| Thursday, October 9, 2014 |
| Football, 'GameDay' have Mississippi State buzzing | |
 | Forgive Mississippi State students if they have trouble focusing on academics this week. The buzz on campus is building as Saturday draws nearer. Not only is No. 2-ranked Auburn coming to town to battle No. 3 MSU (2:30 p.m., CBS), but ESPN's "College GameDay" pregame show will be broadcasting live from the Junction. This is the iconic program's first trip to Starkville, a week after visiting Oxford. "The buzz on campus stemming from GameDay is unlike anything I've ever seen," said Walton Chaney, an MSU senior from Amory. Having "College GameDay" on campus brings a whole new level of exposure for MSU. Work crews were scheduled to begin constructing the set at 7 a.m. today. It will be located on Creelman Street in front of Dorman Hall. |
| Mississippi State announces changes for ESPN College GameDay | |
 | Mississippi State and Auburn fans will pour into Starkville as it hosts ESPN College GameDay on Saturday. In preparation for the influx of fans, the university is informing faculty, staff, students and visitors of traffic and parking changes and other changes to the gameday routine as the weekend approaches. The university has released a timeline of events and changes taking place over the weekend. |
| Mississippi State To Enforce Student Ticket Rules | |
 | Mississippi State University Dean of Students Thomas Bourgeois announced this week that in preparation for game day festivities, some changes have been implemented to protect the MSU student section from non-students sitting in student seating. "From this point forward, MSU students will need a valid MSU Student ID (or student guest ticket) to not only enter the game, but also to enter the student section," Bourgeois said. He also reminded students of MSU policies regarding student IDs. "It is against MSU policy for anyone other than the student identified on the MSU ID card to use your MSU ID card. This card is the property of MSU and is non-transferrable," he said. "Students cannot let other students or non-students use their ID." |
| Pumpkinpalooza to kick off historic game weekend | |
 | As the weekend approaches, Starkville is preparing for what may be its largest Pumpkinpalooza event yet, beginning at 6 p.m. Friday downtown on Main Street. The Greater Starkville Development Partnership is hosting the event, which Special Events and Projects Coordinator Jennifer Prather said is a primary fall event for the organization. "We create and transform Main Street into a big pumpkin patch," she said. "The kids come in costumes. They trick-or-treat to the Main Street retailers. They can pick a pumpkin from the patch and paint it with the (Starkville Area) Arts Council. We have the community vendors come, and that's like the finale to the community market season. They have fall goods and ready-to-eat fall foods that are very festival-oriented." (Subscriber-only content.) |
| Mississippi State dedicates research center to ex-President Portera | |
 | Mississippi State University will dedicate a new research center for former school president Malcolm Portera. The Malcolm A. Portera High Performance Computing Center will be located in the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. The dedication is scheduled for 3 p.m. tomorrow. In addition to Portera, other speakers will include current President Mark E. Keenum; David Shaw, MSU's vice president for research and economic development; and Trey Breckenridge, director of the Portera Center. |
| Mississippi State Faculty, Administrators Named New SEC Academic Fellows | |
| Four Mississippi State administrators and faculty members are among 48 selected as 2014-15 Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows. Since its inception in 2008, the professional development program has worked to identify, prepare and professionally advance academic leaders for key roles at each of the 14 SEC-member universities. The MSU contingent includes David A. Dampier, Mark L. Lawrence, Rebecca G. Long and David T. Morse. "The SEC ALDP, through formal workshops and on-campus activities, aims to provide future academic leaders the opportunity to learn and develop the skills needed to meet the challenges of academic leadership," said Peter Ryan. In addition to his role as MSU's associate provost for academic affairs and SEC ALDP liaison, Ryan chairs the conference-wide program. |
| Retired General, Former MSU Football Star Inducted into ROTC Hall of Fame | |
| A Mississippi State alumnus and former member of the Bulldog football team is a newly inducted member of the university's Army ROTC Hall of Fame. Retired Brig. Gen. Samuel Nichols Jr. returned to his alma mater last week for a special induction ceremony. A Biloxi native and Biloxi High School graduate, he holds bachelor's and master's degrees in education from the 136-year-old land-grant institution. With his induction, Nichols became the 17th member of Mississippi State ROTC alumni honored with selection to the military science department's hall of fame. |
