SCOOBA — East Mississippi Community College football coach Buddy Stephens isn’t used to being in this position.
In each of the past seven seasons, the Lions played at least one Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College playoff game.
This past Saturday, EMCC was absent when the playoffs opened statewide despite being ranked as high as No. 1 nationally earlier in the season and third late in the season and after winning the school’s fifth-straight MACJC North Division title.
After a brawl in the final regular-season game (a 48-0 win at Mississippi Delta C.C.), EMCC was banned from the postseason by the MACJC. The season thus ended at 8-1.
“We beat the No. 2 team in the nation (Northwest) by 33 points (49-16 in the regular season),” Stephens said. “Everybody can put an asterisk by whatever they win this season because we weren’t in it.”
The soul-searching will be deep and thorough, as EMCC President Dr. Thomas Huebner and Athletic Director Mikey Stokes said Tuesday the school will evaluate the football program in hopes that some of the events from this season aren’t repeated.
“We have had things occur this year that you want to learn from,” Stokes said. “You can use these things as teachable moments. Overall, I feel like we have a fantastic program with men of character leading it.”
The season began with EMCC confirming the enrollment of former Florida State quarterback De’Andre Johnson, was dismissed from FSU after video surfaced of him punching a female student in a bar. Stephens confirmed Johnson was part of the program but wouldn’t join the team full time until he completed anger management classes and a full semester of classes during the fall. The confirmation came after a weekend in which EMCC received national media scrutiny for taking on the troubled standout.
During the regular season, EMCC saw its 25-game winning streak snapped in an overtime loss at Copiah-Lincoln C.C. in its second game.
On Homecoming, Stephens didn’t finish a 48-24 victory against Itawamba C.C. after being in an on-field altercation with an alternate referee. The altercation was physical between the coach and official and resulted in Stephens having to serve a school-mandated two-game suspension.
Still, EMCC overcome those challenges, beat Northwest to win the North Division, and had earned enough points in the national rankings to have an outside chance at an unprecedented third-straight national title.
The brawl dashed those hopes.
After a first half that featured seven personal-foul penalties, things unraveled in the final minute of the half. Leading 48-0, EMCC called back-to-back timeouts to get the ball back for a final possession.
On the fourth play of the series, sophomore running back D.J. Law caught a pass and was tackled hard out of bounds. After a Mississippi Delta player picked him up and slammed him back to the ground in front of the Delta bench, Law’s retaliation led to the melee.
“We had a fight,” Stephens said. “People left the bench. The rule is the rule. We still had people left on our bench. Those that weren’t involved should have had a chance to play. We are moving forward with it. I don’t think anything that happened during this season is detrimental to our name. A lot of people think that, but we don’t. We were 8-1. We had a very good football team. We were North Division champions. Because of a decision our players made to put their teammates’ safety first, they were not allowed to continue to play. These are the things you learn from.”
Stephens defended the use of the timeouts Tuesday. He said an Auburn assistant coach was in attendance and the goal was to get eventual Auburn commitment and backup quarterback John Franklin III one more first-half possession.
“The Auburn coach was leaving at halftime,” Stephen said. “We wanted him to get one more look at our quarterback. We were attempting to get the kid a scholarship. Turns out, we did.”
EMCC filed an appeal on the sanctions. Huebner said he was surprised the decision wasn’t overturned and his team allowed to play.
“I believe we had strong grounds for an appeal,” Huebner said. “I am not sure why our appeal was not granted. Based on the information we have put together, it should have been. However, that is a decision that has been made. In the future, we need to be above reproach. Our student-athletes need to be prepared for this situation. They need to know in advance how they are going to respond to this situation. I don’t want to point fingers at a conference because I am not familiar enough with what they have done in the past. I do know this decision disappointed me. We also have a responsibility as an institution and as a football program to communicate the values of our program and to move forward in a way positive for our student-athletes.”
While EMCC most likely will take a different approach to certain aspects next season, a major overhaul isn’t upcoming.
“We are who we are,” Stephens said. “I make no apologies for it. I think I have a lot of people who don’t like me. I think there are a lot of people who don’t like us. My job is not to worry about a fair shake (from the MACJC). Fair is where you kiss a pig and put a blue ribbon on it. My job is to make sure we recruit good young men who will graduate and win championships. When I got first here, all we wanted to do was win the division and make the playoffs. From there, you set the goal of winning a state championship. We did that.
“If you win the state championship, you will be in the national picture somewhere. Whether we get a fair shake (from the MACJC or National Junior College Athletic Association) is not my concern. We are not going to get the same shake as others. If this fight had happened here, we may be banned forever. We aren’t liked. We know that. We deal with it and move on. Don’t think this won’t motivate us for 2016.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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