STARKVILLE — Chris Jones was adamant his Starkville High School football team would learn from its 28-3 loss to West Point and come back better from it.
Since the loss to West Point, Jones has simplified his offense, taken some calls out of game plans, and limited what the Yellow Jackets have to prepare for prior to games. The streamlined version of the offense has scored 84 points in the two games since the loss. Starkville (4-1) will look to continue that pace at 7 p.m. Friday when it travels to Provine (4-0) for the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A, Region 2 opener for both teams.
“Less is more sometimes,” Jones said. “We thought we had a good grasp of the base stuff and tried to move on and add a few wrinkles here and there, but you’ll be surprised. Sometimes one word can throw off the kids. I understand (the new wrinkles), but it’s more important they understand it so they can play fast, (quarterback) Malik (Brown) can make the right reads, and the offensive line can step the right way.
“At the end of the day, I have to make sure it’s not as hard because we have so many athletes, and the last thing I want them to do is be thinking a lot.”
Since then, Jones has cut down the number of plays Starkville uses in games. Other offenses might worry about becoming one-dimensional in taking away pages from the playbook, but Jones isn’t worried.
Nearly all of Starkville’s offense is based on run-pass options. Jones might call a zone run play, but that play is tagged with other options — and others like it — so it can end with a handoff, a quarterback run, or two or more passing options. In theory, Jones can call the same play three, four, or five times and have the ball wind up in a different player’s hands each time.
Now the job is to
master those plays. In addition to not executing some of its more advanced plays against West Point, Jones feels the time the team spent practicing them prior to the game stalled the development of Starkville’s base offense.
“We need to master something, something to hang our hat on when things get hard,” Jones said. “A lot of teams win a lot of games and don’t do a whole lot because it’s all about making plays.”
Jones has made peace with the decision to limit the playbook, but doing so at the beginning wasn’t easy.
“It is tough to dial it back,” Jones said. “We have so many toys to play with, but we have to find that one toy we really, really like — that one teddy bear — and make sure you lay down with it.”
Jones remains optimistic the Yellow Jackets will master the playbook. He knows he has plenty of talent and potential and that it will take time to digest the plays and get comfortable with the complexity of his system. That’s why he isn’t in a hurry to circle back to what he tried against West Point.
“It might be an offseason project,” Jones said. “I looked back at some teams from when I first started coaching, we were running two run plays, three passes, a couple screens and won nine games. The key was the kids were so athletic and played fast because they knew what they were doing.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.