#HSFT18 Stop No. 58 — Tupelo Golden Wave

Tupelo, Miss. (WCBI) — It’s been two season since the Tupelo Golden Wave have lost a regular season football game, but both seasons have come to an end with a disappointing playoff loss.

“I heard Nick Saban say one time, last year is last year, it’s over.,” head coach Trent Hammond said.

“There’s nothing we can do about it…I feel like, sometimes, if you have to use things like that as motivation for yourself to want to push, then you’re not going to be as good to begin with.”

“I think when we get to the playoffs, we just think we can win just by showing up, and now, it’s just kill anybody you see,” senior quarterback Stephon McGlaun said.

If the Wave are going to crash through 6A, it’ll be on the backs of an explosive offense.

The defensive side returns only three starters, and will have to replace the likes of Jett Johnson and Peter Gray.

But with the dynamic trio of Jaquerrious Williams, Stephon McGlaun, and Jordan Jernighan, Tupelo will put up points in bunches.

“We feel like the best in the state, to be honest with you,” Williams said, “We have a good offense, you know they just have to put their minds to it and play for real.”

“The biggest question for us is we have a lot of guys that haven’t been the guys with the helmet on when the game was on the line,” Hammond said.

“Hopefully with our leadership, with those skill guys leading us, we can be there.”

All eyes our on Tupelo once again, and expectations are sky-high for a team that has been one of 6A’s best for the past two seasons.

“Nobody wants to be there at the beginning, they want to be there at the end,” Hammond said of preseason rankings.

“That’s what we talked about before we got the year started and it’s been our talk all year. We’ve set a bar at Tupelo, and its our jobs to push there and continue to go.”

Tupelo kicks off the 2018 season on the road at Meridian.