After three straight NJCAA Top 10 finishes, three straight trips to the MACJC title game and three consecutive bowl berths, Northwest will open the season ranked fifth according to JCGridiron.com and Street & Smith's Magazine and sixth in the NJCAA.

Playing for a championship has become the norm for Northwest football. The Rangers are trying to become only the fifth program ever to reach four straight conference championship games and the first from the MACJC's north division.

Northwest is coming off an 8-3 season, a 16th north division championship, MACJC runner-up finish and fourth bowl appearance in six years. The Rangers will be a little more balanced on its 55-man roster this year with 32 freshmen and 23 sophomores compared to 39 freshmen on their roster last season.

The Rangers return just seven starters in 2018, with six of those on defense. Twenty-one players signed with four-year programs off last year's team, 11 of those to Division I. That gives Northwest 50 signees off the 2016 and 2017 rosters.

For a second straight season, Northwest will host four games at Bobby Franklin Field. The Rangers have won 16 of their last 17 in Senatobia. A difficult three-game road stretch from September 6-20 will test the team early before playing three of its last five at home.

For the first time in the program's history, all Northwest football broadcasts will be carried online only for the 2018 season. Ranger fans won't have to look far to catch all the action, as all games will be carried live and archived through nwccrangers.com/watch. 

NORTHWEST OFFENSE
Returning Starters: 1
     
The Rangers ranked fifth in the NJCAA in total offense last season with the MACJC's second-ranked total offense (485.5 ypg) and fourth-best scoring offense (37.3 ppg), including 66 and 61-point games vs rival East Mississippi.

Northwest will have to replace 10 starters on offense, however, with Ole Miss wide receiver commit JaVonta Payton the lone returning starter. 

The entire starting five on the offensive line will be new. Four linemen signed Division I last season, highlighted by two-time NJCAA All-American Damien Lewis to LSU, and starting center Colton Skidmore did not return. If anyone can handle the challenge of a young line, it's position coach Jim Jones. Now in his ninth season, Jones has developed some of the top offensive linemen in the state over the last several years.

Sophomores Lavante Epson Jr. and Tae-Kion Reed, who are projected to start at left guard and left tackle, will have to lead seven young freshmen. The other starting spots are up for grabs with Anterrious Gray (Noxubee County), Shyron Rodgers (Corinth), Jamaul Lofton (South Panola), Ashton Stewart (Oxford), Ramble Johnson (Purvis) and Keith Foggy (Lanier) all competing for them. Expect a heavy rotation early in the year. 

Northwest will field three quarterbacks on the roster in 2018. The competition between Vanderbilt transfer and redshirt freshman Jacob Free (6-5/230) and sophomore Robert Wilcke (6-0/190) has been ongoing all fall. 
     
Free was the highest-rated recruit in the Commodores' signing class and Rivals.com ranked the strong-armed Free as the No. 20 pro-style quarterback in the nation. He passed for 7,367 yards, 95 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in his high school career. Wilcke, a dual-threat QB, backed up Southern Miss signee Jack Abraham a year ago and saw action in eight games, completing 6-of-8 passes for 31 yards and rushing 20 times for 130 yards. He was a two-time Best of the Preps selection and a finalist for the 2016 SES Mr. Elite Award out of Hernando High School.

Running back Kevin Perkins, who rushed for nearly 900 yards and 12 touchdowns last year, will be part of a three-headed rushing attack with Kennesaw State transfer Jaxton Carson and former West Point stud Chris Calvert. Perkins, who started eight games as a freshman, signed with Troy on national signing day, but decided to return to Senatobia for his sophomore year. Calvert finished his high school career with over 3,000 yards rushing and 600 receiving, helping West Point to a pair of state championships.

This year's receiving corps could be one of, if not the, most talented unit on paper that longtime receivers coach Scott Oakley has had in his 14 years. 

Payton, who had 44 grabs for 509 yards and nine touchdowns, is the top returner. He will be joined by Division I transfers Monterio Hunt (Marshall), Braden Smith (Mississippi State) and Travis Tucker (Tulane). Hunt was rated the 15th-best receiver prospect in the state of Mississippi out of high school, but played primarily on special teams at Marshall last year. Smith is still making the transition to receiver after starting at quarterback three seasons at Northwest Rankin High School. 

Sophomores Demarcus Jones, Keshunn Abram and Maurice Toney played in all 11 games last year. Jones, who ranked just outside 247Sports' JUCO Top 100, had 21 catches for 230 yards and a touchdown as a freshman. The reliable Jack Hendershot, along with newcomer Michael Campbell, will line up at tight end for Stan Hill's run-and-gun offense.
     
