| Wednesday, October 24, 2018 |
| 500-spot Mississippi State parking garage plans revealed | |
 | A new parking garage at Mississippi State University should help alleviate some of the campus' parking strains in the coming years, according to university officials. MSU officially announced the $12 million, 500-space garage on Thursday after it received approval from the state Institutions of Higher Learning board. The new garage will be built on the north side of campus next to Howell Hall. MSU Parking and Transit Services Director Jeremiah Dumas said the university contracted with a consultant in 2015 to evaluate the campus' parking demand and capacity. He said MSU wanted to get data on parking utilization and how to prepare for growing demand. After that, he said, the office of Parking and Transit Services worked with the provost's office to project student and faculty and staff growth. MSU currently has about 15,000 parking spaces on campus, Dumas said. With the parking garage and another planned 350-spot parking lot on the south side of campus near the Fresh Food Company, Dumas said MSU will add more than 800 new parking spaces in the next year. |
| Brian Locke shares mission, successes of Mississippi State's Center for America's Veterans | |
| Mississippi State University's Center for America's Veterans offers something most other university departments don't: a comfortable "fit" for veterans who may not feel they fit in elsewhere. That's according to Brian Locke, director of the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Center for America's Veterans on campus. Locke spoke to the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday to talk about the center's work. "Our student veteran population is older than the normal population, so they don't really fit in in a normal classroom," Locke said. "If they're 32 to 35 and they're in a classroom with someone who was in high school last month or a year ago, relating to those folks is very, very difficult (for) many of our student veterans. We see lots of issues really just trying to fit in. That's where facilities like our come in because they have a place where they can feel welcome and be at home," he added. Located in Nusz Hall on the northern part of campus, the center is a 7,500 square foot facility that opened in 2016 and boasts a range of amenities for student veterans, including private study rooms, free copying and printing, a lounge and a multi-purpose room -- all features for the largest population of student veterans or veteran family members of any university in the state, Locke said. |
| Serving those who serve | |
 | It was one stop shopping for area veterans. The Mississippi State University Center for America's Veterans and other organizations hosted a Veteran's Summit this week in Starkville. Representatives were on hand to help vets enroll in Veterans Administration Health Care as well as file and check on their Veterans Administration claims. The event also featured a health fair with important health screenings and local employers set up booths to talk to veterans about job opportunities with their companies. "There are a whole bunch of scholarship opportunities to help with the families that most don't really know about," said retired officer, Jeff Donald. "So coming to a place like this or an event like this I should say more of and hearing and being able to join or sign up it does really help them." The event was free and open to all veterans and their family members. |
| Holocaust survivor advocates at MSU for speaking against injustice, caring for others | |
| Inge Auerbacher was 7 when the Nazis forced her family to leave a small German village near Stuttgart for the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. It was August of 1942, well into World War II, and her family had already abandoned their home village of Kippinheim to live with her grandparents. They were assigned to a transport, and she was given a number -- 408 -- before being crammed onto a crowded passenger train and hauled away. Auerbacher's transport had about 1,200 people in it. Only 13 would still be alive 13 years later. Choices were a consistent theme for Auerbacher's roughly hour-long talk to a near capacity crowd in the Foster ballroom in Mississippi State University's Colvard Student Union. |
| Ivanka Trump joining Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Gulfport | |
 | Ivanka Trump is coming to the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center on Thursday. "They asked me to keep it confidential," center Executive Director Cindy DeFrances said Tuesday afternoon. "We've been working on this about a week." The event is sponsored by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Labor Department. Trump will host the event with Patti Greene, bureau director, according to an email sent to the Sun Herald by the White House. U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith -- a Republican supporter of President Trump who is running Nov. 6 for the seat Sen. Thad Cochran vacated -- will join the women for the event, along with local government officials, small business owners, working parents and private business people, the White House email says. Campaign spokeswoman Melissa Scallan said Hyde-Smith is attending the Lynn Meadows event as a U.S. senator, not as part of her campaign. |
| Ads pick up in Mississippi special election for U.S. Senate | |
