Vicksburg High’s 2025 football schedule will have a familiar look, but a new order.

Six of the Gators’ 10 games — including all five non-region games — will be against teams they played in 2024 according to the schedule released this week.

“Familiar faces and proximity. People we’ve been playing and have small little rivalries with, and stuff like that, and diversifying the schedule. You’ve got 6A, 7A, 5A, 4A, all of that in there. It’ll be cool to touch on different people,” Vicksburg head coach Christopher Lacey said. “And then being able to go into district and play some people we haven’t played in a while like Provine and Lanier.”

Vicksburg will open the season Aug. 29, on the road at Natchez. That will be followed by home games against Forest Hill and Ridgeland, a short trip across town to Warren Central on Sept. 19, and a home game vs. Yazoo City on Sept. 26.

Vicksburg played Natchez, Forest Hill and Yazoo City in non-region games the past two seasons. Ridgeland and Warren Central were region opponents, but will now be non-region games as Vicksburg moves from Class 6A to 5A in the next MHSAA realignment cycle that takes effect in 2025.

The game against Warren Central, in Week 4, will also serve as the Red Carpet Bowl under a new agreement between the game’s organizing committee and the Vicksburg Warren School District.

It’s the first time since 1991 that the Red Carpet Bowl has not been played — or at least scheduled — as a season-opening doubleheader with Vicksburg and Warren Central each facing separate opponents.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’ll have a different feel to it. It’ll be a bigger game, which is something you want that to be and I think with us changing the Red Carpet Bowl was kind of the thing — how can we keep the excitement of the Red Carpet Bowl and still keep the integrity of it? What better way to do that than having it as the Vicksburg-Warren Central game?” Lacey said. “I look at it is it’s going to be super fun to be able to play. It’s going to be good for our city.”

As part of the move to Class 5A, Vicksburg will have a brand new slate of opponents in Region 2-5A.

Florence is first up, on Oct. 3 at Memorial Stadium, and a bye week follows. On Oct. 17 the Gators host Provine, and then three consecutive road games finish the regular season — at Cleveland Central, Holmes County Central and Lanier.
Vicksburg played Holmes County Central in the Red Carpet Bowl each of the past two seasons.

This will be Vicksburg’s first-ever meeting with Florence and its first with Lanier since 2016. The Gators played Cleveland Central in the playoffs in 2021 and 2022, and were in the same region with Provine from 2019-22.

The season-ending run of three road games might be tricky to navigate, but Lacey said he was confident his team can handle it. The schedules flip in 2026, so that year the Gators will have a three-game road trip in the middle of the season and finish with three at home.

“That’s the pro to it, is it’ll flip on us when the next year comes. It might seem like a con right now, but if we win all three then it’ll be a benefit,” Lacey said.

Vicksburg will also play a preseason scrimmage against Clinton on Aug. 22 at Memorial Stadium. Its spring game will be at Jefferson County in May, although an exact date has not yet been set.

Those match-ups are the same as in 2024, but the sites are flipped as part of a two-year home-and-home agreement.

“We know it’s going to be legit competition,” Lacey said. “You want to have legit competition before then. I think 90 percent of these teams made the playoffs last year, so I know it’s going to be good competition.”