Green Wave impressive over Jackets

There’s been three weeks of high school football in the state of Mississippi, but I’m ready to make the call early on: West Point is the best team in the state.

That’s right, I wrote it.

I’ve always been thoroughly impressed with

Chris Chambless’ program and he’s had some great teams over his tenure. We’ve also seen great players like

Michael Carr, Justin Cox, Aeris Williams and Scott Lashley make a name for themselves before starting Southeastern Conference careers. This team, and one particular player, might top them all.

Friday night was just flat out impressive. The Green Wave came out against a really good Starkville team, bent the Yellowjackets over their knee and gave them a good old fashion lashing. The Jackets had the early advantage in the first quarter, but it was evident that the Wave were going to make their move.

There was nothing fancy about it, but West Point put their best athlete behind center, ran him behind that aggressive offensive line and sent him off to the races. That player was Mississippi State commit Marcus Murphy, who helped lead them to the Class 5A State title a year ago doing the same thing.

He broke loose for 36 yards, then 33 and then 14. All came one after the other and suddenly the Wave had a 21-3 lead heading to the locker room.

That was plenty enough for the home team, which quite frankly won the game prior to it even starting. From my own point of view, a heavy shower that moved through the stadium for several minutes prior to kick helped put the Jackets away. It played right into the Wave’s favor and allowed them to do what they do best.

It didn’t help matters that SHS was missing two

of its best players in starting left tackle Kameron Jones and running back Rodrigues Clark. Jones had to sit for the first three quarters after throwing a punch at a player against Oxford and Clark’s return is still up in the air after suffering an MCL sprain in his knee against the Chargers.

The injury was a grade one which can be considered minor in nature, but Clark has had two major knee injuries end his previous seasons and Chris Jones wants no business having number three on his watch.

Without Clark, the Jackets didn’t seem to be completely comfortable. It was similar to their offense in the Little Egg Bowl when Clark went out of the game initially

and the group struggled to find productivity.

I would suspect there’s a good chance that Clark sits again this week against Columbus and possibly the next week against Meridian before district play starts. It will be then when they need him the most.

As far as the impact of last weekend’s 28-3 beat down, there won’t be one if SHS doesn’t let it

linger. The same West Point team that was soundly beaten a year ago at Starkville rattled off 13-straight wins to a state championship. I think the Jackets could very well do the same thing, but it will take leadership within the program.

Coach Jones has the right mindset.

He told me post game that his team had no excuses. He took the loss and was ready for a new

week. His coaching history shows that his players will follow his lead and, after being around this crew, I have no doubt that will be the case.

Let’s see how they respond.

Robbie Faulk is the high school writer for the Starkville Daily News. The views in this column are Faulk’s and not necessarily the views of the SDN or its staff.