HATTIESBURG – Consistency is the key for any football team, and that’s the best way to describe these Hattiesburg Tigers through the first five games.
The Automated Touchdown Machine, as the Tigers’ offense calls themselves, is averaging more than 42 points per game, and the defense has held opponents to 21 points per game. And no, Jarod “Snoop” Conner isn’t having eye-popping games at quarterback, but he’s been as consistent as any coach would want in a signal caller.
“I think he’s been pretty solid each and every week,” Hattiesburg coach Tony Vance said. “A lot of that goes to his teammates, too, making plays for him and opening holes for him. A lot goes to his running backs for not being selfish guys and knowing their roles. I think it’s an all-around great team effort so far.”
Conner has passed for 725 yards and eight touchdowns to his lone interception on 42-of-75 passing, and he’s also rushed for 362 yards and 10 touchdowns on 55 carries – all three are team-highs.
Hattiesburg’s (5-0, 1-0 in Region 4-5A) offense is matchup this week with a Stone (3-1, 1-0) team that’s allowing opponents to score less than 20 points a game, with its most impressive feat coming in a loss to Poplarville. The Tomcats held a potent Hornets’ offense to just 20 points.
As a defense, Stone has 27 tackles for a loss, 11 sacks, seven interceptions and four fumble recoveries. Senior Enrique Whaley leads the secondary with five interceptions and six pass deflections, and Kendall Arrington has racked up eight tackles for a loss and 38 total tackles.
“They have two really good linebackers, and their defensive linemen are really athletic and run well to the ball,” Vance said. “We have to try to find something that works for us, and find a chink in their amour and keep chipping away at it.”
On defense for the Tigers, lineman senior Letrelle Johnson leads the way with eight tackles for a loss while senior Will Robinson has five for a loss. Robinson played his best all-around game of the season last week against Gautier, picking up four tackles for a loss and sack.
“He had an outstanding game,” Vance said. “I thought he played extremely hard and made a lot of plays behind the line of scrimmage. He was very active, and we need him to be that type of player the rest of the way.”
Not only did Robinson make his presence known on defense, he also caught a touchdown pass. That was his first reception of the season, too, after having a big gain called back due to a penalty Week 1 against Petal.
According to Vance, Robinson had to convince the coach to run the play.
“He actually came up to me Friday night, ‘Coach, coach, are we going to run that play? Coach, come on let me run it.’ I said, ‘All right, Will. Let’s run it,’” Vance recalled. “Fortunately for us, he made the catch. It was just a play action, and it was actually pretty good coverage. It was a good ball and a pretty doggone good catch by him.”
Robinson, Johnson and the rest of the Tigers’ defense will have a difficult task to stop Stone’s running game Friday night. Through four games, the Tomcats have averaged 277 yards per game, compiling 1,107 yards and 11 scores on 171 carries. They have three backs with at least 250 yards, but senior Kentrell McCray leads the way with 357 yards and three touchdowns on 55 rushing attempts.
Vance said his defense will have to play more aggressive and physical at the point of attack on the line of scrimmage. It’s imperative his players who are playing in the box to take car of their assignments and gang tackle.
“Their starting running back, he’s pretty dynamic with the ball in his hands,” Vance said. “Of course, what they do offensively, a lot of times he’s 3, 4 yards beyond the line of scrimmage before anybody can make contact. That’s their style of offense. A lot of times he’s through the hole before anybody makes contact with him. He has enough wheels to take it to the house each and every time.”
