STARKVILLE — Starkville High football coach Jamie Mitchell admits he isn’t sure what flicked the mental switch for his program.
What he knows is his team will try to build on victories against Southaven and Columbus at 7 tonight when it plays host to Northwest Rankin in another Class 6A, Region 2 battle.
“I wish I knew the answer to what changed because every coach would repeat it, but sometimes the kids just have to get sick of being lousy,” Mitchell said. “I really want to say how proud I am of our kids taking ownership in this football program.”
Starkville (3-2, 1-0 Region 2) is coming off two wins that bracketed a bye week and allowed it to have three solid weeks of practice.
“I don’t think any coach prefers a bye week because you’d rather be preparing for a game, but we got a chance to go back to fundamentals,” Mitchell said. “That’s something we desperately needed.”
Tonight, Mitchell will go against his good friend, Northwest Rankin coach Pete Hurt. The 57-year-old was the coach at Samford University from 1994-2001, and served as the offensive line coach at the Air Force Academy under Fisher DeBerry. Mitchell has faced Hurt when he was the head coach at Clinton High from 2002-04 and Center Hill High from 2007-10.
“I have more respect for Pete than maybe anybody in this business because of his long track record of success,” Mitchell said. “His kids play hard and play a disciplined brand of football each and every time out.”
After taking over the program in 2011, Hurt led Northwest Rankin to a 11-2 season. Twenty players were suspended for the team’s regular-season finale against Murrah High after a violation of team rules. Northwest Rankin won that game and a first-round playoff matchup with Southaven in Hurt’s first season.
“There’s a history of Northwest Rankin having great athletes throughout history, so there’s no doubt every coach in this division knows it’s not a matter of if but when they’ll become a power again real soon under Pete Hurt,” Mitchell said.
Offense has been Northwest Rankin’s main problem in its 1-4 start. The Cougars have failed to score more than 14 points in a game this season. Starkville will try to keep that streak going buoyed by the confidence its defense has gained from two solid performances.
“Our trademark since we arrived at Starkville has been ball-hawking, physical defense and we had to get back to that soon,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think everybody realized how young we are, and some of our defensive players just needed more time to learn their roles in the system.”
Senior quarterback Princeton Jones was 15 of 24 for 223 yards and three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) in a 35-13 victory against Columbus last week. He didn’t have an interception.
With Region 2 favorite Madison Central having back-to-back games against Murrah and Warren Central the next two weeks, both undefeated in Region 2 as well, Mitchell and his players know separation in the division will happen soon. Starkville hopes it is at the top of the standings and that is doesn’t fall back to the same bad habits when that separation is complete.
“The kids and coaches learned through the first three weeks what wasn’t working,” Mitchell said. “We have to refuse to revert back to that because our effort level wasn’t at a high place during that stretch.”
n Private schools will stay in MHSAA: The Mississippi High School Activities Association didn’t vote on a proposal that would have expelled 13 private school members from the organization.
MHSAA Executive Director Don Hinton told The Sun Herald the proposal never came up for a vote at the organization’s board meeting Thursday.
“It (the vote) failed for a lack of support,” Hinton said. “I think it is a measure of the support for schools in our association that there will be no removal of any schools.”
Earlier this week, Smithville High School principal Chad O’Brien made the proposal to ban private schools from competing in the MHSAA.
n In related news, the MHSAA took another step toward increasing the number of teams that will participate in the state basketball tournament every year.
According to The Clarion-Ledger, the association’s Legislative and Executive Council approved by “a good majority” Thursday to alter its formatting to allow eight teams (four from the North and South) in Classes 1A through 4A to advance to the state tournament in Jackson.
In Classes 5A and 6A, three teams from the North and South would advance under the new proposal, which will have to pass a second vote when the council meets again in February.
If successful, the proposal will take effect during the 2014-15 basketball season.
Staff and Wire Reports were included in this report.
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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