From the outside looking in, the Hattiesburg Tigers have lived up to the hype high school football fans were giving them leading up to the season. Most thought they were the favorite to make it back to the 5A State Championship, and not too many people have changed their minds after the Tigers’ 2-0 start to the season.
Hattiesburg coach Tony Vance said mostly everything has gone right so far, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to clean up with his team.
“Of course, it’s still early and we obviously have a lot of room of improvement,” he said. “So far we’ve been able to get better each week, so we have to continue to do that.”
Of the areas Vance wants to see improvement on offense, he thinks execution and finishing drives that reach the red zone are the two most important points of emphasis. Defensively, he saw them get better from Week 1 to Week 2, but tackling has to be better. He did say that will improve with time, though.
“There are some things we did well in all three phases, but there are still some things I want to improve upon,” Vance said.
Injury wise, Hattiesburg is pretty clean and walked out of the first two games almost completely healthy. Senior defensive back and receiver Hakeem Vance is the only notable injury, leaving both games with a leg injury after one or two plays.
Hakeem Vance did make a clutch catch before he left the Laurel game Saturday, though, snagging a third-and-12 pass for a 21-yard gain while toeing the sideline. Two plays later, senior quarterback Jarod Conner scored to put Hattiesburg up 28-13.
“He’s still nursing an injury and hopefully we’ll have him back full speed,” Tony Vance said. “We’ll get him back 100 percent, get him going and try to mix him in with the other guys on offense.”
Hattiesburg’s opponent this week, the Moss Point Tigers (1-1), took down rival Pascagoula by 30 points in the season opener and they lost to Gautier 28-7 last week. Moss Point has shown flashes of success in the two games, but at the same time, it also scuffled at times as well.
However, Vance is still impressed.
“The quarterback is back from last year and he has improved a lot,” Vance said. “They have a couple of really tall wideouts they try to get the ball to, and the running back runs the ball hard. Defensively, they’re athletic. They don’t bring a lot of pressure and they try to force you into making mistakes. That’s kind of what they do defensively.”
Friday marks the first of four straight games Hattiesburg will play on the road, too, and mix in a bye week in two weeks, it won’t play at D.I. Patrick stadium again until Oct. 5.
“We’re kind of used to it. Last year, we went on the road for three straight weeks plus a bye, so we’re kind of used to it,” Vance said. “We try not let where we’re playing dictate how we play.”
