LUCEDALE – After a quick 3-0 start for Oak Grove, it had a scheduled bye week immediately after its first loss of the season to Hattiesburg.
On one hand, players had to stew on their first loss of the season, anxiously waiting for region play to start this Friday, but on the flip side, it gave the Warriors a chance to get healthy.
“We were able to do a few different things and try to get back healthy a little bit,” Oak Grove coach Drew Causey said. “I felt like we had a really good week. We did a lot more competitive stuff throughout the week than we would on a normal game week. Just trying to get a lot better.”
The biggest injury to the Oak Grove roster is junior quarterback John Rhys Plumlee. He missed the Hattiesburg game with an arm or hand injury, and it’s still unclear whether he’ll play against George County. Causey is known for keeping injuries close to the vest, and when asked he responded, “We’re going to keep that to ourselves right now.”
The offense doesn’t change that much whether it’s Plumlee behind center or sophomore Landon Forbes, according to Causey. The only difference is Plumlee’s ability to improvise with his legs. Even though Oak Grove didn’t call a lot of quarterback runs through the first three games with Plumlee, he still made plays with his feet when a play broke down or if his read is telling him to run.
Causey said his lack of called quarterback runs was because of his concern with making sure Plumlee would be healthy for region play, and the biggest difference with Forbes playing against Hattiesburg was execution.
“The offense didn’t change a whole lot,” Causey said. “This is nothing on Landon, I felt like he played a really good game for his first game out there, but our execution wasn’t the same.”
George County (1-4) began the season with a flex-bone offense, but it has since moved to the spread after the bad start to the season. The Rebels moved sophomore Jonovan Jackson to quarterback last week against Harrison Central, and he passed for 177 yards and two touchdowns on 7-of-17 passing. He also rushed the ball 16 times for 112 yards.
Senior Jamar Jackson was a beneficiary of the switch, as he caught four passes last week for 94 yards and a touchdown. Before last week’s win, he only had two receptions for 55 yards and no touchdowns.
“It’s just another athlete with the ball in his hands who runs around really well,” Causey said of the new quarterback. “If you let him outside of the pocket he’s going to make some big plays. (Jamar Jackson) is a really good wide receiver, so it’s going to be a good challenge.”
On defense, Oak Grove must account for sophomore nose guard McKinnley Jackson, who has scholarship offers from Auburn, Florida State, LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State, among others.
Through the first five games, Jackson has 36 tackles, 17 for a loss, five sacks, six forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
“Everybody knows this, but their nose guard is a very talented player,” Causey said. “He’s extremely talented. They play a lot of guys in the secondary both ways. It’s just a tough nose football team that plays hard. We have to definitely execute and have a good game plan for them.”