 | Candidates and political action committees are increasing advertising ahead of the crowded Nov. 6 special election for a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi. Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith released a TV ad Tuesday showing her in blue jeans and boots at her family's cattle auction in Brookhaven. She relates cattle ranching to serving in Washington and says: "You can't be afraid to put your boots on and clean up the mess." In his own ad released Tuesday, Democratic challenger Mike Espy wears a suit, sits in front of bookshelves and looks directly at the camera as he says: "Mississippi is too often defamed, dismissed and disrespected. ... I'll work to correct the stereotypes and attract companies and jobs to Mississippi. ... I believe in Mississippi, and it's time to show the nation just how far we've come." An NBC News/Marist poll released Tuesday shows the special election has a strong chance of going to a Nov. 27 runoff. |
| Senate incumbents still won't debate despite broad support from Mississippians | |
 | Polls results indicating most Mississippians would like to see candidates debate have not moved the frontrunners in the state's two U.S. Senate races to reconsider their positions of not debating their opponents. A spokesperson for Republican interim Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said Tuesday that the candidate's decision not to debate before the Nov. 6 election has not changed. The campaign of U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Tupelo Republican, did not respond to questions related to the debate, but has made it clear that he does not intend to debate his Democratic opponent, state Rep. David Baria of Bay St. Louis. Hyde-Smith has not ruled out a debate if a runoff election is necessary. To capture the special election a candidate must garner a majority vote or the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff three weeks later. |
| Mike Espy Defends Chris McDaniel Supporters Against Wrongly Attributed 'Horrific' Remark | |
| Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy on Monday drew a comparison between U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for comments her spokesperson made about a rival candidate's supporters. "I just read an article that quoted Cindy Hyde-Smith saying Chris McDaniel voters were 'horrific' and can't think for themselves," Espy said in a video posted to his campaign's official Twitter page Monday. "Wow, give me a break." Espy is likely referring to an Oct. 20 article by far-right website Breitbart that misleadingly refers to a comment Hyde-Smith communications director Melissa Scallan made to the Jackson Free Press earlier this month and wrongly attributes it to Hyde-Smith herself. Scallan did not directly call McDaniel's supporters "horrific"; she said their "behavior ... was horrific." |
| Free from fed oversight, 5 percent of state's polling locations have closed since 2013 | |
| Holmes County Circuit Clerk Earline Wright-Hart still asks the U.S. Department of Justice for permission before making changes to polling places. This protocol was first imposed under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, passed to protect black voters from efforts to disenfranchise them. In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down sections of the law that required officials in states with histories of electoral discrimination -- including Mississippi -- to obtain federal permission, or pre-clearance, before making changes to voting laws or practices, such as polling locations. Poll taxes, literacy tests and voter intimidation were some of the ways Mississippi historically prevented African Americans from voting. The 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted parts of the 1965 law and gave states greater power over running elections. Since the landmark ruling, Mississippi counties have closed around 100 precincts across the state, roughly 5 percent of its polling places, according to a Mississippi Today statewide analysis of precinct information in the past three federal elections. |
| What do 3rd Congressional District candidates have to say on state, national issues? | |
 | What started as a crowded field of hopefuls vying for the 3rd Congressional District seat left open by Rep. Gregg Harper's decision not to seek reelection has now come down to two candidates. Will voters send a former firefighter turned state representative to Congress or a career district attorney? Madison and Rankin counties District Attorney Michael Guest, a Republican, faces Democratic state Rep. Michael Ted Evans of Preston in the Nov. 6 general election. Here's a closer look at the candidates and where they stand on various issues. |
| Mississippi House candidate Michael Evans begins tractor tour | |
| With two weeks until Election Day, candidates are pulling out all the stops. Voters are being hit with a barrage of flyers, phone calls and door-to-door visits while candidates are showing up at local churches and baseball games. But Michael Ted Evans has a different approach. Tuesday, Evans set out on his "Tractor Tour" in hopes of meeting voters across the district. Evans, 42, of Preston, is running for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Gregg Harper. A Democrat, Evans is known as "Big Country" at the Capitol, where he currently serves as a state representative. Evans will face Madison and Rankin counties District Attorney Michael Guest, a Republican, in the Nov. 6 general election. A chicken farmer by trade, Evans' first stop was the East Mississippi Farmers Livestock Company in Philadelphia. It took him an hour and a half to get there by tractor, he said. |
| Armies of lawyers are mobilizing to keep an eye on chaos at the polls | |
