SENATOBIA - A career weekend for Julius Pope not only helped to propel the #4 Northwest Mississippi Community College football team into the MACCC championship game this weekend, he also captured the attention of everyone across the state and even those at the national level while doing it. 

The freshman from Pope, Mississippi had a career best 270 yards of total offense, including 65 yards on the ground, 121 yards through the air, and added another 84 on a halfback pass to M.J. Johnson in the second quarter for one of his two touchdowns in the game. Northwest would go on to win the game 28-27 to clinch a home game this weekend for the MACCC Championship game. 

Pope became the second player this season to capture the MACCC Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday before he doubled down and was named the NJCAA Offensive Player of the Week on Wednesday afternoon. He is the first player for Northwest to be named a National Player of the Week this season and the first since D'Mariun Perteet won the honor for the week of November 13th through the 19th last season. 

It has been a great year across the board for Pope with 720 yards rushing, averaging 6.2 per carry while adding another 344 yards receiving on 31 receptions. Add in the 84 yards passing and the standout has accounted for 1148 of the teams 4,090 yards of offense this year, totaling 28.9 percent of the teams offense. 

Northwest and Pope will continue their season on Saturday afternoon when they host #5 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in the MACCC Championship at Bobby Franklin Field with kickoff scheduled for 2:00 PM. The game will be broadcast on nwccrangers.com/watch with the pregame show beginning at 1:30 pm. More information on the game including how to purchase your tickets can also be found at nwccrangers.com.