| Friday, November 2, 2018 |
| Mississippi State students, faculty address hate head-on at vigil remembering Pittsburgh shooting victims | |
 | Wednesday's vigil of remembrance at Mississippi State University's Chapel of Memories for Pittsburgh synagogue shooting victims could be described in a variety of ways. One way is by the numbers. Twelve white roses -- one for each of the victims of Saturday's massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh along with one rose for everyone who has lost their lives in hate crimes -- adorned a table in front of the chapel pulpit. Ten speakers -- including members of Hillel (the university's Jewish Student Association), MSU President Mark Keenum, MSU Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt, MSU Student Association President Myah Emerson, Muslim Student Association adviser Rani Sullivan, Baptist pastor Bert Montgomery and Rabbi Seth Oppenheimer -- addressed the audience during the 45-minute vigil. |
| Mississippi State reveals autonomous, electric off-road 'Halo Project' SUV | |
 | With a full field of competitors vying to develop self-driving cars for city streets, Mississippi State University's Center for Advanced Vehicular Studies decided to carve out its own autonomous niche. It unveiled the result Tuesday in the Society of Collision Repair Specialists booth at SEMA: "Halo Project," a 2014 Subaru Forester modified to be fully electrified and able to drive itself off-road. "The Halo Project itself serves as a platform for our researchers to demonstrate their expertise, on a real-world, high-performance vehicle," CAVS associate director Matthew Doude said in a statement. "Less than one percent of the Earth is paved, so we needed a vehicle that could be a capable development and test platform both on- and off-road. The Halo Project vehicle is all-wheel drive with tons of wheel torque from its four independent electric motors. This allows us to do research on topics like self-driving cars, even in rugged environments." |
| Starkville to add sewer service to Roundhouse Road | |
| Starkville Utilities will soon initiate a project to bring sewer service to more than a dozen homes on Roundhouse Road that have lacked it, despite the area being annexed into the city limits 20 years ago. Terry Kemp, director of the Starkville Utilities Department, said work will begin in the next two weeks on a $546,977 project to install sewer lines to 16 or 17 homes near Roundhouse Road on the north side of town. "We'll be installing sewer up on North Montgomery, (at) Rock Hill Road, and making that connection to tie Roundhouse in," Kemp said. "Then we'll be making a connection through that location all the way over to Highway 389. The areas at that location that are inside the city that have not been served with sewer -- this addresses that area." Kemp said SUD will pay for half of the project's cost. The other half is being covered by a $546,977 Community Development Block Grant. |
| Ag, military still top priorities for 1st Congressional incumbent | |
 | Three years after Northeast Mississippi sent a local district attorney to Washington D.C., Trent Kelly says he hasn't changed. Kelly is a Saltillo Republican who represents the state's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. When voters head to the polls next week on Tuesday, Kelly hopes they send him back for another term. He faces opposition from Democratic challenger Randy Wadkins, a professor and cancer researcher at the University of Mississippi. With a new term, Kelly says he will remain focused on agricultural issues, boosting military spending and cutting small business regulations. "That's what I ran on in '15, and I think I've been true to my word on that," Kelly said in a recent interview with the Daily Journal. |
| Jim Hood jabs at Tate Reeves at Hobnob, says 'drain the swamp in Legislature' | |
 | Hobnob, the annual business and political get-together in Jackson, served Thursday as a last chance for U.S. Senate candidates to address a big crowd before next week's election. But the most fiery speech came from a candidate for Mississippi governor -- which isn't on the ballot until next year. Democrat Jim Hood, the current attorney general, said despite the rosy picture the state's Republican leadership paints, Mississippi's economy, its number of jobs and employment rate, and its salaries, lag behind neighboring states and the rest of the nation. "Our economy is not moving," he said. The candidate told the crowd of about 1,000 business leaders that he has received support from many of them -- including Republicans -- who quietly say they'll support him for governor next year. "The problem is, nobody's got the guts to step out and lead," Hood said. "...The fact is, we've got to drain the swamp in our Legislature." |
| Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith attack mailer allegedly from pro-Mike Espy PAC | |
