Thousands of Mississippi State and college football fans gathered last Tuesday in Starkville to remember and honor Bulldog head football coach Mike Leach. A memorial service at Humphrey Coliseum included stories about Leach, who will be remembered as a larger-than-life personality of humor and love but also a great football coach. The VIP list for the Leach memorial was filled with some of the top names in college football, including all 13 of the SEC head football coaches. His legacy will be remembered as he would want us to “live your life to the fullest.”
Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State are preparing for their bowl games this week. Ole Miss (8-4) will play this Wednesday at 8 p.m. as they travel to Houston to play Texas Tech in the Texas Bowl. Number 22 Mississippi State will not play until Monday, January 2, when they take on Illinois in Tampa in the ReliaQuest Bowl at 11 a.m.
Mississippi State kept intact the last Mike Leach recruiting class led by 4-star quarterback Chris Parson of Brentwood, Tennessee. Mississippi State signed 27 players to scholarships with 15 of those new recruits hailing from Mississippi. The Bulldogs inked 14 of the top 25 high school players in the state. Four of those signees were Mississippi JUCO players and one Texas JUCO product. The Bulldogs also grabbed an LSU and a Miami transfer.
Ole Miss signed 12 high school prospects that included eight 4-stars led by Mississippi’s top two prospects in Raleigh’s Suntarine Perkins and Ridgeland’s Ayden Williams. The Rebels also signed four 3-star players. The Rebels’ haul also included three of the top players from Mississippi. Lane Kiffin is known for his transfer portal expertise, so you can look for more additions.
Will Hall’s second signing class at Southern Mississippi landed 23 players that included four more quarterbacks. Eight of the signees were transfers from Clemson, Arkansas, Arizona, Memphis, Ole Miss and MSU. The Eagles also signed three JUCO players from Co-Lin. The Eagles did lose quarterback Trey Lowe to the transfer portal, according to Lowe’s twitter page.
Despite Deion Sanders leaving Jackson State, new head coach T.C. Taylor landed 14 players including portal transfers from Oregon, USC, Louisiana Tech and Troy.
The Tigers have had 15 players enter the transfer portal since Sanders’ departure as his sons and Travis Hunter will join him in Colorado.
The state’s third best player in Picayune running back Dante Dowdell signed with Oregon while the fourth best Isaac Smith of Itawamba inked with MSU. The fifth best Jamarious Brown of Moss Point signed with Ole Miss followed by Ocean Springs quarterback Brayson Hubbard who inked with Alabama.
For the first time in his career, New Orleans linebacker Demario Davis received an invite to the Pro Bowl. The Brandon native leads the team in tackles and sacks this season and was the only Saint invited.
The Mississippi State men’s basketball team (11-1) finally fell last week on the road at Drake. The Bulldogs will open their SEC schedule by hosting No. 9 Alabama on Wednesday. Ole Miss (8-4) was shocked by North Alabama last week and now must travel to No. 8 Tennessee this Wednesday. Southern Mississippi (11-2) fell on the road to UNLV last week and will open their Sun Belt schedule by hosting Troy on Thursday night.
The year 2022 will be long remembered as the impossible run of Ole Miss baseball to claiming their first national NCAA baseball championship. What is in store for our state’s big sports headlines in 2023? Well, the news was good in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine’s preseason rankings as they have Southern Mississippi ranked at No. 18, MSU at No. 22 and Ole Miss at No. 24. The Southeastern Conference had six teams in the Top 10 with LSU (1), Florida (2), Arkansas (4), Tennessee (5), Arkansas (7) and Vanderbilt (9). The NCAA Division 1 season opens on February 17.
