MHSAA 7A Playoffs are Set

[615dawg]

2023 Mississippi (MHSAA) 7A Football Championships Varsity Football

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Should setup for a pretty good playoff - Here's my initial analysis.

In the North Region 2 is much better than Region 1. It would not surprise me to see all four Region 2 teams win their first Round games.

Germantown (5-5) travels to Oxford (7-3) The Mavericks beat Oxford last year and have a win over Starkville this year. Starkville beat Oxford by 20 the week before Germantown beat them.

Starkville (7-3) hosts Southaven (3-7) in what is the most lopsided first round matchup in quite some time. The Jackets will easily take the first step toward defending their state title.

Starkville will be on the road in the second round regardless of who wins between Germantown and Oxford - They had trouble with Germantown but easily beat Oxford.

Tupelo (8-2) hosts DeSoto Central (5-6). The Golden Wave have looked unstoppable, going 5-0 in Region 2 with only one tough game (more on that in a second). DeSoto Central has lost four of their last six and is limping into the playoffs.

Madison Central (6-4) travels to Lewisburg (7-3). I think Lewisburg is a sleeping giant in 7A athletics, having just won the volleyball title. But Madison Central is better than their record seems. They have wins over the Region 3 and Region 4 champion, but needed a win in a de facto playoff game against Clinton to even make the playoffs. They gave Tupelo all they wanted, losing 14-12 and missing a late two point conversion.

Tupelo would travel to Madison in the second round, but would host Lewisburg.

North Half host priority goes like this: Oxford, Tupelo, Lewisburg, Starkville, Southaven, Madison Central, DeSoto Central, Germantown (e.g. Tupelo would have to play at Oxford but host everyone else)


The South got crazy last night, with a three way tie for third in Region 3 eliminating Northwest Rankin (who has a win over Madison Central). I expect seeds to hold and the top two teams from Region 3 and 4 to be in the quarterfinals.

Brandon (8-2) hosts Harrison Central (6-4). The Red Rebels started out 5-0, but lost 3 of their last 4 to finish 4th in Region 4. Brandon should roll here.

Gulfport (6-4) hosts Pearl (7-3). Gulfport has won 4 of 5 and has looked good. They played Brandon tough mid-season. Pearl lost to Northwest Rankin last night, but wins the three way tiebreaker with Meridian. If there were an upset in the South, this is the chance.

Brandon would host Gulfport, but travel to Pearl.

Meridian (5-6) is at Ocean Springs (9-1). Those Meridian Wildcats have to travel to perhaps the best team in 7A, Ocean Springs. The Hounds only loss came in the season opener at Madison Central.

Biloxi (6-5) at Oak Grove (9-1). The Warriors certainly have something to say about being the best team in 7A, but their loss to Brandon two weeks ago slid them down to the Region 3 No. 2 seed. They should have no issues with Biloxi.

Ocean Springs would host Oak Grove, but travel to Biloxi.

South Half host priority: Brandon, Ocean Springs, Oak Grove, Gulfport, Pearl, Biloxi, Meridian, Harrison Central (Oak Grove would likely be on the road for South Half)


Final analysis - who is going to win.

Starkville is the defending champ, but got boat raced against Tupelo last night. I was shocked to see that. Tupelo is clearly the top team in the North, but they've been here before. The possible Madison Central-Tupelo second round game is the game to watch. Tupelo struggled to a 14-12 win and could have easily lost that game. I think Starkville cruises in the first two rounds and awaits that winner. If last night would have been closer, I would want to pick Starkville, but this is the year Tupelo pushes through.

Pick: Tupelo over Starkville
Dark Horse: Madison Central

In the South, the first round may be boring, but then you have three teams that could all win it. Brandon has a win over Oak Grove already, but Ocean Springs has not lost since a 15-14 loss in Week 1. I feel like Brandon will be in the South title game, but the Game of the bracket is the Ocean Springs-Oak Grove second round matchup. I think the winner here beats Brandon, so I'm listing the three a little differently here.

Pick: Ocean Springs or Oak Grove over Brandon

I think the South winner (any of the three) will come through and beat Tupelo for the state title.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Lewisburg also just won the state title in baseball in June.

 

[GloryDawg]

It's amazing a 3-7 team making the playoff. How ****** is that conference. I hope they are the third-place team.

 

[Drebin]

Lewisburg also just won the state title in baseball in June.

Lewisburg is a great example of what great coaching gets you at the high school level. That team has no business in the playoffs or having a 7-3 record. They are out talented by almost every team they play. They probably won't last long in the playoffs, but getting there is a tremendous accomplishment for them.

