For Belhaven football, the Riverside Rumble isn’t just one day of the year; it’s every day. The school’s annual rivalry matchup against Millsaps isn’t simply one game, it’s what sets the tone for the whole season.
For third-year head coach CJ Nightingale, a successful season starts with a victory over Millsaps.
“We talk about [the Riverside Rumble] all year round,” Nightingale said. “It can’t just be a one-week thing, and it can’t just be a ‘Hey, we play them in week one, so it’s a fall camp thing.’ No, we’ve talked about it since January. Our guys are understanding that for us to achieve our goals, we’ve got to win game one.”
Nightingale is confident his team has what it takes to win back-to-back games against the Majors in Thursday’s away game, despite the number of newcomers the Blazers will have in starting roles.
“It’s been really productive to see how our returners have meshed with the newcomers and how our returners have kept a high standard of all of who we are as a program, for our newcomers,” Nightingale said. “They’ve competed really hard. We’ve had a productive scrimmage, productive inter-squads, and our guys are just ready to go hit somebody else at this point and time of the year.”
For the 2026 Blazers, hitting someone else on defense and preventing those hits on offense will be a bright spot for the roster, according to Nightingale, with most of the team’s veterans making a return on the line of scrimmage.
“Our O-line and D-line are going to be in a really sharp and solid spot with returners,” Nightingale explained. “Both sides of the ball are probably our most mature groups when it comes to production. Offensively, I think of guys like Ja’Tarvis Harris, Jordyn Erves, and Ely Bayles who have played a lot of football for us on the offensive line. To have those guys all returning and ready to go and healthy is a big, big deal.
“Defensively, same deal with Jimmy Byrd, Tre Chaffier, and Reece Benoit. Those guys have played a lot of football for us and to have that on your O-line and D-line is a really positive thing.”
With high praise for the returners on the line, Nightingale says that the quickness of the team’s skill players and tempo of play in general is what excites him the most for the 2026 campaign.
“From a playing perspective, we have our style and our emphasis, but we play fast, and I am really encouraged by that throughout fall camp and throughout the scrimmages just on how fast we were able to play in those two events that we were able to have. So, that’s exciting to me,” Nightingale said. “I want to continue to see our guys play fast and to see the team speed that our guys do have offensively, defensively, and special teams-wise.”
With so many young guys and new starters stepping up in more prominent roles for the Blazers, Nightingale emphasized the need to improve every day and treat game one against Millsaps as the big game that it is, not just another fall scrimmage.
“We have to get better every single day. And I know that’s coaches’ talk, but for us, we have to play with discipline, technique, effort, toughness, and violence. … We’re going to play our brand and continue to get better. My hope is that [fans] can hear and see us play our brand,” Nightingale said. “If we play with discipline, technique, and effort, we have a shot every single time. We talk about fighting every single snap and playing the next snap; that’s what it’s about, and we have to show that on Thursday and every single day.
“We have to win game one. It’s a rivalry game up the street. Millsaps has prepared extremely well. We all know what that game means and how it impacts the rest of the season, and it’s week one. So, in terms of goals and expectations, we have them for our program, but it starts with week one, and we have to go get that one.”
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The Riverside Rumble is right around the corner for the Blazers, who will have a chance to put all their motivation to “get game one” on display to try and beat the Majors.
“There’s nothing from a bulletin standpoint,” Nightingale said. “It’s ‘What’re we doing to beat them today?’ – ‘What’re we doing to prepare for them today?’ We talk about what to do, how to do it, why to do it, and a lot of it is geared towards game one and week one, and our guys are pretty excited about that opportunity on Thursday.”
Belhaven will face off against Millsaps in the Riverside Rumble at Harper Davis Field on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 7 p.m.