| Wednesday, September 12, 2018 |
| Starkville/MSU Symphony to open 50th season Saturday | |
 | The Starkville/MSU Symphony kicks off its landmark 50th season Saturday with an opening "Milestones" concert at 7:30 p.m. at Rent Auditorium on the Mississippi University for Women campus in Columbus. Admission is free. Performed by the Symphony Orchestra, the opening concert is an annual ongoing partnership between Starkville/MSU Symphony and MUW, bringing world-class, locally performed classical music to a broader Golden Triangle audience. "We are proud to partner with MUW in presenting one of our concerts each year," said Eric Hill, Starkville/MSU Symphony Association 2018 board president. "Both the orchestra and chorus include musicians from around the Golden Triangle, so it's only fitting that we begin this important 50th year celebrating with classical music lovers from across the region." The Starkville/MSU Symphony Association was established on March 2, 1969. |
| 2018 Mississippi corn harvest under way, not hurt by Tropical Storm Gordon | |
 | Tropical Storm Gordon interrupted harvest across Mississippi, but the storm left most of its wind along the coast and does not seem to have damaged the state's corn crop. Erick Larson, corn specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said there was a lot of corn in the field when the storm arrived, particularly in the northern part of the state, but rain alone generally does little damage to corn awaiting harvest. "The grain and plants are fairly robust and can withstand the rain, particularly if it clears out with warm, sunny weather afterwards," Larson said. "Wind is the biggest potentially damaging factor with storms like this, because severe wind will force the stalks to lodge. They fall over like dominoes, or the stalk breaks somewhere between the ear and ground level." |
| Farm Press and no-till: Partners through the years | |
| Delta Farm Press has never considered itself to be a no-till magazine -- its editors always sought to broaden its coverage to all facets of Mid-South agriculture. Nevertheless, the publication and no-till farming have been intertwined over the decades. Glover Triplett, a Mississippi native who received his Ph.D. at Michigan State, helped establish some of the first no-till research plots in the U.S. at Ohio State. More than half a century later, the no-till plots are still going. In a 2014 interview with Delta Farm Press, Triplett said the no-till concept wasn't new even in 1963; that Dr. Louis Wise, a forage agronomist at Mississippi State, was planting wheat, rye, and winter oats directly into pastures when Triplett was an undergraduate there. Triplett retired in 1982 and returned to Mississippi, beginning a second career as a research professor of agronomy with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. |
| Rhodes Scholar speaks at Rotary | |
 | Noah Barbieri, one of just 32 recently-chosen Rhodes Scholars, spoke with the Starkville Rotary Club about his experiences during the club's weekly meeting Monday. Later this Month, Barbieri, a Tupelo native, will travel to Oxford, England to pursue a master's and possibly a doctorate in economics at the prestigious University of Oxford. He is a recent alumnus of Millsaps College with majors in mathematics, economics and philosophy. Barbieri is also one of 60 Truman Scholars. He said his love of learning began after he received a metal spacer in his chest to repair a sunken chest while he was in middle school. Unable to play sports, he vowed to read a book every week. "I know one summer, I read basically the entire canon of William Faulkner," Barbieri said. "One week I'd be sailing the high seas with Herman Melville. I'd be in Russia with Dostoyevsky the next week, but through this time, I was avidly pounding through these books." |
| Unlikely Rhodes Scholar plans to return to Mississippi | |
| Noah Barbieri is the 51st Rhodes Scholar from Mississippi and, in many ways, the program's most unlikely. Barbieri shared his story Monday at the Starkville Rotary Club. Medical conditions prevented him from attending school until seventh grade and interrupted his studies even then. Reading sparked his intellect. By his senior year, he had risen from third-from-the-bottom to third in his class and had his choice of scholarships. He eventually chose Millsaps, serving two years as student government president and graduating as class valedictorian, earning both a Truman (as a junior) and Rhodes scholarship. "From 2010 to 2016, the millennial population of Mississippi has declined by 30 percent," he said. "That's like losing my hometown of Tupelo in six years. So I really have been thinking about how we can keep these young people in our state." |
| Mississippi Sets 1-Day Hearing to Start State Budget Process | |
 | Mississippi lawmakers will hold a single day of public hearings next week to start the monthslong process of writing a state budget. Hearings are set for Monday at the Woolfolk state office building, across the street from the state Capitol in downtown Jackson. State agencies already have submitted requests for the 2020 budget year, which begins July 1, 2019. The 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Committee used to hold several days of hearings each September to ask questions of state agency leaders. The schedule has been condensed to a single day with only a few agencies: the Public Employees Retirement System; the departments of corrections, education and public safety; Medicaid; and Child Protective Services. Among those not on the public hearings list are universities, community colleges and the Health Department. |