 

[Tractorman]

2023 Mississippi (MHSAA) 4A Football Championships Varsity Football

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Looks like it will be Ripley vs Louisville and Houston vs Amory in the North Half. Louisville will probably come out of that bracket. Ripley could surprise with getting their QB back in the last 2 weeks. I'm not familiar enough with the South to predict

 

[615dawg]

It's amazing a 3-7 team making the playoff. How ****** is that conference. I hope they are the third-place team.

Region 1 sucked this year

1. Oxford 7-3 (5-0)
2. Lewisburg 7-3 (3-2)
3. Southaven 3-7 (3-2)
4. DeSoto Central 5-6 (2-3)
5. Hernando 4-6 (2-3)
6. Horn Lake 1-9 (0-5)

Southaven went 0-5 in non-region games and opened region play with a 36-12 win over DeSoto Central. Then they lost to Lewisbuirg and Oxford and were setting at 1-7. They upset Hernando and then beat Horn Lake to get the No. 3 seed. When 4 out of 6 (4 out of 5 in Region 2) teams make the playoffs, you are bound to have some bad teams sneak in.

 

[OldVideoGuy]

It's amazing a 3-7 team making the playoff. How ****** is that conference. I hope they are the third-place team.

Coffeeville made the playoffs in 1A this year and didn't win a game!

 

[GloryDawg]

Region 1 sucked this year

1. Oxford 7-3 (5-0)
2. Lewisburg 7-3 (3-2)
3. Southaven 3-7 (3-2)
4. DeSoto Central 5-6 (2-3)
5. Hernando 4-6 (2-3)
6. Horn Lake 1-9 (0-5)

Southaven went 0-5 in non-region games and opened region play with a 36-12 win over DeSoto Central. Then they lost to Lewisbuirg and Oxford and were setting at 1-7. They upset Hernando and then beat Horn Lake to get the No. 3 seed. When 4 out of 6 (4 out of 5 in Region 2) teams make the playoffs, you are bound to have some bad teams sneak in.

I had always thought it was the top three but then I didn't pay much attention to it. This might be the year Brandon finally wins a championship. They look good.

 

[MagicDawg]

Pearl did not lose to Northwest Rankin last night (Thursday). NWR lost to Brandon.

 

[Dawgzilla2]

7A? In my day we only had 4 As, and we LIKED it!!
Have that many more schools been built, or is this more of a participation trophy type of thing?

 

[LOTRGOTDAWGFAN]

6A is set too. West Jones destroyed Hattiesburg in Hattiesburg last night 37-7 to finish the season undefeated. I'm projected a finale of West Jones vs South Panola this year, and I think the games will be played at Vomit Hemorrhoid stadium.

 

[patdog]

It's amazing a 3-7 team making the playoff. How ****** is that conference. I hope they are the third-place team.

4th place team. 4 teams make playoffs out of only 5 or 6 teams per district. Ridiculous.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

7A? In my day we only had 4 As, and we LIKED it!!
Have that many more schools been built, or is this more of a participation trophy type of thing?

You just have so many people living in certain areas, and those schools are so much bigger than even the 6A schools. I guess the only answer is to have a max school size? I have no idea about all that, maybe they already do. I don't know what the criteria is for building new schools.

 

[jethreauxdawg]

Lewisburg is a great example of what great coaching gets you at the high school level. That team has no business in the playoffs or having a 7-3 record. They are out talented by almost every team they play. They probably won't last long in the playoffs, but getting there is a tremendous accomplishment for them.

Great coaching? Got that coach’s number?

 

[rynodawg]

NWR had a tough year, after starting so well. Beat 4 7A playoff teams, and even had Ocean Springs almost beat until a late special teams turnover. Just completely collapsed down the stretch starting from when Daniel Hill of Meridian single handedly defeated them.

 

[HWY51dog]

Football in Desoto County is not good. DC has a lot of athletes and should be better. Lewisburg gets the most out of what they have because of good coaching. Their is Desoto County good, and then rest of the state good. I would be surprised if any Desoto County school. won a game in the playoffs. Lewisburg is the only one that has a chance but it will be struggle with the athleticism of MC.

Desoto County schools are strong in baseball, volleyball and cross country.

 

[patdog]

6A is set too. West Jones destroyed Hattiesburg in Hattiesburg last night 37-7 to finish the season undefeated. I'm projected a finale of West Jones vs South Panola this year, and I think the games will be played at Vomit Hemorrhoid stadium.

