High school football action returns to the Golden Triangle this week – albeit briefly – as both West Point and Starkville host their respective spring games in the first opportunity for fans to get a glimpse of their favorite squads under new leadership.
West Point, the Class 5A runner up, hits the field today at 6 p.m. against visiting Oxford of Class 7A. The occasion marks the first game-like action for new head coach Roger Burton, a longtime assistant coach for the Green Wave who was promoted to the role to replace Brett Morgan, who left for the head job at Starkville after the conclusion of the 2025 season.
“It’s been a pretty good transition so far,” Burton said. “I mean the kids have worked hard. Our program has stayed the same and it’s going to stay the same and we are going to keep doing what we do and operate to our standards every day to the best of our ability.”
The two teams will play one half of football and then take a halftime break while the junior varsity teams of the Green Wave and the Chargers battle for a 15-minute quarter with a running clock. Afterward, the two varsity teams will return to the field and finish out the spring game with another half of football.
Among the other staff changes for West Point, Burton promoted assistant coach Jerry Fremin to offensive coordinator, Quon Brand to a “special teams coordinator role,” and Cody Allen was brought from the junior-high ranks to varsity as the team’s offensive line coach. Don’t expect to see much changed from years prior when it comes to how the Green Wave will look on the field, Burton said. West Point is going to line up and play good old-fashioned Green Wave football.
“I just want us to continue to operate to our standard and make sure that we continue our tradition of continuing to play for state championships. There’s going to be things we are going to have to work on, we know it’s not going to be pretty, but we want to handle adversity, play hard and play physical and do the best we can each time we go on the field.”
Starkville welcomes in South Panola and Hillcrest (Ala.) for a three-team spring game jamboree at Yellow Jacket Stadium on Friday. It’s also the first game-like action for Morgan, who took command of the Yellow Jackets after John Carr left the team to become the chief of staff for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL after the end of the 2025 season.
“It’s been fast – not a lot of sleep right now – just rocking and rolling,” Morgan said. “It’s been good. God has really blessed us. The young men, our players, have been really outstanding just trying to do things to the standard that we are trying to set and learning how to do that and what that expectation is.
The spring game begins at 5 p.m. with South Panola and Hillcrest squaring off for two quarters. Their junior varsity teams will follow with 15 plays on each side of the ball, then the varsity squads resume play with another half of football. Right after, Starkville takes on South Panola in the same format, then will play Hillcrest.
Along with Morgan, there are also a few more new faces to see on Starkville’s coaching staff come Friday. Morgan, who will be the primary offensive playcaller, brought over Casey Welch from West Point to coach the offensive line and assist with playcalling duties. Longtime Brandon defensive coordinator Greg Robinson has been hired for the same role at Starkville, and Patrick Garvin, a former offensive coordinator under Tyrone Shorter at Louisville, has been hired to coach tight ends and special teams.
“We have a really good coaching staff,” Morgan said. “God has really blessed us with the opportunity to have the coaches that we have and the administration here, the people here, the community here – it’s just been a lot of support. It’s been good, it’s a lot, but we have a long way to go.”
While he’s thrilled with his new coaches, Morgan said it’s been challenging to get his new coaches to campus while they finish up their contracts at their current locations. And while the Jackets aren’t quite where Morgan hoped they’d be by now, that isn’t changing how they are looking at their first taste of action.
“I’ll just go ahead and tell you – we are not ready to play a game,” he said. “…We’ve only had our full coaching staff and our team together for (13 practices), and really 11 of those were padded practices. I feel good about what we’ve gotten to do so far, but we know, our kids know that we are not fully prepared as a team to play four quarters – but we’re about to do it. We are going to learn from it, and this spring game we are going to attack it. We are going to try and win anything we ever do. As long as I am the coach here, that’s what we’re going to do. It’s wide open trying to win everything we do as a program, but at the same time we have to understand where we are as a program and make sure we don’t get frustrated when we don’t play perfect because it won’t be perfect. A spring game never is, especially when a team and staff have only had 13 days together.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
