Meet the 2023 Mississippi Mr. Football Award Winners

Starkville QB Trey Petty, West Point RB Kahnen Daniels highlight a stellar list of honorees

The MHSAA announced Thursday the winners of the annual Mr. Football Awards for Mississippi. The seven honorees for the award — designed to honor the best player in each class — were chosen by a panel of coaches and media members from across the state. It is a regular-season award and does not reflect post-season accolades.

Here's a look at the 2023 honorees:

Class 7A - Trey Petty, QB, Starkville

After leading Starkville to a state championship in his junior season, the Illinois commit picked up right where he left off in his senior year. Petty has consistently ranked among the top quarterbacks in the state, and completed 128 of his 201 passes for 1,766 yards with 16 touchdowns and four interceptions this year. He added 728 rushing yards, averaging 12.3 yards a carry, with seven touchdowns.

Class 6A - Jamonta Waller, TE/DE, Picayune

Picayune’s big 6-foot-2, 225-pound athlete may be the best blocking tight end in the state, but it’s his prowess on the defensive line that garnered a Mr. Football nod. Waller was instrumental in Picayune’s biggest wins, tallying 56 total tackles, nine sacks, 19 stops behind the line, two forced fumbles and one blocked punt.

Class 5A - Kahnen Daniels, RB, West Point

Daniels was a finalist for this award in his junior year, so we all had him penciled in as this year’s winner, and the University of Florida commit gave us no reason to change that. Daniels has rushed for 1,930 yards on 189 carries with 21 touchdowns in 10 games. In a Green Wave offense bent on ball control, nobody controls the ball better.

Class 4A - William Echoles, OL/DL, Houston

You don’t see many linemen picking up this kind of post-season award very often, but Echoles is not just any lineman. The six-foot-4, 290-pound Ole Miss commit is one of the highest-rated o-line recruits to come through Mississippi in the past decade. He finished the season with more than 25 pancake blocks on offense, and recorded 59 tackles — including 18 for a loss — and seven sacks on defense.

Class 3A - Chase Richardson, QB, Winona

If you want to know what makes undefeated Winona go, you have to start with the guy under center. Richardson has been instrumental for the Tigers, completing 109 of his 185 pass attempts for 1,774 yards with 21 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He added 853 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground, going over the century mark in half of Winona’s 10 wins.

Class 2A - Adarius McDougle, QB, Sebastopol

Unlike the higher classifications, sometimes in Class 2A you see players who can take over a game by themselves. McDougle was one of those guys for Sebastopol this year. In nine regular-season games, he rushed for 1,697 yards and 31 touchdowns and completed half of his 68 pass attempts for 446 yards and five more scores. He’s the main reason the Bobcats averaged 34.9 points a game and finished 9-1.

Class 1A - Gavin Griffin, RB, Velma Jackson

Sometimes, being the best player on the best team is enough. And Velma Jackson’s star tailback is certainly that. Griffin has paced an explosive offense that helped the Falcons to an undefeated regular season and the top spot in SBLive’s Class 1A rankings, rushing for 1,253 yards and 23 touchdowns. He also caught 15 passes for 300 yards and three more scores.

Past winners

2022

• Class 6A - Bray Hubbard, Ocean Springs
• Class 5A - Dante Dowdell, Picayune
• Class 4A - Isaac Smith, Itawamba AHS
• Class 3A - Suntarine Perkins, Raleigh
• Class 2A - Austin Goss, Scott Central
• Class 1A - Ty Jones, Bay Springs

2021

• Class 6A - Bray Hubbard, Ocean Springs
• Class 5A - Derrick Burgess, Lafayette
• Class 4A - Jaheim Oatis, Columbia
• Class 3A - Malcolm Hartzog, Jeff Davis County
• Class 2A - Zy Ford, East Webster
• Class 1A - Vontrez Rush, Simmons

2020

• Class 6A - Justin Walley, D’Iberville
• Class 5A - Jarquez Hunter, Neshoba Central
• Class 4A - Ty Cooper, Louisville
• Class 3A - Chandler Pittman, Magee
• Class 2A - Ty Keyes, Taylorsville
• Class 1A - Robert Henry, Lumberton

2019

• Class 6A - McKinnley Jackson, George County
• Class 5A - Randy Anderson, Lafayette
• Class 4A - Ike Chandler, Itawamba AHS
• Class 3A - Central Bullock, Columbia
• Class 2A - Ty Keyes, Taylorsville
• Class 1A - Robert Henry, Lumberton

2018

• Class 6A - Nakobe Dean, Horn Lake
• Class 5A - Jarod Conner, Hattiesburg
• Class 4A - Christian Allen, Mendenhall
• Class 3A - K.J. Jefferson, North Panola
• Class 2A - Ty Keyes, Taylorsville
• Class 1A - Demarrius Turner, Simmons

2017

• Class 6A - Jett Johnson, Tupelo
• Class 5A - Marcus Murphy, West Point
• Class 4A - Cole Smith, Pontotoc
• Class 3A - Kenny Gainwell, Yazoo County
• Class 2A - Don Ragsdale, Pisgah
• Class 1A - Marquez Pam, Simmons

2016

• Class 6A - Cam Akers, Clinton
• Class 5A - Jordan Murphy, Hattiesburg
• Class 4A - Myles Brennan, St. Stanislaus
• Class 3A - D.D. Bowie, Morton
• Class 2A - Don Ragsdale, Pisgah
• Class 1A - Chris Smith, Nanih Waiya