| U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker stumps on political wins | |
 | Amid an ongoing re-election bid, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker urged a friendly audience of local Republican stalwarts Monday night to stay focused on conservative victories. Speaking in Tupelo at the Lee County Republican Club, Wicker lauded the political accomplishments of President Donald Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress. In Wicker's telling, Congress and the president have pruned "job killing regulations," set about remaking the "the face of the federal judiciary," repealed the federal mandate to buy health insurance and cut taxes. That's a message Wicker repeated in an interview with the Daily Journal. "This has been a wildly successful administration," Wicker said. Looking to some ongoing issues, Wicker pledged to vote for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. On the still unresolved issue of trade, Wicker said he "very concerned" about the plight of farmers suffering under tariff pressures. |
| Mike Espy sees runoff as path to a Mississippi Senate seat, but here's why it's a bumpy road | |
 | Mike Espy is running for the runoff -- the sort of election that some African Americans have said for years is designed to keep them from winning. Espy, President Bill Clinton's agriculture secretary and a former congressman, is counting on Mississippi's runoff election system in his bid to become the ruby red state's first African American U.S. senator since Reconstruction and its first Democratic senator in nearly four decades. The runoff is baked into Espy's campaign strategy against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and conservative firebrand Chris McDaniel, Republicans who he'll face in a so-called "jungle" primary special election Nov. 6 to finish the final two years of GOP Sen. Thad Cochran's six-year term. Research by Charles Bullock III, a University of Georgia political science professor and co-author of the 1992 book "Runoff Elections in the United States," shows that Espy faces daunting odds. |
| James Carville providing help for David Baria's Senate campaign | |
 | James Carville, who gained national prominence as the lead strategist for Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaigns in the 1990s, is involved in Mississippi politics this year. Carville is an unofficial, unpaid adviser for state Rep. David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, who is running an underdog campaign to unseat incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Tupelo Republican, in the November general election. In recent years, Carville, a Louisiana native, has been known for his colorful commentary on national news programs, In a reply to Mississippi Today relayed through the Baria campaign, Carville, stated, "In the Mississippi pine forest of senatorial timber, Roger Wicker has proven to be a toothpick. David will stand tall for Mississippi." The obvious connection is that Carville, and his wife, nationally known Republican strategist Mary Matalin, own a second residence in Baria's hometown of Bay St. Louis. |
| Secretary of State visits Tupelo schools to promote the vote | |
| In Lee County, roughly 13 percent of registered voters casted ballots in June's senate primaries. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann wants participation to top 50 percent. To achieve that goal, he is targeting the youth. On Tuesday afternoon, Hosemann visited Lawhon Elementary and Tupelo Middle School to pitch "Promote the Vote" -- a voter education program aimed at K-12 students that includes art and essay contests as well as mock elections. "My goal is to get them to go vote in the future. We have an abysmal voting record. In the primaries we had like 13 percent in Lee County. It's just abysmal," Hosemann said. "I'm starting from the bottom up. Once I get them to vote in these mock elections, there's a higher probability that they'll vote in the future." |
| GOP grows fearful about losing Senate as candidates struggle, Trump support tumbles | |
 | Republicans have grown increasingly worried about losing control of the Senate, as President Trump's approval rating tumbles and Democrats gain steam in key battleground races. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday sounded some of the most doubtful notes of Trump's presidency that Republicans will keep the upper chamber of Congress, telling reporters, "I hope when the smoke clears, we'll still have a majority." His comments came as Republican strategists and officials fretted over a fresh round of private polling on the Senate races, while public polls registered further erosion in Americans' approval of Trump. "Shipwreck" was how one leading strategist described the situation, adding an expletive to underscore the severity of the party's problems. |
| DHS Secretary Kirsten Nielsen tours NBAF construction site | |