NORTHWEST DEFENSE
Returning Starters: 6 
     
The Rangers boasted the MACJC's top scoring defense (19.5 ppg) and No. 2 total defense (302.3 ypg) last year, the best in defensive coordinator Benjy Parker's four-year tenure. Both totals also ranked in the NJCAA Top 15.

Northwest posted the most shutouts in a single-season (four) since the 1992 NJCAA National Championship season, blanking Northeast, East Central, Coahoma and Mississippi Delta by a combined score of 146-0.

Northwest will have to replace three of the league's top 10 tacklers in Memphis signee Keith Brown Jr. (94 tackles), Mississippi College's Turner Rotenberry (79 tackles) and West Virginia signee Joshua Norwood (71 tackles). Rotenberry leaves as Northwest's all-time leader in interception returns for a touchdown, finishing with three of his four career pick sixes as a sophomore.

Other big losses for the Rangers are Hal Northern and Tariqious Tisdale in the trenches, both Ole Miss signees. Northern was named the MACJC North Division's defensive line MVP, first team all-conference and NJCAA All-Region 23 as a sophomore and finished his career with 31.0 tackles-for-loss, fifth-most in school history. The duo had a combined 26.5 tackles-for-loss last season and 12.5 sacks.

Despite the losses up front, Northwest will still possess one of the top defensive lines in the state under fifth-year position coach Travis Macon. A dozen linemen have continued to the four-year level under Macon at Northwest, including 10 to Division I programs such as Ole Miss, Louisville, West Virginia and Kansas.

Northwest returns starters D.J. Reed (Horn Lake), Taures Payne (Hoover, Ala.) and Nathan Perry (Germantown) up front in addition to Devonte Lloyd, Tahji Gilbert and Tyren Irby. The unit had 93 tackles-for-loss and 32 sacks in 2017, a year after breaking a 24-year-old school record with 117 tackles-for-loss and 46 sacks.

Linebackers Robert Miller, Brandon Pierre and Jonathan Jones, three of the team's top six tacklers from a year ago, return to lead a fairly young corps. Freshmen Quentin Wilfawn (Oxford), Dee Rule (Lake Cormorant) and Cordarius Watson (Olive Branch) will all fit in the rotation. Wilfawn is the most touted of the newcomers. The SES Mississippi 5A Player of the Year and finalist for 2017 WBCI EndZone Defensive Player of the Year racked up 169 tackles as a senior and led Mississippi 5A in tackles as a junior with 171 stops.

Brandin Echols is the lone starter back in the secondary. The Southaven product is ranked No. 56 on 247Sports' JUCO Top 100 and already holds offers from Houston, Ole Miss, Florida Atlantic, Minnesota, Kentucky and Southern Miss among others. Malik Sanders and Kenderius Glenn are the only other two sophomores back and both saw decent reps as freshmen.

Although very young and inexperienced, the defensive secondary is loaded with talent under fifth-year position coach Jonathan Webster. Former WVU signee Jayce Rogers (Valdosta, Ga.), former Ole Miss signee Cam White (Madison Central), Christian Cain (Grenada), Jerrick Reed II (Olive Branch) and South Alabama transfer Devin Rockette are just a few newcomers to watch.  

Webster's stingy secondary has combined to pick off 46 passes in addition to 119 breakups, 20 forced fumbles and nine blocked kicks over his first four seasons. Sixteen of Webster's former players have gone on to sign scholarships to compete at the next level, including eight to Division I programs over the last two seasons.

NORTHWEST SPECIAL TEAMS
Returning Starters: 0
     
Kicker/punter Drake McCarter and long snapper Jack Creely have both moved on to play at the four-year level after solid two-year careers in Senatobia. McCarter, who signed with Mississippi College, leaves his name in the Northwest record books for career field goals made (22) and punts inside-the-20 yard line (38) -- both ranking first. Creely, who inked with Delta State, graded out at 99 percent on snap efficiency over two seasons and will be a difficult replacement on the special teams unit.

Newcomer Chris Taylor from Columbus High School will take over kicking and punting duties in 2018. Taylor led the state in punting yardage according to MaxPreps last year and was 14-of-14 in PATs and 3-for-3 from field goal range. He was a Mississippi Gridiron Magazine Second Team selection his junior year. Colby Cooper from Brandon High School played defense in addition to primary duties as a long snapper last season. He was a two-time second team all-state selection on the field and a Mississippi Scholar off the field.