PITTSBURG, Kansas
East Mississippi Community College football coach Buddy Stephens isn’t about to reinvent himself.
A self-proclaimed “JuCo lifer,” Stephens has displayed one of the most prolific offensive minds in the game, first as an offensive coordinator and now as a head coach.
EMCC usually brings in a bevy of talent on offense to run an entertaining, up-tempo system that produces a lots of plays and lot of points. Most of Stephens’ pupils have moved on to bright senior college careers.
That is why it was hard to grasp what happened Thursday night when No. 1 EMCC beat No. 2 Garden City C.C. (Kansas) 10-9 to win the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championship at Carnie Smith Stadium.
The victory helped EMCC win its fifth national title in eight seasons. The Lions are 5-0 in the national title game.
However, the latest championship was much different than the 2011 national championship game that saw EMCC beat Arizona Western College 55-47 in Yuma, Arizona.
EMCC won this season’s title with defense. To Stephens’ credit, he always has prided his teams on their defense. Typically, the Lions have played better defense than their counterparts in the state of Mississippi.
After last season’s national championship run produced less than stellar numbers on defense, more out-of-state money was spent to bring in better defensive players.
This year, a combination of newcomers mixed well with two-year veterans to produce a defense that went from allowing 25.1 points per game to 11.2 ppg.
In the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC), allowing 25.1 ppg. usually still is good enough to be great in most seasons. To cut that number by more than half is amazing.
This offseason, the question will be how to fix the offense. In 123 games under Stephens, EMCC has been held below 20 points three times. Two of them were in the final two games of this season. EMCC scored in the fourth quarter to beat Jones College 19-14 for the MACJC State title.
That is why Stephens has to proud of his program. He has to like back-to-back national titles. He has to like the work of coordinator Cliff Collins and his defense. He also has to like the fact that an offensive fix should be easy to make.
This season, injuries on the offensive line hurt the Lions and forced them to shuffle personnel for most of the season.
The injury bug also bit at quarterback. Vijay Miller returned to the team after playing professional baseball in the summer. Miller only appeared in five games before being sidelined by injury against East Central C.C.
Michigan State quarterback Messiah deWeaver started the national championship game. He threw for 96 yards and no touchdowns. In deWeaver, EMCC saw flashes of brilliance. He was a good team leader and didn’t turn the ball over.
However, he never had those video-game numbers EMCC normally sees from the quarterback position.
TyQuan Ulmer also performed well at quarterback. However, he didn’t move to the position full time until Miler was hurt, so it was more learning on the fly.
The Lions had a stellar defense as a backup plan. However, last year’s defense with this year’s offense would have been an interesting combination.
At wide receiver, EMCC had its usual surplus. Dontario Drummond, who collected offers from Ole Miss and Arkansas in the last 72 hours, may be the best Stephens has had at the position.
West Point’s Jason Brownlee should assume the role as the No. 1 target next season.
EMCC also ran the ball well this season. Deon McIntosh, a Notre Dame transfer, became the program’s third 1,000-yard rusher in the past eight seasons. Keon Moore, a talented freshman from the Gulf Coast, will be excellent as the No.1 back next season.
Perhaps the next quarterback prospect will help fix things overnight. There will be talent everywhere. EMCC will again begin No. 1 in the nation next season.
Stephens knows offense. Things will be back to normal sooner rather than later.
There is a still another trophy headed to the case. Today, it doesn’t matter how it got there.
Scott Walters is a sports writer for The Dispatch. He ca be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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