Veteran sportswriter and high school football expert Robert Wilson is doing the Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard predictions column each week during the high school football season on teams from Hinds, Madison, and Rankin County. Wilson had a 260-74 record (77.8 percent) for the season. He had a 5-2 record in the MHSAA state championships in the last week of last season.
PARKLANE ACADEMY (0-0) AT MADISON-RIDGELAND ACADEMY (0-0), THURSDAY, 7 P.M.
MRA coach Herbert Davis missed last year’s season opener against Parklane after he was hospitalized due to health issues related to his kidney. But Davis had a kidney transplant in December and feels healthy as ever and is lighter than he has been in almost 30 years.
Davis – a Brookhaven Academy, Co-Lin CC, and Mississippi College (bachelor’s degree) and Delta State (master’s degree) graduate – has won 237 games and five state championships (three at MRA, two at Brookhaven Academy and one at Pillow Academy) as he starts his 28thseason as a head coach. He is the only football coach in Mississippi history to take five schools (MRA, Brookhaven Academy, Pillow Academy, Heritage Academy and Winston Academy) to state championship games.
Davis has won 103 games in 11 seasons at MRA.
MRA returns 12 starters (six on offense and six on defense) from last year’s team, which finished with an 8-4 record and reached the MAIS Class 6A semifinals.
Junior wide receivers Case Thomas, Will Bizot, Jack Poole and senior wide receiver Jack Polles along with 6-foot-2, 280-pound sophomore offensive lineman Caleb Unger and senior offensive lineman Sebastian Griffin are the returning starters on offense.
Thomas – a member of the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Presason Elite 11 Team – caught 59 passes for 1,296 yards – second-best in Mississippi, according to MaxPreps – and 17 touchdowns last season as a sophomore. Unger has Division I offers from Southern Miss, Jackson State, Mississippi Valley, Baylor, Memphis, Tulane, Central Arkansas, and Arkansas State.
Junior defensive lineman Cade Gentry, senior defensive lineman nose Winn Crews, senior defensive back Matthew Perkins, junior defensive back Beckett Strong, junior defensive back Jack Ridgway and senior defensive back Jake McMillan are the returning starters on defense.
In addition, MRA has several transfers who are expected to contribute – senior defensive back and Arkansas State commitment DJ Watkins from Madison Central (a member of the Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team), senior defensive back AJ Parker from Jackson Academy, 6-3, 300-pound senior offensive lineman Kailand Stewart from Yazoo County, 6-3, 305-pound sophomore offensive lineman Clay Lawson from Richland, and junior running back-kicker Jason Jenkins from Hartfield Academy.
Senior Samuel Stockett and sophomore Austin Banks, a transfer from Copiah Academy, are in a competition to replace John White at quarterback. Stockett was White’s backup for the last two seasons. White, now a freshman at Southern Miss, set a Mississippi career passing record with 15,529 yards in his five-year high school career. He also threw for 177 career TDs, second all-time in Mississippi history. White passed for 3,557 yards and 42 touchdowns last year as a senior.
MRA defeated Parklane 48-25 behind White’s 309 passing yards and three touchdown passes and Charles Simpson’s 178 rushing yards and three TDs last season. Simpson is a freshman at Mississippi College.
Parklane quarterbacks Henry Brewer and JD Dumas combined for 410 yards and four TDs last year against MRA. Dumas is back this season. Wide receiver Brewer Carruth caught five passes for 92 yards and three TDs. Carruth now a freshman playing basketball at Southern Miss. Freshman wide receiver Davis Carruth – Brewer’s cousin – caught six passes for 92 yards.
Parklane finished 8-3 and lost to eventual Class 5A state champion Adams County Christian School 41-34 in the state quarterfinals.
Parklane coach Ron Rushing lost 17 starters to graduation. The only returning starters are Carruth, junior offensive lineman Arrocus Baskin, senior safety Eli Davis, senior defensive end Camp Lott and senior cornerback Tre Jackson. Lott is an Air Force commitment.
Other top players are Dumas and senior cornerback Jarvis Scott.
