jackson for being willing to accept a new role in the offense as a key reason Columbus is 2-0. The ability of Jackson to move to wide receiver and to allow sophomore Trace Lee to step in at quarterback has given the Falcons another dimension and has taken pressure off senior running back Damian Baker, The Dispatch”s Prep Player of the Week, and senior wide receiver Deontae Jones.
Defensively, Stanford has been pleased with the physical style of play. He said the years of hard work in the weight room have prepared the Falcons to take this next step.
“We finally — maybe — have got it in their head,” Stanford said. “We do a lot of physical stuff in practice to try to toughen ourselves up. Our kids have kind of responded to it.
“I have to be honest with you, we were afraid West Point would run us off the field. Our thing all week long was, ”Let”s hit” em in the mouth and show them how physical we are.” I felt our kids did that all night long.”
While Stanford hopes Columbus will be able to duplicate its effort from last week, New Hope coach Michael Bradley wants his Trojans to replicate the second half of their game last week against Noxubee County. New Hope trailed 45-0 in the third quarter before scoring 29 unanswered points in a 45-29 loss that evened its record at 1-1.
This week, New Hope again will be without senior running back Darius Petty (high ankle sprain) and will go with freshman Brady Davis at quarterback. Davis takes over for sophomore E.J. Jenkins, who Bradley said will move to inside receiver in attempt to capitalize on his playmaking ability.
“E.J. is a real good football player,” Bradley said. “He is a guy we need to get in space. It is not like he has done anything wrong. Brady is more of a true quarterback, while E.J. is more of a true football.”
Bradley hopes moving Jenkins to wide receiver will help take some of the pressure off junior running back Jameel Johnson, especially without Petty. He said this week was the first time Davis had worked with extensively with the first-team offense.
“Brady is a very mature ninth-grader, and we”re hoping that maturity can be something that plays in our favor,” Bradley said. “He is a very athletic young man who throws the ball real well and is a natural leader.”
Bradley said the Trojans had a good week of practice after getting their butt “whupped” against Noxubee County. He said tonight”s challenge likely will be just as tough because this is the best Columbus team he has seen in his time at New Hope.
“They”re a very good team,” Bradley said. “We”re going to have to show up and play the best that we can.
“They are fast, very athletic, and very well coached. They are playing with a lot of confidence, and they have athletes in various positions and playmakers (in Jackson, Baker, and Jones). All of those guys are playmakers and their offensive line is solid and they”re doing a good job of running to the ball on defense. It is going to be a challenge. We”re going to show up and try to meet that challenge.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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