Anybody who knows me knows of my love for football, especially high school and college.

To me, there’s nothing better than spending a Friday night in the stands at a high school game and then follow that up Saturday watching your favorite team battle in a conference showdown.

For football fans like myself, this is the worst time of the year. The only thing to keep us interested at this point is spring games and waiting for the college football preview magazines to come out.

While the magazines won’t come out for another month or so, I got my football appetite whetted somewhat on Friday night when I attended Natchez High’s spring football game.

It might have been a very sloppy game, full of penalties and turnovers, but for a football junkie like myself, it was golden.

Even the weather cooperated. There was a fall-like chill in the air as the sun set, making me wish even more that the next three months would hurry up and fly by.

When football season finally gets here, there will be teams both in the Miss-Lou and across the SEC that will have to prove themselves all over again.

Here in the Miss-Lou, there are a couple of teams that are going to have some pretty big shoes to fill if they want to live up to the expectations placed on them by last year’s squads.

Both Trinity and Ferriday went through the regular season undefeated before falling in the playoffs.

However, both teams lost very talented and key players. It will be up to the underclassmen to step up and keep the tradition of winning going at both schools.

Huntington also falls into that category. While the Hounds didn’t go undefeated, they advanced to the Class A South State championship game.

However, their main offensive cog, tailback Jody Cottongin, has graduated. How Huntington finds a way to replace his productivity will determine how far they can go.

While those three teams are trying to reload, others in the area are trying to take steps to get back to the state playoffs.

Natchez fell just one win short last year of making their first playoff appearance since 1997 while Cathedral also saw a decent season fall short of a playoff berth.

ACCS, meanwhile, will be searching for their first win in a couple of years when the 2008 season kicks off after finishing 0-10 last year.

The pieces are in place for improvement, but the Rebels just have to have things go right for them.

All this thinking about football has got me pumped up for the season.

I know they say it will be here before you know it, but I think it’s going to be a long summer of anticipation.

Jeff Edwards is the sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3633 or jeff.edwards@natchezdemocrat.com.