MRA 42, Parklane 14
HERITAGE ACADEMY (0-0) AT HARTFIELD ACADEMY (0-0), FRIDAY, 7 P.M.
The defending MAIS Class 6A state champion Hawks return 12 starters, including four players on the Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team (with a combined 83 Division I offers), from last year’s team, which finished 14-0 and is considered one of the best teams in MAIS history.
Hartfield defeated Jackson Prep 14-0 in the 6A state championship game, the first time Prep had been shut out since 2004. The Hawks scored 40 or more points in seven games and allowed only one touchdown or less in seven games, including four shutouts.
The four superstars are 6-3, 290-pound senior defensive lineman London Simmons (verbally committed to 2023 National Playoff semifinalist and this year’s preseason No. 5 Alabama), 6-3, 250-pound defensive lineman Reginald Vaughn (committed to Arkansas), senior defensive back-wide receiver-kick returner Kenzy West and junior defensive back-wide receiver-kick returner Bralan Womack.
Vaughn (No. 14), Simmons (No. 15) and West (No. 19) are rated in the Top 20 in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports. Womack is the No. 1 player in Mississippi, the No. 1 safety in the country and No. 26 player in the country in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports.
All four were dominating at their positions last season.
Vaughn had 80 tackles, 20 tackles for loss,10 sacks, and blocked 2 punts.
Simmons had 78 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, 15 sacks, 3 quarterback hurries, 1 caused fumble, 1 fumble recovery.
West had 52 receptions for 925 yards and 12 TDs, had 6 carries for 102 yards and 2 TDs, and had 22 tackles and 4 interceptions and also had a 15.2-yard average on 15 punt returns and a 24.6-yard average on five kickoff returns.
Womack had 26 tackles, 7 interceptions for 89 yards and 2 TDs, 1 fumble recovery for a 52-yard return, and caught 32 passes for 562 yards and 10 TDs and also averaged 54.8 yards on four kickoff returns and 2 TDs and averaged 30.1 yards on nine punt returns and 2 TDs.
This is how much college recruiters think of Womack. Not only has every one of the 16 SEC teams offered him (not many players in the country can say that), but the top nine teams in the AP preseason Top 25 have offered him.
Other key players for Hartfield are senior quarterback Cayman Tapper, junior linebacker-running back KD Catchings, and senior linebacker and three-year starter Cooper Howard.
Hartfield’s biggest graduation losses were running back Reid Jesiolowski and linebacker Chris Jones, both freshmen at Southern Miss. Jesiolowski ran for 2,030 yards and 23 TDs and had 267 receiving yards and five TDs and Jones led the team with 112 tackles, 20 for loss, last season.
Hartfield coach Craig Bowman – last year’s Metro Jackson Coach of the Year – begins his fifth season at Hartfield and seventh overall (two at Canton Academy). He led the Hawks to their first state football title in the school’s 13-year history. Bowman also was an assistant coach on Canton Academy’s state championship team in 2016. He has a 41-9 record (an 82 percent winning percentage) at Hartfield.
Heritage won the MAIS Class 5A state championship in 2021 under now head of school Sean Harrison and star quarterback Mack Howard, and then head coach Lance Pogue led Heritage to an 10-2 record and the 5A semifinals in 2022, but last year was rough. First-year head coach Tobias Smith, a Columbus High graduate who was an offensive lineman at Mississippi State, didn’t win a game. Another former MSU Bulldog, former All-American cornerback and second round NFL draft pick Jonathan Banks is in his second year as Heritage’s defensive coordinator.
Heritage’s top players are senior defensive lineman and Mississippi College commitment Radarron “Pety” Leech, senior quarterback Thompson Regimbal, junior wide receiver-defensive back-running back Xzavier Webber and junior wide receiver-defensive back-running back Charlie Fowler.
Jesiolowski gained 196 yards on 16 carries and scored three TDs and the talented Hartfield defense allowed only one first down and 41 total yards in a 29-0 victory over Heritage in Columbus in last year’s season opener. Heritage will just another tough time scoring Friday night in Flowood.
