During its domination of Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) football this decade, East Mississippi Community College has gotten pretty much whatever it wanted.
From favorable bowl assignments to lofty national rankings to signing the best players in the state, coach Buddy Stephens and his staff have put a plan in place to build arguably the nation’s best program.
What EMCC hasn’t had is a rival.
That might start changing at 2 p.m. Saturday when No. 4 EMCC faces No. 1 Northwest Mississippi C.C. in what could be the biggest game of the six-year history of the new Sullivan-Windham Field in Scooba.
During Bobby Franklin’s run of dominance in the early 2000s, NWCC clearly was the state’s best program. Stephens was hired at EMCC prior to the 2008 season and quickly flipped the switch.
Against some of the premier programs, the numbers have been gaudy.
Stephens is 8-1 against rival Itawamba C.C. He is 7-2 against South Division power Mississippi Gulf Coast and 7-1 against NWCC
While EMCC was going through the good times, NWCC was going through a stretch of four coaches in three years.
NWCC had won 19 of 20 series meetings before Stephens’ arrival.
In 2011, No. 8 EMCC beat No. 5 NWCC 45-42. In 2012, No. 3 EMCC beat No. 5 NWCC 56-49. The 2013 and 2014 EMCC victories were a combined score of 128-7.
Last season, No. 8 EMCC beat No. 4 NWCC 49-16.
With that victory, EMCC wrapped up its seventh-straight MACJC North Division title. Only Stephens’ first team didn’t win that title.
A week later, a benches-clearing brawl ended the EMCC season early and banned the squad from the MACJC playoffs. NWCC took full advantage, rolling to the state championship and to the school’s first National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championship since 1999.
Benjy Parker has taken over and has NWCC going in the right direction. The Rangers haven’t been producing the eye-popping numbers of most MACJC schools. Instead, NWCC has done its heavy lifting on defense.
EMCC won the 2013 and 2014 national championships. Thus, the last three national titles belong to the NJCAA and will be on display Saturday. The two schools value football and invest the proper resources in the sport. With NWCC’s recent coaching instability behind it, there is no reason this rivalry can’t become special.
EMCC has taken a major step backward on defense this season. Despite a bevy of Division I transfers on that side of the ball, the Lions have been exposed in the secondary.
The MACJC built its fan-friendly reputation by being full of teams with standout players who score a lot of touchdowns. In its heyday, defense was played in the league about as often as it is played in the NBA.
This season, EMCC has returned to that old-school form to win high scoring games against ICC (44-42) and Holmes C.C. (63-49).
The MACJC is on the upswing, too, as eight teams have made the NJCAA national rankings.
The resurgence of the league has allowed EMCC to claw back from its season-opening loss to Jones County Junior College to out itself in position to contend for another national title.
The winner of Saturday’s game will wrap up at least a share of the MACJC North Division title. NWCC still faces No. 9 Northeast Mississippi C.C. in the final week of the regular season.
If NWCC beats EMCC and NEMCC beats NWCC, EMCC would be odd-man out in a three-way tiebreaker and miss the playoffs for a second-straight season.
However, EMCC is 29-1 at home since the new stadium opened in 2011. A win by EMCC would mean an eighth-straight division title and a chance to move to No. 1 in the national rankings. It also would be EMCC’s fourth win against a ranked team.
If victory Saturday doesn’t send EMCC to No. 1, it still has plenty of time to get the job done, with games against ranked playoff opponents. In a perfect world, EMCC and NWCC would meet again Nov. 12 for the state championship.
On paper, this game has potential. It has a chance to start (or perhaps re-start) a rivalry.
EMCC needs a rival. It needs someone on its level. It needs someone to look to compete with, to prove it is the best.
We will see if Saturday delivers.
Scott Walters is a sports writer for The Dispatch. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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