EMCC Lions tabbed nation's No. 1 junior college football team in JCGridiron.com Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings

SCOOBA – With kickoff to the 2014 junior college football season approaching the 50-day mark, the reigning NJCAA National Champion Lions of East Mississippi Community College have secured their first preseason No. 1 national ranking of the upcoming campaign courtesy of the JCGridiron.com Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings. 

Compiled by widely respected junior college football recruiting analyst Brad Hoiseth, the JCGridiron.com Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings comprise all 138 of the nation's two-year schools that field football teams, including the 68 junior colleges affiliated with the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and the 70 members of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA).   

A pair of California-based schools follows EMCC in the JCG Dirty 30 with the City College of San Francisco and Riverside starting at second and third, respectively.  Traditional junior college football powers Butler (Kan.) and Navarro (Texas) round out the top five.  Two more California schools – Mt. San Antonio and Butte – begin the next five and are followed by Iowa Western at No. 8, Mississippi Gulf Coast at No. 9 and Trinity Valley (Texas) closing out the top 10.

Other members of the Mississippi Association of Junior and Community Colleges (MACJC) included within the JCGridiron.com Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings are Copiah-Lincoln (No. 14) and Jones County (No. 26).  Both Co-Lin and JCJC, from the MACJC's South Division, are featured home opponents for the EMCC Lions on Sept. 4 and Oct. 4, respectively, this coming football season. 

This year's entire JCGridiron.com Preseason Dirty 30 Rankings are available online at JCGridiron.com and JCGridiron.rivals.com.

With the official NJCAA Preseason Top 20 football poll set for release on Tuesday, Aug. 12, East Mississippi has also garnered a No. 2 preseason national ranking by the Sporting News 2014 College Football Preview magazine.          

Sporting a composite coaching record of 56-10 overall and 33-3 in MACJC North Division play, seventh-year EMCC head football coach Buddy Stephens has guided the Lions to a pair of NJCAA national championships (2011 & 2013) in the past three years, three MACJC State/NJCAA Region 23 titles (2009, 2011 & 2013) and five regular-season division crowns (2008-09, '11-13) dating back to the 2008 campaign.

Now 32-2 over the past three seasons combined, the EMCC Lions look to bring back 25 players from last year's undefeated squad, including three standout sophomore returnees – DL D.J. Jones (#6), OL Jamal Danley (#14) and QB/RB Todd Mays (#47) – ranked among the nation's top 50 junior college prospects by Rivals.com.  With five players overall listed among the top 25 national prospects by Rivals.com, East Mississippi also features defensive line prospect Dante Sawyer (#15), a University of South Carolina signee, as well as the LSU transfer tandem of defensive back Jeryl Brazil (#17) and linebacker Lorenzo Phillips (#22).

EMCC will kick off its nine-game, regular-season football schedule on Thursday, Aug. 28 with a 7 p.m. road contest against Southwest Mississippi in Summit.  Along with their inter-divisional home contests versus Copiah-Lincoln (Sept. 4) and Jones County (Oct. 4), the Lions' divisional slate will feature home outings with Northeast Mississippi (Sept. 18), Holmes (Oct. 9) and Mississippi Delta (Oct. 23) as well as road trips to Coahoma (Sept. 11), Itawamba (Sept. 25) and Northwest Mississippi (Oct. 16).