| U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's campaign is crying foul over an anonymous flier mailed to Mississippians in recent days that accuses her of voting for Hillary Clinton in 2008. A political action committee supporting her Democratic opponent, Mike Espy, in the tight U.S. Senate special election last week paid more than $300,000 to a California firm for political door hangers and direct mail, campaign finance records show. Now, Mississippians are receiving mailers from San Francisco-based Terris Barnes Walters, identified with the postal code TBW. Citing a Breitbart article, the fliers allege Hyde-Smith -- who is endorsed by President Donald Trump --- voted for Hillary Clinton in 2008. Hyde-Smith, a former Democrat, has vehemently denied she voted for Clinton. The problem? The mailers don't disclose who paid for them, as required by the Federal Election Commission. |
| Not all ex-felons barred from voting in Mississippi, but no one telling them that | |
| Jed Blackerby always understood, following his 2003 felony conviction, he had lost his right to vote. Mississippi's constitution permanently strips the voting rights from people convicted of a number of specific felonies -- 22 in total, according to the attorney general's office. But Blackerby's crime of aggravated assault does not appear on that list. "No one gave any guidance," Blackerby said after learning he may still have his voting rights. "A long time ago when convicted felons, point blank, were not allowed to vote, (government officials) never made it public until afterwards that (people with) certain types of convictions were allowed to vote. It had never been publicized." Blackerby has never visited the polls on Election Day, even though he considers himself engaged in politics and he has strong opinions about the country's direction. The attitude of criminal justice system administrators was simply, "You're a convicted felon. You can't do this. You can't do that," Blackerby added. Misconceptions regarding the felony voting ban are so pervasive, lawmakers have actually introduced legislation to restore the voting rights of people who never lost them. |
| Thompson Calls on Bryant to Drop Suit to Gut Pre-existing Condition Coverage | |
| U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson called on Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant to withdraw from a lawsuit that could overturn protections for those with pre-existing conditions. "This lawsuit is just another way he is restricting health-care rights for all Mississippians," the Democrat said in a press release Wednesday. "He needs to drop this lawsuit and finally stand up for everyone with pre-existing conditions." Bryant is one of 20 Republican state officials nationwide who, earlier this year, signed onto a lawsuit seeking to gut the pre-existing conditions protections in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The lawsuit, Texas et al. v. United States et al., was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in February. |
| Senate hopefuls split on who is fighting for folks with pre-existing conditions | |
| Democratic candidates for Mississippi's two United States Senate seats that will be on the ballot Tuesday have been arguing their Republican opponents would jeopardize the mandate that insurance companies provide coverage for pre-existing medical conditions. At Thursday's Mississippi Economic Council's annual Hob Nob at the Mississippi Coliseum, many of the candidates spoke about health care and the issue of pre-existing conditions or were asked about it by the media. Others were asked about the issue earlier this week before the Hob Nob event. According to an NBC/Survey Monkey poll conducted in September, 20 percent of Mississippians said health care was their top issue, trailing only education that was the top issue for 32 percent of the respondents. Pre-existing conditions has become a campaign issue in part because President Donald Trump has opted to join in a lawsuit that would end the protections for pre-existing conditions. The lawsuit was filed by Republican state attorneys general and joined by Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. |
| Jeffries or Clyburn? Two Black Caucus Democrats eye promotions | |
 | The Congressional Black Caucus is bracing for a fight over who should lead House Democrats. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is actively exploring a bid to join the senior ranks of House Democratic leadership in the next Congress, maybe as the first black speaker. But Thursday, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-Louisiana, Congressional Black Caucus chairman sent colleagues a letter giving special attention to Rep. Jim Clyburn, the most senior African-American member of Congress -- and no one else. Clyburn of South Carolina is 78, a 13-term lawmaker and the assistant House Democratic leader who has raised millions of dollars to the party. He has great loyalty among colleagues and, in the words of Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, is not just loved, but "beloved" within the Black Caucus. But Clyburn is reeling from an embarrassing fumble back home earlier this week, when he agreed to appear at a campaign event with Archie Parnell, a Democratic congressional candidate who once beat his ex-wife -- then backed out amid political pressure. |
| No One Wants to Campaign With Bill Clinton Anymore | |