| Educational Program for State's Mayors to be Held at Mississippi State | |
| Oct. 15 is the registration deadline for the 2015 Mississippi Mayors Forum taking place next year at Mississippi State. During the March 19 and 20 program, six mayors each from the state's three supreme court districts will on campus to discuss solutions to challenges their communities are facing in the areas of community planning and design-related challenges. The program is a new initiative of the university's John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Community Development. The goal is to help city leaders develop new skills and knowledge by examining important issues with a panel of resource professionals. "Throughout Mississippi, mayors struggle to find solutions to challenges impacting their community," said professor P. Edward French, interim institute director. |
| Briefing sessions set in Mississippi on food safety law | |
 | The Food Safety Modernization Act introduces new rules to help prevent contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables during growing, harvesting, packing and holding. Based on public feedback, revisions were made to water quality standards and testing requirements, manure and compost rules, procedures for withdrawal of qualified exemptions, wildlife provisions and definition of a covered farm. The workshops will be 9 a.m. to noon. The first will be Nov. 3 at Mississippi State University's North Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Verona and the second Nov. 20 at MSU's Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi. |
| Rick Perry advocates energy solutions at Mississippi summit | |
| Texas Gov. Rick Perry is calling for unlimited natural gas and oil exports, saying it would help the American economy and aid American allies threatened by Russia's control of European natural gas supplies. "The first order of business to restore balance in Europe is for America to build an energy shield to protect our strategic allies, Perry said Wednesday in Jackson, speaking at Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant's energy summit. "That means we must accelerate our exports of America's vast energy resources." Such a move would help Perry's home state, but also free the way for construction of an $8 billion LNG export facility in Pascagoula. In his own remarks, Bryant ridiculed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. |
| KiOR denies ex-director's claims of problems with company's technology | |
| A former director of biofuel maker KiOR says he tried to warn other board members about problems with KiOR's technology to turn wood chips into an oil substitute, claims that could damage the company's defense in shareholder lawsuits and a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. KiOR denies Paul O'Connor's claims, saying he was asked to leave the board after an investigation found he withheld a report from the company, talked to people outside the company without authorization and may have violated KiOR's insider stock trading policy. The sniping comes as KiOR seeks to raise money and avoid defaulting on $250 million in debt, including $69.4 million owed on a no-interest loan from the state of Mississippi. |
| Hosemann's report on crossover voting could hurt McDaniel's challenge | |
| Fewer than 900 Mississippi voters might have cast a ballot in one party's primary June 3 and then improperly crossed over to vote in other party's runoff three weeks later, according to a new report by the state's top elections official. That finding by Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is significantly lower than a claim by Chris McDaniel, an unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate who has said he thinks about 3,100 people voted in both the June 3 Democratic primary and the June 24 Republican runoff. Hosemann's election report, released Tuesday, could make it more difficult for McDaniel to prove claims he made in a lawsuit that sought to overturn his 7,667-vote loss to six-term Sen. Thad Cochran in the Republican primary runoff, if McDaniel's case ever goes to trial. |
| Santorum tests 2016 waters, backs away from McDaniel | |
| Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum on Wednesday was testing the 2016 presidential waters in Mississippi, a state he carried when he ran in the GOP primary in 2012. "I've been very clear I'm open to running in 2016, and I met with some supporters here today who were very encouraging to me," Santorum said after a breakfast fundraiser in Ridgeland for his Patriot Voices PAC. Santorum appeared to back away from state Sen. Chris McDaniel, whom he endorsed for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Thad Cochran earlier this year. "Obviously Thad is the Republican nominee, and we are going to support the Republican nominee in every state," Santorum said. |
| State's gay marriage ban's days appear numbered | |
