STARKVILLE — Jamie Mitchell’s goal tonight will be to get his players to focus on who will be on the field instead who won’t be.
After two weeks, that become a more daunting task than Mitchell has faced in more than 20 years as a coach.
The Starkville High School football team has lost six starters on offense since the Class 5A state finals in Jackson last winter. For the second consecutive season, linebacker David Fair suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
“I’ve got guys on my current staff that have been with me for over seven years and we’ve never had more than one ACL injuries in a season,” Mitchell said. “Two weeks into the season, we’ve already suffered two.”
Starkville (0-2) will be without Fair and junior tailback Ladorious Pittman when it takes on Tupelo (1-1) at 7 tonight. The Yellow Jackets likely will be without The Dispatch’s 2011 Player of the Year Gabe Myles. The senior quarterback, who gave a verbal commitment to Mississippi State University, likely won’t be anything other than an emergency option tonight.
“We are trying to be as careful with Gabe as possible so he can maybe be completely healthy when we start region play in a couple weeks,” Mitchell said.
The injury to Myles means another start for Caleb Wilson. The sophomore showed signs of promise last week in the second half of a loss at Madison Central. Wilson was 5-for-14 for 51 yards passing. He also had some positive runs on scrambles or quarterback draws.
“We have a lot of confidence in Caleb, and he did some really good things,” Mitchell said. “Our staff was really impressed with his maturity at times where you’re on the road and then it starts raining hard during warmups.”
Tupelo, which beat Central Hill last week and lost to defending Class 4A champion Lafayette County in its opener, will rely on the power running game of talback Quinn Tiggs. Last week, Tiggs rushed 10 carries for 123 yards.
“We have to keep it a low-scoring game and force them to make plays in the passing game,” Mitchell said. “Our defense is going to have to be great to keep us in football games with the amount of talent we’ve lost on offense to injury.”
The Starkville offense, which is just averaging six points per game, will look to the tailback duo of Preston Baker and Jaquez Horsley against a defense that allowed 250 rushing yards in a season-opening 8-3 loss to Lafayette County.
Starkville has won its past three games against Tupelo, and the past two under Mitchell, who is familiar with Tupelo after building nearby Itawamba Agricultural High into a Class 4A powerhouse.
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