Merlin

This is the name I been hearing a lot the last couple days. And apparently there is strong mutual interest. In the Laurel Leader Call article that o screenshot the picture above from pierson straight up mentions the strong ties between west jones and bay springs. So that’s who I would put my money on right now.

There was mention during playoffs he could retire and then come back 2-3 weeks later and be hired by school district as a type of aid or something. And basically still be the coach without having to do all the teaching stuff. And still double dip his pay. But the just before Christmas break it was said he was coming back. And that’s all till this week. If anyone knew otherwise it was kept very quiet.

The team was told Wednesday. There’s already rumors of an area coach telling his assistants he had his application in for it on Thursday. And Wj hasn’t posted it yet.

He told players this week he was not returning. 3 weeks before start of spring practice. While it has been strongly rumored for 2 years he was going to do so at the end of the season each year. He even told some coaches last baseball season that next season (this most recent past one) would be his last. However it was indicated that he was returning, and even other coaches said as such, up until the moment he told the team he wasn’t. Caught some people off guard at the suddenness of it. makes one wonder if a private school that doesn’t currently have a coach threw a lot of money at him.

Wj has talent to contend. Depends on coaching situation

More to do with our offensive issues than your defense. Laurel and Hattiesburg’s defense was as good as yours. Ours was better. Not saying Picayunes defense was bad or even average. It was very good. But there were 2 other as good and 1 better in the south 5A. And all 3 of the other teams with defense had offensive issues. Picayune was overall more balanced.

I agree. My biggest complaint with the spread that’s ram at west jones is that it’s very predictable when we are going to run out it and it’s not very difficult to stop once we do. Requires a rb with great vision and ability to break at least 1-2 tackles to gain anything at all. And we have only had that type of rb a handful of years in the last 20. And times we do have they tend to spend more time at lb than rb. This is a very big part of the reason we tailed off the end of 2021 and this year. If we had a rb this year we knock out picayune in 2nd round.

I think Vance is a higher possibility than some seem to think.

it did. But MHSAA wants to move away from there. With good reason. That’s why it went to a rotation of msu - ole miss a couple times each then they decided to include Usm in rotation. It was at Usm 2 years in row to give then it was to go back to msu in 2020 and something happened to move it to Jackson. I forget what. After that it was assumed to go back to msu but ended up at Usm. But the games at usm, every class, all 3 years it’s been there, have averaged higher attendance than anywhere else. And it should. Most of the states population lives south of I-20. More average fans will go watch games even if their teams aren’t in them. And Hattiesburg is easier to get too with higher number of state highways and the interstate around it than anywhere in the state except for Jackson.

if they keep it at USM the real reason would be the games, all of them, at USM have had higher attendance than when they had them anywhere else in the state. Lots of money made from that.

Louisville only team from north that will win.

21 of your 28 came at the hands of WJ turnovers. WJ got 7 due to picayune turnovers. Take them away and Odds are very high the WJ wins if all they do is snap the ball, run 3 times and punt the entire 4th quarter.

Oh I’m pissed. Our OC needs to go. He screwed the play calling since the fumble before the half. I know west coaches felt they needed to have 21 by the 4th to stand a chance. They were trying to have our less than average qb try to do his best impersonation of that Gautier qb. Ignoring the fact we have averaged throwing 3 interceptions a game since 2019 (not an exaggeration. I have harped on this every year). And it bit us in the ass hard with that truck play near end of 3rd trying to have our 8th grade wr throw to our qb and you guys picked it off. The team folded after that. Another interpection, fumble then yet another int in the 4th. Unacceptable. if we run the ball more than twice in the second half and kill some clock instead of trying to hit the big td throw then maybe the last 2-3 turnovers do not happen and west pulls this out.

WJ play calling wasn’t good enough. Abandoned run after fumble before halftime. If they killed clock in 3rd and early 4th the last 2-3 turnovers probably don’t happen. college level coaches and coordinators get fired for collapse like this.

west jones just collapsed. 3 turnovers on 3 possessions led to 21 points.

after teams trade turnovers 3rd ends with picayune deep in Wj territory.

Gautier was up 28-15 at half. west jones up 17-7 on picayune late 3rd.

First team to 21 wins.

There’s a basketball forum section

Ahhh I remember that. Wayne county was ranked and had undefeated or 1 loss and PRC beat them and ran to south state. Heir first of like 3 in a row. I had forgotten. 2010 Brookhaven was a 4 seed from region 3 and beat someone from region 4.

I know picayune was in region 3 in 09 and 10. So was prc. I didn’t recall what year they moved to region 4.

What does that have to do with y’all playing like butt in the playoffs?

Have we e er had a south state game between 2 teams in the coastal division in current 5A (since 2009 when 6A was added)? Have we ever had a region 3 1-seed lose to a region 4 4-seed ever in that same time frame? I know a region 3 4-seed has best s few region 4 1-seeds.

If laurels defense can hold picayune to 28 then west can hold them to 21. The issue will be can wests offense score 24+. WJ will have the best defense picayune has faced this year. Probably by a lot.