OXFORD – Jack Wright took some much needed time to see his family last week. Days after leading the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers to their first MACJC state title since 1999, Wright made sure to take a little break from football.

"That's been the best part of it. We're not on that daily grind like you get on when you're a coach. You're not up as early to make sure kids are going to class and then have to prepare practice," Wright said. "You're always having to put out fires as the day progresses during the season, and then you have practices until late in the evening. We've been off that routine a little, which has been helpful. It's kind of a mental break. Even though we have been doing stuff with our kids, it's not the same when you have a game staring at you in a couple of days."

Little was the operative word as the Rangers' head man is already back in the grind, working to find a weakness in No. 2 Rochester.

NWCC (10-1 overall) will play the 11-0 Yellowjackets on Dec. 6 in Biloxi in the annual Mississippi Bowl. It will be for the NJCAA national championship. The Rangers last won the top title in the NJCAA ranks in 1992.

Wright said that he has sent his team through three practices and two workouts since the MACJC title game on Nov. 7. The plan is for a few more practices before Thanksgiving, and then a full week of work right after the holiday.

"The NJCAA has a rule that says if the top two opponents meet, then it becomes the pseudo national championship game," Wright said. "So by rule, black and white, this is the national championship game for the NJCAA. I think that's what the Mississippi Bowl wanted. The goal was to create No. 1 versus No. 2 and they did a good job."

Ever since the start of the season in August, Wright said he and his staff have been focused on each opponent, each week and then hoping to be in the playoff mix with a chance to win the state title.

An event like playing in the national title game was something he hadn't thought much about. Until now.

"You're in such a fight week to week that you're just trying to win the next game. Our kids did that. They never lost focus, so it's kind of hard to take a step back and see the big picture," Wright said. "It's hard to look at standings from around the country and to see who is where because usually all we are worried about is winning the next division game. If you get into the playoffs, you just worry about winning that one. It's not until the deal is completely over that you look back and say 'Who is doing good in Kansas? Who is doing well up North or on the East Coast? Who is that you may play if you're fortunate enough to get to that point.' It worked out kind of like we thought it would."

Building for the future never stops, and that means Wright did go out to recruit even if he didn't have a lot of actual practice the week before.

"Our staff has hit the recruiting trail the last couple of weeks to make sure that we got caught up there," Wright said. "Of course, you hate to say you're falling behind because winning always helps recruiting, so it's always a priority. You owe that to the kids on campus that you recruited here already to give them your best effort as a coach and prepare them for a national championship. Recruiting is something that needs to be done on a daily basis. We have also been able to squeeze in some practices in the afternoon."

There won't be any wholesale changes made by Wright and his staff in preparation for the Mississippi Bowl. The plays are the plays from a NWCC standpoint. He and the staff have already started watching film on Rochester, and Wright said the Yellowjackets have a great quarterback in sophomore Nick Rooney.

"Their coach, Bill Quistorff, was very gracious about swapping film. We both have doing this a long time and we both know how it works," Wright said. "I've been watching them a lot the last couple of days. I kind of had an idea about them, but we have really been able to lock in those guys the last day or two."

It is harder for Wright to compare the Yellowjackets to another team because he is so used to scouting teams through others in the state of Mississippi.

"When we watch Rochester, it's kind of funny since we say 'Do we want to watch them against the red team or the black team?' We don't know we are really comparing them to," Wright said. "We do have plenty of time to prepare. We're going to kind of spoon feed ourselves some information and try to find out as much as we can on them."

Rooney has passed for over 4,000 yards this season, while the Yellowjackets average almost 54 points per game.

"The kid owns the touchdowns record in the NJCAA as of this year and he is just a dynamic football player," Wright said. "You can tell he is very intelligent. You can tell he knows what to do with the ball. You can tell he has command of the offense. He is kind of a Payton Manning type, a very cerebral kid. But he runs around pretty well, too. He makes plays with his feet. He avoids the rush. He's not going to kill with just blinding speed, but he's got escapability. He also has a really talented arm. He really makes them go."

On defense, Wright said the Yellowjackets take a lot of chances out of a three-man front base.

"They're very aggressive and you don't get to 11-0 without having a good defense and a quarterback and that's kind of their formula," Wright said.

john.davis@journalinc.com | Twitter: @oxfordcitizenjd