MACON — Tyrone Shorter didn’t have time to mince words.
Faced with a second-straight 2-4 start to the season, the Noxubee County High School football coach realized the Tigers needed bigger contributions from some of their senior leaders, so he challenged some of them to answer the call. Running back Javarcus Walker was one of the seniors Shorter talked to and encouraged to raise his level of play to help get the team back on track.
The 5-foot-7, 175-pounder heeded the wishes of his coach Friday night, rushing for 103 yards and catching three passes for 40 yards in a 30-0 victory against Kosciusko in the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A, Region 4 opener for both teams.
The effort helped Noxubee County, the two-time reigning Class 4A State champion, snap a three-game losing skid and stretch it winning streak in Region 4 games to 22 dating back to 2011.
“The coaches told me I need to step up more to help my team out and to help out making plays, especially going into district play,” Walker said.
Walker’s performance also helped him nearly eclipse his rushing total for the first six games. Even though he only had six carries against Kosciusko, Walker had runs of 57 and 80 yards to spark the Tigers.
For his efforts, Walker is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
Walker tore medial collateral ligament in his knee as a freshman and only appeared on one game with the varsity team. As a sophomore, he had a groin injury and played some slot and had his best season to date with 625 yards rushing on 82 carries. His best game came in a 35-0 victory against Senatobia when he rushed for 116 yards and a touchdown. Last season, Walker said he battled an ankle injury, but this season he said he is healthy and looking forward to more chances to prove himself.
Through seven games, Walker only has 21 carries, but Shorter said Monday the Tigers intend to get him more involved in the offense.
“I have been telling him all year that he needs to get more involved and he has to be an impact (player) because I know what kind of player he is,” Shorter said. “This year and last year he has been kind of quiet. I just told him we are going to need him through this stretch and he has to turn it up a notch. He ran the ball with a lot of intensity and he caught the ball really well.”
Shorter said he heard Walker was down on himself because he dropped a couple of passes in a loss to Kemper County. He said he told Walker it wasn’t his fault and that the Tigers lost as a team.
Walker said he kind of knew why Shorter wanted to talk to him. He said he wasn’t sure how the conversation was going to go, but he felt he wasn’t helping the team as much as he could, even though he felt he was trying to do his part as much as he could.
On Friday, though, Walker did a little more. Shorter said he sensed it every time Walker touched the ball.
“It was almost like he was trying to score every time he touched the ball,” Shorter said. “He has too much talent and too much speed and is too quick for us not to get him the ball.
“I guess he wasn’t getting enough touches early on because we have so much talent over there. It is hard to give one person all of the carries because we have a lot of talent on offense. I told our offense we have too much talent to get into slumps. It is time to take our level of play up a notch.”
Walker said his mind-set changed because it was the team’s first Region 4 game and he and his teammates know those are the games that really matter. Last season, Noxubee County erased a 2-4 start with a fourth-straight perfect run through region play as part of a 10-game winning streak that ended with a second-consecutive state championship.
Walker feels his latest effort will give him and his teammates confidence moving forward that they can build a winning streak and move closer to the goal of winning a third state title in a row.
“I just was thinking score, score, score,” Walker said. “I treated it like a playoff game and that there was no tomorrow, so you have to do what you can and make big plays whenever you touch the ball.
“It felt like I was stepping up and making more plays on offense.”
Walker hopes to use his speed to make those plays. He feels best when he is in the open field and can use his escapability to avoid tacklers. The Tigers utilized that aspect of Walker’s game against Kosciusko by getting him the ball on quick passes to allow him to make plays.
Walker said he plans to bring the same attitude he had against Kosciusko into practice the rest of the season. He said he will try to get his teammates to follow his lead and get them to believe the Tigers can realize a three-peat. With a talented and versatile group of running backs, Walker said his performance, which he agreed was a “breakout game,” can motivate the other running backs to step up and do more.
“I feel nothing is going to stop me from now on,” Walker said. “I got that feeling that I don’t think they’re going to stop me.”
Those are the kind of words Shorter likes to hear from his players.
“He runs a 4.4 (40-yard dash) and is quick as a cat, so we have to utilize his skills,” Shorter said. “That is what we did Friday night. We got the ball to him quick so he could make an athletic move and make something happen, and he did that.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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