Reigning national champion EMCC Lions tabbed No. 1 in Street & Smith’s college football preview

With kickoff to the 2018 junior college football season less than three months away, the reigning national champion Lions of East Mississippi Community College have secured a preseason No. 1 ranking in the first juco football poll of the upcoming campaign produced by Street & Smith’s 2018 College Football preview magazine.   

Reigning national champion EMCC Lions tabbed No. 1 in Street & Smith’s college football preview
June 1, 2018

SCOOBA – With kickoff to the 2018 junior college football season less than three months away, the reigning national champion Lions of East Mississippi Community College have secured a preseason No. 1 ranking in the first juco football poll of the upcoming campaign produced by Street & Smith's 2018 College Football preview magazine.   

Compiled by college football sportswriter Charles Power, of JUCOInsider, for the nationally distributed college football magazine that is currently available in stores and on newsstands nationwide, Street & Smith's Top 25 preseason rankings considered all 134 of the nation's two-year schools that feature football programs.  Along with the 66 junior colleges affiliated with the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) that currently compete in football, the preseason poll also included the 68 competing members of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA).

Following the four-time national champion EMCC Lions in Street & Smith's preseason rankings are 2016 national champion Garden City (Kan.) at the second spot, No. 3 Iowa Western, Arizona Western at No. 4 and Northwest Mississippi rounding out the Top 5.  Also from the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges, MACJC South Division foes Jones County and Hinds are ranked 13th and 22nd, respectively.

In addition to previewing the nation's predicted Top 10 junior college football teams for the upcoming season, Street & Smith's two-page magazine spread also includes listings of the country's "Juco Super Sophomores" and "Top Juco Players Moving on to FBS" heading into the 2018 football season.  For East Mississippi, returning starters Dontario Drummond and Joseph Anderson were recognized among the nation's top junior college wide receivers and defensive backs, respectively.  Drummond, out of Laurel, was tied for fourth nationally with an MACJC-most 10 touchdown receptions a year ago while also averaging 16.5 yards on 37 catches as a freshman for the Lions.  Anderson, a Puckett High School product, was credited with 35 tackles, three fumble recoveries, an interception and a pass breakup as an EMCC frosh last season.

In addition for the Lions, a pair of incoming EMCC transfers were also lauded in Street & Smith's preseason publication, as four-star prospects Messiah deWeaver and Darel Middleton made the magazine's list of top sophomores among the junior college ranks.  A native of Huber Heights, Ohio, deWeaver transferred to East Mississippi from Michigan State University after rating among the nation's top quarterback prospects coming out of Wayne High School two years ago.  He passed for 7,660 career yards and 90 touchdowns during his prep career.  Middleton, a defensive lineman out of Oak Ridge (Tenn.) High School, has committed to the University of Tennessee after sitting out last season.          

By claiming their fourth national championship during a seven-year span a season ago, the EMCC Lions rank as the only school affiliated with the nationally acclaimed MACJC to capture four national football titles, as recognized by the NJCAA.  East Mississippi currently trails only Butler (Kan.) and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M for most national football titles (six apiece) in NJCAA history.

Beginning his 11th season as head football coach of the EMCC Lions since being hired in December 2007, Buddy Stephens will enter the upcoming 2018 campaign needing two wins to eclipse the century mark for career coaching victories while breaking into the NJCAA's Top 10 list among the winningest active football coaches.  With a decade-long head coaching record of 98-13, Stephens presently ranks as the NJCAA's all-time leader in career winning percentage (.883) for coaches with at least 100 career games coached.  Along with the four national championships (2011, '13, '14 & '17), he has also guided East Mississippi to six MACJC/Region 23 titles and eight MACJC North Division regular-season crowns.

EMCC's nine-game, regular-season 2018 football schedule is set to kick off with an Aug. 30 home game versus Hinds followed by a non-division road meeting with Pearl River on Sept. 6.  The Lions' six-game MACJC North Division slate begins with a Sept. 13 contest at Itawamba and a home date with Mississippi Delta a week later (Sept. 20), before a Sept. 27 road trip to East Central marks the midway mark of the regular season.  Following an Oct. 4 rematch of last year's classic MACJC state championship game at Northwest Mississippi that was claimed by the Lions, 67-66, in double overtime, EMCC will play host to Holmes for Homecoming 2018 on Saturday, Oct. 13.  A home matchup with Coahoma on Oct. 18 and a road trek to Northeast Mississippi the following Thursday (Oct. 25) will close out regular-season play for the reigning national and state champions.