STARKVILLE — Chase Nicholson will take any win.
As an offensive coach, though, he would prefer the Starkville Academy football team to score a few times to avoid sweating out 3-0 or 7-0 victories.
The way the Volunteers’ defense is playing Nicholson and his players won’t have be nervous if their offense doesn’t produce.
Last week, Starkville Academy continued its defensive dominance with a 28-2 victory against Winston Academy in its Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, District 2 opener in Louisville. The Volunteers (6-0), the reigning MAIS Class AAA State champions, have allowed only 36 points and have three shutouts more than halfway through the season.
Starkville Academy will try to extend that run of strong defensive play at 7 p.m. Friday when it travels to Greenwood to take on MAIS Class AAAA Pillow Academy. The game will be the team’s final non-district matchup before it closes the regular season with district matchups against Canton Academy, Heritage Academy, and Leake Academy.
“It’s a point of pride for our defense to do that, and it’s a standard coach (Bubba) Davis and coach (Brad) Butler set,” Nicholson said. “It’s a big deal to them week in and week out, so that trickles down each year. It’s a goal. We tell them we’re glad that they continue to do that, and the offense appreciates it, but the offense had to pick it up because we can’t rely on that each week. We can’t win games 7-0. We have to continue to get better.”
Nicholson said teams that are destined for greatness or want to be great continue to learn. He said he was impressed Starkville Academy continued to push forward on a night when its faced adversity against a good Winston Academy team. Quarterback Garrett Lewis rushed for two scores and threw for another in the victory, but Nicholson feels the Volunteers left too many scores out there, including a drive that stalled inside the 5-yard line without any points.
“We have to have the mentality on both sides — a killer mentality — of we’re not going to let them score and we’re going to score a whole lot,” Nicholson said. “I’ll take a 7-0 win. A win is a win, but if we won 7-0, there is a pretty good chance we left a couple of them out there. That means we didn’t execute at some point during the night, and that is what we’re trying to keep from happening.”
Nicholson said the Volunteers have been building to that attitude each week, but he said sometimes that inexperience kicks back in. He said Lewis, a junior in his first year as the starter, continues to make progress. Nicholson also feels the Volunteers are deeper since the start of the season. He said players like C.J. Jackson at running back and Noah Aweau at wide receiver are making bigger contributions. Those efforts are giving players like running back Taylor Arnold and Nason Heflin and Will Miller chances to play other positions and to rest during games so they are fresher at the end.
Nicholson also praised the play of the offensive line for leading a ground game that has relied on Arnold and Lewis to carry the load.
“Taylor has a great trust with them and he is patient with them,” Nicholson said. “Two weeks ago, he was a little quick to jump outside instead of staying up in there. You saw it this week. He stayed in there a little bit longer before he bounced it. When he stays in there, it opens up.”
Nicholson said the continued emergence of Lewis also should help take some of the load off Arnold. Even though Lewis has been getting less than 10 carries a game in the first part of the season, he anticipates that changing as the Volunteers get deeper into the season and Lewis becomes even more confident in his ability to make plays.
“He has a nose for it,” Nicholson said. “For whatever reason the light bulb has clicked and he has a nose for the end zone and he wants to find a way to get in. It was a pretty impressive little run (referring to a short touchdown run against Winston Academy). He had to make somebody miss and then he had full extension at the end and got hit at the end. He said he was going to get in. Period. Anytime you get the end zone in your nostrils you, hopefully, want to put it in. What I want him to do is to be able to smell it from 50 yards away. He has run the ball well at different points throughout the season, but I want him to continue to run better.”
Nicholson wants all of his players to have the same attitude. So far, he believes everyone has pitched in because the team has improved each week. With a chance to go 1-0 in another week, Nicholson said the players recognize a 6-0 start is irrelevant, even if he brought up that record earlier in the week.
“I made a mention about us being 6-0 on Sunday and I told them we’re fine and we’re doing some good things,” Nicholson said. “Glue (Lewis’ nickname)said, ‘No, coach. We’re 0-0.’ But that is the thing, they recognize the 6-0 doesn’t mean anything. That is the whole point about our conversation about trying to do some different things on offense. While we haven’t done well, if we continue to stay there, we’re not going to be able to push higher. We have to keep moving forward.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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