PERKINSTON — Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College doesn’t have to spend much time wondering how close it was to a championship last season. Three points tell the story.
The Bulldogs put together a 9-2 season in 2025, beat East Mississippi twice and reached the MACCC championship game before falling 16-13 at Northwest Mississippi. It was the kind of season that would qualify as a major breakthrough at plenty of programs around the state. At Gulf Coast, it left unfinished business.
That is the standard Jack Wright has established in Perkinston, and the expectations aren’t going anywhere in 2026. Gulf Coast enters the season ranked No. 5 nationally in the NJCAA Division I preseason poll, and the Bulldogs once again look like one of the programs capable of playing deep into November.
The challenge is doing it with a team that will look considerably different from the one that came within a field goal of winning the conference last fall.
That’s simply life in junior college football. You get players for a year or two, develop them, watch them become some of the best players in the league and then send them to the next level. Gulf Coast has been particularly good at keeping that cycle going.
The Bulldogs opened 2025 with a statement, beating East Mississippi 41-21 in Perkinston. They followed that with a 58-7 win over Mississippi Delta and later went into Ellisville and beat Jones 28-24. Gulf Coast also knocked off Pearl River 42-28 and destroyed Coahoma 56-3. The only regular-season blemish came in a 27-26 loss to Copiah-Lincoln.
Then came perhaps Gulf Coast’s most impressive performance of the season. After beating East Mississippi by 20 points in August, the Bulldogs traveled to Scooba for the MACCC semifinals and did it again, this time winning 45-24. That put Gulf Coast one victory away from the conference title before Northwest escaped with the 16-13 championship victory.
Now comes the difficult part: replacing some serious talent.
Linebacker Taurean Davis was the centerpiece of the 2025 defense, finishing with 89 tackles while earning first-team all-conference honors and MACCC Defensive MVP recognition. He has since moved on to Oklahoma State. Safety Shadrick Toodle Jr. is now at Auburn after developing into another major piece of the Gulf Coast defense.
Gulf Coast will need several players who were freshmen and role players a year ago to become the names everyone in the MACCC knows this fall.
The quarterback position is one of the most interesting places to start.
Connor Tice spent last season as the backup but received enough playing time to give Gulf Coast an idea of what it has. Tice threw for 107 yards and a touchdown while rushing for another 47 yards and a score against Mississippi Delta. Against Coahoma, he completed all three of his attempts for 49 yards and another touchdown.
Tice also happens to be one of the more interesting athletes on the Gulf Coast campus. The former Stone High School standout is a two-sport athlete who also pitches for the Bulldogs’ baseball program. Football will give him a much larger stage this fall if he emerges as the quarterback entrusted with running Wright’s offense.
He won’t necessarily have to carry the offense by himself.
Running back Alan Woods might be one of the most intriguing returning players on the entire roster. Woods showed flashes as a freshman that suggested he could become a featured player in Year 2. In Gulf Coast’s season-opening victory over East Mississippi, Woods ran 12 times for 98 yards and scored three touchdowns. Later against East Central, he showed he could handle a larger workload, rushing 23 times for 151 yards and two scores.
East Mississippi annually puts defensive players into Division I programs, and Woods immediately showed he could produce against that level of talent.
Elijah Jones-Crosby gives Gulf Coast another experienced option in the backfield. He carried 16 times for 84 yards against East Central last season, while Glen Singleton also received opportunities as a freshman. If that group takes another step forward, Gulf Coast could lean heavily on its running game while the passing attack settles into place.
The Bulldogs have some intriguing options at receiver, too. Royale Shelvy, Kainen Rush, Jermaine Brown, Michael Moore and Andre Windham were all part of last year’s freshman class. Rush provided a glimpse of his big-play ability against Coahoma when he caught two passes for 63 yards, including a 38-yard reception.
The question isn’t whether Gulf Coast has athletes at receiver. That’s rarely an issue in Perkinston. The question is which one becomes the guy. Gulf Coast lost veteran production from last year’s offense, meaning someone from this group will have to grow into that role.
There is also some continuity along the offensive line. Darrion Gray, Jayvion Wilson, Damarion Glenn and Semaja Dixon were among the freshmen in the offensive line room last season. That experience could become particularly important if Gulf Coast builds the early portion of its offense around Woods and the running game.
Defensively, there are more questions. Davis and Toodle are gone, and the Bulldogs will have to replace several other experienced players from a unit that twice frustrated East Mississippi last season. The good news is that plenty of young players spent 2025 developing behind them.
La’Zeric Johnson, Tristan Anderson, Elijah Owens, Kam Kynard, Amaya Esco and Connor White were among the freshman defensive backs on last year’s roster. Bryant Ausmer, Russell Brooks and Cameron Hewitt were young pieces up front. Some of those names weren’t necessarily the ones getting attention last September, but that’s how JUCO football works. The freshman playing 15 snaps behind a Division I signee one season can become one of the best players in the conference the next.
