Football went on without East Mississippi Community College in 2020, and the Lions are eager to remind the competition that their absence was only temporary.
“We have a national championship team,” freshman Joshua Aka said. “We have a lot of athletes people have forgotten about, and it just adds an extra chip on our shoulder. We’re ready to show people that we’re still EMCC, that we’re still who we are in the past and what we’re going to be in the future. History repeats itself.”
The Starkville High School graduate said the year off the field was beneficial for him and his teammates.
“I feel like after having that whole year when we opted out, I’m way more involved than I would have been last year,” Aka said. “I got a year of the system under my belt, so this year is definitely going to be a great year.”
Lions quarterback Jamari Jones, a sophomore out of Northwest Rankin High School, is equally convinced.
“This team is probably one of the best teams I’ve ever seen,” Jones said. “It’s the most well-put-together team I’ve ever seen. We’ve got a lot of third-year players who came back to play their sophomore year, and we know each other very well. We’re just ready to compete and come together as one unit.”
Players who wanted it were granted an extra year of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Lions coach Buddy Stephens is glad to have them.
“It’s really been good for us to have those third-year guys here because it gives all of the younger guys a little edge,” Stephens said. “Those third-year guys are telling them what to expect. Those third-year guys are setting the tone as far as work ethic goes. We’ve had some transfers who have come in, too, and help set that work ethic.”
But with more than 50 freshmen on a roster of roughly 70, that tone will need to be transmitted quickly if the Lions are to improve on their 6-4 record from 2019.
“What it all comes down to is that we’ve got to make sure our first-year guys play like veterans and our third-year guys play with tremendous passion and are the leaders of our team,” Stephens said.
Jones, one of those third-year sophomores, understands what is expected of them and feels the year away from competition — nobody around EMCC football calls it a year off — will serve them well.
“Last fall, our coach explained that we’re like kids to him, and he wants to take care of us the same way he takes care of his own kids,” said Jones, who completed 39 of 73 passes for 430 yards in seven games as a freshman backing up Connor Neville. “We took all of the precautions, stayed masked up and worked on our craft. We lifted and ran every day, and we’re ready to get back on the field.”
Stephens couldn’t have said it better himself.
“I don’t look at it as a year off,” said Stephens, who has coached five national championship teams and seven MACCC champions during his 13 seasons in Scooba. “We were working. We’ve been working our academics, getting in the weight room, practicing when it was safe. It’s been a busy, hectic year for us, and we’re ready for it to kind of slow down and calm down a bit.”
That won’t apply to game nights, of course, and the Lions are eager to erase what they see as a bad year in 2019 after winning national titles during the two previous seasons. And while Stephens is very eager to improve on a first-round playoff exit, championship talk is just a bit premature for him.
“It’s one practice at a time, one day at a time,” he said. “We have a lot of young guys who haven’t taken college snaps yet. We’ve got a lot of guys who, even though they’ve been lifting weights and doing other things, they still weren’t playing in college ball games last year.
“We’ve got a long way to go before we start thinking about that. We’re just worrying about being 1-0 after the first ball game.”
That first ball game is at home, as the Lions welcome East Central to Sullivan-Windham Field at 7 p.m. Thursday. While that game is the immediate focus, the goal at EMCC remains the same, and that’s a lot more than being 1-0 Friday morning.
“(We’re) making sure we set the expectation of practice for them, that they understand there’s a lot of work that goes into any type of championship, there’s a lot of work that goes into every W, and right now just getting that work ethic instilled back in them is the thing for us,” Stephens said. “When you take that year off you don’t want to lose the edge, but after ‘19, I think we need to reset the edge anyway.”
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The 2021 East Mississippi Community College football team sits for a team photo in the home stands at Sullivan-Windham Field in Scooba. The Lions open their season at 7 p.m. Thursday at home against East Central. Tom Rysinski/Dispatch Staff
