Photo by Brad Bridges
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 244-77 record (76.0 percent) last season.
By Robert Wilson
Sponsored by Germany Law Firm
UMS Wright (0-0) at Jackson Prep (0-0)
Sam Williams is coming back to Rankin County Friday night.
The Northwest Rankin High alumnus, former Mississippi State wide receiver and former Pelahatchie, Ridgeland and Brandon head football coach is starting his second year as head coach at UMS Wright, a private school in Mobile.
He is bringing his team on a three-hour bus ride to Flowood to meet the Prep Patriots, which has 14 returning starters from last year’s 7-5 team.
It is believed to be the first time Prep has ever played a private school from Alabama.
Williams had a 82-24 coaching record in Mississippi, with a 45-10 record and three state runner-up finishes in four seasons at Brandon. He was one year at Ridgeland, and three at Pelahatchie.
Williams replaced an Alabama legend. Terry Curtis retired after winning 284 games and eight state championships in 26 seasons at UMS Wright. Curtis led UMS Wright to 34 consecutive wins and three straight state titles from 2017-2019, but haven’t won a state championship since then.
Williams – who father Kent played baseball at South Alabama in Mobile – finished 6-5 last year in his first season at UMS Wright and lost in double overtime in the first round of the playoffs, the first time UMS Wright had lost in the first round since 2010.
Williams has 10 returning starters, including senior quarterback Max Fowler (1,927 yards and 16 touchdowns last season), and junior running back Richard Scott (a team-high 466 rushing yards and two TDs and a team-high 543 receiving yards and four TDs). But UMS Wright will have five new starters on the offensive line.
Prep coach Doug Goodwin, who enters his fifth season in Mississippi, is familiar with the history of UMS Wright. Goodwin won 234 games in his 27-year head coaching career in Alabama and was the first football coach in Alabama to take three different schools to state championship games. He is a member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. Goodwin played UMS Wright three consecutive years (2002-2004) in the playoffs when he was coaching at Demopolis. In 2002, UMS Wright won in the semifinals and won the state championship. In 2003, Demopolis won in the semifinals and won the state championship. In 2004, Dempolis won in the quarterfinals. Goodwin’s sons, were the starting quarterback all three years, Dusty in 2002 and Devin in 2003 and ’04. Dusty is now the head coach at Demopolis.
Goodwin has a 41-11 record at Prep.
Prep, like UMS Wright, has a rich tradition of winning state championships. Mississippi Hall of Fame coach and former National Coach of the Year Ricky Black won 13 state titles in 24 seasons at Prep.
But also like UMS Wright, Prep hasn’t been as successful in the recent past years with only one state title (Goodwin took Prep to a state title in 2022 in his first season at Prep) since 2018.
Prep returns senior quarterback Luke Essary (62 percent completion percentage, 2,201 yards, 18 TDs, only 3 interceptions), senior running back Will Smith (a team-high 1,074 yards, 16 TDs), senior linebacker Brogen McCluskey (a team-high 99 tackles, 4.5 sacks and 2 interceptions), senior linebacker Gaines Reeves (78 tackles and a team-high 6.5 sacks), junior defensive back Herrin Goodman (91 tackles and a team-high three interceptions).
Prep lost junior wide receiver and Division I prospect Josh Parker (a team-high 933 yards and five TDs) and junior defensive back and Division I prospect Kam Roberts when they transferred to Brandon.
UMS Wright has more students than Prep, has 1,150 students to Prep’s 800. Both are K3-12 grades.
Prep is ranked No. 2 in MAIS Class 4A and No. 10 in Mississippi and UMS Wright is ranked No. 4 in Alabama Division AA and No. 53 in Alabama by MaxPreps.
It should be an interesting game. Give the home team the edge.
Jackson Prep 24, UMS Wright 17.
MRA (0-0) at Ravenwood, Tenn. (0-0)
Ravenwood defeated MRA 28-24 last year in the first Davis Bowl, which had MRA head coach Herbert Davis going up against his son, Hayden, the offensive coordinator for Ravenwood and a former MRA quarterback and assistant coach and former Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Delta State quarterback. Hayden was an assistant coach on his father’s staff when they led MRA to the state championship in 2021.
Ravenwood, which went on to win 14 consecutive games before losing in the Tennessee Class 6A public school state championship game, had to rally to beat MRA last season.
Ravenwood senior quarterback and Boston College signee Femi Babalola passed for 252 yards and ran for 142 yards and two TDs to rally from a 17-0 deficit in the second quarter. Babalola was rated as the No. 21 best player in Tennessee and the No. 39 best quarterback in the country in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports.
Ravenwood is led this year by 6-5, 284-pound junior defensive lineman Ayden Woodruff, rated as the No. 3 player in Tennessee and the No. 9 defensive lineman in the country in the Class of 2028 by 247 Sports. He has 33 Division I offers, including 12 from the SEC.
MRA is led by 6-2, 270-pound offensive lineman Caleb Unger, rated as the No. 14 player in Mississippi and the No. 34 interior offensive lineman in the country in the Class of 2027 by 247 Sports.
He was a first-team offensive lineman on the 2025 Mississippi Scoreboard All Metro Jackson team.
Unger has 23 Division I offers, including Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Southern Miss, Jackson State, Mississippi Valley State, and LSU.
Unger helped MRA to a 9-2 record, the MAIS Class 4A, Division I semifinals and a No. 4 final ranking in Mississippi by MaxPreps as a junior.
In addition to Unger, MRA has eight more returning starters, including junior running back Colson O’Cain, who ran for 639 yards and 15 TDs last season and senior defensive back Ty Childress, who is the top returning tackler with 74 last season.
MRA coach Herbert Davis has 255 wins and five state championships victories (three at MRA, two at Brookhaven Academy and one at Pillow Academy) as he starts his 30th career season, including 121 wins at MRA where he starts his 14th season. 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 will also be coaching the defense this year while Jacob Land, son of MRA head of school Termie Land, takes over as offensive coordinator. Jacob Land, who has also been an assistant at Jackson Prep, comes to MRA after being the head coach at Lamar School in Meridian. Hayden Davis coached with Land at Lamar.
Ravenwood has about four times as many students in high school as MRA and plays in the largest class in Tennessee. But MRA has beaten bigger public schools before like MHSAA Class 7A Oak Grove.
MRA is ranked No. 1 in MAIS Class 4A and No. 2 in Mississippi and Ravenwood is ranked No. 2 in Tennessee Class 6A and No. 8 in Tennessee by MaxPreps.
Ravenwood will be tough to handle again this year. MRA will put up a good fight, but Ravenwood’s has depth and also playing at home, a tough combination to overcome.
Hayden goes 2-0 against his dad.
Ravenwood 27, MRA 24.
Other games (winners in bold):
Acadiana, La., (0-0) at East Rankin Academy (1-0)
Canton Academy (0-0) at Tri-County Academy (0-0)
Centreville Academy (1-0) at Central Hinds Academy (0-0)
Christ Covenant School (0-0) at Sylva-Bay Academy (0-0)
Copiah Academy (0-0) at Madison St. Joseph (0-0)
Discovery Christian (1-0) at Kemper Academy (0-1)
Oak Forest, La., (1-0) at Jackson Academy (1-0)
Washington School (0-0 at Hartfield Academy (0-0)