| The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Mississippi, could provide the catalyst for the Supreme Court to decide the gay marriage issue once and for all, nationwide. And it's likely, many legal experts believe, bans on gay marriage such as Mississippi's will fall. "I am opposed to same-sex marriage, but I believe the time has come for people of faith in Mississippi to prepare for the overturning of our constitutional ban on it," said state Rep. Andy Gipson, House judiciary chairman. In Mississippi and other Bible Belt states, the gay marriage issue remains contentious. But Gipson said that legally, the writing appears to be on the wall for such bans with federal courts. |
| President warns of 'draconian' military cuts | |
 | President Obama warned Congress about the possible effects of sequestration during a rare visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday, saying lawmakers needed to make sure the military has "the equipment and the technology that's necessary for them to be able to succeed at their mission." "We have done some enormous work, and I want to thank everybody sitting around this table to continue to make our forces leaner, meaner, more effective, more tailored to the particular challenges that we're going to face in the 21st century," Obama said following a meeting with Pentagon leadership. But we also have to make sure that Congress is working with us to avoid, for example, some of the draconian cuts that are called for in sequestration." Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has warned that if sequestration cuts are implemented in the next fiscal year, development on crucial military projects could stall. |
| Aides knew of possible White House link to Cartagena, Colombia, prostitution scandal | |
 | As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member -- yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Wednesday that President Obama and his advisers did not interfere with the inspector general's investigation. |
| Death of Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas Fuels Alarm Over Ebola | |
 | The death Wednesday morning of Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, the Liberian man at the center of a widening public health scare and the first person with a case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States, heightened anxiety and fear in Dallas. It also renewed questions about whether a delay in receiving treatment could have played a role in his death and what role it played in the possibility of his spreading the disease to others. While there were condolences expressed throughout this city over Mr. Duncan's death, there were also renewed questions about the handling of Mr. Duncan's case by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, and about whether Mr. Duncan would still be alive had he been admitted to the hospital when he first went to its emergency room on Sept. 25. |
| U. of Southern Mississippi administrators weighing ramifications of dipping enrollment | |
 | With enrollment numbers declining, University of Southern Mississippi leaders are beginning to consider budget cuts. After seeing increases annually from 2007 until 2011, USM's latest enrollment figures of 14,845 are a 10.6 percent drop from the peak enrollment of 16,604 in 2011 and 2.6 percent less than last year's total of 15,249. With Southern Miss projected to lose $2.3 million during the current year if the spring enrollment mirrors the fall, Douglas Vinzant, vice president of finance and administration, said the university is looking to reduce the educational and general budget by $6.79 million. "The big thing is we're trying to create flexibility to allow people to work through the current year's numbers using one-time methods, but then as they go to FY16 they have to say how they will permanently reduce that same level of saving," Vinzant said. |
| Conference at Delta State explores hardship of blues lovers | |
 | The International Blues Conference wrapped up on Tuesday with music, art, and visitors from all over. According to Dr. Shelley Collins and Don Allan Mitchell, chairs of the conference, this is just the kick-off for more blues events in the future. "It is important to have the International Conference on the Blues at Delta State University because we had many participants at the conference who were particularly drawn to the idea of serious academic discourse right in the middle of the land where the Delta blues began," Mitchell said. |
| East Mississippi Community College rolls out two-for-one offer on intensive courses | |