 | Fearing massive voter fraud and questionable vote counting, Republicans, Democrats and interest groups are all taking the unusual step of dispatching armies of lawyers in this non-presidential election year to ward off potential trouble at the polls. "I've never seen anything like it for a midterm," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau. "It does look much more consistent with issues that we address in (presidential) elections. For a midterm election, it's extraordinary. But this is an extraordinary time." Attorneys and poll watchers will be at voting sites and manning war rooms in nearly every state, looking at almost every aspect of the voting process and prepared act if they see something that they feel could hurt their candidate or cause. The federal government also plans to be watching, as the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will send lawyers to several states. |
| 'This is how Donald Trump stays president for four more years' | |
 | Donald Trump often claims Facebook and Google are "rigged" to favor the political left. Now he's building a 2020 campaign infrastructure that can circumvent them. The emerging tech strategy, according to four officials involved in Trump's reelection campaign, will reduce its reliance on Big Tech platforms -- which were the dominant messaging channels in 2016 -- to get the president's message out. The president's team instead is planning to go around the platforms as much as possible and reach supporters directly, making use of old-school text messaging. The direct-to-consumer, mobile-first campaign reflects the feeling among conservatives that Silicon Valley firms are overly sympathetic to Democrats and the fact that some platforms, like Facebook, are stanching the flow of political content. "This is how Donald Trump stays president for four more years," 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said while brandishing his iPhone on stage at Trump's massive rally for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz Tuesday night. |
| Mitch McConnell on heckling at Louisville restaurant: 'I will not be intimidated' | |
 | In spite of harassment from a heckler who threw his wife's to-go box out on the sidewalk, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he enjoyed his dinner at a Louisville restaurant Friday night. McConnell released an op-ed piece about the incident on Tuesday, saying "I'm not sure exactly what in my career suggests I would be easily swayed by such a spectacle. The reality is simple: I will not be intimidated." McConnell and his wife, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, were dining at Havana Rumba when McConnell said "a man came in off the street and rushed at us. Acting alone, he began shouting, slamming his fists on our table, and causing a disruption as others tried to eat." McConnell said he appreciates hearing from people who engage in a "civil" manner, such as a social worker he said approached him and Chao to talk about the opioid crisis as they waited for a table at Havana Rumba. |
| Sandra Day O'Connor, first female Supreme Court justice, withdraws from public life after dementia diagnosis | |
 | Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor revealed Tuesday in an open letter that she has stepped away from public life because she is suffering from dementia. The first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, O'Connor, now 88, announced in the letter that she is in the beginning stages of dementia, "probably Alzheimer's disease." She said her diagnosis was made some time ago and that as her condition has progressed, she is "no longer able to participate in public life." O'Connor served as a state legislator in Arizona, including as the majority leader of the state Senate, as well as a judge before President Reagan chose her for the high court in 1981. While serving as a justice, she said she had been surprised and dismayed to see that young people were learning little about government and the courts. In her letter Tuesday, O'Conner urged others to carry on the effort to get young Americans involved in government. |
| Former Surgeons General Recount Political Pressure on the Job | |
 | It made an arresting tableau: four former surgeons general, aged 68 to 85, all in their blue admirals' uniforms, together on stage like four grizzled Civil War veterans rehashing their biggest battles, and how they were treated afterward by the President and Congress. But this was no re-enactment of Bull Run or Shiloh. It was an after-action report on America's medical wars, and it took place this month on the stage of the New York Academy of Medicine. "In this current climate of incivility, I think it's important that medical students see models of integrity, compassion, camaraderie and wit," said Dr. Judith A. Salerno, the academy's president, who invited Dr. Antonia C. Novello, Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders, Dr. David Satcher and Dr. Richard Carmona to speak. The underlying theme was how badly the country needs independent public health leadership and how often partisan politics obstruct that. |
| 'Potential explosive devices' sent to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton intercepted by Secret Service | |
 | The Secret Service said Wednesday that it had intercepted packages containing "potential explosive devices" addressed to former first lady Hillary Clinton in New York and former president Barack Obama in Washington. The devices were recovered not long after an explosive device was found in a mailbox at the Bedford, N.Y., home of George Soros, the liberal philanthropist who is a frequent target of far-right groups. "The packages were immediately identified during routine mail screening procedures as potential explosive devices and were appropriately handled as such," the Secret Service said in a statement Wednesday. "The protectees did not receive the packages nor were they at risk of receiving them." |
