By Robert Wilson
Defending MHSAA Class 7A state champion Brandon made a statement that it is the best team in Mississippi and one of the best teams in the country Friday night with a convincing victory over Brandon in a rematch of last year’s 7A state championship game.
Playing without its starting quarterback Braylen Williams and starting running back Jaeden “JJ” Hill playing quarterback, Tupelo backup running back Kylan Bobo gained 175 yards on 18 carries and scored three touchdowns and Tupelo’s defense intercepted two passes for touchdowns as the Golden Wave defeated the Bulldogs 36-15 to spoil ultra-successful Lance Pogue’s debut as Brandon’s coach before an estimated crowd of 7,500 in the season opener for both teams at Brandon’s Bulldog Stadium.
Tupelo – rated No. 1 in Mississippi and No. 69 in the country by MaxPreps – won its 15th straight game and put an exclamation point on last year’s 28-16 victory over Brandon in the state title game.
Brandon – rated No. 2 in Mississippi and No. 155 in the country by MaxPreps – lost to Tupelo for the third game in the past two seasons as it was hoping to get off to a great start in the new era with Pogue, who comes to Brandon having won more state titles than any other public school coach in Mississippi history at the highest classification, including a national championship and five state titles at South Panola.
Brandon led 7-2 at halftime, but Tupelo scored 27 points in an eight minute span – the last five minutes of the third quarter and first three of the fourth quarter – to take a commanding lead.
Bobo – a 5-foot-11, 194-pound junior who has 14 Division I offers, including SEC offers from Ole Miss and Arkansas – had a 4-yard TD run with 4 minutes, 48 seconds to play in the third quarter for an 8-7 Tupelo lead and the Golden Wave didn’t trail after that. Then Bobo added his second TD with a 44-yard run for a 15-7 lead. Tyson Hunter intercepted a pass and ran for a 28-yard score and then a minute and a half later, Trace Wilson intercepted another pass and returned it for a 30-yard TD for a 29-7 lead.
Bobo ran for a 77-yard TD for a 36-7 lead with 9:44 to play in the fourth quarter.
Brandon senior quarterback Sladen Slack – one of four Brandon players on the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team – was under constant pressure from Tupelo’s talented defensive front and completed 8 of 16 passes for 125 yards with two interceptions. Junior running back Tyson Robinson – another Elite 11 member – had 74 yards on 12 carries. It was the second straight game that Tupelo has slowed down Robinson – the No. 4 running back and the No. 42 player in the country in the Class of 2027 by 247 sports who has 19 Division I offers, including 10 from the SEC. He gained only 55 yards in last year’s state title game after gaining 1,240 going into the game.
The 6-foot, 220-pound Hill – who has verbally committed to Mississippi State and is rated the No. 24 player in Mississippi and the No. 49 running back in the Class of 2026 by 247Sports – did a good job making the transition from running back to quarterback. Not only did he run the offense, he ran for 43 yards on 12 carries. Hill – the 2024 Mississippi Association of Coaches MHSAA Class 7A Player of the Year – who finished last season with 2,262 yards (9.3 yards per carry) and 34 touchdowns, including 224 yards on 34 carries and scored two TDs and caught a 37-yard screen pass for a score.
Tupelo’s 6-6, 245-pound senior defensive lineman and Florida commitment JaReylan McCoy, senior defensive backs Iverson McCoy and Ole Miss commitment Braylen Williams and junior linebacker Devontray Brewer led the stingy defense. JaReylan McCoy is rated the No. 13 player in Mississippi and No. 42 offensive lineman in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports. Iverson McCoy is rated the No. 20 player in Mississippi in the Class of 2026, Williams is rated No. 37 in the Class of 2026 in Mississippi and Brewer is rated No. 12 in Mississippi in the Class of 2027.
Too much talent from Tupelo and too many mistakes by Brandon combined to result in a loss for the home team.
“We should have been up several scores in the first half,” said Pogue in a post game interview by Chris Ebelhar for the Brandon Bulldog Network. “We come out with a three and out and we muff a punt. We almost hold them and they finally punch it in for a touchdown. It’s like it blow up on us. It’s like the lights went out on us and that’s a shame. We’ve got to respond to that. We threw two pick sixes for touchdowns.That can’t happen and gave up two run plays. We fought hard to get to that point and we let them off the hook. You’ve got to give them credit. You’ve got to put the nail in the coffin. You let them hang around and then you make a mistake and they make you pay. It’s a long season. We’ve got to rebound next week and go to Madison Central.”
Pogue’s 10-year run (2007-2016) at South Panola was amazing, a 126-17 record, an 88.1 percent winning percentage, and the five state titles and one national championship.
He has a career record of 246-71, a 78 percent winning percentage (one of the best in Mississippi history for coaches with 200 plus wins), with stops at Eupora High, Winona High, South Panola, Jackson Academy, Heritage Academy and Columbia High.
The 55-year-old Pogue replaced Sam Williams, who won 45 games and had three state runner-up finishes in four seasons, before leaving to be the head coach at UMS Wright Prep, a private school in Mobile.
