CLINTON — Mississippi College hasn’t enjoyed the type of season it was expecting but former Vicksburg High star Quartez Ashmore has quietly put together a fine first season for the team.

Ashmore had eight total tackles in a 24-21 homecoming loss to East Texas Baptist on Saturday. The effort helped pad his lead as the Choctaws’ leading tackler this season with 58 stops.

“It’s pretty much been the right decision to come here,” Ashmore said of playing for the NCAA Division III school that plays in the American Southwest Conference.

At Vicksburg, Ashmore was an All-County selection as an outside linebacker. He signed out of high school with Southwest Community College in Summit and became a starter there.

“Southwest was good for me because I got to play all three linebacker positions,” Ashmore said.

When Mississippi College coach Norman Joseph went looking for linebackers, he was convinced Ashmore had the skills needed to play middle linebacker.

“Quartez has been doing great for us. He’s been doing a wonderful job for us at middle linebacker and been a big plus for our defense,” Joseph said.

Ashmore won the starting middle linebacker job in preseason camp and has started all seven games to date this season.

“We’ve had our ups and downs this season. It hurt to lose quarterback) Adam Shaffer early in the season. We’ve been in most of the games this year, but like the one tonight, we just can’t seem to get it right at the end,” Ashmore said after Saturday’s loss. “Still, I feel like we have a good team here. It’s a good group of guys to play with.”

At 2-5, MC’s season will end with the Nov. 15 trip to Texas Lutheran. The Choctaws, a preseason Top 25 team in the D-3 national poll, were coming off an 8-2 season in Joseph’s third year with the program.

The loss of Shaffer, one of the top returning quarterbacks in the nation, in the second week of the season was a blow the Choctaws couldn’t recover from.

“We just had to revamp our entire offense. We had to find ways to be creative with different players. We had to run the ball more,” said Joseph, a Vicksburg native who had earned a reputation as an innovative offensive guru at stops at Southern Miss, Northeast Louisiana and San Jose State.

Joseph, though, is still not ready to write off the season.

“I’m not ready to think about next year, we still have three games left,” he added.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.