#HSFT20 Stop #52 — New Albany Bulldogs

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NEW ALBANY, Miss. (WCBI) — The New Albany Bulldogs have been on the rise since head coach Cody Stubbefield’s arrival in 2018.

New Albany had its first pair of back-to-back winning seasons in six years after finishing 8-4 in 2019.

As far as the Bulldogs are concerned, that’s only the beginning of how successful the team plans to be.

“In a program, you take steps,” Stubblefield said. “Previously, getting to the playoffs was a big deal. Then we wanted to win a game and make it to the second round. Now that evolution is gone it’s the next step where they want to make a run for a state championship and be as successful as possible.”

“Our number one goal is to not lose a game, honestly,” senior T/DE Adam Conlee said. “That’s just my personal goal and I hope everyone else’s on the team. We’re going to hope every single game we go in ready to play and hopefully make a run for the state championship.”

“This is a team we haven’t had in about ten years since 2011,” senior ATH Mason Simmons said. “I feel like we can go as far as state championship, but we have to make it as best as we can.”

With those high expectations comes the talent to match.

Although the Bulldogs must replace former starting quarterback Charlie Lott, New Albany returns a lot of junior and senior players.

Amongst them is running back CJ Hill, who in his sophomore season rushed for over 1,500 yards and scored 20 touchdowns.

The Bulldogs also add former Myrtle running back Isaac “AI” Nugent. In 2019, Nugent picked up over 1,900 yards and 29 touchdowns on the ground.

Nugent plans to be even better this season.

“I’m going to go 110-percent,” Nugent said. “I’m not going to lie, Myrtle I was 95[percent], but 120[percent] here.”

“We’re going to have about seven or eight seniors on both sides of the ball. With those seniors are a couple of juniors and sophomores sprinkled in that we believe can contribute, and play, and help us be successful. I think this year, they’re all passionate about working hard and trying to get to the next step. I’m excited to see what they’re going to be able to do and what comes out of it,” Stubblefield said.

“I feel like my teammates trust me. When somebody trusts in you, you feel like you can go harder at it because when they’re trusting you and you do something good everybody goes 110-percent,” Williams said.

While a run for the 4A State Title might be on all the Bulldog’s minds, Stubblefield says taking the season week-by-week and game-by-game will be most important.

“The goal for this season is to be as successful as possible. We’re going to take it game-by-game and every time we’re going to roll in and make sure we’ve studied and prepared for that opponent. We want to make sure we’re 1-0 after that first game and won every week after that. We’re going to go into every game thinking we have an opportunity and a way to win it,” Stubblefield said.

All-in-all, New Albany is just excited for the opportunity to get back out on the field.

“Looking forward to playing. A lot of anticipation with this class and the guys behind them. The expectation is a little bit higher than it has been in the past. We want to live up to that. We want this guys to get to play, to get to live up to that expectation and battle it out all year. Football’s a grind. We know they’re going to show up day in and day out and get better,” Stubblefield said.

New Albany gets the season started at Pontotoc on September 4th.