 | When a Republican state legislator in Arkansas pushed last year to rename the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Clarke Tucker stood up for the former president. "The argument was that the people of Arkansas don't support the Clintons," said Mr. Tucker, a Democratic member of the state House of Representatives. "My thought at the time was, well, the people of Arkansas voted for Clinton eight times." But now, as the Democratic nominee in the tightest congressional race in this state, Mr. Tucker is happy for the former president and his wife to remain a plane ride away. The former president, once such a popular political draw that he was nicknamed his party's "explainer-in-chief," has only appeared at a handful of private fund-raisers to benefit midterm candidates, according to people close to him. He added one more last week, headlining a Wednesday evening fund-raiser in New York City last week to benefit the campaign of Mike Espy, Mr. Clinton's former agriculture secretary who is running for Senate in Mississippi. Mr. Espy's campaign declined to comment on the event. |
| In last jobs report before election, U.S. economy shows strong recovery after hurricanes | |
 | The U.S. economy added 250,000 jobs in October, federal economists reported Friday in the government's last labor market snapshot before the midterm elections. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent, a 49-year low, and the typical worker's earnings rose by 3.1 percent over the year that ended in October, the biggest leap since 2009. "This is the best labor environment in over a decade," said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, an international consulting firm. The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics arrives less than a month after Hurricane Michael pummeled the Florida panhandle and Georgia, knocking some people temporarily out of work and dampening economic activity in the southeast. Michael's destruction followed Hurricane Florence, which devastated homes and roads in the Carolinas with flooding. President Trump celebrated the country's rebound from the disasters Friday on Twitter. |
| Gas prices heading for 'colossal collapse' ahead of midterm elections | |
 | Gas prices are expected to plunge sharply in the final days leading up to the midterm elections, potentially nearing $2 per gallon at some stations in low-tax states. The sudden respite at the pump comes from sharply lower oil prices and declining wholesale gasoline prices. Oil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza said it could amount to a "colossal collapse" in prices for consumers: from a $2.78 national average on Friday to as low as $2.50 by Tuesday. "There's the possibility you could see some prices flirt with $2 a gallon in the next 10 days or so in some of the low-tax areas," Kloza said. "For now it's going to be a great break." The break comes after gas approached four-year highs in October, topping a national average of $2.90 per gallon at one point. |
| Number of Mississippi high schoolers taking AP exams increases | |
| Advanced Placement courses are considered to be the same rigor and difficulty as a college courses. Across Mississippi, the number of high school students exposed to these challenging classes is steadily increasing. "What ends up happening is student learn about themselves and that they are able to handle material at a college level," Tupelo High AP Biology teacher Teresa Ware said. "We don't make it easier just because they are in high school. We teach them what it's going to take to learn a lot of information in a short amount of time." During the 2017-18 school year, 9,445 of 132,733 or 7.16 percent, of Mississippi's high school students took an Advanced Placement exam. The exams are scored out of five, and 4,478 students who took an AP exam scored three or higher. That is 47.41 percent. According to the Mississippi Department of Education, both of those numbers are a 1 percent increase from the 2016-17 school year. |
| U. of Mississippi doesn't agree to cooperate with UK government agency | |
 | The University of Mississippi has officially ended its business partnership with scrutinized data firm Big Data Dolphins and insurance firm Eldon Insurance Co., but Erica McKinley, the university's chief legal officer and general counsel, did not agree to cooperate with the United Kingdom Information Commissioner's Office's investigation into the firms. The firms, which were supposed to be established on campus this fall at the university's business incubator, Insight Park, are under investigation by the ICO for allegedly sending U.K. citizens' personal data to the university. Since the allegations surfaced, the university has terminated its lease agreements with the firms. "After a thorough internal review, the university has confirmed that no personally identifiable information of any U.K. citizen was transferred to the University of Mississippi," Vice Chancellor for strategic communications and marketing Jim Zook said. "The lease agreement was terminated by mutual agreement of the parties." |
| UM chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta to close this semester | |