| Construction of the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility on the Kansas State University campus is on time, on budget and about 65% complete, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said following a tour of the site with Kirsten Nielson, Department of Homeland Security secretary, and other officials. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., Gov. Jeff Colyer and Dick Myers, Kansas State University president, were also part of the tour group. The NBAF, which will replace the aging animal disease research laboratory on Plum Island, N.Y., is slated to be complete in 2021. It will take close to another year of testing and verification before the lab is fully open for business in December of 2022. Gearing up to the opening of the new Biosafety Level 4 facility, a variety of transition work is being done in the K-State Biosecurity Research Institute, a Biosafety Level 3 facility located in Pat Roberts Hall on the campus. |
| On NAFTA, Nissan U.S. Chief Says: 'We're Heavily American' | |
 | Nissan Motor Co Ltd's North American division chief said on Tuesday that the Japanese automaker is awaiting details of the U.S.-Mexican trade agreement but is confident it can comply with its rules because it assembles around 1 million vehicles annually in the United States. "We are not just importing cars from abroad... we are very, very, very heavily American," Denis Le Vot told Reuters during a visit to Detroit. "We have all the basics here; we're producing locally with local steel and local content." Nissan makes a range of vehicles at plants in Smyrna, Tennessee, and Canton, Mississippi, including its popular Rogue crossover, Titan pickup trucks and the Altima midsize sedan. |
| FAA Authorization Still Grounded in Senate | |
 | The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration in June of last year. But the measure's proponents have struggled ever since to get it to the floor, even as another deadline approaches at the end of this month. Congress could be headed toward its sixth straight extension of FAA authorization if both chambers can't pass a yet-unfinished conference bill before Sept. 30. House leaders on the issue, who steered easy passage of their measure earlier this year, have blamed the other chamber, which hasn't passed its own bill. Although it's been difficult to get rank-and-file members to focus on the issue, those who wrote the bills say there are dire consequences of inaction. For drones, in particular, the growing industry needs Congress to act to allow the technology to be used in new ways. |
| Sonny Perdue: Congress must shield farmers from 'shadows of illegality' on labor | |
 | USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue on Monday urged Congress to pass an immigration bill that would expand the agricultural guest-worker program, despite opposition to the measure from the Western Growers Association. The bill, H.R. 6417 (115), sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), would reform the existing H-2A agricultural guest-worker program by allowing it to address both seasonal and year-round labor needs. The new program would be rebranded as H-2C and authorize initial stays of 36 months. It has more than 100 co-sponsors, including House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.). "There is some dispute about it from our Western brethren over whether it addresses all the issues," Perdue said here at a conference hosted by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. "I think it addresses as many as we can address right now. I don't think we can go any further." |
| FDA declares youth vaping an epidemic, announces investigation, new enforcement | |
 | Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Wednesday declared youth vaping an "epidemic," and said the agency will halt sales of flavored electronic cigarettes if the major manufacturers can't prove they are doing enough to keep them out of the hands of children and teens. The FDA says it's giving manufacturers of Juul, Vuse, MarkTen XL, Blu and Logic 60 days to submit "robust" plans to prevent youth vaping. If the agency doesn't think their plans go far enough, it could order their flavored products off the market. Those five brands make up more than 97 percent of the U.S. market for e-cigarettes, FDA says. The FDA is "reconsidering our overall approach" after a review of preliminary data on youth vaping, Gottlieb told USA TODAY. More than 2 million middle school, high school and college students use the battery-powered devices to heat liquid-based nicotine into an inhalable vapor. |
| President Huebner to Meridian Community College students: 'You are change agents' | |
 | Explaining funding sources and how community college dollars get distributed was one of the topics explored as Meridian Community College President Thomas Huebner Jr. spoke to Phil Hardin Foundation Honors College at MCC students during the group's seminar on Tuesday. "You're being here was a great decision and that you're in the Honors College is even greater because that means the doors are opening for you that will not open for other people," Huebner said. "It's exciting that you're here." He noted that MCC has a higher retention rate and "when students leave, they will be exceptionally successful," he added. And that's a message shares with state legislators: the value of Meridian Community College to all. And students' voices, Huebner said, are important. "You're change agents. And so your voice is important -- just as important as any voice." |
| Jones County Junior College to be known as Jones College | |