 | The clock is ticking on a new two-for-one promotion on intensive classes at East Mississippi Community College. Anyone who is not currently enrolled in an EMCC class and signs up for an intensive semester as a part-time student before the beginning of the "mini-term" is eligible. Students who meet these criteria and pay cash for their first three-hour EMCC class will receive free tuition on a second three-hour EMCC class. Dr. Paul Miller, vice president of EMCC's Golden Triangle campus, said that intensive terms, which condense a semester's worth of instruction into eight weeks, are open to new students -- but are most useful to former students who were unable to enroll in the regular semester. "Just because they missed enrolling in the regular fall term, whether at EMCC, Mississippi State or Mississippi University for Women, there's no need to wait until January to get a couple classes under their belt," Miller said. |
| U. of Alabama names interim vice president over public relations, fundraising | |
 | The University of Alabama has named an interim vice president of Advancement and is preparing to begin a search for a permanent replacement for Karen Baldwin. Calvin Brown, the UA director of Alumni Affairs, will serve as the interim vice president of Advancement, according to a message from President Judy Bonner to the campus Tuesday. Baldwin, vice president of Advancement since 2012, "has decided to explore other internal and external career choices," according to Bonner's message. The UA Office of Media Relations did not reply by press time Wednesday to requests for clarification of "internal career choices" in regard to Baldwin's employment status with the university. Attempts to contact Baldwin on Wednesday night were unsuccessful. |
| SGA hosts first Pizza with the Provost at Auburn | |
 | Auburn University's Student Government Association held the first Pizza with the Provost Wednesday, where Provost Timothy Boosinger, Ph.D., DVM, addressed student questions ranging from technology in the classroom to international student programs. "So many problems can be avoided by good communication," Boosinger said. "I also learn a lot from the questions they ask." Boosinger added he "picked up on" three things in particular he'd like to look into. One of the issues Boosinger discussed was increase in student enrollment. "That's a big issue this year," he said, adding the increase pushed the university's average ACT score over 27. "...With that growth, our academic credentials went up, not a lot, but it went up." SGA Director of Academic Programs Erin Slay said the program was an effort to educate students about the Provost's Office and familiarize them with the resources they have available. |
| LSU boasts most diverse student body ever, highest GPA, ACT scores | |
 | LSU's freshman class this fall has the highest average ACT score and highest average grade point average in the university's history. The student body, as a whole, is also LSU's most diverse ever -- with 5.3 percent of its more than 30,000 students identifying as Hispanic, 11.2 percent as African-American, 3.5 percent as Asian and 2.2 percent as two or more races. "I think we're appealing to more students with more diverse backgrounds," President and Chancellor F. King Alexander said in an interview with The Advocate at his campus office this week. For Alexander, who came to LSU from California State University at Long Beach a year ago, the stats are important -- making LSU more diverse while also striving to improve its academic standing. |
| Louisiana community colleges approve 6-year plan | |
| Louisiana's community and technical colleges are embarking on an aggressive, six-year plan that includes doubling the number of graduates and their total earnings, quadrupling the number of students they send to the state's four-year schools and significantly increasing private dollars and partnerships with businesses. "I don't think it's any secret to anyone that the biggest issue today is Louisiana's workforce," Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Monty Sullivan said. Under "Our Louisiana 2020," which the system Board of Supervisors unanimously approved during a meeting Wednesday, the community and technical colleges also will place a stronger emphasis on jobs that the state has identified as "tier one," or the most in demand, which generally include engineering technology, computer science, construction trades, finance and accounting, welding, industrial production and electrical certifications. |
| U. of Florida experts see many factors behind Ebola outbreak | |
 | A combination of political instability, inadequate health systems, an insufficient international response and distrust of government contributed to the ongoing Ebola outbreak that has so far killed nearly 3,900 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. That was the general consensus of five University of Florida faculty members who participated in a Wednesday night forum on the West African Ebola epidemic put on by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. The forum's moderator, Leonardo Villalon, dean of the UF International Center and a professor of political science, said university officials had met just Tuesday to discuss how they would respond to a case on campus. At the same time, Villalon said they did not expect to see a case at UF. |