| MUW awarded $1.5 million grant to improve retention, graduation rates | |
 | Mississippi University for Women has been awarded a $1.5 million grant to focus on retention and graduation rates. The grant will be implemented during a five-year period. It was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education's Title III program to implement processes that will improve retention and graduation rates and streamline the student advising process. Dr. David Brooking, director of MUW's Student Success Center and Title III Project, says that streamlining the advising process will also be a major component covered under the grant. MUW President Nora Miller says the grant will help fulfill the school's mission of empowering students as the school works toward increasing completion rates. |
| U. of Mississippi investigates mold in residence halls on campus | |
 | Crosby Hall residents have reported being sick due to mold growing in residence halls and poor air quality. Jim Zook, associate vice chancellor for strategic communications and marketing, said the university is aware of concerns of the air quality among Crosby residents and the "concerns are being taken seriously." "We're working diligently. We have had housing staff throughout the weekend talking with the students and parents," Zook said. The Daily Mississippian obtained an email sent to Crosby residents on Oct. 5 by Lionel Maten, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and director of student housing, which said the university will "be inspecting rooms in the building and working with facilities and environmental services staff to clean up areas as needed." |
| 'Rebels Against Sexual Assault' work for safer campus | |
 | In the spring of 2015, a few University of Mississippi students joined together to host a screening of "Hunting Ground" a documentary about the epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses and various efforts by school officials to cover up crimes. The next fall, Rebels Against Sexual Assault became an official student organization. In just over three school years, RASA has trained around 75 peer educators to spread awareness and intervention practices while its email list has climbed to more than 1,000 students. This week, the organization is joining more than 500 schools across the country for a week of action to end sexual violence on campuses. "Our goal is to bring about awareness related to the prevalence of sexual assault on campus," said Sam Cox, a senior from Brandon who currently serves as the organization's president. "All the events we host are meant to bring awareness and start a conversation about sexual violence." |
| U. of Alabama hires vice president for research | |
 | The University of Alabama has named an administrator from the University of Georgia as its next vice president for research beginning in January. University of Georgia Vice Provost Russell J. Mumper was announced as the new vice president for research and economic development on Monday following a national search. Mumper replaces Carl A. Pinkert, who stepped down at the end of 2017. "Dr. Mumper has demonstrated, at multiple institutions, that he has the broad-based knowledge and leadership skills necessary to significantly grow and sustain impactful research and economic development enterprises," UA President Stuart Bell said. Mumper earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry and his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Kentucky. He has also worked in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. |
| U. of Alabama instructor placed on leave | |
| The University of Alabama has placed the director of its Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility on leave while it evaluates reports that he previously sent inappropriate messages to a woman working with a community service nonprofit he founded. "Stephen Black has been placed on leave pending further evaluation of the situation arising from his prior role at Impact America," the university said in a statement. Black is not teaching nor interacting with students while on leave, according to the university. Black is the director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at UA and the founder of Impact America, an AmeriCorps program in which recent college graduates and students work to meet community needs. The claims against Black were first reported as part of a CBS News report on complaints about sexual harassment allegations and mismanagement at Impact America's national affiliate, AmeriCorps. |
| Texas A&M selected to head Center of Excellence studying materials science | |
 | Texas A&M University will lead a new Center of Excellence studying materials science in the context of the National Nuclear Security Administration's mission of stewardship of the United States' nuclear weapons stockpile. The NNSA designated the Center for Research Excellence on Dynamically Deformed Solids earlier this year and announced it this month along with three other new centers, which "enrich graduate education and training while also facilitating interactions between NNSA National Laboratory scientists and emerging leaders in academia." Texas A&M will receive $12.5 million over five years to manage the center. The University of Michigan, the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Connecticut are also partners in the center, which will be led by Michael J. Demkowicz, an associate professor in Texas A&M's department of materials science and engineering. |