Hard to know how good West Jones really is. The schedule was mostly really weak. But they beat Laurel, Hattiesburg, Poplarville and Prep all pretty easily. That defense is probably the best WJ has ever had. Surprising a few of those guys aren't higher rated college prospects than they are. WJ-Picayune should be the south state final and I expect that will be a battle. I figure Warren Central - South Panola in the north, which again should be a good game.

 

[patdog]

7A? In my day we only had 4 As, and we LIKED it!!
Have that many more schools been built, or is this more of a participation trophy type of thing?

4 divisions is too few. But 7 is way too many.

 

[NawlBennyDawg]

Region 1 sucked this year

1. Oxford 7-3 (5-0)
2. Lewisburg 7-3 (3-2)
3. Southaven 3-7 (3-2)
4. DeSoto Central 5-6 (2-3)
5. Hernando 4-6 (2-3)
6. Horn Lake 1-9 (0-5)

Southaven went 0-5 in non-region games and opened region play with a 36-12 win over DeSoto Central. Then they lost to Lewisbuirg and Oxford and were setting at 1-7. They upset Hernando and then beat Horn Lake to get the No. 3 seed. When 4 out of 6 (4 out of 5 in Region 2) teams make the playoffs, you are bound to have some bad teams sneak in.

Man, what happened to Horn Lake? They were a powerhouse a few years ago, granted they did have Nakobe freakin' Dean.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

You just have so many people living in certain areas, and those schools are so much bigger than even the 6A schools. I guess the only answer is to have a max school size? I have no idea about all that, maybe they already do. I don't know what the criteria is for building new schools.

I really don’t know how you could add another school in Desoto county. Some are only a few miles apart.

 

[Will Rogers.sixpack]

7A? In my day we only had 4 As, and we LIKED it!!
Have that many more schools been built, or is this more of a participation trophy type of thing?

It’s all about money, guised as a participation trophy type of thing. Not only more classifications, they also allow the top 4 teams in every district go to the playoffs, with most all districts only having 5 teams in it. In 6 and 7 A, there are only 12 teams in the north and south. State championships don’t mean what they used too with all these smaller fielded classifications.

 

[Drebin]

Man, what happened to Horn Lake? They were a powerhouse a few years ago, granted they did have Nakobe freakin' Dean.

Horn Lake was a power house for two or three years. They've historically been the worst team in DeSoto County for a long, long time.

 

[curseddawgs]

Until Starkville hires a real coach they’ll have to continue their road to State by winning away games. By far the most talented team in the state but they always lose stupid games because of how poorly coached they are

 

[NawlBennyDawg]

7A? In my day we only had 4 As, and we LIKED it!!
Have that many more schools been built, or is this more of a participation trophy type of thing?

My grandfather played for New Albany back in the 60s when they had the Little Ten conference (West Point, Starkville, New Albany, Houston, Pontotoc, Oxford, Amory, Bruce, and Aberdeen) so playing Starkville and Oxford happened all the time for NA back in the day. New Albany would not DARE play Starkville today.

 

[curseddawgs]

Horn Lake was a power house for two or three years. They've historically been the worst team in DeSoto County for a long, long time.

The talent they had in their 2018-2020 classes was something else

 

[HWY51dog]

I really don’t know how you could add another school in Desoto county. Some are only a few miles apart.

The new Hernando High school is only two exits away from Lewisburg.

 

[HWY51dog]

The talent they had in their 2018-2020 classes was something else

That and coaching change.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The new Hernando High school is only two exits away from Lewisburg.

What’s funny about the new high school is that literally across the road to the north is part of the Desoto Central School zone.

 

[NawlBennyDawg]

The talent they had in their 2018-2020 classes was something else

We played against that Horn Lake team in a Spring game the Spring before they went 15-0. It felt like we were playing Bama.

 

[HWY51dog]

We played against that Horn Lake team in a Spring game the Spring before they went 15-0. It felt like we were playing Bama.

My sons travel team would use the Horn Lake practice fields. I would see Dean leading usually 8-10 players in extra workouts after they finished regular practice. Those guys looked like they were 25. Dean was a special player.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Horn Lake was a power house for two or three years. They've historically been the worst team in DeSoto County for a long, long time.

Yep.

One district championship.

One state championship.

And their coach only had a career record at Horn Lake of 49-47– going 2-9, 3-8, 4-7, and 2-10 before Nakobe.

 

[patdog]

It’s all about money, guised as a participation trophy type of thing. Not only more classifications, they also allow the top 4 teams in every district go to the playoffs, with most all districts only having 5 teams in it. In 6 and 7 A, there are only 12 teams in the north and south. State championships don’t mean what they used too with all these smaller fielded classifications.

