CHS football hopes to make a playoff run this year
By Danny C. Davis
After three tough seasons, the Clinton Arrow football team hopes it can make the playoffs this fall for the first time since 2022. Clinton came close going 4-6 the past two seasons in the arguably the MHSSA’s toughest region, Region 2-7A.
Last season, CHS had some early success after upsetting Warren Central and Northwest Rankin early and were ranked, but had a very young offense and missed the playoffs by one or two Region 2-7A loses.
This year, the Arrows have a very talented offense, with starters returning at almost every position and a lot of depth at running back and wide receiver. But on defense, CHS only returns two starters.
Clinton’s 2025 offense averaged scoring 21 points a game and had almost 3,000 yards total offense, 1,507 yards rushing and 1,407 passing.
On defense, CHS gave up a total of 2831 yards.
“The strength of our team this upcoming season is definitely our offense,” said second-year head football coach Hamer Morgan, longtime Arrow defensive coordinator.
“We had very good spring and summer workouts, and we are hoping that will carry over to the season,” said Morgan.
One key to success this season is the continued development of talented double threat junior Jayden Jones, who, as a sophomore, threw for 1,375 yards and six TD’s while giving up fifteen interceptions. Jones rushed for 471 yards and three TD’s.
“Jayden had a very good spring and summer and played very well on 7 on 7 summer tournaments.”
“We feel he is going to be a lot better this year, with more depth at wide receiver and running backs,” said Morgan.
Leading receiver Jaden Johnson, who had 288 yards receiving, despite missing most of the season with an injury, is back. Sophomore transfer Mathew Fletcher has been impressive in summer workouts and is expected to be one of Jones’ top targets, along with Johnson.
Leading rusher, junior Braylon Lowery, who had 719 yards on 170 carries and nine TD’s, despite missing part of the season last year with injury, is back. Senior running back Boskey Evans had 61 carries for 307 yards, despite missing part of the season with injuries, is also back and has a lot of breakaway speed. Versatile junior running back Cayden Albert, who had 213 yards and also played at QB at times, also returns. Then add in former ninth-grade QB Amarreau Coleman, who also is a threat at running back, and you have potential for a strong running game this season.
The offensive line is big and talented, led by D1 prospect senior Grant Williams
and also junior Tyboris Loftin.
With just two starters returning on defense, another key to success is how quick the nine new players can get game experience and get into position to make tackles. Some of those guys had a lot of snaps last year.
Senior safety Trevion Casnel will lead the secondary and had 34 assist tackles and 6 solo stops a year ago. He led the defense last year with three interceptions and also on return yardage.
Senior defensive lineman Dallas Johnson will anchor the line and had 23 tackle assists and three solo tackles.
The Arrows are also replacing all of the kicking specialists.
For field goals and extra points, junior Brayden Gough is expected to start and will be backed up by sophomore Jase Chao. Gough will also handle kickoffs.
Junior Reese Lot will be the deep snapper, and senior John Jackson will be the holder.
Working out at punter is junior Rodric Donaldson.
Clinton again will play the toughest schedule in the state. Clinton will face eight teams in the top 20 Max Preps preseason poll, three that are in the top 10.
Warren Central won Class 6A in 2025 and returns four-year starter and Mississippi State signee Nash Morgan at QB. In Region 7A, Oxford, Starkville and Germantown are all ranked in the top 10 in the Region 2-7A.
But Clinton is ranked # 21 in the top 25 Class 7A Max Prep polls.
“We are steadily building our program at Clinton,” said Morgan. “This summer, for the first time, we had the seventh- eighth- and ninth-grade football teams go through full summer workouts, just like the varsity did.”
“We will see benefits of that in years to come, but we feel we can be very good this year if we can avoid injury, cut down on the turnovers, be more productive in the Red Zone and if our defense gets early season experience. We have a lot of new faces that are pretty good. We will see what happens when we turn the lights on,” said Morgan.
