No. 7 MGCCC faces No. 4 Navarro in Champs H.O.T Bowl

MGCCC running back Vick Ballard (26) is second in the NJCAA in rushing with 1,666 yards and 22 TD’S.

Gulf Coast won 2007 H.O.T. bowl game en route to national Championship

PERKISNTON, MS.---For the second time in three years, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is headed to Copperas Cove, Texas to compete in the C.H.A.M.P.S Heart of Texas Bowl Saturday, Dec.5. The Bulldogs, 9-2 and ranked No. 7 in the NJCAA football poll, will face off against the 10-1 Navarro Bulldogs. Navarro spent two weeks as the NJCAA’S No. 1 team before losing to Blinn College 45-34 in the conference finals Nov. 15.

“Navarro is an outstanding team,” said Gulf Coast head coach Steve Campbell. “There’s a reason why they were number one for several weeks this season. Just like us, Navarro is a couple of plays away from playing for a national title, so it should be a tremendous bowl game.”

In 2007, Gulf Coast capped off an undefeated 12-0 campaign at the H.O.T. Bowl by hammering Kilgore College 62-28. That Bulldog team earned a share of the 2007 NJCAA National Title.

MGCCC wide receiver Kelvin Bolden (10) and his teammates face No. 4 Navarro in the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl Dec. 5 in Copperas Cove, TX.

“It was a lot of fun the last time we were out there,” Campbell added. “The coaching staff and the fans know the area and know what to expect.”

Gulf Coast will face off against a Navarro team that was No. 1 for two weeks in 2009 and went undefeated during the Southwest Junior College Football Conference (SWJCFC) regular season. Navarro’s offense is ranked No. 9 in the nation averaging 448 yards per game while the Navarro Bulldog defense has only given up 7 passing touchdowns in 2009.

Steve Campbell’s Bulldogs head to the Lone Star State with the NJCAA’S No. 3 ranked offense and No. 11 ranked defense.

“We haven’t played a Texas team since Kilgore in 2007,” Campbell said. “They’ve got a great football team and it’s going to be a major challenge for us.”

This is the third straight bowl appearance for Gulf Coast and fourth in the last six seasons. The Bulldogs lost to Northeastern Oklahoma 21-19 in the 2005 Dalton Defender’s Bowl in Coffeyville, Kan. In ’07 they won the H.O.T. Bowl, and last season Gulf Coast dismantled Georgia Military College 41-7 in the first ever Mississippi Bowl.