Laurel @ Meridian

[Dubaction]

2 hours ago, Bulldogs4 said:

That was the long time tradition of the stadium. The W side center was for season ticket holders and SW stands were Meridian general seating. 
And the NW seating was for the visitors.

 

The entire E side was home. Half being the student section and band and the other half general seating.

 

Some of the visitors would complain but they had a 2500 seat section to sit in.

 

 

This year they have moved the home side to the west and the visiting now sit on the E side. 
Crowds are pretty small these days. 

Which I always thought was funny. Yea we get 2500 seats but y’all never really fill your own side for it to matter anyway. 

[ccbulldog]

3 hours ago, dshow84 said:

Ummmm no!!! Meridian has a nice big stadium, but it is terribly outdated with the 1975 scoreboard and PA system..

Those things can easily be updated if they were to host playoff games. Plus the areas of the State where most of the participants are from are the northeast area (Oxford, Tupelo down to Noxubee) from the north and the Jackson metro area and the pine belt in the south.  All of these are fairly easy drives to Meridian either down hwy 45  or up I59 or east on I20. Total team mileage is probably less to Meridian than anywhere else in the State.

[Dubaction]

Respectfully… the association is trying their absolute best to avoid the city of Jackson… you really think they wanna host games in Meridian for 3 days? 

[Dubaction]

You guys get a little too caught up in distance for fan travel for games for that matter. It’s been proven time after time that fans will travel to the state title games doesn’t matter what city it’s in. From Hattiesburg all the way to Oxford. 

[Merlin]

Laurel honestly is too talented to be as bad as they are.  I had heard of some grumbling going on over there after last season and into the spring.  Bunch of drama with fans/parents thinking they should play for state like West Point every year. Filling the kids heads with crap. The junior high teams been blowing out everyone they play for 3-4 years and getting to the high school not wanting to listen to coaches. And then there is the school administration who’s slowly been killing laurel athletics since todd breland was coaching there. 
 

Friend of mine used to teach over there and said last year and again before this season, those kids will crumble as soon as some teams punch them in the mouth. They think they on a pedestal and won’t handle the adversity well once they get down. Looks like he was right.  They hung with west jones for 2 and a half quarters before falling apart after a long Wj touchdown run.  They completely imploaded and choked away the Hattiesburg game and blew 2 score leads twice in the 2nd half.  They had no business loosing that game.  They will for sure drop 2 of next 3, with this week being the only chance for a win.  Will be interesting to see if they continue to spiral after the mccomb game. 

[s1nglewing]

16 minutes ago, Merlin said:

Laurel honestly is too talented to be as bad as they are.  I had heard of some grumbling going on over there after last season and into the spring.  Bunch of drama with fans/parents thinking they should play for state like West Point every year. Filling the kids heads with crap. The junior high teams been blowing out everyone they play for 3-4 years and getting to the high school not wanting to listen to coaches. And then there is the school administration who’s slowly been killing laurel athletics since todd breland was coaching there. 
 

Friend of mine used to teach over there and said last year and again before this season, those kids will crumble as soon as some teams punch them in the mouth. They think they on a pedestal and won’t handle the adversity well once they get down. Looks like he was right.  They hung with west jones for 2 and a half quarters before falling apart after a long Wj touchdown run.  They completely imploaded and choked away the Hattiesburg game and blew 2 score leads twice in the 2nd half.  They had no business loosing that game.  They will for sure drop 2 of next 3, with this week being the only chance for a win.  Will be interesting to see if they continue to spiral after the mccomb game. 

Poorly disciplined teams often become frontrunners like you are describing.

[Bulldogs4]

Plans have been put in place to replace the scoreboard and improve the press box (which is probably one of the largest in the state). Obviously, those take $$$. Coach Boyles is working on getting the team back up where they should be. The improvements will come with the team. He has already engaged with alumni to build the support of the team up again. That will take time but I can tell you people around the community are excited about the Wildcats again. 
Cheyenne Trussell is an excellent AD as well and he is doing a tremendous job with the athletic department. I think those proposals and more will come to fruition in time. 
 

