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 10-1 record (90.9 percent) last week and has a 14-3 record (82.4 percent) this season.
Northwest Rankin (0-0) at Germantown (0-0), Friday, 7 p.m.(watch and listen at nwrathletics.com and germantownathletics.com)
Germantown is searching for some respect. The Mavericks haven’t had a winning season since they moved up to MHSAA’s largest classification in 2019, four years in Class 6A and now in its second year of Class 7A.
Germantown also has never beaten Northwest Rankin, losing all five meetings, including last year’s 35-28 shootout at Northwest Rankin.
Germantown returns 10 starters from last year’s team which finished 5-6, finished tied for second in Class 7A, Region 2 and lost to Oxford 47-44 in the first round of the playoffs.
The Mavs are led by senior wide receiver and South Alabama commitment Trae Stevenson, a member of the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Preseason Elite 11 Team who set single season school records with 49 receptions for 869 yards and eight TDs. Also back is senior running back Ny Johnson, who had 1,072 rushing and receiving yards and 16 touchdowns last season and rising senior tackle Ryan White Jr.
Also, Madison St. Joseph’s starting quarterback last season, King White, has transferred to Germantown. The junior completed 59 percent of his passes for 1,829 and 21 TDs and only seven interceptions last year as a sophomore at St. Joe.
The top returnees on defense are two seniors, cornerback Tiger Esco and inside linebacker Banks Polk, and junior nose guard Dillion Travis.
Another addition is talented Mikey Johnson, a junior who transferred from Vicksburg High and should make an immediate impact for Germantown at defensive back. His father, Trey Johnson played pro basketball and was also selected in the Major League Baseball draft out of high school. He is now assistant men’s basketball coach at Jackson State.
Germantown’s Russell Mitchell begins his third season as head coach. He has been a part of a state or national championship team in seven of his 21 seasons of being a coach. Not many coaches in Mississippi can say that.
Mitchell was the quarterback coach at Pearl River Community College in 2004 when they won the national junior college championship. He was also the quarterback coach at Pearl River Community College for four consecutive state titles from 2003-2006. Mitchell was the offensive coordinator for Picayune High when they won the MHSAA Class 5A state title in 2011 and 2013. He was the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach on Oak Grove’s MHSAA Class 6A state title team in 2020. Mitchell was at Oak Grove for six seasons.
Northwest Rankin has nine returning starters from last year’s team.
The top returnee is senior defensive back Otavius Hunt, a member of the Elite 11 Team like Germantown’s Stevenson. The 5-foot-8, 175-pound Hunt had 68 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 1 fumble recovery and was a second team All-Metro Jackson selection last year as a junior. Hunt has offers from Copiah-Lincoln Community College, East Central CC, and Southwest Mississippi CC.
Hunt is one of six returning starters on defense. Other returnees are senior defensive back Rabe’ Crosby, senior linebackers Brooks Wallis and Daniel Watkins, junior defensive lineman DJ Parks and junior defensive end Peyton Trigg.
Returning starters on offense are senior offensive lineman Kaleb Peel (5-8, 250) and junior offensive lineman Mason Mapp (6-2, 230) and sophomore wide receiver De’Shawn Dillion.
Other key players are junior running back Jeramy Hayden and junior quarterback-defensive back Michael Smith.
Northwest Rankin has picked up senior defensive back and Southern Miss commitment Trevionn Morton, one of the top players in Mississippi, who played at Wingfield High last season. Wingfield closed this past year. The 6-2,190-pound Morton has rated No. 26 in the Class of 2025 in Mississippi by 247 Sports. He also has offers from Jackson State, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Georgia State, Tennessee-Martin, Bethune-Cookman, and Prairie View A&M.
Cooper took over at Northwest Rankin for head coach Toby Collums four years ago after Cooper had success at a defensive coordinator at Clinton (he was a part of the MHSAA Class 6A state championship team with All-American Cam Akers in 2016) and then three years as head coach at Scott Central where he had a 35-6 record (an 85.3 winning percentage) and won a MHSAA Class 2A state title in his first year in 2018.
Cooper won only two games in 2021 – the worst season at Northwest Rankin since 1998 – and only four in 2022. Cooper and the Cougars got off to a great start last season, winning five of their first six games, including a rare win over previously undefeated Madison Central, only the second time Northwest Rankin had won in the last 15 meetings in the series. The Cougars appeared to be turning the corner but struggled in the second half of the season, lost their last four games, and finished 5-5 and missed the playoffs.
Germantown gets first win in the series.
Germantown 28, Northwest Rankin 21.
Adams County Christian School (2-0) at Jackson Prep (1-0), Friday, 7 p.m. (watch and listen at accslive.org and jacksonprep.live)
Prep’s Doug Goodwin and ACCS’ David King have a combined 512 head coaching victories and have 57 years of combined head coaching experience.