Lot of crazy unnecessary travel with these new classification. Laurel & South Jones are 7 miles apart & both 5A. South plays in a division with Natchez, a couple Jxn schools & a could SW MS schools. Laurel plays a division with 3 Jackson County schools. WTF?

 

[kired]

I go to the Tupelo home games. Their passing game just doesn't seem as explosive as it was last year. Hard to tell depending on the competition, but I don't think they've connected on deep passes like they did last year --- or at least earlier in the season they certainly were not.

 

[Dawgs_4_life]

I go to the Tupelo home games. Their passing game just doesn't seem as explosive as it was last year. Hard to tell depending on the competition, but I don't think they've connected on deep passes like they did last year --- or at least earlier in the season they certainly were not.

They were firing on all cylinders last night. Hit several deep pass plays. Starkville was extremely overmatched.

 

[AlCoDog]

Lewisburg is a great example of what great coaching gets you at the high school level. That team has no business in the playoffs or having a 7-3 record. They are out talented by almost every team they play. They probably won't last long in the playoffs, but getting there is a tremendous accomplishment for them.

Conversely, DeSoto Central shows you how a ****** coach can under achieve so badly. Ford sucks..

 

[OG Goat Holder]

It’s all about money, guised as a participation trophy type of thing. Not only more classifications, they also allow the top 4 teams in every district go to the playoffs, with most all districts only having 5 teams in it. In 6 and 7 A, there are only 12 teams in the north and south. State championships don’t mean what they used too with all these smaller fielded classifications.

You can get folks hurt real quick with some of these big 7A schools playing against some of the smaller 6A, and some straight beatdowns. Population is just too consolidated in certain spots. Not to mention those suburban areas have all types of better training and better coaching, etc.

I don't pretend to know why MissHSAA did it, it very well could be money. But I also know the reality of high school football.

 

[615dawg]

What a great, informative thread.

My daughter plays volleyball - we started to notice a couple years ago how good Lewisburg's middle school teams were. We would be in tournaments where we would play DeSoto Central and Lewisburg and win hard fought matches against DC, and Lewisburg would beat us. Then you'd hear that DC would beat Lewisburg in the end of the season middle school tournaments (which are regional and never make it to a state level)

DeSoto and Lewisburg played for North State and Lewisburg won it all this year. Very well coached teams.

Tupelo was firing on all cylinders last night, but it feels like they are not where they have been. It's hard to pick them to win state with three great teams in the South.

As far as classes and regions - it's tough. Grenada has no business being in the same class as Madison Central. 7A is only 24 teams (23 play football as Murrah is independent in football). 16 of them make the playoffs. Thats how you get a 3-7 Southaven as a No. 3 seed.

Here are the seven teams that did not make the 7A playoffs

Hernando (4-6) - beat Lewisburg, the No. 2 seed in R1
Horn Lake (1-9) - only win was against a Tennessee team, Oakhaven, but had four losses within a TD
Clinton (1-9) - terrible year for the Arrows, only win was against Terry
Northwest Rankin (5-5) - probably better than 5 playoff teams. Beat Germantown, Madison Central, Pearl and Meridian before losing last four needing one to make playoff.
Petal (4-6) - another team that underachieved.
St. Martin (0-10) - only had two games in single digits.
D'iberville (3-7) - beat Wayne County and Pascagoula, a couple of 6A playoff teams, but couldn't do much in 7A.

Murrah went 7-4 against an independent schedule. They only played Madison Central from 7A and got beat bad. Hearing that they want one more year before they go back to an MHSAA schedule.

 

[oh yeah]

Lot of crazy unnecessary travel with these new classification. Laurel & South Jones are 7 miles apart & both 5A. South plays in a division with Natchez, a couple Jxn schools & a could SW MS schools. Laurel plays a division with 3 Jackson County schools. WTF?

Warren Central has benefited from the drop to 6A, especially outside of football. They played an all 7A non-district schedule in football. The district includes Columbus. Thats a long bus ride for teams, especially Columbus. They'll have to travel to Vicksburg twice for other sports as Warren Central and Vicksburg are both in the district. Seems like ther would be someone closer but, who knows.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Anybody know what the actual 9-11 enrollment is for the 6A MAIS schools?

2023-25 Reclassification Enrollment Numbers

www.misshsaa.com

Did some internet research and saw about 230 for MRA. Guess that makes them a 3A, so probably would have to bump to 4A due to the multiplier. Guess that would help the 7A division too much, to include them up there.

 

[ETK99]

I wouldn't want to play Boyles and Meridian right now. OS is good but Meridian is a tough out.