Central-Bluff

Caught up Thursday afternoon with Central coach Lawrence Brookins about tonight’s district opener at Poplar Bluff.

I asked him if last year’s 2-5 start before winning the district helps give this team hope for another title run. The Tigers have won five of the last seven district titles.

“We have to. That’s one of the positive things of this situation,” Brookins said. “If that’s the way the rules are written, I’ll take it.”

We also talked about Central’s tough schedule -- opponents are a combined 32-16 -- and how that helps a team get ready for district play. Brookins, however, pointed out that regardless of who a team plays, they need to show improvement week to week.

“We failed to show consistent improvement in certain key areas,” he added.

Brookins was impressed with Bluff’s work ethic and how hard they battle in games.

The biggest key for the Tigers tonight at Morrow Stadium will be stopping Poplar Bluff’s run game that is averaging 5.3 yards per carry and 258.5 yards per game.

“If you remain disciplined, you’ll have few problems,” Brookins said. “The one moment you guess wrong, that’s usually going to cost you.”

Jackson’s stingy defense gave up touchdown runs of 30, 65 and 50 yards last week to Bluff but minus those three runs the Mules still ran for 107 yards or 2.8 per carry.

Of course, the question everybody is asking around Poplar Bluff is when will quarterback Todd Bullington play again.

“I don’t know,” Mules coach Brian Robbins said via email Thursday. “It’s day to day.”

Bullington is off the crutches and he won’t have to walk around school all day today (Bluff is out). My guess is Sutton will start because that’s what the Mules have been practicing all week. When center Kelton Thompson missed the week before the Farmington game with an illness, the line seemed out of whack that Friday and Robbins thought it was because they had practiced all week one way then did something else Friday night.

We’ll know at 7 p.m. tonight. It should be a nice night for football, but the turf at Morrow Stadium will be a muddy mess with all the rain we got the last few days.

My story from Thursday’s DAR is here.

As a side note, Poplar Bluff won the JV game Monday at Cape Central, 42-12. That’s a season high for the program, which was 3-1 in JV games, 3-3 in freshman games and 4-2 at the junior high level.