Gulf Coast also has continuity on the coaching staff. Wright remains at the center of a program that has become one of the most consistent national contenders in Mississippi junior college football. Defensive coordinator Brett Shufelt, defensive backs coach Clarence McDougal and defensive line coach Rod Smith give the Bulldogs experienced coaches to oversee what will essentially be another reload on defense.
There won’t be much time for the new lineup to grow up.
The MACCC has changed its scheduling format for 2026, expanding the regular season to 10 games and eliminating the bye week. Every team will play five home games and five road games, with the regular season running from Aug. 27 through Oct. 29.
Gulf Coast opens Thursday night at A.L. May Memorial Stadium against Coahoma. Then comes the game everyone will circle.
On Sept. 3, Gulf Coast heads right back to Senatobia to play Northwest Mississippi.
There won’t even be a full year between the Bulldogs’ 16-13 championship loss and their opportunity to return to the scene of it setting up a rematch between two teams that enter 2026 among the highest-ranked programs in junior college football.
That’s a fascinating spot for this Gulf Coast team. By the end of the second Thursday night of the season, we’ll already know considerably more about whether the Bulldogs have successfully reloaded.
The schedule doesn’t get much friendlier from there. Itawamba comes to Perkinston on Sept. 10, followed by one of the more interesting dates of the season when Copiah-Lincoln visits for Homecoming on Saturday, Sept. 19. The school has confirmed a 6 p.m. kickoff for that game.
Co-Lin shouldn’t require much motivational material. The Wolves handed Gulf Coast its only regular-season loss last year, beating the Bulldogs by a single point. Northwest ended Gulf Coast’s season. That means two of the biggest early dates on the 2026 schedule are rematches against the only two programs that defeated the Bulldogs in 2025.
Southwest comes to Perkinston on Oct. 8 for another 7 p.m. kickoff. Hinds will also make the trip to Perkinston on Oct. 22 as the regular season enters its final stretch.
It makes for a season in which there isn’t much room to hide.
That’s probably fine with Gulf Coast.
This program isn’t trying to sneak up on anybody. The Bulldogs enter the season ranked in the national Top 5 one year after reaching the conference championship game. Everyone they play understands what beating Gulf Coast means.
The biggest difference is that we already knew the stars of the 2025 team by the time that group began its championship push. This year’s team still has some introductions to make.
Maybe Tice takes control of the quarterback job and becomes one of the breakout players in the conference. Maybe Woods turns those freshman flashes into a 1,000-yard sophomore season. Maybe Shelvy or Rush becomes the next big-play receiver to come through Perkinston. Maybe one of those young defensive backs who spent last season playing behind future Division I players becomes Gulf Coast’s next major recruit.
That’s part of what makes Mississippi junior college football so much fun. Every August, there are players walking onto fields in Perkinston, Scooba, Ellisville, Poplarville and Senatobia whose names most college football fans don’t know yet. By December, SEC coaches know exactly who they are.
For Gulf Coast, however, the goal is bigger than developing the next group of Division I players.
The Bulldogs were three points away last season. In 2026, they get another chance to finish the job.
The Pipeline From Perkinston to Division I
One of the best ways to understand what Jack Wright has built at Mississippi Gulf Coast is to look beyond Perkinston. The Bulldogs aren’t simply competing for MACCC championships; they’re regularly preparing players to move on to the Division I level. The 2025 team sent 32 players to four-year programs, including seven who signed with Power Four schools, another reminder of just how much talent passes through A.L. May Memorial Stadium.
Several members of last year’s team will spend the 2026 season playing major college football. Linebacker Taurean Davis moved on to Oklahoma State after becoming the MACCC Defensive MVP, while defensive back Shadrick Toodle Jr. landed at Auburn. Linebacker Kaleb Arterberry signed with Baylor, giving the Bulldogs another former defender on a Power Four roster this fall. The 2026 recruiting cycle also included defensive back Willie Breland III, who moved on to Iowa State after earning First-Team All-MACCC and All-NJCAA Region 23 honors during Gulf Coast’s 9-2 season.
2026 MGCCC Bulldogs Football Schedule
Aug. 27 — Coahoma — Perkinston — 7 p.m.
Sept. 3 — at Northwest Mississippi — Senatobia — 7 p.m.
Rematch of the 2025 MACCC Championship Game
Sept. 10 — Itawamba — Perkinston — 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 — Copiah-Lincoln — Perkinston — 6 p.m.
Homecoming
Sept. 24 — at East Mississippi — Scooba — 7 p.m.
Oct. 1 — at Jones College — Ellisville — 7 p.m.
Oct. 8 — Southwest Mississippi — Perkinston — 7 p.m.
Oct. 15 — at Pearl River — Poplarville — 7 p.m.
Oct. 22 — Hinds — Perkinston — 7 p.m.
Oct. 29 — at East Central — Decatur — 6:30 p.m.
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