ELLISVILLE – Jones County Junior College head coach Steve Buckley was hoping Copiah-Lincoln would be unbeaten heading into this week's contest.
But that's not the case.
The Wolves dropped a 21-7 decision to Mississippi Gulf Coast last week. Plus, the NJCAA ruled that Co-Lin must forfeit its 44-0 victory over Mississippi Delta on Sept. 1 because they played an ineligible player.
Now, the 6^th-ranked Bobcats face a Co-Lin team with its back to the wall and needing to win to stay in the MACJC South Division race.
"No question about it," Buckley said. "I was hoping they would beat Gulf Coast, but that did not happen. They played a solid game against Gulf Coast, but there were a few crazy plays in the ballgame that spun it in Gulf Coast's favor.
"They will be ready to play, I'm sure."
JCJC enters the 7 p.m. Thursday contest with a 3-0 overall mark. It will be the Bobcats' first division game of the season. The game will air on www.jcjc.tv with Mark Easley and Chris Robinson on the call.
Co-Lin is now 1-2 and 0-1. The Wolves were rated No. 3 in last week's NJCAA poll, but fell completely out of the top 20 after the loss to MGCCC and the forfeit loss.
But Buckley said head coach Glenn Davis' Wolves are still the same talented team they have been all season.
"They are a loaded football team," he said. "Glenn has done a good job since he's been there. They do a good job of recruiting and putting players in a position to be successful. We have our work cut out for us.
"We have to go over to their place with a solid game plan and continue to eliminate mistakes. We cannot turn the ball over and we have to stay in front of the chains on offense. On defense, we can't give up big plays because they are capable of making a bunch of them."
Co-Lin has three players on its roster who have committed to Mississippi State – defensive tackle Deion Pope, offensive lineman Tommy Champion and defensive end Montez Sweat, who is a reverse transfer from Michigan State. Defensive end Joe Anderson originally signed with Ole Miss.
The Wolves lead the MACJC and are fourth in the NJCAA in total defense, giving up just 153.0 yards per game.
Buckley knows the Bobcats will be in for a challenge.
"They don't give up anything, yardage or points, so you've got to be patient," he said. "You can't panic on offense and try to make plays that are not there. I think they are good up front and are good at linebacker. They are good in the back end, too, so they are solid.
"You look at their offensive line and they are huge. They have a bunch of DI players on their offensive line and they do a good job of blocking. I think they've just missed some plays on offense."
The Bobcats were sound in last week's 38-6 victory over Coahoma.
On offense, running back Scott Phillips (South Jones) rushed 25 times for 140 yards and two touchdowns. The Bobcats had 15 first downs and 317 yards of total offense.
Still, Buckley wants to see the Bobcats control the ball a bit more.
"We are pretty decent at running back," he said of Phillips, Rashaud Green (Bassfield) and DeShawn Smith (Brooksville, Florida). "We have three backs that can carry the load. Right now, we are not running as many plays offensively as we would like. We are probably averaging around 60 plays per game and that number could be up close to 80.
"Scotty has been very durable. He understands what we are doing and he is a downhill runner."
Defensively, the Bobcats were excellent again last week.
Linebacker C.J. Johnson (Petal) had a sack and two ½ tackles for loss. Linebacker Cannon Gibbs (Northwest Rankin) had seven tackles and one sack. Linebacker Derric Hawthorn (Collins) had six tackles, two tackles for loss and one sack.
JCJC had 11 sacks in the game, which gives them a nation's best 28 sacks on the season. End Markel Winters (Tallahassee, Florida) has 5.5 sacks, which ties him for sixth nationally, and Johnson has four sacks, which ties him for No. 17 in the nation.
Jones held Coahoma to 126 yards of total offense.
The Bobcats are second to Co-Lin in the state and rank sixth nationally in total defense, allowing just 161.7 yards per game.
"We built this team around our defense," Buckley said. "I think we have very good personnel on defense. We can cover and we can pressure. The biggest thing we can do on defense is run and that helps.
"C.J. has come on and has probably been our most consistent player. I think C.J. played on every special team last week and played a lot on defense. We ask him to do a lot of things and he is a very versatile kid. He takes every role on the team he has very seriously, all the way from the kicking game to both linebacker positions."
Buckley stressed eliminating silly penalties going into last week's game. He said the Bobcats did better in that aspect.
"The one area we wanted to improve on and eliminate was pre-snap and post-snap penalties and I think we did that," he said. "We had a bunch in the Delta game. Last week, we had penalties, but it looked a lot worse than it was. We had two false starts, which is not smart, and we had a holding call and you are going to get those calls sometimes. Defensively, we had an encroachment call and a late hit on the quarterback, which was questionable. You are always going to have your holds and pass interference calls.
"Beyond that, we were pretty clean from a penalty standpoint. I thought we improved on that part of the game."
Buckley was disappointed in the fact the Bobcats had several plays on offense that went for minus yardage. He said that could not happen if the team wants to be successful.
"The negative to the game was real simple: We had 14 negative plays on offense," he said. "You have got to stay in front of the chains. When you don't stay in front of the chains it puts everybody at a disadvantage and the defense at a great advantage because they can tee off on you."
Still, Buckley could find little fault with the Bobcats in their victory over Coahoma.
"In the end, we did what we had to do to win the ballgame," he said. "We played solid defense. We gave up one big play on a speed option where we did not tackle the quarterback. It was not a missed assignment; we just did not make the play on him.
"If you look at the game, it was not a clean game like we are striving for, but the bottom line is that we won. We were pretty much in control of the game the entire time."
The Bobcats return home next week, hosting Southwest at 7 p.m. on Sept. 29.
Co-Lin entertains East Central next week.