COLUMBUS — Columbus football is looking to make a comeback under first-year head coach Barrin Simpson, but it’s been tough-sledding since the start of district play.
The Falcons have lost three games in a row, losing by one score to New Hope and Neshoba Central while dropping a shootout to Callaway in their district opener. It’s been a frustrating few weeks, and Simpson’s focus has been on finishing games.
“They need to have that killer instinct,” Simpson said of his team. “You’ve got to lock down on those momentum swings, and when you have momentum, put the game away. It’s a young group and that’s been a point the last couple of weeks, finishing games and finishing emphatically. We need to handle business at the end of ball games.”
The Falcons host Ridgeland (4-3) this Friday, a team that comes in having just snapped their own losing streak. The Titans are 1-1 in district play after ending a three-game skid with a 19-12 win over Callaway last Friday.
“They’re a pretty talented team,” Simpson said of the Titans. “It’s their second year in the division so they’re a little better than they were last year. They have some guys on offense who make things happen, defensively they’ve been playing well, so it’ll be a challenge for us to go out and get a ‘W.’”
The Titans are still on the minds of Falcons players from last year after securing a comeback 27-26 win against Columbus at home in 2023. Simpson knows that game well, and like many performances he has pointed to it as an example of the value of finishing strong.
“They definitely remember it from last year,” he said. “It was a bit like the Neshoba game last week, where we were up and just couldn’t finish. They were up last year and lost it in the last part of the game. When you’re up there’s no time to relax, you have to keep the pedal down and that’s what we’re emphasizing this week.”
The Falcons led last week on the road against the Rockets, 14-7, going into the fourth quarter before a 12-point rally by the home team led to a 19-14 win for Neshoba Central.
Simpson saw much of the same while looking at the tape from last season, and he knows his team has the ability to see games through. It’s not a quality issue for him, or even a case of the other teams being too good. To him it’s all part of the process for reconstructing the culture.
“In terms of areas to improve, I’d like to see discipline,” he said plainly. “It’s a cultural thing for us, that discipline side of it we have to improve on. It wins and loses you ball games and we need to improve as a team in having discipline as a culture. We’re not short of talent, but it takes discipline to be a good program.”
Simpson’s saying of the “Four D’s” has been echoed since his first introduction. Desire, determination and discipline will lead them to their destiny. He has seen the desire and the determination, but it takes that third step every day to execute under the lights. Their focus this week has been on the small things, the fundamentals, in an effort to turn things around against the Titans on Friday.
“Discipline stands for doing the little things right, and if you don’t have it throughout the week it leads to those bad snaps or missed assignments on Fridays,” Simpson said. “If you don’t have it, it’ll cost you the ball game.”
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