STARKVILLE — Colt Chrestman has learned to be patient.
As much as the Starkville Academy senior wide receiver enjoys catching passes from senior quarterback Houston Clark with effortless efficiency, Chrestman understands that is only part of the job he plays for a young coach who likes an old-school approach.
On some teams, Chrestman and Clark would be a go-to tandem coaches would use nearly every down to terrorize secondaries. But Starkville Academy coach Chase Nicholson prefers to use an old-fashioned ground attack to control the tempo and to get defenses on their heels. When the time is right, Nicholson can look at his play chart and call a pass play with confidence because he knows Chrestman, Parker Guest, Drake Gordman, and Grant Wolfe are only four of the options he can go to when he wants to throw the football.
Following a slow start Friday, third-seeded Starkville Academy showcased that balance in the second half as it pulled away for a 29-0 victory against 14th-seeded Clarksdale Lee Academy in the first round of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA playoffs at J.E. Logan Field.
With the win, Starkville Academy (10-1) secured a second-round date with sixth-seeded Simpson Academy, which defeated 11th-seeded North Delta Academy 41-26, at 7 p.m. Friday in Starkville.
The Volunteers stayed on track to return to play for a state title for the second-straight season thanks to Clark, who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more. He connected with Chrestman for a 20-yard touchdown and Gordman on a 25-yard strike. In all, he was 7 of 10 for 153 yards. He added a 1-yard touchdown run and an 11-yard scoring run. Those runs were part of a 179-yard rushing performance by the Volunteers.
“I have always said I want to run the football and I want to throw when I want to throw,” Nicholson said. “We pound, we pound, and they may get stuffed a few times and lose yards and come back and get a few, but you lull them to sleep. We have weapons — Parker (Guest), Colt (Chrestman), Drake (Gordman), Q (Houston Clark) — and you lull them to sleep and you let Wolfe do his thing, get pounded on and be the power back that he claims he is and take that shot that we get, and we have to connect on it. We have to connect on it, but that is not what we live by. We live by running the football, and that is what we believe in. Those are just the plays we try to get a big play, a big momentum shift or a big shift in the momentum.”
Nicholson said the plan wouldn’t work without the play of the offensive and defensive lines. He said it took a little while for the Volunteers to work out the kinks Friday, but he credited assistant coach Tony Stanford for making the adjustment and helping the offensive line find a way to stop the blitzes.
On defense, Starkville Academy played with a faster pace in the second half. The Volunteers had five of their seven sacks in the second half.
But the team-first attitude Nicholson stresses starts on offense because it asks all players to be part of the running attack. That means players like Chrestman and Guest have to block on the edge to give Wolfe, Gordman, or Clark room to make a play when they get there.
Chrestman laughed when asked if he keeps track of the number of plays the wide receivers are asked to block before Nicholson calls a passing play. He said he doesn’t worry about the breakdown between running plays and passing plays because he knows Nicholson eventually will call his number.
“Run, run, run and the defense starts biting and gets closer and play-action or something like that and throw it over their heads,” Chrestman said. “That is the formula.
“You have to be patient. Coach Nicholson says for us to get the ball we have to block and then I will throw you the ball. We know what to do to get the ball. We have to block for our running backs.”
Chrestman joked that Starkville Academy will call five running plays in a row before Nicholson will go to the pass and “reward” the receivers. He said that isn’t the way the Volunteers script their plays, but he said the number of weapons on the team makes it difficult for defenses to figure out who is up next whether the Volunteers are going to run or throw.
“We have so many weapons. We have five or six guys that can make a play at any moment. That is huge. It is hard for a defense to cover five or six guys every play. It is hard because they don’t know where it is coming from. It could be a run or it could be a pass out side.”
Clark agreed. His athleticism makes him a dangerous running threat, but his quickness in the pocket makes him even more dangerous as a “throwing quarterback,” which Nicholson said his players always claim is Clark’s true identity. If you watch Clark’s footwork and see how quickly he turns his shoulders and delivers balls to the outside, you would agree. But Clark has worked with Nicholson enough to know what makes the offense go.
“There is a little old school in there,” Clark said when asked about the Volunteers’ offense. “We like to pound the rock up the middle, but there is always a little twist coming out there and throwing the ball and spreading the rock out and getting it in different peoples’ hands.”
Clark said Starkville Academy liked to play fast. He said the Volunteers have had success because they play with “heart and determination,” which suits what he calls a “scrappy bunch” that has designs of erasing the memory of a 37-12 loss to Oak Forest (La.) Academy last season in the Class AAA, Division II state title game.
Clark hopes the balance Starkville Academy has this season with Wolfe, who rushed for 111 yards Friday night, as the featured running back and Chrestman as the playmaker at receiver will help the team take the next step.
Nicholson praised the efforts of his wide receivers because they play an integral role in the offense’s ability to click. He said veterans like Chrestman know the offense and how he wants it to run and newcomers to the team like Guest have picked up on that and have done what they need to do.
“He is one who took that to heart as a first-year player for me,” Nicholson said of Guest. “He has blocked as good as anybody. He is one who is always down field blocking. William Wolfe comes into the game as a blocker and knows our chances of throwing the ball to him are slim, but he knows his job when he comes in. Colt understands it because he has been around me for long enough to know that he is out there to block and we are going to throw it to him when our chance comes.”
Starkville Academy needed all of those pieces to come together Friday because it struggled to find its footing. Leading only 7-0 late in the first half, a sack by Hayden Henderson sparked the Volunteers.
“He smoked that kid,” Chrestman said. “That was a huge hit. That carried us into halftime and into the third quarter.”
Nicholson agreed and said it was doubly important for the Volunteers to get the first stop of the third quarter and score on their initial possession of the second half to build a two-score lead. That five-play scoring drive offered a taste of the Volunteers’ versatility, as Clark hit Gordman with a 27-yard gain on second-and-12. Wolfe busted an 18-yard gain before a penalty wiped out his touchdown run. It didn’t matter, though as Clark zipped one to Chrestman for a touchdown that sent the Volunteers on their way.
“We didn’t feel like it was a playoff game,” Nicholson said about his team’s performance in the first half. “We have been talking and building this game up all week about the atmosphere and the feel the smell and it was here, but they weren’t. I don’t know why. We have had games where we come out slow and I told them (after the game) we can’t do that because the teams are too good from here on out. We talked at halftime that they have to play like the playoff-caliber team that they are, play like the championship team they are. I thought they picked it up in the second half and showed that is who they are.”
Nicholson cautioned his players that they will need to start quicker and bring more intensity next week against what he feels will be a physical game.
“They are big, strong, fast. We have played them in jamborees over the course of many years. It is always a big, physical football team. They’re a great football team. I don’t know what they are ranked, but I am sure it is lower than what it should be because they are a great football team.
“We know the challenges it brings, but, like I told them, we welcome all comers because that is what we’re here for. We like physical football because we want to get physical, too. We are looking forward to Simpson. It is going to be a great game here in Starkville.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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