I’m not breaking any news here, but the Hattiesburg Tigers are good. So good, they’re now the clear favorite to win the 5A South and take a trip to Oxford for the state championship. There’s still a long way to go, though, but a record of 9-0 overall and 5-0 in Region 4-5A speaks for itself.
The Tigers took down their biggest obstacle Friday with a win over Picayune, and all they need to do is win one of their final two games against Long Beach (6-3) or West Harrison (1-8) to win the district.
Hattiesburg has all of the tools on offense it needs to be a really good football team, and it’s on display every week. Jarod Conner is a dual-threat quarterback who doesn’t turn the ball over, a plethora of receivers he can throw the ball to, senior Fabian Franklin and junior Drexlan Allen are two running backs who can carry a team and the offensive line has done a great job with blocking and protection.
Conner has more than 1,500 passing yards on a decent 57 passing percentage, but the biggest statistic for Conner is his 15 touchdowns to only two interceptions. He also leads the team with 818 running yards and 18 touchdowns. The only thing I’ve seen from Conner that he needs to work on is his consistency throwing the ball. Especially against Picayune, there were quite a few passes he’d like to have back, I’m sure, but he more than makes up for it throughout the course of the game. A positive to that is when he misses his receiver, the ball is in a spot where it wouldn’t get intercepted.
Defensively, the Tigers call themselves “the untamed zoo” and they’re relentless. Sure, Picayune gained 500 yards on the ground and scored 37 points, but the unit never stopped being physical.
The 37 points were tied with the Petal game for the most points Hattiesburg has given up this season, but for the most part, it’s done a great job of keeping teams down while the offense puts up massive numbers.
So, Hattiesburg has the talent on both sides of the ball, but what’s probably the most impressive about its 9-0 record is the teams it has beaten. It all started with the high scoring win over Petal and the Tigers’ win in the Little Brown Jug game. The Tigers took down undefeated Oak Grove a few weeks later, then scored at least 50 points in their first four region games.
It’s funny, Friday’s 41 points against Picayune was the lowest amount of points since the Week 2 win at Laurel (20).
So, what other teams should Hattiesburg be worried about in the south? We’re still two regular-season games away from the playoffs, but let’s have some fun since it’s pretty much a lock that it’ll be No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
If the season ended today, South Jones (7-3) is the fourth seed out of that region, and the winner of that game will play the winner of Stone and either West Jones or Brookhaven. Those two will play in the final regular-season game to decide which teams wins that region.
I think Brookhaven and a rematch with Picayune will be the highest hurdles Hattiesburg will have to clear in the playoffs, but you can never count out Laurel. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hattiesburg and Picayune met in the 5A South State Championship either.
For now, enjoy the undefeated season, Hattiesburg. I’m willing to bet there’s going to be a fun playoff run in your future, too.
