Washed_Up_Athlete

As it is, if a MAIS school has motivated enough people, they can and will buy a player. In reality, there aren't many, but they exist. I'm not sure NIL in Mississippi would really change the system that already exists.

The best jobs in Mississippi high school football are Jackson Prep and MRA. For both - Pay- near the top of the pay scale (if not the highest paying jobs), and if you've already maxed your state retirement, you can double dip Facilities- very good Own staff - staff continuity is important in both places, so a new head coach can't just turn over an entire staff; so, if that's a negative, then this is the only one Community support - very good Community expectations- high Admin support - very good Alumni/Parent Politics/Interference - very little, generally affluent parent base (by MS standards) which also makes fundraising relatively easy Talent pool - among the private schools, probably the highest pools of homegrown talent; additionally, both schools (and especially MRA) have shown a willingness to supplement the homegrown talent pool with a few talented recruits Tradition - the highest tradition of winning at all MAIS sports Difficulty to win - its a 3 team league, Prep/MRA/Hartfield; it remains to be seen whether Hartfield has staying power after losing its largest benefactor

He’s a very good coach and did an impressive job with the defense a couple of years ago. Time will tell whether he can program build as well as he coaches on the field.

I'm not sure that JA is facing the existential crisis that WH faced. The girls' sports are in great shape. Girls' soccer is one of the best programs, if not the best program in the state. Girls' volleyball is nationally ranked. Girls' basketball, while off in the last couple of years, is historically very good. On the boys' side, the soccer program is very good. The school's financial condition appears solid. It has a substantial endowment. The PAC is awesome. The academic and sports facilities (aside from baseball, which really isn't JA's fault - the ditch beyond the outfield wall causes flooding and prevents significant upgrades to the field) are top-notch. The Raider Network is head and shoulders better than any other school based production in the state. Aside from soccer, however, the boys' sports have been in a seriously precarious state for years. And it is 100% due to a failure of leadership and an engrained culture that has been allowed to grow over the last decade or so. Yes, JA won the boys' basketball state championship with what was likely the best team in the state - public or private. However, if you scratch the surface just a bit, you can see problems. The Williams brothers fell into JA's lap (and only after another school refused to completely comp their tuition) and were the reason for the team's success. Only one player on the team who played significant minutes attended elementary or junior high at JA. That is not a formula for program building or sustained success. JA made the conscious decision to neglect baseball and it has paid for it. There are two sports that kids who attend the Jackson area private schools play from 6 yrs old forward - baseball and soccer. If you de-emphasize either of these sports, you are telling kids who value the sport to go somewhere else. And they have in droves. At bottom, JA's refusal to acknowledge its problems and aggressively address them has seriously hampered its boys' sports. Its best young athletes now attend other schools. The net result is a basketball program in which homegrown kids believe they have no legitimate shot to contribute; a football program that cannot compete with the other 6A Jackson schools; and a baseball program that is an embarrassment. It's a frat boy culture in high school.

Your post underscores the point. Blount and Shaw haven't coached at JA in two decades. Hawkins' last year at JA was 2008, and the school ran him off. Sykes had a couple of good early years, but he was ultimately asked to resign because the program was on a rapid decent (6-6 and 4-9 in his last two years). Weems, like Pogue, never had his heart in it and it showed. Blackwell was the best coach JA has had in two decades, but he left because he realized how difficult it would be to flip the culture. In baseball, Powell did more with less than any coach in the state. And for his efforts, JA refused to pay him a bare minimum salary and forced him to resign. Then, instead of conducting a legitimate search for a competent replacement, JA hired an underqualified assistant. The program immediately tanked. Meanwhile, programs at Prep, MRA, and Hartfield are among the best in the state - public or private. JA's closest historical rival, Prep, is the best program in the state and many of the top players on that team are former JA students and kids that would have attended JA had the school treated Powell properly. Guess who hired Powell within 5 minutes of JA letting him go? Prep. Two decades of mediocrity and mismanagement have taken their toll on JA. Nearly all of its homegrown and best talent has left to attend other schools with more functional programs. In this past year alone, JA lost two of its best returning players to other schools. The school has been a cultural mess for years and JA can't recruit/scholarship its way out of the football/baseball hole. You can do that short-term in basketball, where it only takes a couple of players (see: Williams brothers) to win. You have to build football and baseball programs from within. Until JA gets a coach, AD, headmaster, board, parents, and kids who collectively care enough to flip the culture, JA will continue to be in the cellar of MAIS 6A in baseball and football. Weems, Pogue, and Blackwell believed it was too difficult and moved on. The next guy had better know what he's getting himself into, he had better be willing to get to work, those other vested interests had better support his efforts 100%, and everyone had better understand that it may take half a decade to turn things around. Otherwise, it's wash-rinse-repeat.

