Football Game Preview: Northwest Rankin Cougars vs. Brandon Bulldogs + How To Watch

Northwest Rankin hasn't had much luck against Brandon recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The Cougars will look to defend their home field against the Bulldogs at 7:00 p.m. Northwest Rankin will be strutting in after a victory while Brandon will be coming in after a loss.

Northwest Rankin is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They walked away with a 28-20 win over Brookhaven on Friday. The victory continues a trend for the Cougars in their matchups with the Panthers: they've now won five in a row.

Jermany Hayden

Rushing Yards

09/12/25 @ Wayne County	272
09/05/25 @ Clinton	183
08/29/25 vs Germantown	136
09/26/25 @ Brookhaven	106
09/19/25 vs Madison Central	86

A big part of Northwest Rankin's win came down to the chemistry between Gavin Phillipson and his top target De'Shawn Dillon. Phillipson threw for 249 yards and four TDs while completing 76.2% of his passes while Dillon picked up 196 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns. Dillon really caught the secondary sleeping when he pulled down a catch that went for 79 yards. Northwest Rankin also got a significant boost from Jermany Hayden, who ran away from the competition to the tune of 106 yards.

Meanwhile, Brandon faced Starkville in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Friday. The Bulldogs took a 22-14 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Yellowjackets.

Brandon now has a losing record of 2-3. As for Northwest Rankin, they now have a winning record of 3-2.

Northwest Rankin suffered a grim 45-22 defeat to Brandon in their previous matchup back in November of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of the Bulldogs' Tyson Robinson, who rushed for 60 yards and three scores. Now that the Cougars know the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.