SENATOBIA – Just weeks after earning a No. 12 ranking in Street & Smith's 2019 College Football Preview magazine, the Northwest football program checks in at No. 7 in JCGridiron.com's preseason poll, released over the Independence Day holiday weekend.

Compiled by Brad Hoiseth for national recruiting service Rivals.com, the JCGridiron preseason rankings considered all 127 of the nation's two-year schools that feature football programs, including the 69 competing members of the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA).

Defending NJCAA national champion East Mississippi checks in at No. 2 with 2017 Graphic Edge Bowl foe Iowa Western topping the overall rankings. California institutions Riverside City and American River are slotted third and fifth, with reigning MACJC South Division champion Jones College rounding out the top five at No. 4 overall.

Other MACJC members ranked include Copiah-Lincoln at No. 23 and Mississippi Gulf Coast at No. 30, while Itawamba and Pearl River sit outside the rankings as teams on the bubble.

Northwest is coming off an 8-2 season, which yielded a fifth straight postseason appearance and the eighth playoff berth in the last nine seasons. The Rangers postseason run came to a heartbreaking end with a 36-34 loss to Jones College in the first round of the MACJC playoffs.

Since taking over the reins as head coach in 2016, Benjy Parker has guided the Rangers to a pair of bowl appearances and a combined record of 25-8 overall and 15-3 within the MACJC.   

Northwest will kickoff the 2019 campaign on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 6:30 p.m. with a road battle at East Central.