Confidence and expectations high for experienced Phil Campbell football team entering 2026 campaign

Phil Campbell High School’s varsity head football coach Jacob Hamilton is, by nature, a confident guy, and his confidence has, since he took over the program ahead of the 2023 season, extended to his teams. 

But, heading into the 2026 campaign, this may be the most confident Coach Hamilton yet. The Bobcats have a lot going for them.

Following the AHSAA’s reclassification and realignment announcement earlier this year, Phil Campbell was one of the many schools that dropped a classification, going from 3A to 2A. This gives PCHS a school population—and potentially competitive—advantage over most of its 2A adversaries.

“We’re really excited about it,” Hamilton said of joining the new region.

“We’ve been having pretty close to 2A numbers for the past four years, and we thought this last round was going to be it,” he added. “You go from being the second- or third-smallest 3A to the top five biggest 2As, and we feel like that’s a big advantage for us.”

Phil Campbell’s new region, 2A Region 7 (Falkville, Colbert County, Lexington, J.B. Pennington, Sheffield, Tanner and Winston County), also makes road game travel a lot easier than in the past, too.

“We’re excited about this region, excited not to have to travel as much, and we’re excited to compete,” Hamilton said.

Another big advantage for the Bobcats this fall is their returning experience.

In 2025 Phil Campbell had its most productive offensive season ever, scoring a program record 387 points. From that offense the Bobcats return all but two starters.

“We lost Hagen (Raper) and Logan (Cooper)...my tight end and my wing,” Hamilton said, “but the positive is that I return my whole offensive line. We had one kid get injured at one point (last year) so we’re returning six offensive lineman that started, and that is huge. Only one of them is a senior.

“I return my quarterback, who was an Honorable Mention All-State player; I return my running back; and I return my top two leading receivers, so we have a chance to really do something special offensively,” he added.

“Returning your quarterback, your running back, leading receivers and offensive line, it’s huge offensively, especially coming off the great success we had on offense last year.”

The returning quarterback that Hamilton mentioned is senior Hayston Scott, who has held the QB1 role since he was a freshman. As a junior, Scott, a dual-threat quarterback, both passed and rushed for over 1,000 yards and accounted for 30 total touchdowns. 

“He’s gotten better and better each year. He’s our team leader, and I think he’s going to have a monster year,” Hamilton said of Scott.

Returning in the backfield with Scott is junior running back Braxton Downey. Downey, a Franklin Free Press All-Franklin County First Team selection, ran for 887 yards on 132 carries and scored a team-high 12 rushing touchdowns last season.

Paving the way for Scott and Downey, as Hamilton said, are several returning offensive lineman, but seniority among them belongs to Brady Williams, the signal caller in the trenches.

“Brady is the only senior, and he’s the one that makes our calls, our protection, our checks from the blocking scheme standpoint,” Hamilton said. “I expect him to have an even better year. It’s great just having him in that leadership role on the offensive line and having all the juniors back listening to him another year.”

On the outside the Bobcats have senior Chandler Benford and their most prolific wide receiver, senior Austin Elliott, back, as well. In 2025, Elliott, a standout basketball player, made a fantastic first impression in his first season on the gridiron with a team-high 57 receptions, 914 yards and 10 touchdown catches.

Now, after a full offseason to work on his skills as a wide receiver, Hamilton is expecting another big year from Elliott.

“He’s not messing around,” Hamilton said. “His ceiling is extremely high.”

The offense isn’t the only side of the ball with key returners, though. The Bobcats return several important pieces in the defensive puzzle, too. Linebacker Cody Sneed is back for his senior campaign, as is defensive end Devonte Smith. 

Sneed, who recorded 70 tackles and 10 tackles for loss last year, will be the go-to linebacker following the graduation of defensive captain Ethan Hallman, and Smith is expected to play a pivotal role in a deep, rotating defensive line group.

“(Smith) really came on last year. I expect him to have a breakout year, and the same with Cody at linebacker,” Hamilton said.

“Obviously there’s going to be some players that have to play both ways just to get your best athletes on the field, but when you’ve got Cody and Devonte that can truly work on their craft defensively…and you get to have them truly lead the defense—like, that’s their job, that’s their role—I think that we’ll have a better year defensively,” he added.

Phil Campbell will kick off the 2026 regular season on the road at rival Red Bay on August 21. RBHS leads the longtime series 49-34, but last season the Bobcats pulled out a dramatic 46-38 win with a go-ahead touchdown in the last minute of the game.

Hamilton said he’s looking forward to getting the season started with a bang.

“It sets the tone early. You know it’s going to be a physical game. You know it’s going to be a competitive game,” he said.

After traveling to Red Bay, Phil Campbell will play its first home game of the season against Central-Florence before hosting Lexington in its region opener. The Bobcats will then travel to J.B. Pennington before hosting Colbert County on September 18. After their midseason open week, Phil Campbell will travel to Winston County, host Tanner and Sheffield in back-to-back weeks, and then close out the regular season on the road with contests at Falkville and rival Hackleburg.

Looking at this season’s schedule, Hamilton said there’s no opponent his Bobcats are intimidated by.

“We’ve got a great schedule,” he said. “I told our kids what’s great about our schedule is everybody on our schedule can beat us but we can also beat everybody on our schedule. There’s nobody that looming that we’re afraid of. We’re confident.”

With that confidence, Hamilton is optimistic 2026 can be one of the best seasons in Phil Campbell football’s history.
“Our expectation is to get better every single week. We want to take it game by game, and we want to win,” he said. “The goal is a region championship. Phil Campbell has won I think five region championships in 100 years…and we want to change that. The best season in school history is 11 wins. We want to change that.

“If there was going to be a year for us to be able to accomplish the things that we’ve always wanted to accomplish, this would be it. But the thing is, it’s not going to be given to us. We’ve got to work.

“(The players) understand what we can be. The school knows it and the community knows it. This is the most hype around Phil Campbell football I’ve ever seen,” Hamilton added. “I tell the kids at workouts and now I can tell them before a game, ‘You know, you’ve got a little hype around you. Now you’ve got to show that there’s a reason for this hype.’”