 | Jones County Junior College will now be known informally as Jones College, President Jesse Smith announced Friday. Smith also unveiled a new logo for the college, but despite the changes, officially and legally, the original name of the college will remain the same. As part of the freshman convocation and rebranding event, internationally known speaker and author Andy Andrews helped prepare a pathway of success for Jones College's more than 1,800 freshman. After falling on hard times at 19 years old, Andrews, who writes self-help/advice books that have sold more than 3.5 million, began to understand the importance of every decision he made. The freshmen received Andrew's book, "The Traveler," as part of a required course on personal development. |
| Auburn University trustees to talk projects, real estate approvals | |
 | The Auburn University board of trustees is scheduled to have its first meeting of the 2018-19 academic year Friday, with requests for project approvals and real estate approvals topping the board's agenda. As a result of the Auburn Research and Technology Foundation, and Auburn University trying to woo private sector businesses into the research park, East Alabama Medical Center has proposed building and operating a health sciences facility within the Auburn Research Park. "We have concluded that this project is in the best interests of Auburn University," reads the memo from Mark Stirling, director of real estate. "It will make a major contribution to the university's clinical and research capabilities in the health sciences and will create future synergies with the university's programs in nursing, pharmacy, veterinary medicine and STEM education, as well as provide quality healthcare services to the surrounding community." The board also is expected to decide whether to grant final project approval to Phase I of the proposed Jordan-Hare Stadium suite renovations. |
| U. of South Carolina student voters care more about tuition, free speech than Trump in 2018 election | |
 | Not everything is about President Donald Trump. That's what more than two dozen University of South Carolina students --- some of whom will be heading to the ballot box for the first time in November --- told The State newspaper when asked what issues will be most important to them in the 2018 election. Rather, they're more concerned about the cost of tuition, free speech on campus and immigration. The State polled students as several of USC's college political organizations kicked off a voter registration drive this week. The four participating organizations are USC's College Republicans, College Democrats, Young Democratic Socialists and College Libertarians. "We don't agree on a lot of stuff, but we do agree students should vote," said College Democrats President Logan Martin, who sat across a table in Russell House from College Republicans President Jake Vining. |
| Hurricane Florence: U. of South Carolina cancels Tuesday afternoon classes | |
| The University of South Carolina has canceled all classes all day Tuesday, the university announced on Monday. The decision to cancel classes is not up to university administrators. Rather, USC is allowed to cancel classes only after Richland County closes or delays opening of government services, not including schools, spokesman Jeff Stensland said Monday. Gov. Henry McMaster ordered government offices in Richland County closed tomorrow afternoon. "We have always followed the county," Stensland said. "For years, this has been the rule we have applied." Florence, now a Category 4 hurricane, is packing 130 mile-per-hour winds and is expected to make landfall on Thursday. "Essential student services including housing, food service and the Student Health Center will continue to operate," USC said in a press release. |
| LSU getting $22 million for emergency response training | |
 | LSU is getting $22 million from the federal government to train state and local first responders, officials said Tuesday. The money is coming from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It will go to the school's National Center for Biomedical Research and Training/Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education. The federal aid means first responders can get the training from LSU at no cost to those agencies. "We have been fortunate to have our local congressional delegation leadership support this LSU-housed program and have had a very strong bipartisan support across the nation supporting our program," Jeff Mayne, director of the National Center, said in a statement. Since 1998 the center has trained more than 378,000 officials in specialized law enforcement, emergency response to biological incidents and how to answer food and agricultural emergencies. |
| Florida's university system looks for funding boost | |
 | The Florida Board of Governors is ready to consider a $5.2 billion budget request for the state university system for next year, representing a 3.6 percent increase in spending and including $75 million in additional state performance funding. The proposal, which will be considered by the university-system board during a two-day meeting that begins Wednesday at New College of Florida, would increase state funding for the system by $183 million in the 2019-2020 budget year. Overall, it would include $3.2 billion in state funding, along with $1.96 billion in tuition and fees, although there would not be a tuition increase. New metrics include holding the 12 schools in the system to a four-year graduation rate and rewarding schools that serve large numbers of economically disadvantaged students, reflected by those receiving federal Pell grants. The University of Florida is seeking $50 million of additional funding for a data science and information technology building and $49 million for a music building and related remodeling and an addition. UF already has recevied $50 million for the data science building and $5 million for the music building. |
