By Robert Wilson
Darla Davis – the wife of Madison-Ridgeland Academy head football coach Herbert Davis and mother of Ravenwood, Tenn., High offensive coordinator Hayden Davis – has a decision to make.
“She’s not real happy about us playing each other,” said Herbert Davis, who celebrated he and Darla’s 30th wedding anniversary on July 8. “She called me and wanted to know what colors we were both wearing. She said she would wear something neutral.”
Darla’s dilemma is this:
Husband Herbert and son Hayden are playing each other in the season opener Friday at 7 p.m. at MRA in Madison.
Call it the Davis Bowl.
Darla will be sitting, along with Hayden’s wife, Holly, Holly’s parents, and several other family members in the south end zone where the videoboard is.
This will be one of the toughest openers in MRA history.
MRA football fans might remember when nationally ranked Oakland, Tenn., came down to MRA during the 2022 season. Oakland beat MRA 56-33. Ravenwood beat Oakland last year. Not to say Oakland’s team last year was like the 2022 team, but Oakland is always one of the best teams in Tennessee and last year it won the 6A state championship.
Ravenwood – a public school which plays in the highest class in Tennessee (Class 6A), and is located in Brentwood, a suburb of Nashville – is ranked No. 8 in Tennessee by MaxPreps this year. The Raptors won their first 13 games last season before losing to Houston 24-21 in the 6A semifinals. Oakland beat Houston 42-20 in the championship game.
The elder Davis has a major edge in coaching experience.
The younger Davis will be making his high school coaching debut as an offensive coordinator, after coaching the safeties last year in his first year Ravenwood.
Hayden was a starting quarterback at MRA, but unfortunately his playing career was cut short by many injuries, playing only one game his junior season and missing his entire senior season. Despite all that, Copiah-Lincoln Community College signed him, and he was All-State as a sophomore. He signed with Delta State, but injuries got him again. Davis was a student assistant coach for two years at Delta State and after graduating came back to coach linebackers on MRA’s state championship team in 2021. Then, he was defensive coordinator for Lamar School in Meridian and head coach Jacob Land, son of MRA head of school Termie Land, in 2022 and 2023.
Hayden and Holly (then Brand) – who was Miss Mississippi 2021 – got married and moved to Nashville, with neither one having jobs. Herbert Davis knew some coaches in the Nashville area and Hayden landed at Ravenwood.
MRA senior wide receiver Case Thomas and junior offensive lineman Caleb Unger are two of the team’s top players to watch.
Thomas, the son of former Alabama kicker Neal Thomas, has caught 119 passes for 2,222 yards and 27 TDs the past two seasons and is rated as the No. 50 player in Mississippi by 247 Sports.
The 6-foot-3, 295-pound Unger was a first team offensive lineman on the 2024 Mississippi Scoreboard All Metro Jackson team, one of four sophomores on the 25-player first team, and has 20 Division I offers.
Other top returnees include senior quarterback Samuel Stockett (3,239 yards and 33 TDs last season), senior wide receiver Will Bizot (47 catches for 697 yards and 3 TDs), senior linebacker Parker Durham (98 tackles), senior defensive lineman Cade Gentry (53 tackles and seven sacks), senior defensive back Jack Ridgway (two interceptions and 13 pass breakups) and junior linebacker James Downer (54 tackles, 13 sacks).
Ravenwood’s top player is senior quarterback and Boston College commitment Femi Babalola, who is rated as the No. 21 best player in Tennessee and the No. 39 best quarterback in the country by 247 Sports. He has 19 Division I offers.
This opener for MRA is the first of a string of seven consecutive difficult games. After Ravenwood is MHSAA Class 3A power Jefferson Davis County High, two-time defending MAIS Class 6A state champion Hartfield Academy, Tennessee Class 6A public school power Collierville, 2024 MAIS Class 6A runner-up Jackson Prep, 2025 MAIS Class 4A favorite Jackson Academy, nationally ranked Louisiana power Baton Rouge Catholic and defending MAIS Class 5A champion Parklane Academy.
Said Herbert Davis: “Without a doubt, it’s the toughest stretch of games in the history of our association.”
Davis – a Brookhaven Academy, Co-Lin CC, and Mississippi College (bachelor’s degree) and Delta State (master’s degree) graduate – has won 246 games and five state championships (three at MRA, two at Brookhaven Academy and one at Pillow Academy) as he starts his 29th season 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 112 games in 12 seasons at MRA.
More importantly, Davis begins his second season in great health.
Davis had a kidney transplant on Dec. 11, 2023, which he said saved his life. God answered Davis’ prayers when MRA parent Leah Cox volunteered to donate one of her kidneys and it was a match. But Davis didn’t receive Cox’s kidney. Instead, Cox was the missing link to a complicated puzzle that allowed seven people to receive kidneys in a unique procedure at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. Davis’ kidney came from Patrick Johnson, a captain in the Ouachita Parish Sheriff Department in Monroe, La.
After three days in the hospital, Davis came home.
He’s come a long way since then. Davis has been back in a normal routine for more than a year, waking up around 5 a.m., walking in his neighborhood, lifting weights, riding his stationary bike at his house, eating a healthy diet, and doing what he loves, coaching high school football.
As he starts his 29th season as a head coach, he is grateful for being able to coach and is as healthy as he has ever been.