| The national Kappa Alpha Theta organization has decided to remove the University of Mississippi's Epsilon Zeta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta at the end of this semester after 39 years on campus due to a number of issues including "low membership and discouraging recruitment efforts." National leaders of the organization voted unanimously to close the chapter, according to an email obtained by The Daily Mississippian that was sent to members by Kappa Alpha Theta Fraternity President Mandy Burgett Wushinske on Nov. 1. "As you know, present membership in Epsilon Zeta is significantly below Panhellenic total, and results from this fall's primary recruitment were discouraging," Wushinske said in the email. "This is despite 17 visits over the last two years from Theta volunteer officers, staff, and educational leadership consultants to assist with recruitment, chapter operations, and finance issues." |
| Alcorn State student killed in storm-related crash | |
| Alcorn State University student Jayla A. Gray and two friends had just left a Waffle House after attending a Halloween party. Gray and her friends were headed back to the campus during severe weather when tragedy struck. Around 3 a.m. Thursday, the Mississippi Highway Patrol said Gray was a passenger in the front seat of a 2014 Toyota Camry when they hit a tree in the road downed by stormy weather. The crash happened on U.S. Highway 61 near Mississippi Highway 462 in Claiborne County, two miles north of Port Gibson, Cpl. Kervin Stewart said. The driver and a passenger in the back seat were not injured. Gray was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash, Stewart said. MHP said the driver of a silver Nissan reported hitting the fallen tree prior to the fatal accident involving Gray. The driver of the Nissan, who was not injured, called 911 back 10 minutes later when the Camry collided with the same tree. Gray was a sophomore and majored in elementary education. |
| Copiah-Lincoln Community College will build a new president's house | |
 | The president's house at Copiah-Lincoln Community College will be razed, and a new, modern home will be built in its place. The Co-Lin Board of Trustees made that decision in early October, and on Thursday they got a chance to see the preliminary drawings for the new, two-story home the special committee has decided to build for Jane Hulon and whomever serves in the college's top spot in the future. The new home will measure around 3,400 square feet and will feature spacious first-floor rooms where the president can entertain alumni, donors and other special college guests. King said the rebuild is in too early a stage for a firm price estimate, but common rates for new home construction are running around $150 per square foot, he said, giving the new president's home a ballpark cost of $510,000, not counting the cost of demolition and cleanup of the existing home. |
| Fifth rape of semester reported in U. of Tennessee dorm | |
 | A rape in a residence hall during the fall semester was reported to the University of Tennessee Police Department on Wednesday, according to the most recent crime log. This is the fifth rape in a residence hall reported this semester and the ninth rape reported on or near campus since March. The rape occurred sometime during the fall 2018 semester in a residence hall on the east side of campus, according to the log. The exact date is not listed on the UT Police Department's crime log. It was reported to the police department through a campus security authority. A campus security authority is a title given to university employees such as campus police officers, resident assistants, Title IX officers and coaching staff who are trained in reporting crimes under the Clery Act. Lola Alapo, public information officer for public safety at UT, said no additional information was available about the report and she did not know whether the victim would file a police report. |
| U. of South Carolina students outraged after apartment raises rent, fees at last minute | |
 | Dozens of college students lined the Pendleton Street sidewalk Thursday waiting to sign apartment leases at the new Empire Columbia complex -- or at least to get some answers. Some had been there since 6 a.m., and some were still waiting in line by noon to sign a lease at the newly constructed, 688-bed private student apartment complex. Many missed classes. One even brought a tailgate chair. But right before Empire's lease office opened at 10 a.m., applicants received an email at 9:55 a.m. saying rent and parking costs have increased. What's more, the later in the day you signed your lease, the more it would cost, according to the email, which was obtained by The State. "I understand it's a business move, but they're taking advantage of college kids. It's screwed up," said University of South Carolina student Remy Wendell. Off-campus student apartments are at a premium in Columbia as USC doesn't have enough dorm space for its roughly 35,000 students. |
| UGA debate team ranked No. 1 in nation | |