| U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill appeals for help from U. of Missouri students | |
 | U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill on Tuesday brought her re-election campaign against Josh Hawley to the University of Missouri. "I would love to have your energy for this campaign," McCaskill told the 90 students and others in Wrench Auditorium in Memorial Student Union. "I wouldn't be surprised if this election is decided by the number of people in this room." She said in the 2014 election, 70 percent of registered voters age 65 and older voted, but only 20 percent of registered voters ages 18-25 cast ballots. "Help me to figure out how to get more people your age to realize the power they have," McCaskill told the crowd. A student who identified himself as a Republican who "can't stand" Josh Hawley asked McCaskill why he should vote for her. McCaskill said she's a centrist Democrat, who has voted with the other Missouri U.S. Senator, Roy Blunt, half the time. She said she has approved two-thirds of President Trump's judicial appointments. She refused to say how she would vote on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation for U.S. Supreme Court when asked by the student. |
| Administrators, students and activists take stock three years after 2015 Missouri protests | |
 | Kelsie Wilkins was a freshman at the University of Missouri at Columbia in the fall of 2015, when protests about the racial climate on campus vaulted the state flagship into the national spotlight. Wilkins, a journalism major, went on to become the president of the Legion of Black Collegians at Missouri. She agreed to revisit that charged time and to review the changes that have taken place since, but said that she was speaking strictly as a student and not as the president of the organization. On one hand, it's easy to list the ways the university and system have been revamped. It's also simple to list the ways the university has struggled from a financial, enrollment and public relations perspective. Far more difficult is saying whether the university and system will ever be healed after some of the most divisive issues facing American society were laid bare on its campus. |
| Would the Education Dept.'s New Title IX Rules Really Save Colleges Money? | |
 | As the Education Department tells it, colleges and schools could collectively save hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade under its forthcoming sexual-misconduct regulations. That's because the proposed rules -- at least, in their draft form -- would lower the bar for when colleges must conduct sexual-assault or sexual-harassment investigations under Title IX, the federal gender-equity law. The logic is simple, according to Betsy DeVos, the education secretary: If campus administrators were conducting fewer investigations, colleges wouldn't have to spend as much money on them. So would the changes reduce the number of investigations? And would colleges actually save any money? To start, it's worth considering what colleges spend money on to comply with Title IX and respond to sexual misconduct, said Courtney H. Bullard, a former legal counsel at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who now works in private practice. |
| Wilson Center releases study on China's 'influence and interference' in U.S. higher ed | |
| Concerns about Chinese government interference in American higher education seem to have become ubiquitous over the past year. Lawmakers have lambasted universities for hosting Confucius Institutes, Chinese-government funded centers for Chinese language and culture education that they characterize as outposts for Chinese Communist Party propaganda or intelligence collection, and their complaints have prompted several of the institutes to close. Congressional committees have held hearings about foreign espionage efforts to infiltrate U.S. higher education, with a focus on alleged efforts by China. The Trump administration in June moved to restrict the duration of visas for Chinese graduate students studying certain sensitive fields. Trump himself reportedly told a group of CEOs in August that "almost every student" from China in the U.S. is a spy. It's in this context that the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars released its report "A Preliminary Study of PRC Political Influence and Interference Activities in American Higher Education." |
| Why Is College in America So Expensive? | |
| Before the automobile, before the Statue of Liberty, before the vast majority of contemporary colleges existed, the rising cost of higher education was shocking the American conscience: "Gentlemen have to pay for their sons in one year more than they spent themselves in the whole four years of their course," The New York Times lamented in 1875. Decadence was to blame, the writer argued: fancy student apartments, expensive meals, and "the mania for athletic sports." Today, the U.S. spends more on college than almost any other country, according to the 2018 Education at a Glance report, released this week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This back-to-school season, The Atlantic is investigating a classic American mystery: Why does college cost so much? And is it worth it? |
| What college rankings really measure -- hint: It's not quality or value | |
