2o25 Football Season Q & A
2025 Football Season Q & A
A year ago, Starkville Academy suffered its first losing season since 2013 -’14, finishing 4-7 following a first-round playoff loss at Copiah Academy. The Vols averaged 8.5 wins per year in Chase Nicholson’s first nine seasons as head coach, including a State Championship in 2017 and runner-up finish in 2019, prior to last year’s outlier. SA, which returns 13 starters, opens Year 11 of the Nicholson era Friday night at Chambers Academy (AL.). What can Vols’ fans expect? Nicholson offered some insight during a Q&A earlier this week.
Q. Obviously, things didn’t go as hoped or expected last season. In retrospect, what were some of your primary takeaways?
A. You don’t completely try to erase it from history, that’s impossible. But at the same time you have to move on. What happened last year doesn’t matter. . . it never can. The only thing that matters is this year. What you do is take last year and flush it. But at the same time you learn from the mistakes and the successes. The path is different each year for every team. We have to find the path that works for this year’s team. Even last year, in the worst year, the path was right there in front of us. What we can’t do is say what happened last year is my motivation for this year because then you’re missing the present. Our motivation is becoming the best team we can be this year.”
Q. SA played in a lot of close games a year ago. Six games were decided by six points or less, three of three points or less. That included the topsy-turvy, drama-filled regular season finale against Magnolia Heights. Can Vols’ fans expect a similar type ride again?
A. “I can’t predict anything so I’m certainly not going to try. I don’t know how many close games we’ll have like that this year, but if that happens again and we’re in close games week in and week out then let’s find a way to win them. That’s the goal. Any coach would like to win the close games by more and not have to deal with the close losses. One thing about that is our guys have been in a lot of close, tight games and have found ways to win. That’s a part of who we have to be because we’re probably going to be in a lot of games where that’s how its going to be . . . it’s going to come down to one score.”
Q. You return 8 starters from a defense that allowed 30 points per game a year ago, and 5 starters on an offense that averaged 18.7 points per game. Is there a particular area or unit that you feel particularly good about heading into the season? And, on the flip side, is there a main concern of any type?
A. No, not really. The thing we do, and the thing I feel we do well, is whether you’re a senior, a junior or a sophomore we are getting you ready to play. We’re getting you ready for the next practice, the next game, the next year. There’s nobody I’m really concerned about experienced or not because they’ve played ball. Most of them have played in meaningful moments, whether it has been in junior high or high school. Even the guys who haven’t had the opportunity to be the man, they’ve been in key moments. We don’t live one and done. Our guys are ready to play.”
Q. You added some new coaches in the offseason, including a new offensive coordinator in Wayde Barksdale and a new defensive coordinator in Jonathan Worrell. Barksdale (assistant in 2021-’22) has been with you before; Worrell comes in after serving as the head coach at East Rankin. How has that transition in coordinators gone?
A. “Maybe I’m an eternal optimist, but to me the transition has been seamless. It feels like both of those guys have been here forever. That’s them. They both are good at what they do, not only on the field but also in terms of building relationships with the kids. So it has been a change, but not a full scale change. They have brought a new level of excitement to build on what’s already exciting here. Change is never bad when it is handled the right way with the right people. When you bring in like-minded individuals it makes the transition easier.”
Q. You will be starting a new quarterback for the third straight season. It appears to be a two-man competition between Sam Wall, last year’s backup who started a couple of games due to injury, and Jack Northcutt, who led the junior high team to an undefeated season a year ago. What is the outlook at that always crucial position?
A. “We have two very different quarterbacks who both bring very different skill sets, very different levels of experience and very different levels of ability. They both bring a lot to the table at the quarterback position. They’ve both been competing wonderfully at that position. They push each other, they hold each other accountable, and they support each other and try to make each other better. They’ve handled the situation the right way. There’s no controversy there . . . their teammates support both of them equally. Both were elected team captains. When you have the guy, and you know he’s the guy, it makes it easy. When you have two guys like we do, we have to be able to find ways for both of them to contribute and that’s what we plan to do. Both of those guys are going to be major parts of the puzzle.”
Q. Staying on offense, you lose your top two leading rushers from last season in Luke Johnson and Graham Hancock. Johnson graduated after back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, while Harrell, a home run threat, transferred to Starkville High. That duo combined for 16 touchdowns. Do you expect to take a by committee approach when it comes to the backfield in their absence?
A. We have a stable of backs . . . we happen to have several of them who are very talented in all different age groups. The main thing is they can’t be worried about who has the most carries, or who has the most yards. The focus needs to be, collectively as a group, can they get enough carries and enough yards to help us win the game. Most of them are going to play defense, too, so they have to be there to support each other on both sides of the ball.”
Q. It appears as if there are a lot of younger players listed in the two-deep depth chart, including several from that aforementioned dominant junior high team. What have those guys looked like, and what kind of contributions are you expecting from them?
A. “You can’t have a successful season if you don’t have some sophomores out there who are contributing whether it be as a starter or in a backup role. You’re going to use those talented guys to fill the holes that you have. Now, when the ratio switches to when it is a lot of sophomores, that typically means a long year. You never want to see nine sophomores out there on one side of the ball or something like that. When you have two to three sophomores who are starting and maybe two to three more competing you have a chance to be better.”
Q. With new MAIS realignment comes new district foes and a new postseason format. Hartfield, Lamar and East Rankin along with Heritage are in, Magnolia Heights, Bayou and Pillow are out in terms of district play. As for the postseason, the top four teams (according to power points) in the revamped 20-school Class 4A will now play for the Division 1 championship while the next six play for the Division II championship and the next six play for the Division III championship. Your thoughts?
A. “It looks about the same really. When you actually look at it from a schedule standpoint, we’re really not playing many different people except for East Rankin who we haven’t played since 2013. And Winston, although we haven’t played them in a couple of years, is a common foe. Basically, our non-district games are now our district games and our district games are now non-district games. There’s new alignment and new brackets and Hartfield is now in the same district . . . the reality of that is nobody really knows how all that’s going to work out or what it’s going to look like at the end. We’ll see. You still have to win as many games as possible to get the most power points possible so that you’re in the best possible situation at the end. Our hope is to be playing Hartfield for the district championship in that last (regular season) game. It would mean everything for the season, but not really for the playoffs.”
Q. Slow starts were an issue last season. SA was outscored 86-10 in the first quarter - and seven of those points came courtesy of a 90-yard kickoff return vs. Jackson Academy. Is that something you have tried to address in the offseason?
A. “That’s something we’ve definitely tried to address. We’ve done a complete 180 on some of the things we do with that in mind, not only in practice but what we plan to do from 4:30 on before games. Our focus going into games wasn’t at the level it needed to be last year. Hopefully, the things we’re doing now will help in that area.”
Q. You open up Friday against Chambers Academy. That’s a team you and your team are familiar with having played them last season (SA won 35-31 in Starkville). That’s a 4 ½ hour road trip to play the reigning Class 2A State Champions of the Alabama Independent School Association and winners of 112 of their last 128 games dating back to the 2015-’16 season. Your take on the Rebels?
A. “It’s one of the longest road trips we’ve had since I’ve been here. Chambers is traditionally a really good football team. They win a lot. Their staff does a good job. Obviously, we played them last year. It was a fun football game, a game we were able to win. Our guys are looking forward to the challenge . . . we’re ready to play game one and get to work. It’s an opportunity for us to play a really good team, a championship level team, in a good environment and get better as we move forward to our second game and the rest of the season.”
