MACON — Playoff time brings out something special in the Noxubee County High School football team.
Coach Tyrone Shorter doesn’t know what it is, but the Tigers have been through enough championship runs to know region play is when they have to raise their level in practice and adjust their focus in games.
A four-game losing streak forced Shorter to question whether this year’s group had the will to do that and live up the preseason goal of becoming the school’s first football team to win back-to-back state titles.
But wins in the first three Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 4A, Region 4 games have Noxubee County (5-4, 3-0) back on solid ground and back up to No. 2 in The Associated Press’ Class 4A state rankings this week. That is the highest Noxubee County has been since the first two weeks of the season, when it defeated Starkville in double overtime and Columbus.
Noxubee County will look to continue its undefeated run in region play at 7 p.m. Friday when it plays host to Caledonia (4-4, 0-3).
“My message to them Friday night (after a 33-7 victory against Louisville) was we did some great things, but we felt like we left three touchdowns on the field,” Shorter said. “A play here of there and we should have had a shutout. We can get better. That is what is so scary about this team. We can play a whole lot better than what we’re playing. We are still making those simple mistakes that are preventing us from being dominant.”
Shorter said this week could be special because the Tigers could welcome back senior defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, who has missed the past four games with an ankle injury.
Shorter said Simmons has been a little mad at him for not allowing him to get back on the field. He said he would be “less than a coach” if he put him out there when he didn’t feel he was ready, even if the doctors had cleared him to play.
Shorter said he would continue to evaluate Simmons this week to see if he would be good to go against Caledonia.
Without Simmons, Noxubee County has found its footing on defense. Shorter said after a 22-12 victory against Kosciusko that he thought his defense gained confidence by winning without Simmons. That confidence has grown in the past two weeks after victories against Leake County and Louisville.
“It is playoff time,” Shorter said when asked why the Tigers were starting to click. “Our kids have been there and they expect to win. They know what time it is. Once our team hits division, you can just see the energy level at practice (go up) and our kids are ready to turn it up a notch.”
A victory Friday and another against Leake Central in the regular-season finale would extend Noxubee County’s region winning streak to 21. The last time Noxubee County lost a region game was a 14-12 decision to Louisville on Oct. 20, 2011.
Noxubee County already has secured a playoff berth. Two more victories would wrap up a top seed and give the Tigers the best possible road to a return to the state title game in Oxford for a chance to make history and become the school’s first football team to repeat as state champions. That was the goal the Tigers set at the beginning of the season. A four-game losing streak caused Noxubee County to lose sight of that goal, but Shorter believes things are back on track and is team is working toward peaking at the right time.
“These kids are determined,” Shorter said. “They are on a mission. They want to be the first team to do it back to back. I am glad to see our defense and our team is playing so well without Jeff. Once he comes back, it is just going to put us back at the level we were playing at the beginning of the season.
“We are excited about where we are. We have beaten some very good teams in our division. We still feel like we haven’t played our best football. We have a lot of growing and cleaning up to do, but I like this team because we have room to get better.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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