| Group of Texas A&M students submit petition over polling at Memorial Student Center | |
| A group of Texas A&M students has submitted a petition to the Texas Secretary of State's Office over concerns about procedure at the polling place located at the Memorial Student Center. Nicholas Ciggelakis, chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas at Texas A&M, said that he first approached the Brazos County Elections Administration Office on Monday with concerns that the single poll distance marker -- used to determine the distance at which it is acceptable to engage in electioneering -- was improperly placed and that there were too few to account for the size of the MSC. According to the Texas Election Code, electioneering for or against any candidate, measure or political party is prohibited in and within 100 feet of an outside door through which a voter may enter the building where the polling place is located. The elections administration conferred with the Texas Secretary of State on Monday after receiving the complaint and determined the report was valid. |
| Colleges find new ways to coax former students to return | |
 | In the quest to help raise degree-attainment rates across the country, college administrators are realizing they've allowed millions of students to drop out over the decades -- and now they want them back. The colleges have joined a new national effort to entice those former students to re-enroll and earn their degrees. The Institute for Higher Education Policy recently launched a three-year initiative, called Degrees When Due, to help colleges identify former students who dropped out and help them earn a degree or academic credential. "To successfully and meaningfully re-engage students, we need to offer them a new educational environment that acknowledges the student's responsibilities inside and outside the classroom and supports them through the inevitable challenges of completing one's degree," Lexi Shankster, IHEP's director of student success and mobility, said in a statement. Students drop out of college for various reasons, including family responsibilities, financial hardships, housing problems, health challenges and academic difficulties, Shankster said. |
| Undergrads Aren't Sure About Postgrad Study. These Factors Encourage Them to Apply | |
 | A wide network of relatives, professors, and people already working in a field offer career advice to white undergraduates who are likely to pursue an advanced degree, and those white students are more likely than their black, Hispanic, and Asian peers to have received such guidance. That finding, released on Tuesday as part of a Gallup survey commissioned by two law-school associations, was one of several that suggested universities should attempt to widen access to advising so that all students who could excel in postgraduate study are encouraged to do so. "Unless our undergraduates are exposed to and consider investing in higher degrees," said Kent D. Syverud, Syracuse University's chancellor and president, on Tuesday, "this engine of social mobility stops." The survey results were released at a moment of hand-wringing among graduate- and professional-school administrators. |
| Controversial spouses of college presidents can hurt image of president, university | |
| When the husband of the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater was banned from campus events last month because of sexual harassment allegations against him, the unenviable task of informing the campus fell to his wife. "As you can imagine, this is a challenging and unique set of circumstances for me as a wife, as a woman, and as your chancellor," Beverly Kopper wrote in a message to the campus after the allegations were deemed credible. That Kopper's husband, Pete Hill, had put her in such an uncomfortable position made the admission all the more embarrassing and, unfortunately for the university, more newsworthy. The investigation and subsequent dismissal of Hill from an advisory position on campus made local and national headlines. While having to publicly address such a sensitive and highly personal incident is relatively rare for a leader of a college or university, Kopper is not alone in being thrust into the media spotlight because of the behavior of a spouse. Other university presidents and chancellors have also been the subject of past news reports because of the serious actions, or eyebrow-raising antics, of their husbands or wives. |
| Does Joining a Fraternity, Sorority Improve Grades, Earnings After Graduation? No, a Study Finds | |
| It's a talking point at many fraternity and sorority recruitment tables, rush events, and chapter house tours: Recruiters for Greek student organizations say their members have higher GPAs compared with their non-Greek-life counterparts. Promises of finding career success through connections is another talking point. But the results of a study released this month are challenging such assurances. Written by two researchers from Miami University, the paper, "Greek Life, Academics, and Earnings," found that Greek affiliation is correlated with lower grade-point averages. The researchers also studied the starting salary of recent graduates through a postgraduation survey. They found that students who joined the Greek system in their second semester had 15-percent higher salaries than those who didn't. But there was no evidence to support the contention that Greek affiliation was the cause of higer earnings, according to the report. |
| Gulf Shores approves longest-ever spring break booze ban | |