| New U. of Florida Diabetes Institute uniting research teams | |
| Looking to bolster programs now scattered across several colleges, the University of Florida has formed an institute focused on diabetes. The UF Diabetes Institute includes faculty and staff from the colleges of Engineering, Medicine, Nursing and Public Health and Health Professions and the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences who were working on the research, prevention and treatment of diabetes. UF has established the institute as diabetes grows into a more serious public health problem. |
| Altizer named UGA Athletic Association Professor in Ecology | |
 | Sonia Altizer, a professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the Odum School of Ecology, has been named the University of Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Ecology. Altizer studies the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. Working with diverse systems ranging from monarch butterflies to vampire bats, Altizer and her students explore questions about host-parasite interactions, the relationship of animal behavior and disease and the impact of human-caused environmental changes on infectious disease dynamics. Altizer has been recognized for her innovative research by the National Science Foundation with a Faculty Early Career Development Program award and a Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering. |
| U. of Georgia team tops Oxford Union in debate | |
| The University of Georgia came out on top Wednesday night in a debate between all-star debating teams from UGA and the Oxford Union Society, which sent the venerable debate society's current president, president-elect and past president to argue drone strikes with their American opponents. UGA now leads the all-time series with the British university 3-2. UGA's Eilidh Geddes, Logan Gramzinski and Chetan Hebbale argued in favor of the resolution: "On balance, United States drone strikes enhance its national security objectives." The series resumes in three years at Oxford, where UGA has for 25 years had a residential study abroad program. |
| U. of South Carolina students targeted by phone scammers | |
 | Two international students studying at the University of South Carolina in Columbia reported that they had received threatening phone calls on Wednesday demanding money to avoid arrest, jail and deportation. The callers, who claimed to be police officers, appeared to be calling from the Columbia Police Department's main phone number -- 803-545-3500 -- and had detailed information about the students. The students notified Columbia Police prompting police chief Skip Holbrook to issue a public alert about the scam. Columbia Police, the University of South Carolina and federal authorities are investigating how the scammers got detailed student information and why specific students were targeted, Holbrook said. |
| U. of Missouri students hold 'die-in' demonstration spurred by events in Ferguson | |
 | Holding up sheets with names of black teenagers and young adults who were killed while unarmed, dozens of students at the University of Missouri participated in a "die-in" demonstration Wednesday afternoon at Speakers Circle. The demonstration included slam poetry, most of which was written by students, and the reading of names of black men and women who have been killed during the last decade by police. Students representing the dead collapsed to the concrete, with more students following suit as the hour-long demonstration progressed. After the readings, other students drew outlines around the collapsed bodies on the pavement with chalk. |
| Should professors be told why they were denied tenure? | |
 | Some 28 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, $1.4 million in research funding and strong evaluations along the way -- but still no tenure. The only thing more disturbing to Dylan Kesler, an assistant professor of wildlife sciences at the University of Missouri at Columbia, than his failed bid this summer is that he still hasn't been told why. Kesler thinks he's being retaliated against for blowing the whistle on alleged misuses of federal research funds in his department. But he says can't confirm that or appeal the university's decision without a formal reason for his denial. While admittedly more complicated than most tenure disputes, Kesler's case raises a basic question: Does a professor have a right to know why he or she didn't earn tenure? |
| Indiana (with Lumina boost) to take over Carnegie Classifications | |