Pogue quickly realized JA is a much more difficult job than it appears from the outside and he never had his heart in the job. His early success was largely the product of sheer luck. The team that made it to the championship game was the last talented bunch of homegrown kids the school had. Blackwell was the best coach at the school in years. But he had to recruit numerous kids just to field a semi-competitive team. I suspect he figured out that turning JA around will take many years and a lot of work, and he decided that he would rather take on another challenge closer to home. There's a reason why JA has turned over so many coaches in the last two decades. Football (and baseball) is just not engrained in the school's culture. Athletic kids that attend elementary at JA and care about football or baseball leave to join more functional programs. Students and families that have attended JA for years don't know the recruits, there is no emotional investment, and ultimately, many of the top the recruits leave. It's a downward spiral. For JA to have any sort of sustained success, the school needs to hire a young, smart, aggressive coach who is willing to rebuild the program from the ground up and who is willing to do what it takes to build relationships with families throughout the school. He needs to retain kids in the school. It is a long term rebuild.

It's an academic debate, so there's no right answer. But here's where I come from: Jackson Prep played West Jones as well or better than anyone else - as is evident from the hangover WJ had the next week against Terry. The was a one score game all the way until the last minute when WJ broke open an long fourth down attempt for a score. MRA took Oak Grove to OT and should have won the game. JP lost a close game to MRA in the regular season and beat MRA in the playoffs. I watched all of these games. IMHO, West Jones' defense was much better than MRA's defense and Oak Grove's defense. West Jones' offense was not as good as MRA's offense or Oak Grove's offense. But at the end of the day, defense travels. West Jones is my choice.

I agree. I believe West Jones was the best team in the state, no matter the classification, and by a wide margin.

He may be better classified as an all-purpose player, but Major Quin at Jackson Prep is better than at least half of those kids you listed.

You need to add Billy Puckett, Jackson Prep, and John Austin Wood, IAHS, to the list.

WJ deserved to win the Prep game, but the only * should be the touchdown that the Refs clearly stole from Prep before halftime. It was very apparent on the replay. Prep should have had the lead at the half. I thought then and I think now - WJ is the best team in the state. I believe they'd beat the 7A champ.

WJ had a hangover from the Prep game in the last matchup. This game won't be close this time.

I watched the entire game. I wondered how Terry would match up and how WJ would respond less than a week after the Jackson Prep game. My primary takeaways are (1) West Jones had a hangover from the Prep game. WJ did not play nearly as well as they did against Prep. (2) West Jones should run the option attack they ran against Prep more. They had run it very little before last week and hardly used it last night. (3) WJ asks the 9th-grade QB to throw too much. They need to settle into their option and inside running game and throw when the opponent is off balance - like the academies do. (4) WJ's defense is excellent.

MRA-Hartfield will be interesting. MRA is down its best DB to injury, but can Hartfield capitalize? Can Hartfield's DL pressure White enough to throw him off his game?

Hartfield has entered the chat . . .

The best players on the field were 9 for WJ and 5 for Prep.

