Heading into this season, Chris Smith knew he had something special in his North Pike football team.
The ironic task facing the Jaguars’ fourth-year head coach was trying to keep his players from realizing it too early.
After all, North Pike returned a deep roster with nearly its entire offense and defense intact.
Sure, the Jaguars lost leading rusher Laderrick Turner who in 2009, led North Pike with 1,560 yards rushing and 23 touchdowns.
In his place, however, arose a group of running backs, including Jalen Adams and Tonnie Collins, ready to accept the challenge.
And, of course, there was quarterback Revis Butler, the Jaguars’ leading rusher this season with 1,332 yards and 17 touchdowns.
The Jaguars entered the season as the No. 2-ranked Class 4A team in the state. They were good — and they knew it.
“The kids got to be big-headed about the preseason rankings,” Smith said. “I thought (the ranking) was a little high. I thought we were going to be a quality football team, but we hadn’t established it ourselves.”
The Jaguars, after all, had just one winning season in its previous six, when they finished 8-5 in 2009.
North Pike took its first step to finally establishing itself as a gridiron powerhouse with a 50-15 blasting of Richland on opening night.
Butler got the season off to a good start with a 6-of-10 passing performance for 145 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 56 yards and a fourth score on four carries.
The Jaguars recovered four Richland fumbles, including one recovery each by Tariq Johnson, Arron Barnes, A.J. Johnson and Demetric Jackson in the win.
The campaign took a sudden — and temporary — downswing one week later. North Pike was held to its season low in points during a 14-7 loss to Bay, which Smith referred to as his “I told you so game.”
“Everyone was telling us how good we were,” Smith said. “We got caught up in reading the papers instead of playing football. You’ve got to prepare yourself every week to play football.”
The loss cost North Pike its perfect season but taught the Jaguars a valuable lesson.
“We tell our kids to respect everyone and fear no one,” Smith said.
The Jaguars followed up the loss by blanking East Central 40-0. One week later, North Pike beat McComb 40-18 in a game Smith called “a confidence builder.”
“That win over McComb,” he said, “gave our kids the confidence to beat a quality program like that. McComb’s got the toughest region in the state. That’s a good team over there.”
Two weeks later, however, the Jaguars earned the ire of their coach when they stumbled into the lockerroom at Amite County with just a 7-0 lead.
“I reminded them again and told them, ‘Here we go again. You are not respecting this team,’ ” Smith said. “The guys came out ready to play the rest of the way. They took the bull by the horns.”
North Pike went on to beat Amite County 48-8.
Overall, the Jaguars have polished off 11 consecutive opponents, outscoring the opposition 478-145 during that span.
Smith said his team’s biggest win of the regular season came in a 40-14 pounding of Lawrence County on Oct. 1.
“That was the big win we hadn’t gotten yet,” Smith said. “That was a win against the district leader. We hadn’t beaten Lawrence County since I’ve been here.”
Four different North Pike players — Butler, Adams, Collins and linebacker A.J. Jefferson — were named Enterprise-Journal Player of the Week at some point this season.
North Pike goes for its 12th consecutive victory Friday night on the road at Forrest County, the team that eliminated the Jaguars from last season’s playoffs.
“The good thing about going back down there,” Smith said, “is that we know the atmosphere, we know what to expect.”