| For more than four decades, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has produced the definitive classification of higher education institutions. Roughly every five years, the foundation's highly anticipated grouping of colleges and universities offers a useful organizing structure of the higher ed landscape -- for example, giving foundations, government agencies and others that want to support or study, say, small rural community colleges or intensive research universities the information they need. To Carnegie's dismay, the foundation's sorting also sends some institutions into fits of anger or excitement over perceived insult or approval for how they are classified compared to their peers, in large part because the classifications are used for rankings. Beginning next year, Indiana University's Center for Postsecondary Research will produce the Carnegie Classifications (as they will continue to be called). |
| BRIAN PERRY (OPINION): Grading Mississippi widgets | |
 | Consultant and columnist Brian Perry writes: "We're number three! The AP Top 25 rankings for NCAA football lists Mississippi State and Ole Miss tied at number three in the country behind top ranked Florida State and number two Auburn. It feels good, especially with the new playoffs scheme that places the country's top four teams in bracket to play for the National Championship, replacing the old BCS algorithm which was comparable in understanding to Mississippi's MAEP formula. ...Rankings and lists provide context in contrast to the others on the list based on specific criteria. But they can create a cynical atmosphere when news reports put Mississippi at the top of a bad list or the bottom of a good list. It feeds a cultural inferiority among pessimists and naysayers. ...Some lists seek to generate policy changes so the criteria for ranking states is based not necessarily on outcomes but on processes; often times spending, regulation and government policy." |
SPORTS
| Mississippi State rising: SI goes behind the scenes with the Bulldogs | |
| An agricultural school often ridiculed for the cowbells that the fans ceaselessly clang in the stands during games, Mississippi State is now the bell cow for Moneyball-style innovation -- thriving in the SEC on a relative shoestring. After decades of doing less with less, the Bulldogs are doing more than anyone could have imagined, fulfilling the vision of sixth-year coach Dan Mullen. As Mississippi State plows through this already astonishing college football season, expect much more cowbell. |
| Dan Mullen: 'We haven't accomplished all that much' | |
| Dan Mullen spoke for more than 12 minutes on Wednesday's SEC Teleconference, by far the longest of any this season. It came during the same week Mississippi State moved to No. 3 in the Associated Press' Top 25 poll. CBS' Spencer Tillman asked the sixth year head coach a question he's heard a lot this week. How is his team dealing with the new found fame? "We really haven't accomplished all that much," Mullen said. "We're only 2-0 in the SEC. I think we wanted to win a lot more than that." Since the start of spring camp, the Bulldogs haven't been bashful regarding their goals. It wasn't a top 3 ranking. It had nothing to do with a Sports Illustrated cover. It's an SEC division title or bust. |
| Mississippi State athletic director discourages fans from rushing field | |
| Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork embraced the post-game celebration by the school's fans after beating Alabama, 23-17, on Saturday, but don't expect his counterpart at Mississippi State to do the same. MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin was asked by a fan on Twitter Wednesday whether fans will be allowed to rush the field if the football team beats No. 2 Auburn at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday in Starkville. Stricklin answered on Twitter: "No. Stay in stands & sing alma mater/fight song (with) players." He went into further detail on the topic in a post Wednesday on the MSU athletics web site. |
| Ole Miss, Mississippi State fan chaos: Goalpost safety an issue | |
| It's a time-honored tradition in college football. In the wake of a euphoric victory, throngs of fans race onto the field and send the goalposts tumbling. It may seem like a playful act. But that's not how athletic department officials see it. "A lot goes through your mind in that situation," said Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork. "Just don't do it. That's my message to fans." Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin agrees with Bjork, saying he cringes at the hallowed tradition. "It's frightening, to be honest," he said. Both Bjork and Stricklin agree that the first priority when fans swarm the field is the safety of both teams' players and coaches. But how to prevent and protect students and fans in future situations is the difficult part. |
| Mississippi State's Dak Prescott is college football's new star | |
| A smile slowly crept across Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott's face as he remembered the way his mother would introduce her three sons around town during their childhood in Haughton, Louisiana. First, she would gush for a minute about her two oldest, Tad and Jace. Then she would turn to Dak. "And this," she would say proudly. "Is my Heisman Trophy winner." Turns out the late Peggy Prescott might have been onto something. Dak Prescott is suddenly right in the middle of the Heisman race after a breakout game against Texas A&M last weekend. |
