Kris Pickle had his mad scientist’s hat on early Monday afternoon.
The objective was simple: Come up with some creative offensive options for a New Hope High School football team still at less than 100 percent health to use against Louisville at 7 p.m. Friday in the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) opener for both teams.
The thought gave Pickle pause because the Trojans will be without senior running back Tyran Reed and could be without senior quarterback/running back Kyree Fields.
The uncertainty of the Trojans’ situation caused Pickle to shift gears and remove the hat he had on to concoct game-changing plays and switch to one longtime college football coach Lou Holtz would have been comfortable wearing.
“We’re going to pray a lot,” Pickle said. “They’re really good. We beat them last year, and I think we kind of shocked them a little bit, so we’re not going to be able to roll up there and have them lay down for us.
“They probably will be there waiting for us. When we get off the bus, they probably will greet us.”
Pickle doesn’t expect Louisville to “lay down” for New Hope (4-2), but he also believes his team will be ready to play for its first game as a Class 4A competitor since the 2008 season. New Hope went 8-5 in its last season in Class 4A and advanced to the third round of the playoffs, where it lost to Noxubee County.
The MHSAA’s latest round of reclassification dropped New Hope from 5A, where it finished 6-5 last season, to 4A and into Region 4 with Louisville, Noxubee County, Leake Central, and Kosciusko. At 5-1, Louisville, whose only loss is to Class 5A power West Point, figures to be one of the contenders to win the region title. Leake Central (4-2) and Noxubee County (2-4) also should be in the mix, while Kosciusko (0-6) looks like it might have to settle on playing the role of spoiler this season.
New Hope feels it has the pieces to do more than that. It has momentum thanks to a 42-22 victory against Aberdeen and a 34-3 victory against Caledonia last week. Still, the Trojans haven’t advanced to the postseason for the last two seasons, so the game against Louisville will be the program’s first gauge to see how it stacks up against one of the top teams in this classification.
Pickle hopes sophomore quarterback Ryan Burt and sophomore running back Braylen Miller continue to emerge. Both played key roles the last two weeks. Against Caledonia, Fields played only a handful of snaps because Pickle said he didn’t feel Fields had the explosiveness due to an ankle injury. A healthier Fields would give the Trojans a better chance to balance the run-pass options in their offense with Burt, Miller, and senior wide receiver Jeremy Tate, who has committed to Memphis.
Pickle hopes Fields will be able to play Friday night, but he said New Hope has plans either way. He also said he hopes Reed will be back next week for the team’s game against Kosciusko.
“We’re going to go there and compete and do the best we can,” Pickle said.
A better start will ease Pickle’s mind. He said the Trojans started slowly last week against Caledonia and led only 7-3 at halftime. Pickle said New Hope rose to the challenge in the second half and played with more energy and enthusiasm. He said a slow start against Louisville could be too much to overcome, even though New Hope rallied from a deficit in the second half to beat Louisville 27-26 last season. The Trojans have won three of the four meetings in the series dating back to 2011.
“Our kids don’t really show a lot of emotion either way,” Pickle said when asked if he thought the players would be mentally prepared for the challenge to play the Wildcats. “I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I think we’ll go down prepared and ready to play. They know they have to get themselves focused and ready to play. The biggest thing I want our kids to do is go down there ready to fight (and to compete). That is what it is all about. You can’t go down there with a ‘Hope-we’re-going-to-win’ attitude. You have got to go down there with the attitude we’re going to fight those dudes and battle them for four quarters.”
Pickle sees that mind-set more from Miller, who rushed for 166 yards and two touchdowns last week. It was the second-straight game Miller eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark.
“They’re getting better every week,” Pickle said of his sophomores on offense. “Ryan is seeing it. He has to get more comfortable with trusting his decision-making. He wants to make sure he is making the right decision, so that puts him a second or two late.
“I saw Braylen run through some tackles and spin off some guys. He made a lot of yards after contact. Early in the season he wasn’t doing that. He was kind of going down as soon as he got hit. It is good to see him running with a little more authority.”
Pickle expects Louisville to be more multiple than Houston, which New Hope defeated 35-28 earlier in the season. Louisville has wins against Holmes County Central, Kemper County, Ripley, Grenada, and Greenwood.
Pickle said a key will be the Trojans’ physicality, especially against the run. He hopes the defense will be able to play with the physicality it has shown for much of the season.
If it doesn’t, Pickle might have to get that mad scientist’s hat out again to conjure another weapon for the Trojans.
“I think the key to the game on both sides of the ball is winning first down,” Pickle said. “If we win first down on offense and defense, we will be in position on offense where we can take some shots and be in position on defense where we can take some chances to get some stops.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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