The two championship-caliber programs of Starkville and West Point are both riding high into Week 2 of the season – and for good reason.

The Green Wave’s defense stood tall in a 9-7 win over reigning 4A champion Louisville last Friday, a game sealed by a Charlie Harrell field goal, and Starkville unveiled an explosive attack that rewrote the school record for offensive yards in a game with a climactic last-second 57-54 win over Oak Grove, the 2023 7A champions. 

Now, the two programs with championship aspirations and clashing styles have set their sights on each other. West Point and its gritty defense and rushing attack will collide with the high-flying Yellow Jackets in a marquee matchup slated for 7 p.m. today in West Point for the 100th all-time meeting between the rivals.

“It was an exciting atmosphere Friday night,” Starkville head coach John Carr said. “I thought our fans and community created an incredible environment. But when you’re at a place like we’re at, every single week is one where you have to get refocused… Our guys came back in Monday morning and all our attention was turned to West Point, and that’s where it’s been all week.” 

Similarly, West Point operates under the ‘24-hour rule.’ The Green Wave enjoyed their Louisville win for a full day, then moved on.

“It led to a lot of good juice Monday and Tuesday; a good win like that always carries over,” said West Point head coach Brett Morgan. “I’m very proud of what we were able to accomplish, but we had to move on really quick because it’s going to take all our attention on Starkville to be successful Friday night.” 

Clashing styles

West Point prides itself on running the ball and playing good defense – a style that’s helped it win the last two 5A state crowns – and put on another gritty display against Louisville. Trailing 7-6 early in the fourth quarter, West Point made a goal-line stop on fourth down to turn the Wildcats over, and with it, the momentum of the game. West Point took possession and drove down the field and took a 9-7 lead behind Harrell’s field goal. The Green Wave’s defense thwarted another Louisville drive on fourth down to seal the win.

“It was really good because we were able to learn a lot,” Morgan said. “Played a really, really good football team and that allowed us to learn about ourselves. It’s always good to get into those fires and not play your best and be punched in the mouth and still come out with a win, and still learn what you need to improve on. Offensively, we need to stay on the field and stay out of penalties. … Our defense was ‘bend but don’t break’, and they came up with some huge stands, but we need to be better on third down.” 

Starkville, on the other hand, used the arm of quarterback Kingston Johnson to throw the ball all over Yellow Jacket Stadium for a school record 486 yards to go along with four touchdowns to help match the might of Oak Grove’s 565 yards of offense. But Carr knows not to expect an air raid in West Point, which “wants to fight you in a phone booth.” 

“This is definitely a 180 (degree turn) compared to last week from the standpoint of just what they do on offense. It’s more, line up and they come right at you. ‘Here’s what we’re doing, stop us,’” Carr said. “We’ll have our hands full in matching their intensity. … It’s a long standing rivalry, and this is what the community and high school football is all about when you’ve got two towns close by and both of them are passionate about their football teams. It’ll be a tough road challenge for us.”     

It’s been challenging for both teams to prepare for Friday’s game due to their differences. Morgan said he can’t really use the film from Starkville’s game to see how best to attack them due to “night and day” offensive differences between the Warriors and Green Wave.

Carr said it’s been hard to simulate West Point’s unyielding defense during practices this week, something that can only be replicated by the Green Wave themselves. But how West Point plays is nothing new to the Jackets’ program. They’ve won the last five games against the Green Wave, including a forfeit win in 2021. Last year, Starkville won the rivalry game 33-26 to hand West Point its second loss of the season. 

For the community, it’s a big game, but both Carr and Morgan agree that it’s just an opportunity to once again go 1-0. That’s the mindset for both squads.

“If we let it become anything outside of that, we are going to become out of character and then it becomes something that it’s not,” Morgan said. “It’s just a football game that we’re prepared for and that’s where we try to keep our focus.” 

“We’re one week in and we’re 1-0,” Carr said. “The way to get to 2-0 is to not make the same mistakes you made in this past game, and luckily they didn’t cost us the game, but we made plenty of mistakes to correct over the week. Every single week what we try to do is be the best version of us, and whoever we’re playing is trying to keep us from doing that. … There’s a standard that we try to set, and it’ll be a tough task this week at their place.”