Jackson coach Cody Flournoy and his players celebrate winning the Class 4A state championship last December in Birmingham. The No. 1-ranked Aggies are heavily favored to add a second straight Blue Map this year but will face perhaps their sternest test of the season when they open at home against Class 6A power Saraland Friday. (Call News/Helen Joyce)
Saraland coach Jeff Kelly has had a lot to smile about in recent years with stars such as quarterback K.J. Lacey (9) and running back Santae McWilliams (2) triggering a high-powered offense and Kelly is confident a new wave of talented skill people will keep the No. 3 Spartans among the state’s Class 6A elite. (Todd Stacey/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
Most teams that face Jackson on a football field do so with blood, sweat and fears. But not Saraland.
“They’re deserving of all the publicity they have gotten,” Spartans coach Jeff Kelly said, “but I guarantee you our guys — we’re a proud program that is excited to kick the season off against a very good opponent.”
In a game in which neither team considers itself the underdog, the Aggies and Saraland will smash into each other Friday at 7 p.m. at Legion Field and set upon a course each hopes will lead to a return to their respective state championship games in December.
Jackson is bringing in extra bleachers, plenty of motivation, the state’s No. 1 ranking in Class 4A and a Brink’s truck to haul off all of this season’s anticipated rewards, including a second straight Blue Map.
The Spartans are bringing a standard of excellence — vividly demonstrated by three straight appearances in the state finals — the No. 3 ranking in Class 6A, a 20-game regular-season winning streak and the knowledge they have never lost to a team in a lower classification in the 14 years Kelly has been on the sidelines honing Saraland into one of the state’s best programs.
While the game won’t have a direct bearing on reaching the playoffs, it’s unlikely that the loser will be staggered, only emboldened, as the Aggies were last year.
“A lot of the thought around here was had we played that game later in the year, things might have went differently,” Jackson coach Cody Flournoy said.
The Aggies were so disturbed by their 35-27 loss to the Spartans last August that they went on to win the next 14 and slaughtered Cherokee County 69-6 in the most lopsided beating in the history of the Super 7. Conversely, Saraland won everything until its final game, a 28-17 loss to Parker in the Super 7 only a few hours after Jackson had so utterly mutilated the Warriors that scant few remains were found.
“It’s going to be a great game, a great challenge,” Kelly said. “I know it’ll be a playoff-type atmosphere. It’s going to be a great experience for both teams just to kick the season off in that kind of atmosphere because that’s going to prepare us and prepare them for games going forward. When you’re a competitor, you love to play in atmospheres like that because I think it brings the best out of guys.”
In last year’s opener, the Spartans built a 28-7 lead but found themselves beating back the Aggies with everything they could lay their hands on before surviving 35-27 in front of a record crowd of 7,000 fans in Saraland. This time, Flournoy expects his players to be unflappable.
“At one point in the first quarter, we’re standing around and our guys are wide-eyed and they’re looking in the stands and it’s like, hey man, this game got real big real quick,” Flournoy said. “I loved the game last year, minus the loss. What a great atmosphere to play a high school football game. That’s one that I’ll tell about for my life. It wasn’t a championship game but it was as big a game as I’ve ever been in.”
The rematch is in 4,500-seat Legion Field, where Jackson has won 17 straight games, a fact that makes local residents and Flournoy salivate. Even as Rivals preseason All-American running back E.J. Crowell and celebrated quarterback Landon Duckworth announced their college commitments this summer, Flournoy reminded everyone to circle and recircle Aug. 22 on the calendar.
“It’s going to be a hot ticket,” Flournoy said. “We don’t expect there to be any unsold tickets. If you don’t get your ticket early, I don’t think you’re getting one. We had to go down there and play in a hostile environment last year and this year they’re going to come up to our place. … It’s going to be fun. We’ve had a lot of time to think about it.”
Despite the Spartans losing stars K.J. Lacey, C.D. Gill, Santae McWilliams and Antonio Coleman, it still won’t be easy for the Aggies, as Kelly is 14-1 in season openers and is not lacking in talent himself.
“Saraland still carries that aura,” Flournoy said. “They’ve earned that right.”
Lacey, who passed for 326 yards and four touchdowns in last year’s victory, is now at Texas and Gill is at UAB but quarterback Jamison Roberts, wideout Deshawn Spencer and running back P.J. Brown give the Spartans advanced weaponry — although Flournoy said his skill group of Power 4 commitments (Crowell to Alabama, Duckworth to South Carolina and Chapman and Gordon to North Carolina) gives Jackson at least an edge in experience.
“We have the veteran skill group this year and last year they had it, so we’ve got a point to prove,” Flournoy said. “I’m not saying we’re better but I’m saying we have more experience this year in this game.”
Kelly is not moved by such arguments.
“They’ve got some of the most talented and most high-profile players in the state,” Kelly said. “They’re an absolutely great team. Their coaches do a great job preparing them. But I don’t look at it as roles reversed. I didn’t look at it like that last year. I’m not worried about our guys handling that. They play in a bunch of big games and a bunch of big atmospheres like that. It’s just going to come down to who makes the plays, who executes, who can do the things they want when they’re on offense and who can execute in the big moments, who can limit turnovers.”
A costly turnover in the fourth quarter made the difference last year when Saraland recovered a snap that bounced off Duckworth’s chest at the Aggies’ 13. Two plays later, Lacey delivered the decisive touchdown pass to Gill to make it 35-20.
The absence of Lacey — who finished his career as the second-leading passer in Alabama High School Athletic Association history — doesn’t mean the Spartans are suddenly clueless about winning. Saraland was 38-3 in the three years Lacey was the starter and 44-9 in the four years before that.
“Coach Kelly has a good formula for success,” Flournoy said. “He’s rolled through different talent here in the last few years, whether he had Ryan Williams or K.J. Lacey. They’ll have a few wrinkles because of who they’ve got back there. They’ve got a tight end body (Sye Byrd), more of a bigger body, that they’re going to play with this year than in years past.”
However, Flournoy said the Spartans can’t help but look different with Roberts behind center.
“That’s because anytime you take a Texas quarterback commit out of touching the ball every play … with a new quarterback, regardless of how good he is because I’ve seen it with Landon, these big games, they’re still teenagers, so I think that’s where we have the advantage is our experience,” Flournoy said. “I think our talent can match anybody but I think the experience is just where you have the advantage.”
