MACON — Tyrone Shorter doesn’t have any regrets.
The Noxubee County High School football coach didn’t have to put his team on a bus for nine hours to go play Aledo High, the reigning Class 5A, Division I champion in the state of Texas.
But Shorter always has believed in playing the best competition he can find, so when he couldn’t locate any takers in the state of Mississippi, he accepted the challenge of traveling nearly 600 miles for what could have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for some of his players.
Looking back, Shorter would have loved for the 10-6 loss to Aledo to have been reversed so Noxubee County could have returned to Mississippi with an unblemished record. But Shorter understands the Tigers still have a long way to go to complete the marathon that will take them to another Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A state title. That’s why the veteran coach was upbeat Tuesday when he talked about how well he felt his team represented the state and the community against one of the best teams in the state of Texas.
Now Shorter will have to find a way to help Noxubee County (2-1) correct the mistakes it made last week in time to face one of the best programs in the state of Mississippi — Class 6A Meridian — at 7 p.m. Friday.
“At one point, we had seven-straight three-and-outs, but we couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Shorter said. “We got into the red zone and scored one touchdown. We dropped a touchdown that I thought would have won the game.”
Shorter credited Aledo’s defense and said it was right there with the defense his team faced against Starkville. In that game, though, the Tigers were able to move the football through the air. Against Aledo, senior quarterback Timorrius Conner threw three interceptions. Although statistics from the game showed a discrepancy (Noxubee County had itself for 108 rushing yards while a report from the game had the Tigers with 48), Shorter agreed his team had difficulty sustaining a running game. He said that remains his team’s biggest concern entering the fourth week of the season.
“We don’t have (a running game) right now,” Shorter said. “We have two running backs in casts, and two of our other running backs are banged up and are not 100 percent, and it is showing in our running game.
“I told our team the other day, we are not getting the type of play we normally get from our quarterbacks and our running backs. That is what has our offense in a slump right now.”
Shorter said the lack of a running game has put more of an onus on Conner to do more through the air. He said Conner and the offense are “out of sync” and that it is going to take time for everyone to jell and for the team to get healthy.
Noxubee County’s defense has helped make up for the lack of production on offense. Aledo scored all of its points in the first quarter. Two personal foul calls kept Aledo’s drive for a field goal alive.
“I think defensively we are playing really good,” Shorter said. “We are not playing our best. I think we can get better on defense because we are making a lot of mistakes.”
Shorter said mistakes on defense contributed to Aledo’s touchdown. He feels inexperience played a role in the mistake and that tough competition will help all of his players learn valuable lessons he hopes will help the Tigers when Class 4A, Region 4 play begins.
That being said, Noxubee County still has to work its way through Meridian, West Point, and Kemper County before it kicks off region play with a home game against Kosciusko on Oct. 2. Don’t worry, though, because Shorter believes Noxubee County will be re-focused for a Meridian team that has lost to Madison Central, South Panola, and Wayne County, three of the best programs in the state of Mississippi.
“We had the best practice we have had all year Monday,” Shorter said. “It was unbelievable. We got after it at practice. I had let up on that because we are playing tough competition, but we went back to the way we normally do things.
“It is not going to be hard to get our kids up against Meridian because we faced these guys at least four times this summer in seven-on-seven. Every time we played them the game went to the wire. It was crazy. Our kids know a lot of their kids, and it is not going to be hard to get them up for the game.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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