| How Mississippi State plans to emulate Auburn's 2013 run to national title game | |
 | One of the questions on every college football pundit's lips the last few months has been, "who will be this year's version of 2013 Auburn?" Auburn was ranked outside the preseason top 25 last year, but not only won the SEC championship, it played for the national title. The Tigers had gone 3-9 in 2012 (including 0-8 in the SEC), but scored one last-second victory after another in Gus Malzahn's first season. Mississippi State, off to an undefeated and ranked No. 3 in the country, looks like a strong contender to replicate Auburn's breakthrough from last year. The Bulldogs finished with a winning record last season, but were 4-5 before winning their last three. "I definitely see some similarities," MSU tight end Darrion Hutcherson said. "Auburn had a losing season (in 2012) and all of a sudden they were playing for a national championship. They went from worst to first. I don't feel like Mississippi State is coming from 'worst,' but we're definitely working our way up to first." |
| For Mississippi State's Hutcherson, Auburn game is personal | |
| Darrion Hutcherson always expected to play in Saturday's game pitting No. 2 Auburn against third-ranked Mississippi State. But the junior tight end anticipated he would be suiting up for his home state Tigers, especially after signing with Auburn in 2012. However, Hutcherson never arrived on the plains. The day he was set to move to Auburn, he found out he failed to qualify academically and had to enroll at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. Despite two successful seasons and being ranked as the No. 2 tight end at the junior college level, the Tigers never offered a second time. That is one reason that Hutcherson, an admitted Auburn fan, has had this game circled for quite some time. "This week's big," Hutcherson said. "This one's personal for me." |
| Mississippi State TE Hutcherson nearly played at Auburn | |
| Saturday mornings for Darrion Hutcherson began in front of a TV that showed ESPN's College GameDay. He watched with anticipation, waiting to hear the analysts' opinion of his favorite team. That team? Auburn. Hutcherson grew up in Dadeville, Alabama, 25 miles from Jordan-Hare Stadium. His heroes were former Tiger running backs Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown. "I loved watching them play every Saturday morning," Hutcherson said. This Saturday, he'll wake up in Starkville. ESPN's College Gameday will be in the Junction. He'll wear maroon for No. 3 Mississippi State in a matchup against No. 2 Auburn. |
| Mississippi State defense confident after strong effort against Auburn run game last year | |
| No team truly shut down the Auburn running game in 2013, but the team that came closest was probably Mississippi State. The Bulldogs held the Tigers to a season-low 120 yards and no touchdowns on the ground in Auburn's 24-20 victory last September. The Tigers averaged just 3.3 yards per carry against MSU, with Nick Marshall held to 22 yards on 10 attempts. By contrast, Auburn averaged 328.4 yards and 6.3 yards per carry for the season. However, it was not until later in the year that the Tigers' running game really took hold, MSU defensive coordinator Geoff Collins said. "I think we did a decent job defending the run last year, understanding that that was early in the season," Collins said. "As the season went on, they get started more and more and more powerful. ... We understand how talented they are. We understand how good they are. Their scheme is one of the best of the country." |
| Fast start key to Auburn's showdown against Mississippi State, Malzahn says | |
 | Auburn already passed its first road test against a ranked team. But Gus Malzahn wants his team to do at least one thing different in Saturday's showdown against Mississippi State. Auburn's offense has to get on track more quickly than it did in Manhattan. "I think it's important that we get off to a fast start offensively and defensively," Malzahn said in his weekly SEC teleconference appearance on Wednesday. "I know the crowd's going to be into the game." This atmosphere is expected to be at another level. Mississippi State is ranked higher than it ever has been before, ESPN's College GameDay will be in the Junction and the Tigers have had more than their fair share of battles with the Bulldogs go down to the wire in recent years. |
| Mississippi State's Mullen attempts to temper significance of top-3 matchup | |