 | The football team isn't the only University of Georgia squad chasing a national championship. Count the UGA Debate Union in that group. They're now ranked No. 1 by the country's three top debate organizations -- the American Debate Association, the Cross-Examination Debate Association and the National Debate Tournament. In practice last week in Phi Kappa Hall on UGA's North Campus, they were preparing to go to Gonzaga University, their longest road trip of the year, where they would face top teams also in the hunt this year for a national championship. In this kind of competition, UGA and other schools often send multiple two-person teams to compete in tournaments. Two of Georgia's teams are in the top five in the country -- Swapnil Agrawal and Advait Ramanan, and Nathan Rice and Johnnie Stupek, who placed third and fifth at Gonzaga, respectively. "I've got a really talented group of students," said head coach Hays Watson, a former UGA debater who returned to the university in 2012 as a professor in the Department of Communication Studies and as debate coach. |
| Professors Running for Office Make Final Push in First-Time Campaigns | |
 | Paul Walker wrote an obscure article for the journal Rhetoric Review in 2012. One urban planner's "sensitivity to multiple factors of urban use," he wrote, "illustrates his valuation of collective discourse for perceived social problems and provides a reminder of the importance of approaching complex issues with an orthos logos perspective." Six years later, deep in a midterm campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, Walker found himself greeting a raucous crowd at the Fancy Farm Picnic, in western Kentucky. "Thank you, teachers!" he said. "I am a teacher. And I love teachers, and I support everything you do." That, he's learned, is the difference between writing about rhetoric and using it. The change didn't come naturally. Walker, an associate professor of English at Murray State University, is one of a handful of first-time candidates emerging from the professoriate to run in Tuesday's midterm elections. These political newcomers join a broader, and much examined, class of laypeople drawn into electoral politics this cycle. Academe, they say, has much to bring to civic life, and vice versa. |
| Report: Student affairs professionals more diverse than rest of college professions | |
 | The student affairs field is demographically more diverse than other college professions and relatively lacking in pay-equity issues, according to a new report. The College and University Professional Association relied on data it collected on student affairs professionals to determine that about 71 percent of positions are held by women. In contrast, about 58 percent of positions across higher education more broadly are occupied by women. However, most racial demographics are underrepresented in student affairs. While about 17 percent of college students are Hispanic, only about 8 percent of student affairs officials are. And Asian men and women comprise about 6 percent of students, but only about 3 percent of student affairs professionals. "This report confirms a mostly anecdotal observation that student affairs division and leadership represent one of the most diverse sectors in higher education," Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, said. |
| Big data, AI prompt major expansions at UC Berkeley and MIT | |
| If you don't believe that big data and artificial intelligence are here to stay, just ask Alexa: "What academic disciplines this fall are driving two major research universities to reorganize?" The University of California, Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology are doing just that, creating entirely new institutions within their campuses to come to terms with the ubiquity of data and the rise of AI -- and to accommodate a surge in popularity that these fields are generating among students and employers. Berkeley on Thursday said it plans to form an entirely new division, to be tentatively called the Division of Data Science and Information, that will engage faculty members and students across the flagship UC campus. The division, officials said, will be led by a new associate provost and connect departments as disparate as UC's College of Engineering and its College of Letters and Science. |
| As Humanities Majors Decline, Colleges Try to Hype Up Their Programs | |
| Even as college students on the whole began to shun humanities majors over the past decade in favor of vocational majors in business and health, there was one group of holdouts: undergraduates at elite colleges and universities. That's not the case anymore, and as a result, many colleges have become cheerleaders for their own humanities programs, launching promotional campaigns to make them more appealing to students. As Benjamin Schmidt wrote in The Atlantic recently, humanities majors -- which traditionally made up one-third of all degrees awarded at top liberal-arts colleges as recently as 2011 -- have fallen to well under a quarter. Meanwhile, at elite research universities the share of humanities degrees has dropped from 17 percent a decade ago to just 11 percent today. The reasons for this national shift are many, but most academics attribute it mostly to the lingering effects of the Great Recession. |
| Harvard Affirmative Action Trial Is Ending, But Lawsuit Is Far From Over | |
