All-Stars Report For 27th Alabama-Mississippi Game
Players checked in Monday at Montgomery's Cramton Bowl Multiplex as the 27th annual Alabama-Mississippi Football All-Star Game week officially got underway.
The game featuring current high school seniors will be played Saturday at Cramton Bowl with kickoff set for 12 noon. The game will be televised live in Alabama and Mississippi by Raycom over its affiliate stations in each state. WSFA NBC TV 12 of Montgomery is the flagship Raycom station for this event.
Alabama’s all-stars, holding a 19-7 edge in the series, have won five a row dating back to the 2007 game that Mississippi won 26-7. The series was played from 1988-2010 at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
The game is an event of the Alabama High School Athletic Directors & Coaches Association, the coaches organization of the AHSAA. The Mississippi team is selected by the Mississippi Association of Coaches.
Central-Phenix City’s Woodrow Lowe is serving as head coach for Alabama’s team and Lance Pogue of South Panola for the Mississippi squad. Lowe was an assistant coach in last year’s 21-16 win for Alabama, which is 2-0 in the series since it moved to Cramton Bowl in 2011.
Each team has 40 players on its roster. Among the players reporting Monday for Mississippi were defensive back Picasso Nelson of Class 6A state champion Oak Grove and Class 5A state champion Picayune teammates Preston Dedeaux and D’Marcus Harralson. Harralson is 6-foot-6, 312-pound offensive lineman and Dedeaux is a 5-7, 192-pound running back.
Mississippi crowned its state champions at Jackson last weekend.
Alabama also has several players who were crowned as state champs last week at the Super 6 Championships at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
Hoover, which won the 6A crown for the second straight year and eighth time since 2000, has two players set to play, defensive back Marlon Humphrey and offensive lineman Nicholas Bodden. Tight end Hunter Wood from Class 5A two-time state champion Spanish Fort is on the roster.
Humphrey and Wood are sons of former University of Alabama players Bobby Humphrey and Russ Wood, respectively. Ironically, the father of Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa linebacker Keith Holcombe and Wood’s father Russ were teammates and roommates for the 1982 Crimson Tide.
The teams will begin two-a-day practices Tuesday 9 a.m. with Alabama at Faulkner University and Mississippi at Huntingdon College. The afternoon practice will be at 2 p.m.
Players from each team met with reporters at check-in and later were treated to a tour of the Hyundai Assembly Plant near Pintlala. Tuesday night the teams will visit the Rosa Parks Civil Rights Museum downtown.