Malcolm Jones is worried about his team, and his team only, Friday night.
After all, McComb controls its own destiny in terms of playoff seeding.
McComb, West Jones and Pearl all currently sit tied for second place at 4-2 in the district. A win Friday at home against Pearl — coupled with a West Jones win against Wingfield — would give McComb the No. 3 seed. A loss sends McComb all the way to the No. 4 spot.
A two-game losing streak to start the playoffs is not something Jones, who is in his fourth year as McComb’s coach, has in mind.
“You really want to go in on a positive note into the playoffs,” he said. “We really want to work on ourselves this week and make sure we are working on things. We want to work on us.”
McComb played poorly in a 28-0 loss last season to Pearl and it carried over into the first round of the playoffs, where McComb lost to eventual state champion Picayune.
A loss Friday will likely send McComb on the long drive back to Picayune for the first round next week. The bad news is Picayune is arguably better than last season and is currently ranked as the No. 1 team in the entire state.
A win puts McComb against Pascagoula or Pearl River Central, who square off Friday for the No. 2 spot in Region 4-5A behind Picayune.
Jones isn’t worried about those scenarios and doesn’t want any extra incentive to beat Pearl in order to avoid Picayune.
“Well, guess what? In order to win the state championship, you have to go through Picayune anyway, so who cares when it is?” he said.
A win would do wonders for McComb’s program. Jones has stressed the importance of progressing every year since he took the job. McComb made the playoffs last season as a No. 4 seed, so to finish with a higher seed would be a natural progression.
The Tigers ultimately had their hopes set on a home playoff game and the No. 2 seed behind Wayne County, but a 17-7 loss to West Jones last Friday all but eliminated that chance.
“I really don’t want to go in as a four-seed this year,” Jones said. “We’ll take it however we get it, but you really want to show some progress every year.”
McComb will have its hands full with Pearl, but may catch the Pirates at the right time. Pearl has been up and down this season with a big win over West Jones two weeks ago, but dropped key losses to Brandon, Jackson Prep, Wayne County and Brookhaven.
Demorrious Brown and Tre Harvey are the two main explosive playmakers for the Pirates. Although the Pirates are known to dabble in the option, Brown and Harvey are weapons in the passing game. Harvey has hauled in 28 passes for 664 yards and five touchdowns while Brown has 17 catches for 359 yards and five TDs.
It will be an interesting matchup between Pearl’s passing game and McComb’s secondary, which includes Quartavious Smith, Roy Bibbs and Kevonte Dillion. The Tigers haven’t faced much of a passing threat the entire season, but like to blitz to create mismatches.
Quarterback Michael Roberson had thrown for 1,287 yards and 10 touchdowns and Jordan Wright leads the team in rushing with 811 yards and nine scores.
Pearl has a definitive size advantage over McComb, especially up front, but the Tigers should be able to utilize their speed.
“We are a lot faster than them,” Jones said. “They have some big kids up front but we are a whole lot faster.”
McComb isn’t the only one with a lot riding on Friday’s game. Ironically, McComb can help out its old rival Brookhaven by beating Pearl.
If West Jones and Brookhaven both win, a McComb victory would eliminate Pearl from the playoffs because of Brookhaven’s head-to-head advantage over Pearl.