 | The Harvard University admissions trial comes to a close on Friday. At the heart of this controversial federal lawsuit is the question of just how much a school can consider race in admissions. The plaintiff, a group called Students For Fair Admissions, has accused Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. They argue the school considers race too much, forcing Asian-Americans to meet a higher bar to get in. Because affirmative action is at the center of this debate, the 15 days of court proceedings attracted a large audience. The public benches in the Boston courthouse were regularly filled to capacity with students, parents, school officials and community members. But the judge's findings in this case will likely be followed even closer. |
| How Everything Became the Culture War | |
 | Policy skirmishes tend to metastasize into cultural battles when they involve identity issues, and after spending time on the campaign trail recently, I got the sense the next big Republican culture war will be a war on college. For generations, the notion of higher education as a ladder of opportunity for everyone has been an anodyne nonpartisan talking point, even if Democrats and Republicans disagreed on the appropriate levels of federal funding and regulation. But Republican attitudes are changing. It's probably not a coincidence that this shift is happening at a time when college-educated voters are trending Democratic and noncollege whites have been Trump's most reliable constituency. Policies that hurt colleges, like policies that hurt cities, are policies that hurt Democrats. To listen to pols talk about college these days is to watch a wedge issue in its embryonic stage, as substantive questions about the cost and relevance of higher ed, the burdens of student debt, the adequacy of worker training and the power of political correctness on campus start to morph into red-meat attacks on pointy-headed elitists who look down on ironworkers and brainwash America's youth. Republicans are starting to fit the Democratic push for universal free college into their larger critique of the Democratic urge to hand out free stuff to Democratic voters. And they're portraying a liberal arts education as a culturally liberal thing, like kale or Kwanzaa or reusable shopping bags. |
| Feud Over Professor's Facebook 'Like' Prompts Complaint Against Fortenberry Chief of Staff | |
 | The House Ethics Committee received a complaint this week about the chief of staff of Republican Rep. John Fortenberry. The staffer has hounded a political science professor in recent days for liking a Facebook post mocking Fortenberry, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. The Facebook post shows a photo of a manipulated campaign sign. Vandals added googly eyes to the congressman's photo and changed the wording to read, "John Fartenberry: Strong Families, Strong Communities, Strong Odor." William "Reyn" Archer III, Fortenberry's chief of staff, launched a crusade to hold University of Nebraska-Lincoln associate professor Ari Kohen accountable for liking the offending post. Archer alleges the "like" indicates that Kohen endorses vandalism. Kohen counters that he thought the photo was manipulated with Photoshop, and alleges that the congressman's staffer is using his powerful position to stifle a minor expression of free speech. First, Archer reported the "like" to Kohen's supervisors last week. The Lincoln Journal Star obtained an email through a public records request showing Archer that wrote to Kohen's department head, and copied the dean of the arts and sciences college. |
| Social media posting can have dire consequences | |
| Mississippi newspaper publisher and columnist Wyatt Emmerich writes: Here's some free advice: Be careful what you post on social media platforms. When you post, it can go all over the world and last forever. That's one very scary aspect to the Internet. Back in the day, conscientious people tried to be careful what they said in conversations or over the phone. Gossip can be harmful. You should not bear false witness against your neighbor. Rumors were easy to start. But your phone conversations did not go all over the world. Nor were they accessible to billions of people or stored forever. Making a regrettable comment over the phone is nothing compared to a regretful post in the age of social media. I have been writing publicly for more than 40 years. As a result, I had a huge head start on learning to be careful about what to say and how to say it in a public forum. It was a painful learning process full of some real whoppers of mistakes. |
SPORTS
| Louisiana Tech takes on 'great challenge' at Mississippi State | |
