The road to the first-ever 7A State Championship starts this week. While the first five games on the schedule mattered for Madison Central, everything starts over Friday night when the Jaguars welcome Tupelo to “The Jungle” in the 7A Region 2 opener. Madison Central ran a gauntlet in their non-conference schedule going 3-2 with three opening wins over Ocean Springs (15-14), Brandon (40-26) and Gulfport (23-21), but come into this one having lost consecutive games to Northwest Rankin (28-21) and Warren Central (24-21). Madison had last week off to get healthy and focused.
“The last two weeks have been an eye-opener. We were unbeaten and rolling along. We made costly mistakes with turnovers against Northwest and Warren Central,” said Madison Central Head Coach Toby Collums. “The bye week let us get healthy and clean things up, but we do worry a little bit about the layoff, not having played a game for two weeks we don’t want to be rusty. We’ve played a very tough non-region schedule so I think our kids are up to the challenge ahead.”
Tupelo comes in ranked No. 4 in Class 7A and rolled through the first four weeks of the season outscoring their opponents 166-14. The Golden Wave dropped their last two as well, a last second loss, 38-33, to Houston High in Germantown, Tenn., and a one-point loss, 21-20, at home to 5A powerhouse West Point last week.
“This is a team that went undefeated to the north half last year and brings back so much of that talent,” said Collums. “No one is going to give us a chance to win this game, we are going in as the underdog for sure. The message we are sending to our kids is to let it loose, we’ve got nothing to lose, let’s have fun and see what happens.”
The Jaguars offense is still under construction. It is very balanced with 871 yards passing and 780 yards rushing utilizing a two quarterback approach. Sophomore Ben Picarella is working through growing pains as he’s completed 50 percent of his passes for 653 yards but thrown six interceptions to five touchdowns. Junior Jaiden Johnson is an all-purpose threat that has thrown for 218 yards, two touchdowns to one interception and run the ball for 73 yards and a touchdown. Jaiden has also caught 10 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown as a receiver.
“These guys are competitors; they are getting better each and every week. They bring different things to the table and we have packages for both. Neither one took a snap last year in a varsity game and they are progressing. We just have to be more consistent on the offensive side of the ball,” said Coach Collums.
Both quarterbacks have very reliable targets in junior wide receiver Ryan Delaney, who’s averaging 23 yards per catch and scored four times, and fellow junior wide out Zadarran Hart, who has 21 catches for 283 yards and two touchdowns.
The running game will go a long way in deciding Madison’s success against Tupelo by grinding the clock. The Jags are averaging five yards a carry from their top two running backs. Junior Glen Singleton leads the way with 509 yards on 101 carries and has scored five touchdowns. Senior Marviyan Jackson has 242 yards and two touchdowns to his credit.
The Golden Wave defense only allows an average of 10 points per game. After missing the first four games, the Tupelo D is again anchored by linebacker and Texas A&M commit Tristian Jernigan. Jernigan rolled up 19 tackles the last two weeks. Senior outside linebacker Damari Burton has been a beast. Burton leads the team in tackles with 40 and 10 tackles for loss.
“We can’t run laterally because they are so fast. We got to run straight at them and play our ball. The biggest key is we can’t turn it over and take a shot when you can,” said Collums. “That defense is so aggressive, we’ll have to use misdirection, and motion to get their eyes moving away from the ball.”
The Golden Wave offense can hit you like a tsunami. It is explosive averaging nearly 37 points a game with 983 yards passing and 1,034 yards rushing. The balanced attack is led by quarterback Jeremiah Harrell. The senior has thrown for 983 yards with 11 touchdowns to just three interceptions. Harrell has also toted the ball 24 times for 129 yards and four scores.
Sophomore running back Jaeden Hill has racked up ten touchdowns on 59 carries for a team-leading 429 yards. Senior Quay Middlebrooks comes in with 344 rushing yards along with 1616 receiving yards for six total touchdowns. Senior receiver J.Q. Witherspoon leads the team in receiving yards with 279 and four touchdowns. Junior receiver Tyreke Darden is a dangerous weapon as well with 232 yards and a touchdown.
Madison’s quick defense will certainly be tested by this Golden Wave offense.
The linebackers are the strength in seniors Ryan McCall, Rickey Banks and Jameson Mosely. McCall leads the team in tackles with 54, three for loss and a sack. Banks is right behind with 48 tackles, three for loss. Mosely has recorded 33 tackles and two sacks.
Senior defensive back Tyrone Richardson Jr. has been stellar thus far with 39 tackles of his own in run support and caused two fumbles. Junior defensive linemen Myles Miller, Korey Robinson and Damorian Smith will need to have a big game to bring pressure on the line of scrimmage.
“Tupelo has created tons of explosive plays, we’ve got to force some turnovers,” said Collums. “We watch their films and they have chunk play after chunk play after chunk play. We can’t let their quarterback sit back and wait for a guy to come open. We’ve got to make him uncomfortable. I feel really confident in every guy we have on the defensive side of the ball. We will try to mirror that quarterback and our defensive staff has to pick their spots to blitz. Our D-line is smaller and will be oversized which puts the pressure on our linebackers to be strong.”
The second season begins. Both Madison Central and Tupelo are 0-0 as 7A region play begins. The pressure this week is undoubtedly on the Golden Wave as they are expected to win big. The Jaguars are historically the hunted rather than the hunters. Don’t count these Jags out and expect them to come out with claws out Friday night in “The Jungle.”
MC KEYS TO VICTORY
On Offense: Don’t turn the ball over. The QB duo of Ben Picarella and Jaiden Johnson are going to have to be smart with the football by not forcing it in tight windows. The running game is going to have to have a north-south approach as getting to the edges will be difficult..
On Defense: Do whatever it takes to make quarterback Jeremiah Harrell move off his spot. In a nothing to lose approach, expect lots of disguised blitzes to force a mistake.
Limit mistakes/penalties: If history repeats itself, this will be a one-possession game. Too many penalties or turnovers could be the deciding factor.
MC AT A GLANCE
Class/Division: 7A Region 2 (MHSAA)
Record: 3-2 overall, 0-0 in Region
Head Coach: Toby Collums
Assistant Coaches: Jonathan Brooks, Dusty Finley, Jay Livingston, Mike Hendershot, Terrance Robinson, Tate Rogers, Britt Rowell, Ben Shelton, Cody Upton, Brady Hoda.
The Series: Greenville Christian leads 1-0
Last Match-Up: Greenville Christian won 64-32 in 2021.
TUPELO AT A GLANCE
Class/Division: 7A Region 2 (MHSAA)
Record: 4-2 overall, 0-0 in Region
Head Coach: Ty Hardin
Assistant Coach: Chris Schoup, Trey Ward, Chris McCrory, Brandon Jackson, Tereif Osborne, Aubrey Bell, Matt Haygood, Brian Kilgore, Reed Hill, Jordan Graham.
The Series: Madison Central leads 5-4
Last Meeting: Tupelo won 28-7 in 2022 playoffs.
