Friday Night Blitz: Week 15 Playoff Edition

This week, teams are one win away from a trip to the Big House in Jackson for the State Championship. It should be a great week of high school football in Mississippi and we've got you covered here on BulldogBlitz.com. Let's take a look at my picks from last week and where I am on the season picking my top five games each week.

Last Week's Record: 5-0

Season Record 49-21

Now, my game of the week and four more games to watch.

Game of the Week: Callaway at Oxford: The two top teams in 5A are squaring off for a monster battle to see who will advance to Jackson for the chance at a State Championship. If I had to pick a winner of the classification it would be whoever won this game. Callaway lost just one game this season when they fell to Canton a few weeks ago in the regular season. That game was determined a forfeit because of an ineligible player for Canton which gave Callaway a perfect record on the year. Four future Ole Miss Rebels are roaming the sidelines for Callaway and they've played like it all year being fierce defensively. Oxford has been the surprise team coming out of 5A but has turned that surprise into domination. The Chargers roster is filled with talented young players across the board that makes this team one to watch for years to come.

This will be a battle of two salty defenses and it won't get much better than this around the state. I think Oxford keeps things rolling as they have all season and they ride the defense led by MSU commit Darius Liggins and the offense led by sophomore Jack Abraham who has already set the single-season record in passing.

Oxford

South Panola at Tupelo: The Golden Wave of Tupelo went into the jungle in Madison Central last week and put up an impressive second half showing to beat the Jaguars on their home field. It's been a magical season for "Them Blankets" who have one of the state's most underrated defenses. Tupelo now is set to take on state and national power South Panola who still owns Mississippi and the 6A clubs inside of it. It's the first trip to the north state finals for the Wave since the early 90's and it's truly a battle of David and Goliath. It won't take a miracle for Tupelo because they gave the Tigers all they could handle in the regular season, but it will be pretty close to one. South Panola

Louisville at Charleston: Before I get started on this game, I have to rant about how terrible the MHSAA playoff setup is. Louisville is coming into this ball game against Charleston as the third best team in the state in my poll. The Wildcats come in with a perfect 14-0 record battling a Charleston squad that's 12-2. The Wildcats are on the road this week for the second week in a row missing out on hosting the last two weeks. If that's not a flawed system, I don't know what is.

Now about the game. Louisville is simply unstoppable in 3A and there's not another way to explain it. They are a physical matchup problem at every position and the talent level is simply too strong. With that said, the great thing about playoffs is that your season can end in one game. Louisville has played some bad halves against teams but is yet to play a bad game overall. Charleston will have to play perfect and force many mistakes from Wyatt Roberts, Desmond Goss and Dontae Jones. I don't see it happening. Louisville

East Marion at Bassfield: Something happened with Bassfield when they lost earlier this season to Jackson Prep. The Yellow Jackets, 2A favorites coming into the season, have shown no mercy to the rest of their schedule running through it fairly easy to get to this point. They now meet one of their biggest rivals in East Marion Friday night in a familiar spot. These two teams have battled it out in the semifinal round each of the last three seasons and Bassfield rolled East Marion earlier this season. I think they roll once again on Friday behind Cornell Armstrong, the Moore twins and Jamal Peters. Bassfield

Meridian at Oak Grove : The Wildcats of Meridian have been the feel good story in 6A this season. Led by junior quarterback J'Mar Smith and Ole Miss wide receiver commit C.J. Hampton, the Wildcats have gone from 5-3 to 10-3 and playing for a trip to the championship game. On the way, Meridian knocked off Brandon a week ago to end their season. Now the Cats get set for a big-time battle against the Oak Grove Warriors who have had a stellar season all year with just one loss coming in. With athletes across the board, I expect this to be a fun ball game. Oak Grove

Player of the Week: Tyler Allen, QB; St. Stanislaus: St. Stanislaus came into the game last week against Forrest County AHS with an undefeated record. FCAHS hit them in the mouth early and they didn't respond until it was too late. Allen quarterbacked a comeback and put up Dylan Favre type numbers as he went for 409 yards through the air with three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns. St. Stanislaus came up just short losing 49-42 capping off a solid season in 4A competition.

Now let's take a look at my top 25 this week for the state of Mississippi.

Top 25:

1. South Panola (13-1) 6A

2. Oxford (13-0) 5A

3. Louisville (14-0) 3A

4. Oak Grove (12-1) 6A

5. Tupelo (12-1) 6A

6. Bassfield (13-1) 2A

7. Callaway (14-0) 5A

8. Brandon (11-2) 6A

9. Hazlehurst (13-1) 4A

10. Petal (10-3) 6A

11. Meridian (10-3) 6A

12. Picayune (10-2) 5A

13. Laurel (12-1) 5A

14. Wayne County (10-3) 5A

15. Charleston (12-1) 3A

16. Madison Central (9-4) 6A

17. Pearl (11-3) 5A

18. Jackson Prep (11-2) MAIS-AAA

19. St. Stansislaus (12-1) 4A

20. Forrest County AHS (10-2) 4A

21. Pascagoula (10-2) 5A

22. Gulfport (9-3) 6A

23. Rosa Fort (11-2) 4A

24. Noxubee County (9-4) 4A

25. Wilkinson County (11-3) 3A