| Louisiana Tech is already bowl eligible at 6-2 and has won three-consecutive games. However, coach Skip Holtz and his Bulldogs have a tall task ahead in order to make it four straight. Tech travels to No. 21 Mississippi State on Saturday to face a team that is also seeking to qualify for a bowl bid. "It is going to be a great challenge for us kind of stepping out of the conference this week and going on the road playing Mississippi State at Mississippi State," Holtz said. "You look at them and people say, 'Well, they have lost three games.' They have lost to Kentucky, Florida and LSU. Those three teams are a combined 19-3. They have lost three really good football teams." The aspect Holtz is most concerned about is MSU's defense, which ranks in the top 16 in total defense (283.8), scoring defense (13.5), passing defense (167.9) and rushing defense (107.9). "In eight games, they have given up nine touchdowns, which is absolutely unheard of and one of the reasons are top five of the country in scoring defense," Holtz said. |
| How Erroll Thompson became top dog for Mississippi State football | |
| In the mid-2000s, young Erroll Thompson was just like most other youth football players. Thompson wanted touchdowns, celebrations and glory -- he wanted to be a running back. Now Thompson is more than a decade removed from those initial aspirations, and if he had it his way, he would still be carrying the football -- not incessantly trying to tackle the players who do. As a nine-year-old in Florence, Alabama, Thompson didn't envision himself being the starting middle linebacker at Mississippi State 12 years later. LaDainian Tomlinson set the NFL record for touchdowns in a season (28) with the San Diego Chargers around the same time Thompson started playing youth football. Thompson wanted to follow in Tomlinson's shifty, elusive footsteps. 'LT' was Thompson's favorite player growing up, so he did trace those steps, all the way through his freshman season at Florence High School. The following summer, Thompson's dream of being a tail back came crashing down. |
| Vic Schaefer expects Bulldogs to be different this year | |
| Mississippi State's women may be ranked No. 6 nationally but it will be a much different team that takes the floor this season. Eight seniors have left the Bulldogs over the last two years with Teaira McCowan as the lone holdover that has started during State's back-to-back national finalist finishes. "Obviously only having one starter back, that's the first thing that jumps out to you about our team," said MSU coach Vic Schaefer. "But we do have four seniors and that's a great place to start. I love my seniors and all of them have been in big moments and big games and understand what it takes to win at this level." McCowan might be the only starter MSU has coming back but Anriel Howard has plenty of starting experience in the SEC. The 5-foot-11 forward transferred to the Bulldogs after graduating from Texas A&M where she was the school's all-time leader in rebounds (1,002), rebounding average (9.8) and double-doubles (32). |
| What Vic Schaefer said about his Mississippi State Bulldogs' defense | |
| Vic Schaefer is Mississippi State's head basketball coach. He's also the team's worst critic. He's pretty good at being both. Schaefer is the reigning Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year after leading the Dogs to a second-straight national title game appearance. Thursday afternoon, he bounced between head coach and critic during his preseason press conference. He started off by giving an update on just about every player on his roster and expressed to the media how excited he is to coach this year's version of the Bulldogs. "I think we'll be good, but certainly it will be a little bit different," Schaefer said. "That's what coaching is all about, is adapting and getting ready for a new team and a new season." Then he turned into the critic when asked about his team's defense. "I don't think we can guard anybody right now," Schaefer said. "We're just not very good right now defensively.... Last year's team had four senior guards who got it, knew it. A little different (this year). We're struggling right now defensively." |
| Mississippi State WBB heavy SEC favorites | |
 | Not many teams know what it takes to get to the national championship game as well as Mississippi State does. The Vic Schaefer-led team has reached the pinnacle of women's college basketball each of the last two years. But each year it left the court as the runner-up. Two years ago, after upsetting Connecticut in the Final Four, the Bulldogs lost to South Carolina in the final. Last year the Bulldogs lost to Notre Dame on a game-winning three-pointer by Arike Ogunbowale as time expired. What will it take for the Southeastern Conference favorites to be the final team standing this season? "Really, at the end of the day, it's on my shoulders to get them prepared to get them through that last three seconds," Schaefer said. "We were right there last year. ... Have to coach better and teach better. That's what me and my staff are doing right now." |
| Co-Lin seeks to upgrade sports facilities | |
| College leaders at Co-Lin have developed a multi-year plan to upgrade every sports complex on campus, an effort they feel is necessary to stop a loss of students who may be attending other institutions because of superior facilities. The Copiah-Lincoln Community College Board of Trustees on Thursday got its first look at the "Back the Pack" capital campaign, a preliminary three-year planning document that seeks to raise and spend around $5.2 million to upgrade facilities for all major sports. College President Jane Hulon called the plan "ambitious," but said the numerous improvements and additions it lists are needed if Co-Lin is to keep pace with improvements being made at many of the state's other community colleges. "Our students know what other places have. They check around," she said. "And we could lose students because other colleges have nicer facilities, so we want to make sure we're proud of what we have." |
