Editor’s note: This is the second of three stories on the Rotary Club of West Pine Bluff’s 10th annual Hooten’s Arkansas Football kickoff luncheon, held Thursday at the Pine Bluff Country Club.
The young man nicknamed “Cadillac” will be back behind the wheel of Fordyce’s offense this season, longtime Coach Tim Rodgers confirmed Thursday.
Andreal Ellison Jr. enjoyed a stellar freshman season with the Redbugs before he sustained a knee injury in a 3A second-round playoff win over Jessieville. Ellison threw for 1,998 yards and 24 touchdowns with just one interception, and his last touchdown went to JaMarcus Cranford for 20 yards on the play where Ellison was hit out of bounds late in the first quarter.
Fordyce won its next playoff game in clutch fashion over Booneville before losing the state semifinal at Bismarck to finish 13-1. The Redbugs’ 2025 season will begin at Monticello on Aug. 29.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“He’s full-speed now,” said Rodgers, going into his 16th season as head coach and 41st on Fordyce’s staff. “He’s slimmed down some. He’s been doing good in team camps and some 7-on-7. He should be full to go, 100 percent.”
Ellison was listed at 6-feet-3, 270 pounds, as a freshman, but Rodgers did not say how many pounds he had dropped.
“He was out running the other day, and I just noticed how much better he looked running in form and stuff,” Rodgers said. “Coaching and listening and doing things and picking up things and getting things done … he’s just gotten better. We’re really looking forward to this year.”
Much of the experience the Redbugs, ranked third in Hooten’s 3A preseason poll behind reigning champion Salem and Rivercrest, boast is in the form of the class of 2027. Most of the Redbugs’ playmakers last season were sophomores, including receiver Jamartez Stroud and running back Micah Gamble, as were six of their two-way linemen.
Zavier Jones, now a senior, took over at quarterback after Ellison’s injury.
“It’s just some good kids,” Rodgers commented. “You look, their parents — I know Micah Gamble and Jamartez Stroud — they make their kids toe the line and act right, and it’s just happens they’re real good athletes. That makes it even better.”
Lions’ life without Sellers
The best defensive player in 4A last season is now a Southern Arkansas University Mulerider, so the Hamburg Lions are moving into life without Peyton Sellers.
Sellers collected 197 tackles last season, ranking 20th nationally in that category, including 2 sacks, while helping the Lions make the second round of the 4A state playoffs. Monticello, which Hamburg defeated in the Conference 4A-8 opener, ended Hamburg’s season, 35-14. Hamburg will visit McGehee for its season opener Aug. 29. Finding the next man up in Sellers’ place is difficult, fourth-year Coach Blake Johnson said.
“I’ve been talking to my guys, so they’ve got to take up that slack as a whole,” said Johnson, whose playoff win at Gravette was Hamburg’s first in four years. “We’ve got to get people to the ball and make up for (losing Sellers). It’s really hard to replace the defensive player of the year in the state. We’ve just got to do it as a unit and get 11 men to the football.”
Ranked No. 8 by Hooten’s, Hamburg is picked second behind Warren in 4A-8 and is counting on third-year starting quarterback Kaeden Thomas, fourth-year lineman Gauge Walthall and fourth-year receiver Keovion Brown to keep the Lions’ high-octane offense (34.7 points per game) going. Experience will also help Hamburg in that nine starters return offensively and seven defensively.
Defensively the Lions, led up front by third-year starter Aaron Brown, allowed the fourth-fewest points among 4A-8 teams at 28.3.
“We’re in a really tough conference, in (4A-8),” Johnson said. “There’s not an easy win. I’m just blessed to have great players, and we have a lot coming back this year, so hopefully they can build off that.”
Vereen’s Wildcats 2.0
Rison returned to prominence in Chris Vereen’s first season as head coach. The Wildcats were a field goal against Fordyce away from a perfect regular season, but finished 11-2 with a second-round appearance against Rivercrest, a team now two seasons removed from making the 4A state final. The way Rison regained its winning ways, Vereen said, was through smashmouth football.
“We went to the Flexbone, the midline power football,” he said of Rison’s offense. “It really doesn’t matter what you do, if you have the athletes to do it. We had some really, really good senior class, and we’ve got some really good young kids coming, too. X’s and O’s don’t matter if you got the Jimmys and Joes, and right now we’ve got some really good football players.”
Despite only 27 players on the roster for 2025, Vereen is not panicking. Twelve of them are seniors, and one of his veterans, junior Christian Reeves, rushed for 1,502 yards and 26 touchdowns. Senior Jeremiah Marshall led the Wildcats in rushing two seasons ago but is now the fullback. Junior Kyson Walker will return at quarterback, when Rison kicks off at Harmony Grove (Ouachita County) on Sept. 5.
“Right now, we’ve got a really, really small ninth-grade group; there’s only five of them,” Vereen said. “That’s why the numbers down, but they’ve been working hard and, again, all 27 have showed up all summer long.”
Sunday: Fayetteville graduate Matt Garriott finds home in Star City.
This version CORRECTS the name of the opponent Fordyce played in the 3A state semifinal and the name of Conference 4A-8.
2025 conference predictions
(As voted on by coaches, according to Hooten’s; state rankings in parentheses)
5A-Central Conference
- Robinson (2)
- Maumelle (9)
- Pine Bluff (14)
- Searcy (11)
- White Hall (18)
- Beebe
- Watson Chapel
- Jacksonville
Conference 4A-8
- Warren (5)
- Hamburg (8)
- Monticello (12)
- Stuttgart (11)
- DeWitt (18)
- Helena-West Helena Central
- Star City
- Crossett
Conference 3A-8
- Fordyce (3)
- McGehee (13)
- Rison (9)
- Dumas (11)
- Palestine-Wheatley
- Barton
- Drew Central
- Lake Village Lakeside
8-Man South
- Strong
- Brinkley
- Woodlawn
- Marvell-Elaine
- Dermott
- Hermitage