 | For the fourth year in a row, Gulf Shores is banning alcohol possession on its beaches during spring break. This year's ban is the longest-ever for the popular Alabama beach city, lasting 58 days from March 2, 2019 to April 28, 2019. The past two years, the city banned alcohol for 48 days during the 2017 spring break, and only 33 days during last year's break. The Gulf Shores City Council voted unanimously to support the ban, which was a recommendation from the city's police department. The ban was first implemented during an emergency council meeting on March 18, 2016, near the end of a chaotic week of spring break that featured massive gatherings on the city beaches. Gulf Shores' ban is the only one along Alabama's coast. In Orange Beach, city officials do not plan on prohibiting alcohol consumption or possession during the 2019 break. But that doesn't mean the city's police won't be cracking down on unruly spring breakers. |
| Stretch runs in Senate races winding down to what seems predictable finishes | |
| Syndicated columnist Sid Salter writes: As the Nov. 6 general election looms less than two week away in Mississippi, the fabled "stretch run" for the campaigns is underway. The campaign finance reports have revealed their last real secrets until after the campaigns are completed. The major television buys have been made and scheduled. The ground game, at least the part that shows, has been deployed. Polling has, for the most part, been completed. Now, the voters will be called upon to render their judgment. Mississippi voters will elect two U.S. senators in the 2018 elections. There is a highly partisan regular election Class I Senate seat up for grabs for a full six-year term to run from 2019 to 2025. Then there's a non-partisan (in name only) special election Class II Senate seat being contested for a partial term that will end in 2021. |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State men's tennis sweeps titles at ITA event | |
| The Mississippi State men's tennis team swept the singles and doubles titles Tuesday at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) Southern Regional Championships. Seventh-ranked and second-seeded Niclas Braun and Giovanni Oradini rallied to beat South Alabama's top-seeded and sixth-ranked Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol 3-6, 6-1, 1-0 (8). In singles, the 109th-ranked Braun defeated MSU senior Trevor Foshey 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Braun and Oradini already had clinched a spot in the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships by winning the ITA All-American Championships' consolation doubles draw. Braun and Foshey earned automatic bids to the tournament in November in Surprise, Arizona. Later this week, senior Nuno Borges will travel to Charlottesville, Virginia, for the ATP Charlottesville Challenger. The rest of the Bulldogs will play in the Players Choice Open, a United States Tennis Association (USTA) Futures tournament in Birmingham, Alabama. |
| Mississippi State women's soccer faces must-win game | |
| Carly Mauldin doesn't need a drum roll or a main event introduction from Michael Buffer to know her Mississippi State soccer career could end Thursday night. Mauldin intends to do everything in her power to make sure she and seniors Rhylee DeCrane, Courtney Robicheaux, Brooke McKee, and Jen Huckaby will live to fight another day. To accomplish that goal, MSU needs to beat LSU at 7 p.m. in the regular-season finale for both teams at the MSU Soccer Field. "This is what you work all season for. All of the grind comes down to this one moment," Mauldin said. "I think we're prepared. I don't think we're going to make it out to be this dramatic event because we know what we have to get done, so I don't think we're going to let the whole drama get in the way. It's do or die, so go out there and we're going to do our best to try to get a result and make it to Orange Beach." MSU (9-5-2, 2-5-2 Southeastern Conference) is tied with Alabama for 11th place in the league standings. |
| No. 18 Mississippi State relevant once again on hardwood | |
| It's been nearly a decade since there have been such high expectations for a Mississippi State basketball team. The Bulldogs are ranked No. 18 in the preseason Top 25, which is the first time they've been ranked to start the season since 2009, when they were also No. 18. Mississippi State's slow climb back to hardwood relevance started when Quinndary Weatherspoon arrived on campus four years ago. Back then, he was one of the few talented players on the roster. Now the senior is surrounded by plenty of talent. "From my freshman year to now, I think this is the most competitive team we've had," Weatherspoon said. "People are in the gym every day, trying to get better on their own game. I think that will make the team better as well." |
| Bulldogs showcase talent in Maroon-White scrimmage | |
| Fans had an exciting first look at the 2018-19 Mississippi State women's basketball team as it hosted its Maroon-White Scrimmage in front of a lively crowd at Humphrey Coliseum Tuesday night. The preseason SEC favorite Bulldogs scrimmaged against each other for two quarters before combining to take on the men's practice squad for three quarters. Andra Espinoza-Hunter tallied 29 points on the night, draining 10-of-17 shots from the field, including 6-of-11 from 3-point range. Teaira McCowan, the preseason pick for SEC Player of the Year, did what she has done all season: collecting a double-double with 19 points and 18 rebounds. Freshman Xaria Wiggins also impressed the fans, putting in 17 points behind 63.6-percent shooting. Another newcomer, Anriel Howard, just missed a double-double as she hauled down nine boards to go with 13 points. Seniors Jordan Danberry and Jazzmun Holmes also contributed 13 points each. |