Hartfield 42, Heritage 0.
JACKSON ACADEMY (0-0) AT BAYOU ACADEMY (0-0), FRIDAY, 7 P.M.
Longtime college assistant coach David Duggan makes his high school head coaching debut the MAIS Class 6A Raiders at the Class 5A Colts in Cleveland.
The 60-year-old Massachusetts native and University New Hampshire graduate was defensive coordinator at JA two years ago with head coach Aubrey Blackwell. After a year as defensive coordinator at Kent State, Duggan had had enough of the 24-7 college scene these days and was hired after Blackwell, an Alabama native, left to take the head coaching job at Saint James School in Montgomery, Ala. He was at JA for two seasons and had a 17-9 record. Blackwell, who had coached in Alabama all his life before coming to JA, previously had coached at St. James.
Southern Miss football fans are familiar with Duggan.
He coached under Larry Fedora at Southern Miss from 2008 to 2011, then followed Fedora to North Carolina, then came back to Southern Miss and coached under Todd Monken from 2013-2016. Duggan was linebackers every year while at Southern Miss and also served as special teams coordinator (2009-11), co-defensive coordinator (2011) and defensive coordinator (2013-2016).
Duggan’s goal is to bring back a state championship to JA, something the Raiders haven’t won since the three-peat from 2009 to 2011 under David Sykes.
JA’s biggest losses to graduation were defensive lineman Nicholas Harris (who made the PriorityOne Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard All Metro Jackson second team), wide receiver and Arkansas State signee Kiandre Terry, who had 43 receptions for 583 yards and 4 TDs last season, and strong safety Fagan Daniel, who had a team-high 102 tackles.
Also, senior defensive back and Arkansas State commitment DJ Watkins – who made second-team All-Metro last season, has multiple Division I offers, and had seven interceptions over the past two seasons – transferred to Madison Central at Christmas (and is now at MRA) and senior linebacker AJ Parker – who had 60 tackles last season and 113 tackles as a sophomore – transferred to MRA at Christmas.
The top returning starter is 6-foot-3, 295-pound junior defensive lineman Dereon Albert – who has 12 Division I offers, including SEC offers from Auburn, LSU, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas A&M. Albert had 69 tackles, 20 for loss, 7.5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery and 1 blocked kick last season as a sophomore.
Other key returning starters are senior running back Omarean “Man-Man” Ellis (1,034 rushing yards, 13 TDs), junior quarterback Carter Mathison (1,911 passing yards, 16 TDs), senior wide receiver-kickoff returner John Thomas (24 catches for 337 yards and 2 TDs and a 26.6-yard average and 1 TD on kickoff returns), junior linebacker TJ White (63 tackles), senior linebacker-kicker Jacob Scarborough (59 tackles, 3 field goals, 42 extra points), senior offensive lineman Shamrye Lee, and senior defensive back Foster Meachum.
Provine transfer Daishun Chatman, a sophomore defensive back, could help the Raiders on defense. He led the Rams with 3 interceptions and had 3.5 sacks and 55 tackles and caught 4 passes for 24 yards and 1 TD in nine games last season.
Bayou coach Flip Godfrey, who starts his fifth season in Cleveland, returns seven starters from last year’s 7-4 team, which lost eventual state champion Adams County Christian School in the first round of the 5A state playoffs last season. He starts his 34th season overall, seven at his alma mater North Sunflower, 13 at Canton Academy and nine at Madison St. Joseph. Godfrey won two state championships at Canton Academy.
Top players for Bayou are senior outside linebacker Elliot Lloyd, senior quarterback John Howard Gilbert, senior inside linebacker Reed Holman and senior inside linebacker Rimmer Jennings.
JA defeated Bayou 27-8 in last year’s season opener. Look for about the same result this season.
JA 28, Bayou 0
OTHER GAMES:
Greenville Christian (0-0) at Canton Academy (0-0), Thursday
East Rankin Academy (0-0) at Pillow Academy (0-0)
West Memphis, Ark., (0-0) at Clinton Christian (0-0)