I would think it would be a long shot to host a couple of state championship games but the idea is intriguing and may come to have some merit in the future. We will see. 

[maroontide06]

17 minutes ago, Bulldogs4 said:

Plans have been put in place to replace the scoreboard and improve the press box (which is probably one of the largest in the state). Obviously, those take $$$. Coach Boyles is working on getting the team back up where they should be. The improvements will come with the team. He has already engaged with alumni to build the support of the team up again. That will take time but I can tell you people around the community are excited about the Wildcats again. 
Cheyenne Trussell is an excellent AD as well and he is doing a tremendous job with the athletic department. I think those proposals and more will come to fruition in time. 
 

I would think it would be a long shot to host a couple of state championship games but the idea is intriguing and may come to have some merit in the future. We will see. 

There's not a whole lot of parking around The Ray,  so if you see them pave that practice field that's adjacent to the West side, then there may be that merit that you are talking about.

[Bulldogs4]

There are two practice fields that provide quite a bit of parking along with the paved parking. 
One is for the band and other is for the football team. 
That could be an issue if this ever came about but as I mentioned it is a long shot at best. 

[mout25]

Meridian has a DE that wears #1 and is about 6’4 235(he’s a stud). Does anyone know where he came from and what grade he’s in?

Edited September 15, 2023 by mout25

[maroontide06]

10 minutes ago, dshow84 said:

I understand, and I know it will come with time....one more favor..."can you guys pick a home side, and sit there..lol

The home side is now consolidated to the West Side and the visitors are now on the East Side.  There's no more of the home side being on both sides of the stadium anymore.

[Bulldogs4]

Disappointing night for the Wildcats 

5 Turnovers in the second half 

Four of them were unforced.

Just not going to win when you do that. 
Laurel has some talent though and they earned the win by taking advantage of our gifts to them. 
But they did let us stay in the game when it probably should have been a blow out 

[ccbulldog]

I'm extremely disappointed in Meridian. I had expected more from a Marcus Boyles coached team. It's a shame they are squandering Daniel Hill's senior year. I can't imagine how bad they are gonna be next year when Hill is gone.

[Bulldogs4]

10 hours ago, ccbulldog said:

I'm extremely disappointed in Meridian. I had expected more from a Marcus Boyles coached team. It's a shame they are squandering Daniel Hill's senior year. I can't imagine how bad they are gonna be next year when Hill is gone.

Last night was such a setback. Laurel is a talented team but that was a very winnable game for Meridian. A couple of sequences were crucial. First, at the end of the half when we scored but had a penalty and then had to settle for a FG. Then they caught break when they missed their FG but had a delay of game and made the FG. That was a seven point swing. 
 

But all that aside, we did not take care of the ball. Four straight turnovers to start the second half will lose you game ever time out. And they were generally unforced turnovers at that.

 

There is some improvement in some areas. And the season is not lost as division games don’t start until October. We will see how it goes. 

[Wareaglefan1us]

13 hours ago, ccbulldog said:

I'm extremely disappointed in Meridian. I had expected more from a Marcus Boyles coached team. It's a shame they are squandering Daniel Hill's senior year. I can't imagine how bad they are gonna be next year when Hill is gone.

Everything can’t be blamed on Marcus Boyles. If he doesn’t have the talent there’s not a lot he can do or if the kids aren’t buying in. I’ve heard Marcus say many times it’s all about money the Jimmy’s and Joe’s not the X’s and O’s 

[mout25]

IMO,Meridian doesn’t need to attempt a single pass in any game.  They can move the ball against anyone just running the ball.  All of the turnovers happen when attempting to pass.

[s1nglewing]

I've never seen a coach fumble. That's on the players. If the team was playing cohesively and were in position, they're well-coached.

[Bulldogs4]

The coaching is fine. Players make the plays. Or don’t. 

Hill is a great player but even he is susceptible to mistakes. He had an unforced fumble when he did not handle the snap cleanly. That was the first turnover in the third quarter and it was the turning point in the game. And again he is a great player and a great kid but mistakes happen. And happen to even the best of players. 
 

Still a lot of games to go and I am not giving up on these guys. There is some talent there.