| Transfer Anriel Howard fitting in with Vic Schaefer's Bulldogs | |
| In each of the past two seasons, Anriel Howard watched as the Mississippi State women's basketball team played in back-to-back national championship games. Now, the former Texas A&M standout is in Starkville trying to help the Bulldogs play for the big prize again. In her MSU debut Tuesday night, Howard scored 13 points and had nine rebounds in 31 minutes in MSU's annual Maroon-White scrimmage at Humphrey Coliseum. "This was exciting," Howard said. "Been a waiting a long time to be on this court playing with these girls. We have a long way to go, but you can tell the type of team this team can become. It's going to take a little time. Then we can have a chance to be special." |
| Chris Lemonis likes options for Mississippi State baseball team | |
| Chris Lemonis was impressed with what he saw on television, when he was watching the Mississippi State baseball team in last year's College World Series. That same talent has caught his eye in his first fall as the team's coach. Now all that's left is to determine how he can deploy that talent. Therein lies Lemonis' biggest question one week after MSU's fall practice slate ended with its intrasquad world series. "We don't have a ton of depth, so there is a point where you know who your center fielder and who your right fielder is," Lemonis said, referencing returning starters Jake Mangum and Elijah MacNamee at those positions. "At this point, we're trying to develop some different lineups. We're doing a lot of that right now: who can play second, who can play third, who can play left field if we have a possibility there." |
| Defenses finding answers vs. Mississippi State offense | |
| The threat of everything should force a defense to allow something. Therein lies the premise of the run-pass option: if one play with multiple possibilities threatens a defense, it will have to choose which ones to prioritize. That premise is the foundation of the offense Joe Moorhead used to turn Fordham into a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff team, take Penn State to the Rose Bowl, and earn a head-coaching job in the Southeastern Conference. It's possible that system has an answer. ESPN's Tom Luginbill was the sideline reporter for MSU's losses to Florida and LSU. He will have the same duty at 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) when MSU plays host to No. 16 Texas A&M. When Luginbill watches MSU (4-3, 1-3 SEC), he sees it susceptible to man-to-man defense. |
| Mississippi State wants to get passing game off the ground | |
| Mississippi State football coach Joe Moorhead has been concerned about the team's lack of balance and run-heavy approach. It didn't take long against fifth-ranked LSU to see why. The Bulldogs suffered through an ugly 19-3 loss to LSU on Saturday and looked particularly pathetic when they tried to pass the ball. Senior quarterback Nick Fitzgerald had one of the worst games of his career, completing just 8 of 24 passes for 59 yards with four interceptions. It's the second time in four Southeastern Conference games that Mississippi State (4-3, 1-3) failed to find the end zone. "We took a step backward offensively," Moorhead said. |
| Aggie coach Jimbo Fisher wants more consistency in targeting call | |
| Nothing boils the blood of Aggie Twitter more than a good ol' fashioned targeting call. It appears to be a sore spot for Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher as well. A&M accrued its fourth and fifth targeting ejections of the season at South Carolina, the latter a second-half noggin spearing by safety Donovan Wilson that will keep the fifth-year senior out of the first half of the Aggies' trip to Mississippi State. Monday, A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher said he fully agrees with the purpose of the penalty and understands the importance of keeping athletes safe. What has kept the Aggie coach in a perpetual state of head scratching is the consistency which officials make the call. The question that remains is how Fisher will fill the years of experience Wilson brings to the Aggie defense for a half of what should be a physical game in Starkville. Sophomore Keldrick Carper will get the starting nod, but other options could arise, should it be need, Fisher said. |
| Local casinos very pleased so far with sports betting | |
| Bettors placed wagers totaling $31.77 million on football games and other sporting events during September, translating into $5.5 million in taxable revenue, according to information from the Mississippi Gaming Commission. More money was bet on football and baseball than any other sport. According to statistics from the commission, sports wagers for the state's Central District, which includes Vicksburg, totaled $2.9 million, translating into $470,564 in taxable revenue. Of that total, $2.26 million bets were placed on football games, with $453,611 placed on baseball. Locally, officials with the three Vicksburg Casinos that have sports betting venues said sports betting has been a strong draw to bring people into their businesses. |
| Group says faith, football don't mix; 'Auburn needs to shut down the prayer' | |
