STARKVILLE — The pain is gone.
First baseman Wes Rea overcame a month-long slump and ace Chris Stratton pitched yet another gem Thursday, helping Mississippi State take a 3-1 victory against No. 5 Kentucky at Dudy Noble Field.
Rea, who has battled a shoulder injury, busted out of a 1-for-42 slump with a pair of hits, including a two-run single in the fourth inning.
read more: ClarionLedger.com
STARKVILLE — The fire still burns.
Sure, the faces have changed over the last year, but the suddenly hot rivalry between Mississippi State and Florida remains.
MSU (30-18, 12-12 SEC) and fifth-ranked Florida (36-13, 14-10) meet again in Gainesville, Fla., today at 6 p.m., continuing a heated and dramatic rivalry that began last spring and ended with a shouting match between coaches in a Super Regional matchup last June.
read more: clarionledger.com
STARKVILLE — One game is not enough for the SEC.
Mississippi State coach John Cohen will serve an additional single-game suspension Friday after SEC commissioner Mike Slive determined Wednesday that the coach violated the conference’s “sportsmanship rules” during a postgame blowup at Alabama on Sunday.
read more: ClarionLedger.com
YAZOO CITY — Blanche Cox looked into the two baby carriages her granddaughter Melissa brought home 20-something years ago.
First, she looked at Fantasia. Then she glanced at Fantasia’s twin brother, Fletcher.
“She saw his big eyes and started calling him Bug Eye,” recalled Melissa, Fletcher’s mother. “He’s been ‘Bug Eye’ ever since.”
To the folks in his hometown of Yazoo City, he’s still – and always will be – just Bug Eye.
Read more: ClarionLedger.com
Levon Helm, 71, drummer and singer with The Band, dies
Levon Helm, 71, the Arkansas-born drummer and singer for The Band, the four-fifths Canadian ensemble whose music in the 1960s and ’70s, some of it with Bob Dylan, endures as a high-water mark of quintessential American rock-and-roll, died Thursday of complications from cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
“Levon Helm passed peacefully,” according to an announcement on his website. “He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.”
Mr. Helm went on to a fruitful career as an actor and solo artist after The Band’s 1976 valedictory concert, which Martin Scorsese immortalized in The Last Waltz, widely regarded as one of rock’s great live albums and concert films.
read more: philly.com
STARKVILLE — Enough with the encouragement.
That is the message from Mississippi State coach John Cohen, who has tried and tried to push his players to fight through injuries and inexperience.
The breaking point was Tuesday night in Pearl, when MSU struck out 16 times, committed two errors and, more importantly, lost 6-3 to arch-rival Ole Miss.
After the loss, Cohen said he got into the faces of his players and told them “this is unacceptable.”
read more: clarionledger.com
STARKVILLE — Rain forced Mississippi State inside for spring football practice Tuesday, but the effects of slippery fields and wet gloves followed the Bulldogs indoors for what coach Dan Mullen called a “sloppy” practice.
It was Mullen’s first practice after missing Friday’s scrimmage for the birth of his daughter, and this one didn’t go as he had hoped, due to the weather.
“It changed our week around,” Mullen said. “We were going to scrimmage a little bit today and then do situations on Thursday.”
Read more: ClarionLedger.com
Spencer Hall spent a day embedded with the Mississippi State football program, and was with the coaching staff when Bobby Petrino was fired. It would have been a big deal if anyone had the time to notice.
Apr 10, 2012 - 7:05 a.m. Dan Mullen sits at his computer, surrounded by the habitat of an SEC head coach: wraparound desk, computers, phones, and bric-a-brac emblazoned with school iconography. Bulldogs pop out from every corner of his office. Balls from the past three Egg Bowls and the 52-14 nullification of Michigan in the 2011 Gator Bowl sit encased in glass. A Diet Coke is open on the table.
Read more: sbnation.com
STARKVILLE — Versatility can be a strength but it can also be a weakness on the football field.
Do too much with one player and it might spread you thin. It’s the “jack of all trades, master of none” cliche coaches love to use.
But Mississippi State’s linebackers believe it’s a great attribute, one that has allowed them to play all three positions – inside, middle and outside – this spring while also taking on other responsibilities.
The linebackers have expanded their roles in pass coverage and blitz packages and, yes, even a select few grab the grass and dig their hands in the dirt as pseudo-linemen.
Read more: ClarionLedger.com
There is a method to everything Dan Mullen does, and that even includes smack talk.
This being Egg Bowl week, the braggadocio is in full effect for Mullen and his Mississippi State team, which hosts Ole Miss on Saturday. The third-year coach established a tone for this rivalry in 2009 and has backed up every word.
sunherald.com
11/23/11