| Each year various magazines and newspapers publish college rankings in an attempt to inform parents and prospective students which colleges are supposedly the best. U.S. News & World Report's "Best Colleges" -- perhaps the most influential of these rankings -- first appeared in 1983. Since then, many other rankings have emerged, assessing colleges and universities on cost, the salaries of graduates and other factors. For example, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education recently released their new rankings, which judge colleges on things that range from how much graduates earn to the campus environment to how much students engaged with instructors. But what, if anything, do all these college rankings really reveal about the quality and value of a particular college? |
| Despite Will's prognostications, electoral math remains difficult for Espy in Senate race | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: Conservative newspaper columnist George Will is a magnificent political observer and a marvelous writer. Whether it's politics or baseball, Will's stuff is a reliably good read. A Will column earlier this month on Democrat Mike Espy's current run for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi was mostly spot on. Espy is a tested, honorable public servant who would be capable of representing Mississippi in the U.S. Senate if elected. As Will suggests, Espy is battle tested and his family has a solid track record in Mississippi Delta politics. Will's column suggests that Espy could "finagle" a win in his Nov. 6 showdown with Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Brookhaven, Tea Party favorite state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville, and Gulf Coast municipal official Tobey Bartee. Will's argument is as follows... |
SPORTS
| No. 16 MSU will try for more stickers against Louisiana | |
| Of all the new that has come to light in Mississippi State's transition from Dan Mullen to Joe Moorhead, the final detail didn't make itself public until pregame of its second game. MSU's 31-10 win over Kansas State was the debut of its new bulldog helmet stickers; much like Florida State rewards players with tomahawk helmet stickers, No. 16 MSU's new staff is doing the same with stickers of bulldogs. After a game like that one, MSU's players should have many more of them 6:30 p.m. Saturday against Louisiana-Lafeyette (SEC Network Alternate). "There's a defined set of criteria for offense, defense and special teams," Moorhead said on how players earn them. "Everyone gets one for a win and two for a road win, then there are numerical or statistical benchmarks and there's subjective criteria in it, such as a game-changing play. Our coaches have a sheet when they grade the film, they hand it to our director of football operations (Andrew Warsaw) who hands it to our equipment guy. It would take a little while to go through all of them, but there are statistical benchmarks and items that help you get one." |
| No. 16 Mississippi State seeks consistency vs. Louisiana | |
| Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead has started different quarterbacks during his initial two games with the 16th-ranked Bulldogs. He's looking for more efficiency. Senior Nick Fitzgerald, of course, is the main man moving forward. Coming off a broken right ankle suffered on Thanksgiving -- and then a one-game suspension to start this season -- he showed a bit of rust last week in a 31-10 win at Kansas State. The ankle was fine -- he rushed for 159 yards on 19 carries -- but the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder hit on just 11 of 27 passes for 154 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception. Fitzgerald and the Bulldogs play host Saturday to Louisiana, which beat FCS school Grambling 49-17 on Sept. 1 before being having a bye in the second week. |
| Joe Moorhead says wins matter more than Mississippi State QB efficiency | |
 | Sophomore quarterback Keytaon Thompson and senior quarterback Nick Fitzgerald didn't meet head coach Joe Moorhead's completion percentage benchmark of 65 percent in their respective starts.They didn't even come close: their combined percentage was 41.4. But Moorhead might not be as worried as you'd think. The Mississippi State offense still put up 94 combined points in weeks one and two. And the Bulldogs still came away with two wins, which is what matters most to Moorhead. "Ultimately, when you're looking at statistics from that point, number one is the wins and making sure we're doing what's necessary offensively and from the quarterback position to continue to win games," Moorhead said. |
| Nick Gibson getting opportunities in crowded backfield | |
| Nick Gibson was elated to learn last November that Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead and running backs coach Charles Huff were coming to coach him at Mississippi State. Moorhead and Huff had plenty of success utilizing Saquon Barkley in the Nittany Lions' offense the previous two years and Gibson welcomed the change. "I was excited because there's coaches coming to coach me who coachec Saquon Barkley, who went No. 2 overall in the draft," Gibson said. "I just think that's amazing. The drills that (Huff) puts us through, I can see how Saquon Barkley was as great as he was." The new coaching staff also created a level playing field for Gibson, who only had 54 carries and one start during his first two seasons on the field. "Every time I get an opportunity, I just try to take full advantage of it because you never know who is watching," Gibson said. "There's a lot of people watching and I always want to showcase my talent. With this new staff, I feel like it's a fair shot for everybody so when I get a chance I want to be at my best." |
