Veteran sportswriter and high school football expert Robert Wilson is doing the Germany Law Firm, PLLC/Mississippi Scoreboard predictions column each week during the high school football season on teams from Hinds, Madison, and Rankin County. Wilson had a 19-6 record (76 percent) last week and has a 105-41 record (71.9 percent) this season.
By Robert Wilson
Brandon (2-3) at Northwest Rankin (3-2)
This has been the roughest five game start of a season for Brandon since 2017 when the Bulldogs started 2-3 and finished 7-6.
In fact, Brandon has not lost more than three games in a season since going 5-6 in 2020 before Sam Williams took over as head coach. Williams, now in his first season at UMS Wright Prep in Mobile, Ala., finished 11-3 in 2021, 12-2 in 2022, 10-3 in 2023 and 12-2 last season.
But if history is any indication, first-year Brandon coach Lance Pogue – one of the winningest coaches in Mississippi history (248 wins and five state championships and one national title) – should win this Friday night against its Rankin County rival and even this year’s record at 3-3 in this MHSAA Class 7A, Region 3 opener.
Brandon has won the last seven meetings and 12 of the last 13 meetings with Northwest Rankin. The Bulldogs have won the last seven by an average of 18.1 points per game, including last year’s 45-22 victory. Northwest Rankin’s only win over the past 13 years was a 28-14 decision at Northwest Rankin.
Brandon – which has lost to defending MHSAA Class 7A state champion Tupelo, Top 25 nationally ranked Alabama powerhouse Clay-Chalkville, and 7A state championship contender Starkville – needs this one to start a winning streak and get pointed in the right direction.
The good news for Bulldogs fans is that junior running back Tyson 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 – showed some flashes of his old self last week after recovering from a nagging hamstring injury. He had seven carries for 65 yards and two TDs, a 52-yarder in the first quarter, a 74-yard pass from junior quarterback Sladen Shack in the third quarter.
Brandon needs a healthy Robinson, who gained 1,295 rushing yards and had 24 touchdowns and caught 42 passes for 668 yards for 10 TDs last season as a sophomore.
Brandon had more players – four – on the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team than any other team.
Robinson, Shack (who threw for 2,586 yards and 24 TDs last season as a sophomore), senior safety and Colorado commitment Preston Ashley (rated as the No. 10 ranked player in Mississippi and No. 20 ranked safety in the country in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports with 23 Division I offers, 10 from the SEC) and senior offensive lineman and Jackson State commitment Adyen Newell (a 6-foot-4, 310-pounder who is rated as the No. 38 player in Mississippi and the No. 83 inside offensive lineman in the country in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports) lead the Bulldogs.
While Robinson is improving, Shack left the game and did not return in the third quarter against Starkville when Starkville got a safety when the ball rolled out of the end zone. Sophomore Jameson Bowering replaced Shack for the rest of the game.
Northwest Rankin is trying to have its first winning season since 2020 when it went 9-4 and Toby Collums, now at Madison Central, guided the Cougars to two playoff victories.
Northwest Rankin has gone 2-8 in 2021, 4-7 in 2022, 5-5 in 2023 and 5-6 last year. The Cougars have had a tough time finishing strong, losing the last four games of the season three of the last four years.
Devin Cooper is in the 5th season at head coach at Northwest Rankin. Cooper took over for Collums five years ago after having 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 – but he has gradually improved his program and a win over Brandon would be big.
The biggest name at Northwest Rankin is junior wide receiver De’Shawn Dillon, who is one of the top multi-sport athletes in the country. The 6-foot-4, 181-pound Dillion is rated as the No. 13 player in Mississippi and the No. 49 wide receiver in the country by 247 Sports. Also one of the top basketball players In Mississippi, Dillon has caught 31 passes for 621 yards (second in Mississippi behind Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s Case Thomas) and five TDs this season. He had eight catches for 196 yards and two TDs in last week’s 28-20 win over Brookhaven. Dillon has Division I offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Jackson State, Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Nebraska, and Troy, Ala.
In basketball, Dillon is rated as the No. 1 player in Mississippi and No. 24 shooting guard in the country in the Class of 2027 by 247 Sports. He averaged 21 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists last season for the Cougars. Dillon has Division I offers from Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Alcorn State, Jackson State, and New Mexico State.
Dillon has a star track and field athlete in middle school. In the eighth grade, he won meets in the long jump, high jump, triple jump and mile relay. Dillon hasn’t run track since the ninth grade.
Other top players for Northwest Rankin are senior running back Jermany Haden, junior wide receiver Marco Stapleton, senior wide receiver Noah Williams, junior quarterback Gavin Phillipson, senior middle linebacker Rueben Bilbrew, junior cornerback Patrick Harper and junior offensive-defensive lineman Rylon Williams.
Brandon leads the series 31-10 with the first game in 1982 one year after Northwest Rankin opened.
Brandon 21, Northwest Rankin 20
In other games (winning team in ALL CAPS):
Provine (1-4) at FOREST HILL (1-4), Thursday, South Jackson Field
Callaway (3-2) at WEST POINT (4-0)
EUPORA (5-0) at Velma Jackson (2-3)
Florence (2-3) at VICKSBURG (3-2)
LANIER (5-0) at Murrah (1-4), Hughes Field
OXFORD (4-1) at Madison Central (3-2)
PISGAH (4-1) at Southeast Lauderdale (1-4)
RALEIGH (4-1) at McLaurin (0-5)
RAYMOND (1-4) at Jim Hill (1-4), South Jackson Field
Richland (4-1) at MORTON (2-3)
St. Andrew’s (1-4) at MOUNT OLIVE (0-5)
Scott Central (0-5) at PUCKETT (1-4)
West Lincoln (1-4) at PELAHATCHIE (1-4)
AMITE SCHOOL CENTER (5-1) at Clinton Christian (1-4)
Bayou Academy (2-4) at MADISON ST. JOSEPH (1-4)
Central Hinds Academy (4-2) at COLUMBIA ACADEMY (3-2)
Delta Streets Academy (2-4) at CHRIST COVENANT SCHOOL (2-3)
East Rankin Academy (4-2) at HERITAGE ACADEMY (4-1)
JACKSON ACADEMY (4-1) at Magnolia Heights (6-0)
JACKSON PREP (3-3) at Cathedral (4-1)
LEAKE ACADEMY (4-1) at Canton Academy (1-4)
Madison-Ridgeland Academy (5-1) at BATON ROUGE CATHOLIC (3-1)
TRI-COUNTY ACADEMY (4-1) at Wayne Academy (2-3)
BOGUE CHITTO (2-3) at Park Place Christian Academy (2-3)
Hartfield Academy (1-4) at TUPELO (4-1)
SALEM (3-2) at Discovery Christian (1-5)
