Mobile Christian has long been known for the skill-position talent that has powered its offense, but if the Leopards hoist a state championship trophy this December, coach Ronnie Cottrell says it may be his linemen doing the heavy lifting.
A goal-line stand by the defense and a consistently dominant push from the offensive line highlighted Mobile Christian’s 21-7 spring-game win over St. Stanislaus on May 18 in Poplarville, Miss., a performance that put the Leopards’ strength at the line of scrimmage on full display.
Spring games are notoriously unreliable previews, but the cross-border matchup against the Rockachaws from Bay St. Louis gave Cottrell something a practice scrimmage cannot: a live opponent, a scoreboard and a chance to see how a young backfield handled real pressure. What he saw was a team built from the inside out, with the kind of trench play that travels well into the fall.
“I like this team,” Cottrell said after the victory. “From a defensive perspective, I think we’ll be outstanding. This could be one of the best offensive lines I’ve had here. I think we can do extremely well in 3A.”
The stakes for the fall
The stakes are clear for Mobile Christian this fall: the program’s goal remains winning the school’s first AHSAA state football championship, a pursuit made more urgent after the Leopards were forced to forfeit three region wins last season for using an ineligible player. Despite that setback, Mobile Christian still won six straight games before a semifinal loss ended any shot at a third appearance in the Super 7.
The forfeits stung twice over. They cost the Leopards standing in the region standings, and they cost a program that has grown used to contending the chance to measure itself in the record books. Cottrell’s teams had reached the Super 7 — the AHSAA’s championship-week showcase at Birmingham’s Protective Stadium — twice before, and last year’s semifinal exit after a sixth straight win left a locker room convinced it had unfinished business.
Cottrell said that disappointment still motivates his players.
“This is an outstanding senior group,” he said. “They’ve been very focused since the season was over and they played that way Thursday. I sense they have a chip on their shoulders. They want to make this season special.”
The 3A classification, where Mobile Christian competes against schools of similar enrollment from across south Alabama, has been the Leopards’ proving ground since the program moved up through the AHSAA ranks. Classification in the AHSAA is recalculated periodically based on enrollment, and the Leopards’ rise through the private-school ranks of the coastal region has been one of the steadier program-building stories in the Mobile area.
Strength in the trenches
Much of that push will come from the trenches. The defensive front is led by four-star linebacker/defensive end Sterling Dixon, who holds a commitment to Alabama, while the offensive line is anchored by junior center Bo Cagle, who is developing into a significant college prospect in his own right.
Dixon’s commitment to the Crimson Tide made him one of the most closely followed recruits in the Mobile area, a city that produces Division I talent on an annual basis. His spring role — lining up with a hand in the dirt as an edge defender while also standing up at linebacker — is the kind of hybrid assignment college coordinators ask elite prospects to fill, and it foreshadows how the Leopards plan to use him against 3A offenses that struggle to block a player of his profile.
“The offensive line got a lot of movement and the defensive line held the point (of attack),” Cottrell said. “You can see our strength program has helped our team.”
The strength program has become a point of pride at the school, and the spring game was its showcase. The Leopards’ push up front on both sides of the ball — the sustained blocks that opened running lanes and the interior resistance that refused to yield at the goal line — is the visible return on a year of weight-room work, and Cottrell has made the program’s conditioning a pillar of how his teams finish seasons.
Dixon’s presence was felt even in a limited stat line — he finished with just four tackles, including one for a big loss, a sign that the rest of the defensive front is holding up its end. The goal-line stand itself was made by other linemen, stopping St. Stanislaus twice from inside the 3-yard line.
A goal-line stand is as much about pride as technique, and the Leopards’ defense delivered it twice in the same sequence — once on third down, once on fourth-and-goal from the 1 — with the game’s outcome still in the balance. Stops like that in May are rarely remembered in December, but they give a coaching staff evidence it can build a defensive identity on.
“We do have a clearer picture, especially what our defense looks like,” Cottrell said. “They were phenomenal. When your defensive line can hold the point and keep people off your linebackers, it’s hard to not be successful.”
Junior linebacker Aiden Ransom stopped a third-down attempt, and the interior defensive line held firm on the decisive fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Junior defensive lineman Jaevin Jenkins recorded five tackles, three of them for losses.
Jenkins’ stat line was the evening’s quiet surprise — three stops behind the line of scrimmage from an interior lineman speaks to a defense that penetrates rather than merely occupies blockers. Combined with Dixon’s edge presence and the depth of experienced seniors behind them, the front seven gave the Leopards’ staff the clearest read it has had on that unit in several springs.
“Defensively, we’ve got a lot of experience and talent,” Cottrell said. “When you have (safety) Camden Lawson on the back end and Sterling up front, we’re playing very well and connected.”
Lawson’s role as the last line of defense ties the unit together — a veteran safety who can cover ground behind a aggressive front gives coordinators the freedom to bring pressure, and the spring suggested the Leopards intend to use it.
The youth movement on offense
Offensively, Mobile Christian will break in an inexperienced quarterback room this fall, with sophomore Damian Gaston and freshman Jamison Roberts sharing snaps, along with freshman running back P.J. Brown. Their youth will be offset by an experienced offensive line led by Cagle, Diego Camboia and Bryson Fillingim.
The plan is a familiar one for programs with a strong line and a green backfield: run the football, protect the quarterback and let the freshmen grow into the game rather than being asked to win it alone. Cagle’s development into a college prospect at center — the position that calls every protection at the line of scrimmage — gives the staff a trusted intermediary on the field, an extension of the coaching staff for two young quarterbacks.
Notably, the Leopards committed no turnovers in the spring game despite a freshman and a sophomore splitting time at quarterback.
“We took care of the ball,” Cottrell said.
Ball security in a spring game against a live defense is the stat Cottrell weighs most heavily, and the zero-turnover performance validated the staff’s decision to rotate both young quarterbacks rather than force an early separation in the competition.
Gaston completed 9 of 12 passes for 85 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown to Carson Cooper on a play where he escaped pressure, reversed field and found his receiver on the baseline.
“It was a very poised play,” Cottrell said. “Both quarterbacks played well. I was particularly pleased with their ability to keep their eyes downfield and make plays.”
The touchdown was the kind of play coaches remember from spring — a sophomore improvising under pressure without panicking, keeping his progressions alive and finishing with an accurate throw. It will not decide the quarterback competition, but it will factor into it.
Brown rushed for 61 yards on five carries with touchdown runs of 12 and 15 yards, while junior receiver Jordan Woullard added four catches for 62 yards.
Brown’s per-carry average — better than 12 yards a touch — was the most efficient number on either side of the ball, and his two scoring runs showed a freshman runner with the vision to find the edge and the acceleration to finish. Woullard’s four grabs made him the steadiest target on a roster that will need one while its quarterbacks settle in.
A new surface at home
Mobile Christian will also be breaking in a new home surface this fall — new artificial turf is being installed at Harrison Stadium in June, and the Leopards are scheduled to play four of their first five games there.
The turf installation is part of the steady facility investment that has accompanied the program’s rise, and the front-loaded home schedule gives the Leopards a chance to build early momentum on their own field while their young quarterbacks find their footing. By the time the region schedule reaches its decisive stretch, Mobile Christian expects to have both — a proven defense, a seasoned line and a backfield with real snaps behind it.
The spring game did not settle any questions for December. It did what a good spring game should: confirmed the foundation, exposed nothing disqualifying and sent the roster into summer workouts with the sense that the pieces of a championship contender are already in place in west Mobile.