Larry Brown Sports

Chris Jones is a five-star defensive end recruit from Houston, Miss., and he intends to remain in his home state to play college ball. As you know, the state of Mississippi has two very large football programs in Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Fans of both SEC schools take their college ball very seriously, which has made Jones’ decision process quite difficult. Based on what he says, it has also been frightening.

“It was a crazy weekend,” Jones told ESPN.com, via Dr. Saturday. “I received death threats, insane messages, you name it. I mean it has not been as stressful as people would think it has been. I have tried to handle it in the most comfortable way possible, so it has really been alright for me, and in the end, I am very blessed to have this opportunity to play for either in-state school.”

According to Scout.com, Jones is ranked No. 2 in the nation at his position. You can understand why fans want him to commit to the school they root for, but the fact that someone would send a death threat to a high school kid over it is disturbing. Signing day is Wednesday, and Jones said he has made up his mind but he is not ready to reveal his decision yet for obvious reasons.

“I think I have my mind made up,” he said. “I am excited about the people I will be surrounded with at that program. I have not told my parents, and I am not going to worry about making them or anyone unhappy. I am ready to make the best decision for me. Some people’s feelings might get hurt, but sometimes you cannot make everyone happy. A couple people might get angry on Facebook and Twitter, too, but that is life. I will announce my decision on signing day, and I do not plan to tell either school before then.”

Jones gave each school one final look this past weekend, and it sounds like his parents would prefer him to attend Ole Miss. While it’s ultimately his decision, it’s always good to listen to the advice of your parents. It’s also good to ignore the psychopaths who feel the need to threaten an 18-year-old about his decision on where he should further his education and career.

Last Saturday’s game between Mississippi State and Auburn was never really close. Through a scoreless quarter of play it looked like we could be in for a defensive struggle between two tough SEC teams, but the Bulldogs soon began to pull away and never looked back. Auburn was unable to get anything going on offense, and starting quarterback Kiehl Frazier completed only 13-of-22 passes for 125 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions in the 28-10 loss. It was almost as if Mississippi State knew the plays.

According to senior defensive back Corey Broomfield, the Bulldogs did know the plays.

“We do a great job of preparing and we knew what the play was before they ever ran them,” Broomfield told The Dispatch. “That’s not a joke. We knew what they were doing, where the ball was going and who was getting it before the ball was snapped.”

“It makes our job as coaches so much easier when (linebacker) Cam Lawrence is signaling over his head every time they were calling a pass,” Mississippi State linebackers coach Geoff Collins added.

Lawrence said he and his teammates were able to “get into (Frazier’s) head” and could tell he was confused when they called out the plays he had signaled. As Dr. Saturday pointed out, Auburn has closed practices this week to everyone except players, coaches and team staff. Tigers head coach Gene Chizik called it a problem that the team can rectify, but obviously it’s something that they are taking seriously and are at least mildly concerned over.

In a move almost straight out of “Little Giants,” Mississippi State’s football team had a failed entrance onto the field for their season-opening game against Jackson State on Saturday. Several players ran into and tumbled over the fog machine that’s supposed to make the team look mysterious and intimidating as they run out of the tunnel and onto the field. Instead, the sequence made them look more like a slapstick routine than a football team.

Luckily for the Bulldogs, the failed entrance was not a premonition of what was to come; they hammered Jackson State 56-9. Below is a fantastic look at the pileup:

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The billboard rivalry between Mississippi State and Ole Miss has been going on for quite some time, but things just got a bit more serious. Since last year, harmless billboards that said things like “This is our state” would pop up in the Mississippi area from time to time. This past January, Mississippi State went with a new series of advertisements that read “Play with the best.” This is a problem for the NCAA.

According to the Daily Journal State, MSU school officials ruled that the billboards were being used as a recruiting tool. As a result, the university has announced a few self-imposed penalties, one of which requires the compliance office to review all billboards before they are run in the future.

In a certain sense I understand how this is a violation. Obviously, it’s an advertisement that attempts to convince people that Mississippi State is the way to go over Ole Miss. However, I don’t see how it is any different from saying “This is our state,” which is a message that has been plastered on billboards by other schools as well. That NCAA is one bizarre organization.

H/T Eye on College Football

Those of who you who are familiar with the Cam Newton pay-for-play scandal know exactly why Mississippi State fans hate Auburn now even more than they used to.  In fact, it is believed that Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen is the one who leaked the Newton information to begin with.  Needless to say, fans still have not gotten over the Newton situation.

As the Bulldogs prepare to take on Auburn this weekend, restaurants and local establishments in Starkville are doing their part to pump up the community.  Check out this Starkville coffeehouse Auburn sign, courtesy of Twitter user @stuartreese:

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A FOXSports.com report by Thayer Evans on Monday night said Auburn quarterback Cam Newton cheated twice at Florida before deciding to transfer to Blinn College. Auburn has defended its quarterback ferociously with coach Gene Chizik calling the allegations “garbage.” Besides the allegations, which now number two in less than a week for the Heisman Trophy candidate, Newton defenders are trying to distract the issue by pointing out that Newton’s private academic records have been leaked. They wonder where the information comes from given that the disclosure of such information would be a violation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

A report by Auburn Undercover, a member of the 247 Sports Network, apparently says the leak comes from Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen. Paul Finebaum’s twitter passes along the details from AuburnUndercover.com’s report: “Source for the latest academic fraud controversy swirling around Cam Newton originated in Starkville.’ … Per AuburnUndercover Source “Mullen had axe to grind. He believes he’d be undefeated & playing for an SEC Champ. if Newton had gone to MSU. … Ron Sanders: five sources say Dan Mullen is the source of the Cam Newton allegations of academic issues.”

Many people speculated that the leak came from Florida, but it’s quite possible that the source emanated from Starkville. Dan Mullen was the offensive coordinator at Florida while Newton was there so it’s likely he knew about the cheating issues. Additionally, as a school with a legitimate academic interest in Newton (Mississippi State recruited him), they could have had access to his academic records under the law’s provisions. A question, to a lesser extent, is whether Mullen knew about Newton cheating at Florida, and the larger question is whether or not he leaked the story.

One thing that must be kept in mind is that if Newton hadn’t stolen another student’s paper and changed the name on it we wouldn’t have any story to discuss. The responsibility begins with Newton if it in fact is true.

Sometimes you have to look at yourself in the mirror, be honest, and ask yourself, “Can I really do better than that?” If Mississippi State were to ask themselves that question regarding their head football coach, my answer would be “No.” I don’t know who Mississippi State thinks they are, or what they expect to be in a football sense, but I thought Sylvester Croom did a pretty good job with the program. From what I remember, he inherited a program on NCAA probation with scholarship reductions, one that had gone 7-27 in the three previous years. Sure, it took a few years before Mississippi State was no longer a punching bag, but they had reached that point.

Croom scored a big win over Florida in his first year as the Bulldogs’ head coach, helping launch the fire Ron Zook movement. In 2005, Croom’s squad obliterated rival Ole Miss 35-14. Finally by mid-season in 2006, his third year with the program, Mississippi State started to play at a respectable level. The Bulldogs kept all of their games in the second half of that season close, proving to me that Croom was getting Mississippi State to a respectable level.

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