WALNUT, Miss. — John Meeks got win No. 90 the hard way last Friday: on the road, against an unbeaten team, with an offense that had been shut out seven days earlier. Win No. 91 comes with a different kind of pressure — the kind that arrives when you are the favorite.
Walnut (2-1) travels to Glen on Friday to face Alcorn Central (1-2) in a non-division game, 7 p.m. kickoff. The Wildcats have won 23 of the 28 meetings in this series. They have also seen exactly what this Golden Bears team can do on a good night — because two weeks ago, Alcorn Central did it to a Tippah County neighbor.
Walnut at Alcorn Central: the essentials
Matchup
Walnut (2-1) at Alcorn Central (1-2)
Kickoff
Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, 7 p.m. CT
Site
Alcorn Central High School, Glen, Miss.
Type
Non-division
Series
Walnut leads 23-5 (.821)
On the line
John Meeks’s 91st career win
Last week: the Wildcats found their offense again
Walnut’s 22-14 win at Holly Springs was the only Tippah County victory on a three-game varsity Friday, and it was the answer to a fair question. The Wildcats opened the season with 215 rushing yards and 97 passing yards in a 31-18 win over First Assembly Christian, then got shut out 29-0 by Belmont. The question going into Holly Springs was which of those two offenses was real.
They got 22 points against a team that had beaten Mantachie and Byers and arrived at 2-0. Holly Springs has not been the same since. And the win gave Meeks — Walnut’s head coach since 2012 and already the winningest football coach in Tippah County history — his 90th career victory, all of them at Walnut.
Walnut players to watch
RB Dylan Rider (Sr.) — the Wildcats’ leading rusher, 86 yards on five carries and a score in the opener.
Jarvis Poplar (Sr.) — 61 rushing yards in the opener and an interception on defense. Walnut’s two-way tone-setter.
WR Jaylen Cox (Fr.) — four catches for 56 yards and a touchdown plus a 75-yard kickoff return in game one. A freshman who is already the team’s leading receiver and co-leader in total touchdowns.
Russell Hopper (So.) and Cade Jones (So.) — young pieces logging real defensive snaps.
Scouting Alcorn Central: all or nothing
Marty Warren’s Golden Bears are 1-2, and the three games could not be less alike. They opened with a 27-10 loss at Tishomingo County. They followed it with a 41-0 home win over Falkner. Then they went to North Pontotoc and lost 42-0.
Forty-one to nothing, then nothing to forty-two, in consecutive weeks. That is a team whose floor and ceiling are a long way apart, and the difference between them is almost entirely about where the game is played: Alcorn Central is 1-0 at home and 0-2 on the road this season, having been outscored 69-10 away from Glen.
Friday, they are home.
Alcorn Central players to watch
QB Ty Whitten (Sr.) — the whole offense. He leads the team in rushing at 76.7 yards per game and has thrown three touchdown passes, though he is completing only 39.5 percent. Contain him and the Golden Bears have shown very little else.
RB Rylee Brooks (So.) — 48.7 rushing yards per game, the second option.
Jayden Taylor (Sr.) — leads the team in receiving at 33.3 yards per game and in tackles at 12.7 per game, with seven quarterback hurries. He will not leave the field.
Ashton Peters (Jr.) — 8.0 tackles per game. Cayden Miles (So.) leads with 1.5 sacks.
The county angle
Alcorn Central’s only win this season came against Tippah County. Falkner went to Glen on Sept. 4 carrying a long, dead-even rivalry — the programs had split 21 meetings 10-10-1, with the Eagles having won three straight — and got shut out 41-0.
Walnut is the next county team through the gate. The Wildcats do not need that as motivation, but it is the cleanest read on what the Golden Bears look like when things go right for them at home.
Series history: a lopsided ledger
Walnut owns this series 23-5, an .821 winning percentage — one of the most one-sided long-running matchups on either school’s schedule. The broader histories explain some of that. Walnut is 318-326-6 across 64 seasons with 16 playoff appearances. Alcorn Central, over 59 seasons, is 155-437-3 with eight winning seasons, one district title (1989) and two playoff trips.
One thing the two programs share: neither has ever won a state championship, and Walnut has never won a district title either. For a program with more than 300 wins, that is the gap Meeks is still chasing.
Three keys for Walnut
1. Spy Ty Whitten
A quarterback who leads his team in rushing and completes fewer than 40 percent of his passes tells you exactly how to defend him. Make Alcorn Central throw it on schedule and the Golden Bears have not shown they can.
2. Do not let it be the Belmont game
Walnut’s one loss was a shutout. The Wildcats have scored 31 and 22 in their two wins and zero in their loss — there is no middle gear yet. Establishing Rider and Poplar early keeps the offense out of the situations that produced that night.
3. Win the hidden yards
Jaylen Cox already has a 75-yard kickoff return this season. In a road game against a team that plays much better at home, field position and a return that flips it are worth more than they look on the stat sheet.
What’s ahead
Walnut hosts Myrtle on Sept. 25 — the first of four straight home games, with Ashland (Oct. 2), Biggersville (Oct. 9) and Hamilton (Oct. 16) to follow — before closing the regular season at Hatley (Oct. 23) and Baldwyn (Oct. 29). Elsewhere Friday, Ripley hosts unbeaten East Webster. Falkner is idle and returns Sept. 25 against East Union. Everything is on our Tippah County sports schedule.
Walnut at Alcorn Central FAQ
What time is Walnut at Alcorn Central?
Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, at 7 p.m. Central at Alcorn Central High School in Glen, Mississippi.
What are the records?
Walnut is 2-1. Alcorn Central is 1-2.
Who won last week?
Walnut beat previously unbeaten Holly Springs 22-14 on the road. Alcorn Central lost 42-0 at North Pontotoc.
Who leads the all-time series?
Walnut, 23-5.
How many career wins does John Meeks have?
Ninety, all at Walnut, where he has coached since 2012. He is the winningest high school football coach in Tippah County history.
