Ole Miss bested their former coach Hugh Freeze and his Liberty Flames this past weekend, 27-14. The Rebels defense was the star of the game as they recorded nine sacks and intercepted three passes. Rebel quarterback Matt Corral passed for 324 yards and one score to lead the offense. Ole Miss (7-2, 3-2) will host Texas A&M (7-2, 4-2) this Saturday night. Mississippi State missed three field goals, and in the end it cost the Bulldogs in their 31-28 loss to Arkansas (6-3, 2-3). Quarterback Will Rogers passed for 417 yards and four touchdowns for MSU. The Bulldogs (5-4, 3-3) will travel to Auburn (6-3, 3-2) Saturday morning.
The Associated Press Top 25 has only five SEC teams this week. Georgia is the unanimous choice at No.1 with Alabama coming in at third. Texas A&M moved up to No. 11 and Ole Miss climbed to No. 12 while Auburn comes in at No. 16.
Southern Mississippi (1-8, 0-5) fell to North Texas, 38-14, this past Saturday. The Eagles started fast as they led 14-0 before North Texas stormed back to take the win. USM will travel to 15th ranked UTSA (9-0) on Saturday.
Previously winless Bethune Cookman (1-8, 1-5) stunned Alcorn, 35-31, last Saturday. Alcorn (5-4, 4-2) has played in six of the past seven SWAC football championships but is two games behind first place Prairie View in the Western Division SWAC race. The Braves will host Prairie View on Saturday. JSU scored 20 unanswered points in the second half to ease past Texas Southern, 41-21. JSU (8-1, 6-0) will travel to Southern University this Saturday night. Mississippi Valley (2-7, 1-5) lost to Alabama A&M, 42-14. The Delta Devils will host Alabama State this week.
Conner Mantelli kicked a 28-yard field goal in overtime to lead Delta State past Mississippi College, 24-21, to win the Heritage Bell. DSU (5-5, 3-4) will travel to West Georgia while Mississippi College (3-6, 2-5) will visit West Alabama this Saturday. Belhaven celebrated Homecoming with a 35-20 win over McMurry. The Blazers (6-3) will conclude regular season play at Texas East Baptist this weekend. Millsaps (2-7) fell to Hendrix, 34-7, and will end their season by hosting Birmingham Southern this Saturday. Hinds and Northwest both pulled the upsets last Saturday in the opening round of the Mississippi JUCO playoffs. Hinds won an overtime thriller over previously unbeaten No. 1 East Mississippi, 42-14, while Northwest defeated No. 3 Jones, 26-20. This Saturday, Hinds (8-2) will travel to Northwest (8-2) for the state championship.
The MHSAA announced last Thursday that their state football championships would be moved from Jackson to Hattiesburg. The moved was necessitated by a potential scheduling conflict with Jackson State football. The Tigers are currently leading the SWAC Eastern Division and could host the SWAC Championship Game on December 4 at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The MHSAA championships will now be played on December 3 and 4 at Southern Mississippi’s M.M. Roberts Stadium.
Dale is a Waynesboro resident who has been writing sports in Mississippi since 1973. Listen to Dale’s Brouhaha Sports Show with Marshall Wood on Tuesday at 6 p.m. on WABO FM 105.5 in the Waynesboro area. To listen to the broadcast on your computer or smart phone anywhere in the world go to Google Chrome, go to wabo105.com and click listen live. This week’s guest is high school football expert Tyler Cleveland.