Goodwin has won 257 games in his 30-year head coaching career, including a 23-5 record in his third season at Prep. He led Prep to a 12-1 record and the MAIS Class 6A state title in his first season at Prep two years ago. Goodwin brought the Patriots back from the most losses since the first year of the school in 1970 (an 8-5 record in 2022). He won 234 games in 27 seasons in Alabama, is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and was the first football coach in Alabama to take three different schools to state championship games. Goodwin led Demopolis to an undefeated season and a state title and set a state record with 761 points in 2008. He also had four state runner-up finishes.
King has won 255 games with six state championships in his 27 career seasons at Natchez Trinity (first 14 seasons) and ACCS (last 13 seasons). He won state titles at Trinity in 2001, 2006, 2009 and 2010 and at ACCS in 2018 and last season. He was state runner-up in 2014 and 2016.
Prep has 13 returning starters from last year’s 10-4 team, which lost to Hartfield Academy 21-0 for the 6A state championship.
The Patriots has two of the three top senior offensive tackles in Mississippi in Matthew Parker (6-8, 315 pounds), a Baylor commitment, and Cole Allen (6-6, 265 pounds), a Duke commitment. Parker is rated No. 20 and Allen No. 21 in the Class of 2025 in Mississippi by 247 Sports. Only Tyler Miller of Laurel (rated No. 6) is ranked higher than Parker and Allen among offensive tackles. Parker has 25 Division I offers, including Power 5 schools Vanderbilt, Duke and Florida State. Allen has 19 Division I offers. But Allen will be on the sidelines Friday, still recovering from shoulder surgery.
Senior quarterback Billy Puckett and Air Force Academy commitment and senior slotback-cornerback Major Quin are the top returning starters besides Parker and Allen.
Puckett was named the Junction Deli/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Football Player of the Week this week after his outstanding performance in Prep’s 30-14 season opening win over Copiah Academy last week. He completed 22 of 30 passes (73.3 percent) for 231 yards and one TD and ran nine times for 34 yards and two TDs.
Puckett completed 61.6 percent of his passes for 2,484 yards and 22 TDs with 5 interceptions and had 451 rushing yards and 10 TDs last season as a junior.
Quin, who is Prep’s only returning starter on offense and defense, caught 37 passes for 614 yards and four TDs and broke up six passs last season.
Other offensive returning starters are left tackle Robert Watson, left guard Reid Vineyard, center Thomas Coco (son of head of school Lawrence Coco), and tailback Thomas Hewitt Oswalt.
The returning starters on defense are Quin, senior outside linebackers Laird Johnson and Turner Reeves (nephew of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves), senior inside linebacker Will McMaster, and senior tackle Stuart Grubbs.
ACCS’ star is senior quarterback and Louisiana Lafayette commitment Coleman Carter, ranked No. 54 in the Class of 2025 in Mississippi by 247 Sports. He is rated the 7th best quarterback in Mississippi. The 6-1, 180-pound Carter – last year’s MAIS Class 5A Player of the Year – has offers from Jackson State, Tulane, Louisiana-Monroe, and Southeastern Louisiana.
Other top players for ACCS are senior running back Adrian Walker and senior offensive lineman Tate Waldsworth (6-6, 295 pounds), both all-state players last season.
Prep leads the series 25-1. ACCS’ only win in the series was a 17-6 decision in 1982 on the last regular season game on its way to a 12-0 record and a state championship.
Prep scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to pull away from pesky ACCS for a 24-12 victory last year in Natchez.
Look for another competitive game from ACCS before Prep pulls away in the fourth quarter.
Jackson Prep 24, ACCS 14.
In other games (winners in bold):
Amite School Center (0-1) at Central Hinds (0-1)
Brandon (0-0) at Picayune (0-0)
Canton Academy (2-0) at Heritage Academy (0-1)
Clinton (0-0) at Warren Central (0-0)
Clinton Christian (1-1) at Madison St. Joseph (0-0)
Crystal Springs (0-0) at Ridgeland (0-0)
Discovery Christian (1-0) at Park Place (0-1)
East Rankin Academy (0-2) at Winston Academy (0-1)
Florence (0-0) at Forest Hill (0-0) (South Jackson Field)
Hillcrest Christian (0-1) at Claiborne, La. (1-0)
Jim Hill (0-0) at McComb (0-0)
Madison Central (0-0) at Ocean Springs (0-0)
MRA (2-0) at Oak Forest, La. (1-0)
McLaurin (0-0) at Salem (0-0)
Mount Olive (0-0) at Puckett (0-0)
Murrah (0-0) at Port Gibson (0-0)
Neshoba Central (0-0) at Pearl (0-0)
Newton (0-0) at Lanier (0-0) (North Jackson Field)
North Forrest (0-0) at Pisgah (0-0)
Northeast Lauderdale (0-0) at Pelahatchie (0-0)
Pillow (2-0) at Jackson Academy (2-0)
Provine (0-0) at Callaway (0-0) (Hughes Field)
Richland (0-0) at Amite County (0-0)
Riverfield, La. (1-0) at Tri-County Academy (1-0)
St. Andrew’s (0-0) at West Lincoln (0-0)
Simpson Academy (0-1) at Hartfield Academy (1-0)
Terry (0-0) at Raymond (0-0)
Velma Jackson (0-0) at Canton (0-0)
