STARKVILLE — The selection process for the Under Armour All-America Game is long and taxing.
Thousands of athletes compete at camps across the country for a chance to represent their high school, state and future colleges on high school football recruiting’s grandest stage each year, while only 85 were selected for the 2021 game.
For players in Mississippi, success in the game and the exposure spring camps bring to those players participating helps put formerly unknown recruits on the map in a state flush with Division I talent. But in a year that COVID-19 has brought a startling halt to sports worldwide, those involved in the Under Armour All-America Game recognize the impact cancellations will have on players from the Magnolia State.
“The spring is recruitment time and camps, and that’s your exposure time — all the way through June and July,” Holmes County Central and former Under Armour Next game coach Marcus Rogers told The Dispatch. “I think it’s going to hurt recruiting a little bit for kids that were kind of on the fence that were trying to go to different schools but some kids it will help them because some schools won’t be able to get their true (40-yard dash) times.”
Of those involved with the Under Armour All-America Game and Mississippi football as a whole, Starkville High School head coach Chris Jones has as deep an understanding of a canceled spring and the ramifications of the contest as anyone.
As a player, Jones starred at Noxubee County before a standout career as a wide receiver at Jackson State. A spell in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings followed. So too did stints with the now-defunct Arena Football League’s Kansas City Commanders and the Canadian Football League’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Now entering his fourth year as the head coach of the Yellow Jackets, Jones has compiled an 81-20 record between stops at Starkville and Kemper County High School. Under his watch, nine players from Starkville have been sent to the Division I ranks, and at least another three are slated to join them after the 2020 season.
Boasting a deep appreciation for the exposure — or lack thereof — that Mississippi prospects receive on the larger recruiting scene, Jones said prospects within the state benefit hugely from the normal spring camp season.
“The thing about Mississippi players is you have to project them two, three, four, five years down the line versus the kid from Texas or Georgia is ready right now,” Jones told The Dispatch. “It’s not that we can’t play, it’s that we develop a little later because we don’t have the same resources and facilities that some of your better programs in Texas and California. But if you look in the NFL, you can see there’s a lot of kids from Mississippi there.”
On a more national level, Demetric Warren has moved toward the center of the Under Armour All-America Game selection process. As one of five members of the game’s selection committee, Warren and his fellow board members are tasked with whittling down thousands of prospects into the rosters that appear on ESPN each January.
A Mississippi native and longtime coach in Hollandale, Warren has worked in varying coaching capacities at Simmons High School for years. He’s also been connected to the inner workings of the recruiting world in Mississippi for equally as long.
“Mississippi is always going to have two or three kids pop up late that you’re going to say should’ve been All-Americans,” Warren told The Dispatch. “But some kids out in small towns don’t have film or some kids develop a little later. So it’s a tough process — at the end of the year, when it’s time to hit Orlando, there are maybe five or 10 kids sitting there like, ‘Man, we should’ve got that kid.'”
At the collegiate level, Mississippi State has been a major beneficiary of players participating in the Under Armour All-America Game in recent years. Since 2018, MSU has inked six players that participated in the annual contest — matching its entire total since the game’s inception in 2008.
The Bulldogs will welcome their 13th such player in school history this summer when Philadelphia High School standout Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin arrives on campus this summer.
A four-star recruit in the class of 2020, Griffin shined in last season’s competition. Though he had arrived at the game as a wide receiver, the future Bulldog flipped to cornerback when coaches were in need of an extra defensive back during game week.
“He did a good job of saying, ‘Hey, y’all, we can play too, and it’s not just me — we’ve got a bunch of ballers in Mississippi,'” Jones said of Griffin after coaching him in last year’s game. “I’ve always been the type of person that when I was playing college ball, pro ball with guys from all over the world, I was always bragging and boasting on Mississippi….You’ve got some of the best football players ever coming from Mississippi. We can play ball with anyone.”
Now heading into its 13th year of existence, the Under Armour All-America Game has springboarded a number of Mississippi prospects’ high school careers into the collegiate ranks. And while that number could shrink some in 2020 given the cancellation of camps and other evaluation periods, Warren remains confident in those kids from the state that do end up being selected.
“There’s never a hesitation to take a kid from Mississippi because they’re going to do absolutely well,” he said. “They stack up real well against (the rest).”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.