STARKVILLE — You could argue Starkville High School defensive coordinator Brooks Oakley didn’t have any reason to watch the film of his team’s game against Clinton earlier this season.
Without starting quarterback Cam Akers, the Arrows lost to the Yellow Jackets 45-7 on Nov. 6 in the regular-season finale at Yellow Jacket Stadium. Akers, who was out with an injury, watched from the sideline as Clinton’s offense struggled.
Akers showed last week he is feeling just fine, rushing for 150 yards and throwing for 355 more in a 56-42 victory against Columbus in the first round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A playoffs.
Starkville (11-1) will try to prevent Akers from doing that much damage at 7 tonight when the teams meet in the second round at Arrow Field.
“He’s arguably one of the best players in the state,” Oakley said. “He touches the ball every snap. It’s going to be a completely different game. Every one of our kids knows about Cam Akers and how good of a player he is, so that’s helpful, too. They know it’s going to be a different game.”
Akers presents a whole new set of challenges for the Yellow Jackets, who allowed only 166 yards in the first meeting. Clinton rushed for 130 yards and threw for 36 yards with two quarterbacks. Rachaud Taylor was 2 of 14 for 36 yards and one interception. Walker Burchfield was 0 of 9 with one interception.
But Oakley and the Yellow Jackets are familiar with what Akers can do. Last season, Starkville beat Clinton 56-46 in at Clinton, but Akers threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 88 yards and another touchdown.
Oakley admits the Yellow Jackets have lost some players from that defense, but they are solid at defensive line, linebacker, and in the secondary.
“We’re a little different on defense than we were last year,” Oakley said. “They’re kind of doing the same stuff. They’re a little different, but they’ve got a lot of the same players back, a lot of their skill players are back. We can learn from that film, too, for sure.”
Starkville is allowing 179.2 yards and eight points per game. Akers, who has given a verbal commitment to Alabama, has thrown for 1,745 yards and 16 touchdowns and rushed for 1,057 yards and 12 touchdowns.
The Yellow Jackets were kind of upset when Akers didn’t play in the first game, but they are happy he’s healthy and ready to go.
“We’re very excited,” Jacket senior defensive lineman Kobe Jones said. “We’ve kind of picked up the tempo in practice because we want to make a statement that one player can’t beat us.”
Jones, a Clarion-Ledger Dandy Dozen pick, has 26 tackles (eight for loss), one forced fumble, and five pass breakups.
Oakley said he’s glad his defense is “not running and hiding” from the challenge of Akers, but he doesn’t want them to get overconfident. When that has happened, he breaks out the film of last year’s game when Akers ran all over them.
The Yellow Jackets don’t need to be reminded.
“We know they just threw the ball all over us last year,” Jacket junior linebacker Willie Gay said. “It’s going to motivate us to just go out and stop him.
“We know we have to focus to learn, know what we’re doing, know how to stop him, and know how to contain him. After we get hyped, we know how to come down to earth and practice like we’re supposed to.”
Gay has 61 tackles (13 for loss), three sacks, one forced fumble, two interceptions, and eight pass breakups. Junior linebacker Abdural Lee leads the Jackets with 84 tackles. He also has 24 tackles for loss, three sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and one blocked field goal. He hasn’t played the last two weeks after leaving the Warren Central game Oct. 30 with an injury in the first half. Sophomore linebacker Jacob Williams is second on the team with 64 tackles.
If Starkville wins, it will play Warren Central or Madison Central next week in the North Half State championship game. The winner of that game will play in the state championship game at Ole Miss’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford.
“I feel really positive,” Jones said. “I feel like our team is pretty solid on defense and defense wins championships.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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