Following the bye week, the Southwest Bears are preparing to play host once again, this time their third and final MACCC North Division foe in the No. 7 Northwest Rangers Thursday evening.
The contest will be just the fourth meeting between the two schools since 2011 and the first since the 2019 season when Southwest fell 29-10 in Senatobia.
The Bears (0-5, 0-3 MACCC) enter the game hoping to knock off the high-powered Rangers (4-1, 3-0 MACCC). Southwest head coach Cliff Collins said that having two weeks to prepare for a tough opponent was a plus.
"It was beneficial, you get to slow things down, you get to push the reset button," he said. "You get to work on a lot of individual stuff, work on us. We took advantage of that. We needed this open week with Northwest coming in."
Collins also views this as the first game of the second half of the season. "This is like a new part of the season, this was like a halftime," he said. "We want to finish up strong and finish the second half of the season. We made a lot of mistakes in the first half of the season. That is what I have been preaching to my guys…let's play mistake-free and let's play fundamentally sound."
The Bears will face a tough Ranger offense led by quarterback Zach Wilcke who has completed 57% of his passes and thrown for 807 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions in the first five games of the season. D'mariun Perteet leads the ground game with 125 rushes for 615 yards and nine touchdowns. As far as receivers K.D. Gibson and Kyler Hutton each have 16 receptions with 169 and 228 yards, respectively.
Collins adds that they run an offense very similar to that of an opponent the Bears faced recently.
"It's 11 personnel, 12 personnel sometimes," he said. "It is very similar to Gulf Coast in a way. This team right here, you have to play mistake-free football."
The Bears counter with an offense led by Henry Brewer who has appeared in all five contests thus far, throwing for 826 yards and five scores. Quez Goss has also seen significant time under center and in three appearances has thrown for 352 yards and three touchdowns. On the ground the running back trio of Jalen Williams, Chris Hunter and Tedarrius Aych all average over three yards per carry. The receiving corps is led by Marcellus Jackson (29 rec, 437 yards, 3 TD), Damarcco Blanton (28 rec, 243 yards, 2 TD) and Jordan Scott (11 rec, 222 yards, 3 TD).
Collins said that it is important for his team to start strong and make an early statement but there are two key elements that could help his team pick up a win against the Rangers.
"The whole thing is just playing mistake-free and not turning it over," he said. "Not giving up big plays and turnovers is the key going into it. We have to be solid with it this week."
The Bears and the Rangers kick off Thursday at 6:30 p.m. from John I. Hurst Stadium in Summit.