| Bulldogs off to successful start | |
| The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's Logan Lowery writes: With a new head coach, new offensive and defensive schemes and a quarterback returning from a major injury, I wanted to reserve my judgment of this Mississippi State team until I had a chance to see more of them. I knew this team should be good on paper with so many starters returning, but I needed to see it with my own eyes. MSU blew out Stephen F. Austin 63-6 in its opener but that's exactly what it was expected against an FCS opponent. Week 2 saw quarterback Nick Fitzgerald lead the Bulldogs to a 31-10 road win at Kansas State. Those wins confirmed my suspicions that Mississippi State is solid team and 2018 should have one of the better seasons in school history. |
| Mississippi State will induct five into Sports Hall of Fame | |
| Five contributors to Mississippi State athletics will be inducted into the MSU Sports Hall of Fame at halftime of the football team's game Sept. 29 against Florida. The five-member Class of 2018 includes former football and baseball standout L.M. "Molly" Halbert (posthumously), standout Diamond Dawg pitcher Paul Maholm, women's basketball guard Alexis Rack, former Bulldog Director of Athletics Larry Templeton, and former men's basketball guard Tony Watts. Prior to Saturday's induction, the annual MSU Sports Hall of Fame Gala will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at The Mill Conference Center. Tickets can be purchased at msumclub.org for $100 per person. Proceeds benefit the MSU M-Club Alumni Association. |
| USM football vs. App State in wake of Hurricane Florence | |
| Southern Miss' football game against Appalachian State this Saturday might be in jeopardy. As the Golden Eagles prepare for their road trip to Boone, N.C., the governor of North Carolina has declared a state of emergency, anticipating the arrival of Hurricane Florence from off the Atlantic coast. Evacuation notices are in effect for coastal counties in North and South Carolina, and several football games in the region have already been postponed, rescheduled or canceled because of the storm. Around 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Appalachian State released a statement saying the university still plans to host the game against Southern Miss at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. That said, Appalachian State's statement also said that the university is in contact with Southern Miss and the National Weather Service in tracking Florence and did not rule out the possibility of changes being made to the schedule. |
| The anti-commercialization of the Grove is here to stay | |
 | Every Saturday during football season, the Grove at the University of Mississippi is decorated with colorful tents and fans decked out in their nicest navy and red outfits. One thing the Grove lacks on these favorite football Saturdays are businesses advertising, selling or handing out samples of their latest products to the more than 100,000 people gathered to celebrate Ole Miss football in the Grove. Businesses could take advantage of the crowds that flock to the Grove to gain publicity for their brands. However, the university has a strict policy regarding the sale and advertising of products in this space on campus. The policy -- which has been in effect for as long as Michael Thompson, the deputy athletics director, can remember -- cracks down on any sort of brand promotion. "We don't allow any solicitation of any kind of product serving, advertising or political campaigns," he said. "There is not even any sort of approval process to get businesses into the Grove with their products, because it just cannot happen." Thompson said the university takes this policy seriously. |
| FanDuel CEO knows why sports betting is different in Mississippi as company brands 2 locations | |
 | One of the most recognized names in fantasy sports, FanDuel is entering the new legalized sports betting market in Mississippi. On Thursday, the sports betting operation at IP Casino Resort in Biloxi, which debuted Aug. 3, will be re-branded FanDuel Sportsbook. Mississippi athletes and former New Orleans Saints stars -- Michael Lewis, Derland Moore, Marcus Dupree and Dalton Hilliard -- will place the first four bets during the 2 p.m. ceremony. Mississippi is the first state where FanDuel is partnering with Boyd Gaming, IP's parent company, to brand a sportsbook. Having two retail sports betting locations in Mississippi, at IP and at Sam's Town in Tunica, is a way for those who already know the FanDuel brand to have a new experience with sports betting, said Matt King, CEO of Fan Duel Group. Mississippi has the distinction of being the only state in the South and the powerful Southeastern Conference college football league to have sports betting, said David Strow, spokesman for Boyd. |
| Vanderbilt athletics director David Williams' successor faces challenges | |
