While the Columbia Academy Cougars would surely rather have a better record than 1-5 to this point, they are about to face some easier competition down the stretch that will hopefully allow them to stack some wins together and reach the playoffs.
That journey starts Friday at Centreville Academy (3-4), who has beaten some pretty easy opponents while losing to others in its own weight class. The Tigers have one common opponent with CA so far in Silliman Institute, losing 36-23 while CA lost to the Wildcats 11-8.
CA head coach TC Chambliss said regardless of what Centreville’s record shows this year, its track record and tradition is nothing to look down on.
“They have one of the most winningest coaches in Mississippi high school history, and to say he’s old school is an understatement. He makes his guys play hard-nosed football. They’re not real fancy; they are just country guys that get after you,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if they’re down 100 or up 100, they’re coming after you.”
It won’t matter what Centreville brings to the table if the Cougars offense doesn’t start scoring some points. CA is only averaging 10.7 points per game this season, which has forced the coaching staff to alter its approach once again.
Chambliss said the Cougars have streamlined their offense and that by the time Friday night rolls around, there will be nothing called that they haven’t repped at least 50 times during practice. He’s hoping that will allow them to execute more cleanly as they hone in on what they do well.
On the other side of the ball, the Tigers mix up their offense, sometimes operating out of the spread and other times operating out of “22,” with two tight ends and two backs. Chambliss said the flow of the game tends to dictate which base formation they’re in but that the Cougars will be prepared for both.
“Defensively, we’re going to do what we do,” he said. “When we get to game planning on Sundays, those tend to be short because we’ve had a great deal of success on defense.”
The Cougars will look to pick up their second win of the season Friday night at 7.
