Players of the Pine Belt: Northeast Jones senior LB Peyton Perdue

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) - The Northeast Jones football team enters the 2022 season with a large, close-knit senior class.

“We’re with each other every day... practice, after practice, [we] stay at each other houses,” Northeast Jones linebacker Peyton Perdue said. “I’m an only child but they’re my brothers to me.”

The Tigers bring back a wealth of experience to the field in the form of that senior class.

“[We have] 18 seniors. That’s a pretty good number for us here,” Northeast Jones head coach Keith Braddock said. “Most of them have played for quite a few years so we’re excited about the season and being led by that strong senior class.”

One of those senior members is middle linebacker Peyton Purdue who started for the Tigers as a freshman.

“You can’t replace experience,” Braddock said. “I mean that kid has started a bunch of games. A lot of these kids have started a bunch of games. It just shows the younger guys that it can be done. Here’s a guy that’s done it before.”

“It was nerve-racking starting as a freshman but there was a good senior class ahead of me and a good junior class to help show me the way and how we play football here,” Perdue said.

And now Purdue is in the opposite position...showing the younger guys the ropes as a veteran contributor.

“He’s a vocal leader and he leads by example,” the head coach said.

The middle linebacker, a force to be reckoned with on the field, has a simple approach.

“Hit or be hit,” Perdue said.

“He has a motor and he’s physical. He runs through people. He plays a lot faster and bigger than he is but he’s relentless,” Braddock said. “[He’s] a typical middle linebacker, old school Northeast Jones kid.”

Northeast Jones opens their season at Northeast Lauderdale on Aug. 26.

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