MACON — Noxubee County football is headed to the postseason for an 18th consecutive season. Head coach Teddy Young and his team will face St. Stanislaus at home on Friday night, starting what they hope is a journey that ends in Hattiesburg in December. 

The Tigers, 7-2, are a battle-tested group from this year and previous years having made it to the state championship game in three of the last four years. 

“I feel good about the mood of the team,” Young said ahead of the playoffs. “We’ve got a lot of kids that have played in the playoffs, so they know what time it is. We’ve got a great senior class that’s been setting the tone all week for this playoff run.”

As a starter, quarterback KaMario Taylor has led the team to the championship game each of the last two years, but they have fallen short each time. 

The program’s last state title came in 2017, when Young was the offensive coordinator. As head coach, it’s one hurdle he and his teams haven’t yet cleared, and the margins have been very thin in each of their title game defeats, losing by three in 2022 and a touchdown in 2023.

“I feel like we haven’t been playing our best ball when we get to that last game,” Young said. “We usually have a letdown in one of the three phases. It’ll take us playing our best ball for all four quarters.”

The Tigers have the benefit of having Taylor, a four-star prospect with a strong case for being the best high school player in the state, but he is one of several leaders who have mentored freshman and sophomore players stepping into starting roles this season. This isn’t the most experienced Tigers team Young has coached, but it has a chance to be one of his best groups because of the leadership in the team paired with young talent. It’s a group that has blown away the district opposition and has the Tigers believing another title is possible. 

“Our offensive line and KaMario Taylor helps a lot,” Young said of the leadership in the team. “We’ve had a lot of young skill guys, but being able to run the ball, the offensive line protecting KaMario and allowing him to be both the dual-threat that he is as well as a leader for the young guys has been a big plus for us this year.”

The 2024 Tigers team still has a ways to go before winning a title is in the cards, but with six straight wins the current squad looks the part of championship contenders. They took some tough losses early against Starkville and West Point, but a win at rival Louisville galvanized the team. They’ve scored at least 41 points in their last three games, and now face a St. Stanislaus team that has become a familiar playoff opponent. The teams have met three previous times, including last season, and the Tigers have won all three. It’s a challenging path back to the title game, but that’s why the Tigers schedule some of the best in the state each season. 

“We played a lot of good teams, we’ve seen a lot of good defenses, so when we get to the playoffs it’s nothing new,” Young said. “The type of offense or defense we want to play, we’ve seen it all before we get to our district schedule. Playing those hard non-district games made our guys grow up faster. We’ve been good, able to run the table in district play, and playing those tough games early saw our guys respond well. I feel like every week we’ve gotten better and now we’re playing good football at the right time.”