Prep's OL has good size. 6'6" 260 tackle; 6'2" 275 guard; 5'11" 245 center; 6'4" 230 guard; 6'8" 300 tackle. The primary subs on the OL are 6'2" 240 and 6'0" 210. Prep's QB can throw from the pocket and on the run. He's also a pretty effective runner. I bet you'll be surprised at the effectiveness of the Prep passing game. I do not believe West Jones will establish much of a passing game. Prep's secondary is really good, West Jones's QB is a freshman, and Prep does a good job of getting pressure on the opposing QB - even when the opponent has a large offensive line. Don't discount the value of quickness and smarts in the high school game. My guess is that West Jones will tighten the splits on its OL and run the ball. Prep will counter that by loading the box with 7 men and playing man-to-man in the secondary. If West Jones can effectively gain 5-10 yards a run, it will probably win. If Prep does a reasonably good job controlling the run game, Prep will probably win. My guess is that WJ will break off some runs but Prep will do a good job of limiting the WJ running game. Prep-24 West Jones-17

Prep will likely be the most disciplined and the best-coached team West Jones will face. Prep's head coach is in the Alabama sports hall of fame. He runs the offense. Prep's defensive coordinator has been there a long time and is excellent. Regarding the MRA comparison, Prep is probably more talented defensively than MRA. Schematically, Prep will mix 3 and 4-man fronts and will blitz its inside linebackers a lot. The defensive line is athletic but only averages around 200 lbs. It's more like Prep has 7 linebackers on the field. The secondary is probably the best unit on the defense. On the offensive side, MRA is more talented at QB (John White is really good) but Prep is more talented at receiver. Prep has a tight end that's 6'2" 220 lbs. with multiple D-1 offers. It has a 6'3" outside WR that can go up and get it. The slot is really quick and may be the best overall football player on the team. The RB is shifty and does a good job waiting for holes to develop. The offensive lines and RBs of Prep and MRA are probably equally talented. Prep's offensive scheme is different than MRA's. MRA's offense is built around 4 wide receivers, option routes, and throwing the ball downfield. Prep's offense is more variable. Prep will mix 3, 4, and 5 receiver sets and will run a variety of route concepts - mesh, 4 verts, option routes, etc. But Prep will also mix in the wishbone and inside/outside zone option runs. WJ is definitely bigger than Prep. The game will come down to whether Prep's defense can limit WJ's run game enough (the big running back at WJ is a load), and whether Prep's offensive line can give the QB enough time to throw.

MRA has a top-notch program. But Prep beat them to win the state championship last year.

MRA has an excellent coaching staff. If Oak Grove has a weakness stopping the run and is out of shape, as Dubaction suggests, I guarantee that MRA will try its best to make Oak Grove defend the entire field and exploit these things. I believe MRA will score points. It will come down to how well MRA can defend the pass. That's where Pulaski and Parklane successfully attacked MRA. Oak Grove surely has seen this on film.

MRA's entire offense is predicated on 4-vertical routes. The line pass blocks or gives pass block looks on every play. The receivers run option routes virtually every play, so if you bail deep, they will break off a hitch or skinny post. The running game is a slashing cut-back type - inside and outside zone. In short, on the offensive side of the ball, MRA is disciplined and wants you to beat yourself with mistakes. I bet MRA moves the ball pretty well against Oak Grove. They have a good defensive line and athletic inside linebackers. I'd bet Oak Grove will be surprised at their effectiveness in defending the run. The secondary is where MRA is vulnerable. They're young and not as good on the back end as they've been in the past. This is ultimately what caused them to lose to Pulaski. My guess is that is where Oak Grove will get them in the end. I agree with s1inglewing. A 14-point win for Oak Grove is a fair guess - something like 35-21 or 42-28ish.

That seems strange. Some person took the video. That person can say when he/she took it.

Interesting. I wonder what the basis of the reversal is?

https://www.maxpreps.com/ms/football/rankings/1/ - Prep at 10; MRA at 14 in combined MHSAA/MAIS poll http://calpreps.com/cgi-bin/2023/preview_viewer_league.pl?number=1&league=Mississippi:_MAIS_6A_District_1: Prep at 1; MRA at 2 In fairness, the CL and Chris Brooks' publication have MRA at 1, but I don't place as much stock in them as I do the above. In any event, it doesn't really matter. All of the 6A teams will play each other.

You're right. I should have done a better job with the title of the thread. The penalty is a postseason ban, asst. coaches banned from in-game coaching, and a fine. I edited the title to be more accurate. Regarding how Hartfield will do against the other 6A schools, we should all wait a few weeks before making a confident judgment. Every team should improve and it is SO HOT that it is impacting everyone's performance and stamina. That said, Jackson Prep is considered the preseason favorite. Prep plays its first game on Friday versus Copiah.