The Class 3A Franklin County Bulldogs invade William E. “Sambo”Smith Field Friday night to square off against the Loyd StarHornets in the first game of the 2009 football season for bothteams. Designated as an MHSAA Classic Game, it kicks off at 7:30p.m.

In other Lincoln County Classic Game action, Madison St. Josephinvades Bogue Chitto and Williams-Sullivan visits West Lincoln.

Area football action features McComb at Tylertown, JacksonCallaway at Lawrence County, Richland at North Pike and Hinds AHSat Hazlehurst.

Other Lincoln County and area teams begin their season Friday,Aug. 28.

“I wanted to play somebody with their caliber first,” said LoydStar head football coach Ryan Ross. “Simply because that gauges usas to where we are. It tells us what we need to work on.

“You get better after the first game. We’ll change positions andtechniques. Franklin County is a real good football team.”

Ross announced his starting lineup on offense. Starting at wideout are Fred Clark and Adrian Newton. The tight ends are T. J.Floyd and David Fields. Working at tackle are Ken Britt and TreyReid. The guards are Clint Scott and Joseph Fredenburg. Cody Teekelis center.

The quarterback is Joseph Shelby. Marquis Hayes and TradareousWilson are the running backs.

Defensively, the ends are Clint Scott and Teekel. Cody Lanham isnose guard. Linebackers are T.J. Floyd at strong linebacker, DavidFields is middle linebacker and Travis Sorrells is weaksidelinebacker. Fred Clark and McKinley Hamilton are corner backs. Freesafety is Adrian Newton. The rover is Marquis Sims. Marquis Hayesis the nickel back.

“A lot of kids will be rotating in,” added Ross about the numberof players participating.

“It’s been a good preseason camp for us,” stated Ross. “We havea lot of young men fighting off sickness. We have to wait and see.Several starters have a flu bug, a stomach virus.

“We won’t know until game time who will start. We may have someyoung kids step in against a high quality opponent.”

Franklin County head coach Trent Hammond said Loyd Star is goingto be a real good football team according to early reports.

“Loyd Star is supposed to have a great football team this year,”stated Hammond. “Practice has gone pretty good for us. We’ve hadsome minor injures the past couple of days.

“It happens on a date we are going to play a good football team.We are going into there half cocked.”

The Bulldogs are led by senior nose guard Bobby O’Quinn,fullback Frank Hunt and running back DeHendret Collins.

Hammond said is concerned about the condition of hisplayers.

“We’ve only been in three weeks instead of four,” added Hammond.”I worry about conditioning. It is too early to play.”

Lawrence County head coach Mike Davis talked about the Cougars’first game against Class 5A Jackson Callaway.

“The season had gotten here very quick,” said Davis. “For theCougars this year, there are a lot of new names and faces in thestarting rotation. We have a lot of kids taking their first varsitysnap Friday.

“Callaway is a large team,” continued Davis. “Their quarterbackis one of the best known in the state. Their linemen are massiveand one is being recruited by Alabama.

“We hope to have a big crowd here Friday. We want to put a goodproduct on the field.”

The Cougars are led by 1,000-yard rushers Matthew Wells and JoshCameron, plus quarterback Adam Watson.

On defense, hard-hitting linebacker Marcus Brown leads theCougars.