| Southern Miss' Nick Mullens makes NFL debut and it was 'everything he dreamed of' | |
 | Former Southern Miss star Nick Mullens' introduction to an NFL audience went about as well as anyone could of expected. The Hoover, Ala., native received the start at quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers due to an injury to C.J. Beathard and put together a performance that surpassed the expectations of a thoroughly impressed FOX broadcast crew and perhaps Nick himself. In his NFL debut, Mullens completed 16 of 22 passes for 262 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions as the 49ers thrashed the Raiders 34-3 in a Thursday night contest. Mullens' performance was so notable that Twitter awarded him a verified account during the course of the game. Mullens became emotional in his post-game interview with Erin Andrews, getting choked up as he was quizzed about what it meant to put together a nearly flawless performance in his debut as a pro. "It's everything I dreamed of," he said. |
| NCAA releases decision to Ole Miss: Unofficial visits restriction overturned, postseason ban upheld | |
| The case is officially closed. Ole Miss' football program received its final ruling from the NCAA's Infractions Appeal Committee on Thursday, closing a six-year investigation. The ruling brought mixed news for the Rebels, who sought to remove or reduce some of the tougher sanctions issued by the NCAA Committee on Infractions last year. In the ruling, the IAC overturned the biggest sanction levied by the COI, lifting the restrictions on unofficial visits by recruits. However, the IAC upheld the two-year postseason ban. With the IAC upholding the COI's initial ruling for a 2018 bowl ban, Ole Miss will be ineligible for postseason play should the Rebels hit six wins this season. Currently, Ole Miss holds a 5-3 record, with four games remaining in the 2018 football season. With the postseason ban being upheld, it will be the second consecutive year Ole Miss' season will conclude with their yearly meeting against Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. |
| Three former Vols to comprise U. of Tennessee athletics committee providing added oversight | |
| Charlie Anderson, a prominent Tennessee booster and former UT board trustee, has been tapped to oversee a special committee on University of Tennessee athletics programs. UT's Board of Trustees will have its fall meeting Friday. Among the agenda items the trustees will vote on is the ratification of an athletics committee that will include Anderson as the chairman and trustees Kara Lawson and Lang Wiseman as committee members. All three are former UT athletes. The committee will act as an added layer of oversight for athletics. Each campus chancellor within the UT system is directly responsible for oversight of its school's athletics program. |
| Neyland Stadium upgrades on hold, Tennessee AD Phillip Fulmer says | |
| The Neyland Stadium renovation is in a holding pattern as Tennessee continues to evaluate the project's design and scope. Athletic director Phillip Fulmer said Thursday that he's hopeful construction could begin "within the next year or so, no more than two." The holdup, Fulmer said, doesn't pertain to finances. "We're still looking at all the design, all the scope, and just what do we really want to do?" Fulmer said. "What's going to be the best for the next 100 years? That's the reason for the delay is, what do we really want to do?" Fulmer added that project fundraising is "in a good place." "Private donations have exceeded $50 million for the stadium project, and we have not gone public yet," Fulmer said. |
| Regent's Resignation Signals Turning of the Tide in U. of Maryland Crisis, as President Exerts His Power | |
| James T. Brady resigned his post as chairman of the University System of Maryland's Board of Regents on Thursday, marking another turn in a chaotic week for an institution that has descended into crisis over the board's handling of an athletics scandal. Brady's resignation came amid criticism that the board had pressured Wallace D. Loh, the president of the College Park campus, to retain the Terrapins' embattled head football coach or risk his own swift removal as president. But Loh essentially called the regents' bluff on Wednesday, firing DJ Durkin, the coach who has been under scrutiny since June, when one of his players died after an intense team workout. Loh's action was a clear indication that the tide was turning at Maryland, and Brady acknowledged in a statement on Thursday that the board itself had been divided on whether Durkin should go. |
The Office of Public Affairs provides the Daily News Digest as a general information resource for Mississippi State University stakeholders.
Web links are subject to change. Submit news, questions or comments to Jim Laird.
