Merlin

9 of 11 on defense return (lost 2 d ends). Lost 2 or 3 o linemen and the qb on offense. Everyone else is back. Their 2 rb's last year were in 9th and 10th grades. The better of the two was hurt first half of the Laurel game and didn't play the rest of the year. The 9th grader had a bad case of the fumbles and probably led to the loss vs picayune in the playoffs (wj abandoned the run by halftime cause he just flat out dropped 2 including one he wasn't touched on a huge run that put wj in scoring position before halftime if he held onto it).

Pretty sure MHSAA and Usm reached an agreement to have the games at Usm the next 3-4 years.

For the last like 8 years I see all this talk of Holmes Central having d1 talent and a legit threat to win it all. And every year they are 3rd or 4th in division and take a first round playoff exit.

Safe bet. Given there are 5 football playing teams in the district since Jim Hill went independent. 5 teams and 4 in playoffs. I can feel the hop welling up from PRC making the playoffs as I type. WJ should win district they bring back more than everyone else (9 starters on defense and 8 on offense). Just depends on how they respond to the coach.

Most of the staff from Pierson stayed put. OC Bud blackledge announced he was retiring 2-3 days after Reynolds was made official and the O line Coach went to lake to be OC. Reynolds brought in O line coach from petal and new OC came from Oak Grove to replace the departures.

OC.

Believe most everyone is remaining. Bud Blackledge leaving (retiring) not totally a surprise.

WJ will need a new OC.

There are 3 different stories that I heard as to the first vote. Most likely is that the vote didn’t happen as it wasn’t brought up for a vote due to actions of a certain board member who thought someone else should be head coach. Dudes name is out and it’s highly doubtful he gets re-elected to his spot on the board next election cycle.

Reynolds also had criminally underrated Scottie Phillips at RB those years at SJ. But yes he beat WJ twice and it’s the only games WJ has lost to SJ since 1999. I still had my hopes on one of the 4 with head coaching experience with state titles that interviewed.

Since it’s on social media now I guess it’s ok to post it. The Jones County School Board did not vote to approve West Jones coaching selection.

4. 4 guys with rings already (3 with more than 1 ring) that I know of applied and interviewed at least once.

I was just saying that some of yall were displeased. And the guy wins 2 titles in 3 years. So that gives me some hope in the new WJ coach maybe can pull something off. However the school board is playing games.

I don't think so. I seem to remember that there were some very unhappy people and may have been some burned bridges about his exit from South Jones.

Same!

Let me start this out by saying that he isn't my first, second, third, or 4th choice (4 guys with head coaching experience with 8 state titles between them). But he is better than one of the finalists I was hearing, in my opinion. And I do recall some Picayune fans being displeased with their hire 4 years ago and things seemed to have worked out for them. However, I don't think things are set in stone just yet. I made the two quoted posts below on the 2nd page of the thread. And, well, they hold true.

expect an announcement any time from now till Thursday.

Jackson prep at West Jones sept 29.

Hope not.

I can tell you Bud isn’t trying to become head coach.

Then you have no idea what you’re talking about. Before Pierson they were poorly coached. That’s why they weren’t very good. Too many players went both ways. They would get tired and teams would get them late in game. The 96 taylorsville game was prime example. As far as SEC caliber guys: Britt Barefoot, class of 04. Went to Usm because no one else offered full scholarship. Could have went to any sec school but most of them do not offer scholarships to kickers back then. Archie Sims, class of 05. Recruited by MSU. Scholarship pulled when Sylvester croom was fired. Went to JCJC then to West Virginia (which is power 5 school) Ira Lee Keyes, class of 05. Recruited by MSU. Didn’t have the grades and went to jcjc. I forget the qb name in 2012 that went to Minnesota as a WR (still power 5) then transferred to Usm after MN had coaching change. I forget the kickers name from 2018 that went to ole miss. And you probably know of Byron young that went to Bama. West should have played in at least 2 more state title games than they did (and as many as 5 more) and they would have for sure won one of those.

There is mutual interest and has been since before the Christmas break is my understanding. He for sure was seen by some as the front runner as soon as news broke. But the Jones County school board has final say. And they do not necessarily have any of the 3 high schools athletic programs Best interest in mind. Or at least depending on which schools graduates are on the board or in position to sway opinion. There was once a prominent NEJ grad that was in a position on the board and did what he could to hold back WJ and SJ.

A lot have expressed interest. WJ phones been blowing up since the day after Coach P told the team and his friends.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the jones county school board pushes their own ideas into this and turn it into a cluster.

Before Pierson arrived at WJ they were a ground ad pound type team. They ran primarily i formation with 4 run plays and 2 pass plays. They won lots of games but would get tired by the end of the year because usually they played 6-7 guys both ways every game. The o line guys played d line. Rb played lb. Wr’s played cb. It was easy to game plan for them. The game they won was when they just put talented the other team. Pierson rarely played anyone on his lines both ways. Usually if a kid did play both ways it wasn’t more than a handful of plays a game. He coached up kids at every position. But his best teams came when he had a 1 every 7-8 year type of qb at the helm however. I don’t think the style of offense will be the biggest issue.