| Dan Mullen hasn't had much of an opportunity to see all the "excitement" going on around Starkville, Mississippi this week. He's been too busy preparing for No. 2 Auburn. But with ESPN's College GameDay pregame show coming to town on Saturday and CBS televising the top-3 matchup between his No. 3 Bulldogs (5-0, 2-0 SEC) and the defending SEC champion Tigers (5-0, 2-0) in the prime 2:30 p.m. slot, Mullen has no doubt the atmosphere around Wade Davis Stadium is going to be electric. "I don't get outside of the building much except for practice, I get in early and go home late, (laughs) so I don't get to see what it's like around town," Mullen said. Mullen has repeatedly tried to downplay the significance surrounding his team's 5-0 start and its highest-ever ranking in the AP, especially when it relates to his team's overall plan for this season. |
| Ole Miss, Mississippi State among unlikely playoff contenders | |
| Imagine a playoff that includes Arizona facing Ole Miss in one semifinal and Mississippi State meeting Georgia Tech in the other. Is it a long shot? Sure. But it's not quite as far-fetched as it may have seemed before this season of surprises began. No. 3 Mississippi State, No. 9 TCU, No. 10 Arizona and No. 22 Georgia Tech are all unbeaten after starting the season unranked. |
| Southern Miss AD McGillis embraces challenges, change | |
 | The Southern Miss athletic department has faced many challenges in recent years, and will have more to come as the future of collegiate athletics evolves, athletic director Bill McGillis told the Hattiesburg American editorial board Tuesday. Currently, full scholarships cover tuition, books, fees, and room and board. The cost to fund scholarships for the more than 350 student-athletes at Southern Miss -- the equivalent of 200-225 full scholarships -- is currently more than $5 million per year. And it will be a matter of when, not if, the NCAA's new structure will give colleges the ability to provide an unprecedented level of benefits for their student-athletes, including full cost-of-attendance scholarships. |
| Former Vanderbilt football coach changes story about rape case video | |
 | Former Vanderbilt University football coach James Franklin changed his story Wednesday about whether he had seen a video of what police say was a sexual assault on a student by four then-football players in June 2013. Franklin, testifying via Skype during a pretrial hearing for four former players facing rape charges, said he gave players the impression he had seen the video to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. "I spoke as if I had seen the video because I was angry and upset and didn't want to water down the message to them," said Franklin, now the head coach at Penn State University. Franklin said he had not then -- and still has not -- seen any video evidence, a change from what he has said before. |
| U. of Florida releases report on Harris probe, but it's almost completely redacted | |
| In response to news media requests, the University of Florida Police Department on Wednesday released a report into the investigation surrounding an allegation of sexual assault against freshman quarterback Treon Harris in which all 18 pages were completely redacted. UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said the redactions were made by the UF general counsel's office and comply with Florida statutes regarding police investigations. "They are still investigating. They are talking to more people," Sikes said. "I don't know when (the investigation) will be finished. I really don't." |
| Campus sex assault cases rarely prosecuted | |
| When Gainesville lawyer Huntley Johnson said he'd be shocked if his client, reserve quarterback Treon Harris, was prosecuted in the sexual battery case being investigated against the University of Florida freshman, Johnson had plenty of reason to feel confident. "This is coming from experience and what I do know of this case, and that the burden of proof is very heavy on the state, and I don't think they can make it in this case," Johnson told The Sun. An analysis of University of Florida Police Department records shows that no UF student accused of sexual battery of a fellow student has been charged or prosecuted in the past five years. |
| Colleges Walk a Fine Line When Athletes Are Accused of Sexual Assault | |
 | When a star athlete is accused of sexual assault, teams of handlers typically swoop in to contain what can rapidly escalate into a public-relations crisis for a university. Given the intense focus on campus sexual violence, the playbook today is more likely to call for swift suspensions and public disclosures than sweeping the matter under the rug. But as both the University of Florida and the University of Kentucky responded this week to accusations against freshman football players, they walked a fine line, immediately and publicly denouncing sexual assault while stressing that they would be fair to the players who had been accused but not convicted of any crime. While Florida and Kentucky took swift action to publicly disclose the actions they had taken against the accused players, that hasn't always been the case when universities' reputations are at stake. |
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