 | Vanderbilt athletics director David Williams boasted about the university's high academic standards upon his resignation while warning the next athletics director about how hard the job is in the SEC, a league of state universities driven to succeed in high-revenue sports. Williams knows the challenge of balancing both. Vanderbilt announced Williams' resignation on Tuesday, ending a 15-year tenure as the head of the athletics department. He will remain on the job until his replacement is found. The next athletics director will inherit high-caliber coaches and high-achieving student-athletes in the classroom. But he or she also will face the challenge of growing a shrinking fan base, marketing a football program in a growing city and upgrading Vanderbilt's aging football stadium -- a looming issue throughout Williams' tenure. Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos did not respond to The Tennessean's request for an interview via email or a phone call to his office. |
| Hurricane Florence: Gamecocks football to help player families | |
| As questions linger about Hurricane Florence's impact on South Carolina's football game against Marshall at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, there's another effect on the Gamecocks. The effect on the players' families. A large group of current USC players hail from Charleston, which is on the edge of the latest forecasts, and a few, notably wide receiver Bryan Edwards and guard Donell Stanley, are from Myrtle Beach or the Pee Dee, which are closer to the current path. That's not to mention players from North Carolina. Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said the school is already putting forward efforts to get families of the players evacuated. "All of our players' families on the coast, we're trying to make sure they have a place here in Columbia," Muschamp said. |
| Texas A&M tops Forbes' list as most valuable college football program | |
 | Texas A&M scored a treasured first over rival Texas on Tuesday when the Aggie football program was named the nation's most valuable in the sport by Forbes Magazine. A&M averaged $148 million revenue per year for the 2014-16 seasons, topping second-place Texas by $15 million. The Aggies' profited $107 million per year, $20 million more than Texas. The other Top 10 revenue producing schools according to the magazine were Michigan ($127 million), Alabama ($127 million), Ohio State ($120 million), Oklahoma ($118 million), Notre Dame ($112 million), Auburn ($112 million), LSU ($112 million) and Florida ($111 million). A&M ranked 16th with $71 million the last time Forbes ranked football programs in 2015. A&M athletic director Scott Woodward said a basic formula vaulted the Aggies to the top. Contributions -- $260 million during the study's time frame -- played a big part in A&M's jump in revenue. |
| Sharp-dressed Tigers: Auburn players came up with idea for 'business-like' gameday attire | |
| Tiger Walk looked a bit more stylish last Saturday. Auburn football players greeted fans in blazers, ties and khakis on Saturday, as players entered into Jordan-Hare Stadium ahead of the team's home-opening win over Alabama State. The team passed up on the warm-up jumpers, or the sweatpants and Polo-style shirts combo, that it has worn on its way into stadiums in previous years, and through Auburn's traditional 'Tiger Walk' arrival down Donahue Drive, this time suiting up for a sharper look. Auburn quarterback Jarrett Stidham said Tuesday that the move was the players' idea. "Myself and some other guys, we were really fond of the idea of dressing up for gameday, and making it more of a business-like approach," Stidham said. "The sweats and the collared shirts just wasn't doing it for us, I guess. |
| UGA plans $3.1 million equestrian clubhouse in Bishop | |
 | The University of Georgia Athletic Association plans to build a $3.1 million clubhouse for its equestrian team in the Oconee County town of Bishop. According to documents filed with the University System of Georgia, the project will include a new building of about 7,000 square feet with a locker room and other spaces such as offices, a meeting room, a sports medicine room and uniform storage and laundry facilities. The building will "enhance UGA's ability to recruit new student athletes" to the team, according to the proposal. The actual construction cost would be about $2.1 million. The project would be funded with UGA Athletic Association cash reserves, mainly money generated by UGA's NCAA football team. The barn the team now operates out of has only limited support functions for team practices and operations, according to information provided to the university system. |
| As Youth Sports Economy Grows, Complexes Scale Up to Serve It | |
| The youth sports economy -- a world of private coaching, interstate travel and $350 baseball bats --- has always been big business, of course. But fed by the growth of traveling teams and regional and national events, the industry has doubled in size over the past decade --- to more than $15 billion a year, according to one company that tracks its growth -- as tournament organizers, property developers and a handful of small towns target parents who share their young athletes' dreams of glory and have the money to pursue them. As families travel more miles so their children can play more games and be seen by more college recruiters, sprawling complexes like The Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Ind., Rocky Top Sports World in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and LakePoint have fine-tuned both their facilities and their programs to attract millions of visitors every year. And as they have succeeded, these megacomplexes -- and other hybrid sports/vacation destinations like them -- have become staples of yet another growing youth sports phenomenon: the tourna-cation circuit. |
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