By Brad Greer

Coming off a 12-2 record and their second straight North AAA State runner-up appearance last season, the North Panola Cougars wrapped up Spring drills hosting Desoto Central on April 6.

And while the Jaguars might have gained the upper hand on the scoreboard, North Panola head coach Carl Diffee wanted to see a bigger picture of where the 2019 version of his team stands before they take on defending 5A state champion West Point Aug.16th at the Mississippi State jamboree.

“We wanted to look at a couple of guys and some different spots from were they were playing at last year to where hopefully they’ll be playing this year. The biggest thing I wanted to see is how our guys competed against someone else,” said Diffee.

“I knew we would probably be a little out of shape because we’ve got some guys going both ways until we develop some others so we wanted to make tonight we played for what’s on the front of our shirts and not worry about what’s on the scoreboard,” said Diffee.

The main position most Cougar fans wanted to see is who would take over the quarterback duties left behind by record-setting signal caller K.J.Jefferson. Rising senior Cadarrius Pride is looking more than capable of taking over the reigns in the fall.

Pride finished the spring game with 137 yards on eight carries and a touchdown while throwing for 188 yards and one scoring strike, that being a pitch and catch to a wide-open Carl Robinson.

“Cadarrius is right were he needs to be after three weeks of practice. He made some decisions tonight with the football that I ask him to make that he threw two interceptions and the bottom line is it wasn’t his fault on either one of them,” said Diffee.

“The first one was a tipped ball and the second one was kind of a mix up on the routes. But if we took care of the football the score might have been different,but i really didn’t care about the outcome I wanted to see how our kids responded to adversity. I hope they realized they just showing up is not going to get it. Nothing will be given to them,” said Diffee.

In addition to the touchdown reception, Robinson had three catches for 79 yards to go along with five carries for 21 yards.

Steven Edwards had two catches for 62 yards while Guicci Mabry and Devonta Pratcher had one reception each.

Cutline:  Carl Diffee