 | A Wisconsin-based secular group announced Tuesday that it is fighting the religious culture in Auburn University's football program. The Freedom From Religion Foundation said in a press release that it sent Auburn an open records request in 2014, asking for information related to football chaplain Chette Williams. The church-and-state watchdog decided to continue its efforts "to stop the unconstitutionally excessive piety in Auburn University's football program" after a video surfaced of Williams leading the team in prayer before Auburn's Homecoming game against Southern Mississippi on Sept. 29. The AL.com video shows the team standing, arms linked in a circle on Pat Dye Field. Williams prays out loud before two of the football players take turns praying aloud as well. According to a statement from the university to the Opelika-Auburn News on Tuesday night, "The football team chaplain isn't an Auburn employee, and participation in activities he leads are voluntary." |
| Jacksonville sheriff: 600 cops for Florida-Georgia game | |
 | Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said he's adding manpower to this weekend's Florida-Georgia football classic following the shooting Sunday of six people on a sidewalk about a half mile from TIAA Bank Field just before the Jaguars game against the Houston Texans kicked off. Police said Sunday they believed the shootings, which left three people with life-threatening wounds, were gang-related. Also over the weekend, a man was found shot to death at a Mandarin apartment complex and a teenage boy was shot and killed on the city's Northwest side. "More than 600 police will be assigned on game day to secure not only the venue, but the larger footprint of downtown and into the surrounding neighborhoods including those on the other side of the river," Sheriff Mike Williams' statement reads in part. "We will have special resources staged and ready for rapid deployment if needed. Additionally, we are bringing in additional lighting systems to set up along the main thoroughfares." |
| Gamecocks making plans to play 12th football game Dec. 1, and here's who they might face | |
 | South Carolina coach Will Muschamp is "very confident" the Gamecocks will be playing a football game on Dec. 1 and have told their players to expect that. "I'm very confident we will be playing Dec. 1. I don't know against who," Muschamp said Tuesday. "That's (athletic director Ray) Tanner, and I'll let him handle that." The Gamecocks scheduled Sept. 15 game against Marshall was canceled due to the potential impact of Hurricane Florence. South Carolina will have a schedule availability on Dec. 1 unless it qualifies for the SEC Championship Game, which is a long-shot considering the Gamecocks are 3-3 overall and 2-3 in the SEC heading into Saturday's game against Tennessee. If the Gamecocks move on from Marshall or Marshall is not available, Southern Miss seems to make the most sense. The Eagles (3-3 overall, 2-1 Conference USA) had their Sept. 15 game against Appalachian State canceled due to Hurricane Florence. |
| ESPN to air two docuseries in 2019 for 150th anniversary of college football | |
| ESPN's long-anticipated commemoration marking the 150th anniversary of college football will begin to take shape in the form of two multi-part docuseries to air beginning in the fall of 2019, the network announced Tuesday. One will be titled "The American Game," which will air Tuesdays beginning Sept. 17. According to ESPN's news release it will explore "themes that have made the sport an integral component of the American landscape," such as integration, bowls polls and picking a champion and the Heisman Trophy. "The Greatest" will air Thursdays beginning Sept. 19. It will rank "the all-time best uniforms, rivalry games, voices, and 'What Ifs?' among other subjects" in Top 11 lists. The two docuseries are the first in a series of announcements that form ESPN's College Football 150 initiative, which begins Jan. 2. The first college football game took place in 1869 between Princeton and Rutgers. |
| Former Ole Miss QB Chad Kelly arrested in bizarre trespassing case | |
| Denver Broncos backup quarterback Chad Kelly was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of criminal trespass after a couple reported he came into their suburban house uninvited and sat down on their couch "mumbling incoherently," according to court records. The 24-year-old Kelly posted $2,500 bond and was released later Tuesday. According to court records, a man and a woman told police that a stranger came into their Englewood home after 1 a.m. The intruder sat down on the couch next to the woman, who was holding the couple's young child, and was "mumbling incoherently," according to the records. The Broncos chose Kelly with the final pick of the 2017 NFL draft. Although Kelly brought an attitude that had often crossed the line in college, Broncos general manager John Elway said fellow Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly personally vouched for his nephew, so Elway signed off on the selection. |
| Evacuating Michigan State's Spartan Stadium a complicated process | |
| If Michigan State fans think they could make better calls about home football games affected by severe weather, they may want to think again. Spartan Stadium has been evacuated on game days four times in the past five years because of lightning strikes detected near East Lansing. Meteorologists and other weather experts haven't noticed an increase in lightning strikes or storms in or near East Lansing over the years. But they have experienced a surge in improved weather forecasting technology over the past decade, which has made people in charge of public venues more cautious during large-scale events. Gone are the days of one-source confirmation. Lightning claims the lives of approximately 54 people in the U.S. every year, and 45% of these fatalities occur in open areas such as sports fields, according to Mississippi State University research. |
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