MACON — Tyrone Shorter doesn’t want a week off.
The Noxubee County High School football coach ordinarily would prefer to play every week. It’s just that last season, racked with a number of injuries, the veteran coach didn’t mind when his team had an open week following a loss to West Point that dropped his squad to 2-3.
This season, Shorter and Noxubee County are itching to get back on the field. The Tigers are in a similar situation following a 33-19 loss to the Green Wave in West Point. That loss dropped Noxubee County to 3-2 as it begins preparations for its game at 7 p.m. Friday against Class 3A power Charleston. This will be the first meeting in school history against Charleston.
Shorter said he went to the annual high school coaches clinic with an open date on the schedule and didn’t envision it being filled. A talk with a former coach at Charleston led to the discovery that Charleston had back-to-back open dates. A phone call led to a game that completed Noxubee County’s 12-game slate. Having already faced Class 6A Starkville and Columbus, Class 5A West Point, and perennial Class 3A powers Louisville, the reigning state champion, and Aberdeen, Charleston (3-1) rounds out one of the state’s toughest non-conference schedules. Shorter knows those games will prepare his team for anything it will face in Class 4A, Region 4 play, which begins at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 at Kosciusko.
“I didn’t think he was going to say yes,” Shorter said when he asked Charleston coach Scott Martin if he wanted to come to Macon to play a game. “He called me that Monday and said, ‘Coach, we will come to play you.’ Charleston is that type of program that it is hard for him to find games. Class 3A, Class 2A schools and some Class 4A schools don’t want to play them, so they are just like us and play up. I think it is going to benefit them and it is going to benefit us.”
Shorter said the teams have agreed to a one-year contract. With the Mississippi High School Activities Association set to re-classify teams after this school year, Shorter isn’t sure if Noxubee County or Charleston will be able to find opponents that are closer to their schools. If he can’t, he said he would be willing to play Charleston next season.
Shorter and the Tigers went back to work Monday off a solid effort except for a few special teams issues that cost the Tigers 14 points. A fumble on the opening kickoff and a blocked punt resulted in two touchdowns that accounted for the final margin against West Point (3-2). After giving up only 9 rushing yards in the first half, Noxubee County’s offense stalled in the second half. Leading 19-14, West Point grinded out yards on the ground and kept Noxubee County’s defense on the field for most of the final 24 minutes. Shorter said his team tired after it made a goal-line stand on the 1/2-yard line to preserve the lead.
“I thought our kids did a great job on the goal line,” Shorter said. “We stopped them and had the momentum going and then turned around and threw an interception and gave it right back to them. Defensively, I thought our kids played hard. We had a great defensive game plan. We played hard. I thought we stayed on the field too long. We had too any three and outs. It kind of wore us out at the end.”
On Sunday, Shorter and his coaches reviewed game film and located another reason for West Point’s success running the ball in the second half.
“In the first half, we lined up right,” Shorter said. “When West Point hurt us in the second half, it was because we lined up wrong. We were playing everything perfect in the second half. In the second half, we were either inside too much or outside too far. Against a good football team you can’t do that. They are going to get 2 yards here or 3 yards here. Then they are going to break one of you give them that crease. We were out of position.”
Shorter also saw on the game film that junior quarterback Timorrius Conner was holding the ball too long and making the wrong calls on pass protection. He also thought Conner was hurting a little after he took a hit late in the second quarter, even if he didn’t acknowledge it. He said the incorrect blocking calls enabled the Green Wave to get constant pressure on Conner, which played a role in him going 14 of 35 for 143 yards.
“They ran the same plays the did in the first half,” Shorter said. “We knew exactly what they were going to do and we just couldn’t stop it. We just got tired. I told our coaches at halftime we have to get something going offensively. If we don’t we’re going to be in trouble. We didn’t do that. We had too many three and outs, three and out, three and out. They just wore our defense out.”
Shorter said the special teams mistakes were especially frustrating because they were things the team went over in practice the week before the game. He said the blocking ends didn’t stab to pick up the Green Wave players coming in from the edge and punter Zachery Kauffman wasn’t quick enough getting his kicks off. The slow delivery doomed the Tigers in the second quarter when a blocked punt resulted in a scoop and score.
Despite all of the little things that didn’t go his team’s way, Shorter likes where his team is through five games. He feels confident his offense will start to click, but he emphasized the need for a running back to emerge to help balance the Tigers’ attack. He also believes his defense will be up to the challenge the rest of the season, particularly since it has played so well against larger classification and talented teams.
“We feel good about where we are,” Shorter said. “We know we let one slip out of our hands. I think the coaches met for about seven hours Sunday and we were like, ‘Oh my God.’ We feel like we left about 30 points on the field in the first half. … West Point has a good football team, and he and his coaches do a great job. But like I told our kids, that game is not going to hurt us. Even though we lost, I liked what I saw in this football team, especially defensively. If we can play defense like that from here on out, I love our chances of going to the state championship game.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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