Mississippi State Sports Blog

Mississippi State registered its highest SEC hitting percentage in 30 matches Sunday but fell short in a closely-contested 3-0 battle with South Carolina. The Gamecocks (10-3, 2-2 SEC) turned back the Bulldogs 25-22, 26-24, 25-17 before 621 fans at USC’s Volleyball Competition Center.

“I’m proud of the way the girls competed today,” said State coach Jenny Hazelwood. “A lot of the things that we’ve been working on — our blocking, our passing and out serving, are beginning to come around for us, and we’re starting to develop some consistency in our execution. Our setters did a nice job spreading the ball around and we got good balance on offense.”

Hazelwood also had praise for senior Ioana Demian, who made the shift to middle blocker and responded with a career-best seven assisted blocks. “Ioana is solid wherever we need her to play for us,” said Hazelwood. “Today we moved her to middle and she turned in strong performance at the net.”

Demian bettered her personal-best block assist mark of six set as a freshman in a 3-2 MSU win at South Carolina in 2006.

State hit .283 for the match, the highest SEC hitting percentage for State since hitting .302 at Auburn on November 2, 2007.

The also Bulldogs turned in one of their strongest showings at the net, amassing a 10-2 match lead in total team blocks. Kellye Jordan and Faith Steinwedell registered season-bests four total blocks each.

State jumped out to a 4-1 lead to open the match and built out a 20-18 advantage. But USC, overcoming a match-best .345 hitting display by State, out-pointed the Bulldogs 7-2 down the stretch for a 25-22 opening set win.

Back-to-back kills by Kellye Jordan sparked a 6-0 Bulldog run in the second set that saw the Bulldogs battle to an 18-16 lead and later to a serve at set point, 24-23. But USC drilled three straight kills, the last two by Teresa Stenlund, to take a 26-24 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

South Carolina spotted the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead to open the third stanza, then took control of the match with a 7-0 run. Faith Steinwedell nailed kills that pulled State to within a point twice down the stretch at 11-10 and 13-12. But the Gamecocks put the set and match away with a 5-1 spurt and closed out a 25-17 set with their fourth service ace of the day.

Sophomore Caitlin Rance registered a team-leading nine kills and hit at a .348 clip. Sophomore Faith Steinwedell had a season-best six kills while Ashley Newsome, Dorey Gray and Kellye Jordan chipped in five kills each. Senior setter Dorey Gray returned to the Bulldog starting lineup and tallied a season high five kills in six error-free attacks while leading State with 17 assists. Sophomore Leanna King, making her first career start as the Bulldog libero, paced MSU with nine digs.

South Carolina got a dominating offensive performance by Meredith Moorhead, who had 17 kills and just two attack errors on a .625 hitting day.

The Bulldogs continue their three-match SEC road run Wednesday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., with a 7 p.m. match at Alabama (5-9, 3-1 SEC). MSU hosts SEC West rival LSU Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

VIa Media Relations

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Mississippi State’s Oct. 3rd game with Georgia Tech is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. (CT) and will be broadcast by Comcast / Charter Sports Southeast, the Southeastern Conference announced today.

Every Mississippi State football game this season will be televised by one of the conference’s television partners. The Georgia Tech game will also be available on ESPN GamePlan and ESPN360.com.

Via Media Reltaions

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The Mississippi State soccer team won its seventh-straight match Friday night as Kat Walsh’s goal in the 47th minute lifted the Bulldogs to a 1-0 victory over North Florida in the Hampton Inn Ponte Vedra Showcase in Jacksonville, Fla.

After playing a scoreless first half, Walsh took just 1:48 in the second half to give the Bulldogs the game-winning goal. Walsh beat a pair of defenders and fired a 20-yard shot past UNF goalkeeper Rachael Howard for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.

“Kat came up with another big goal for us tonight. We did a nice job of creating opportunities, and she took advantage of one of those chances and scored a great goal,” MSU head coach Neil Macdonald said. “North Florida is a very good team, but our team fought hard the entire match and came away with the win.”

State out-shot UNF (2-5-1) 14-7 and put seven of those attempts on goal. MSU senior goalkeeper Taryn Holland stopped all three shots she faced to lead the State defense to its fourth shutout in the last five matches. The blank sheet was the 10th of Holland’s career, moving her into a tie for the school’s career record.

The Bulldogs close the non-conference schedule Sunday, taking on Florida Gulf Coast Sunday at 10 a.m. CDT.

Via Media Relations

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Via Media Relations

Mississippi State will begin construction on a new, $11.2 million state-of-the-art basketball practice facility on Tuesday following the announcement that the Henry Mize Foundation has donated a lead gift of $4 million.

The expected 15-month construction project will be built by JESCO, Inc. of Tupelo and Fulton, with the design concept provided by Foil Wyatt Architects of Jackson, Miss.

The building, which will be named at a later date in honor of the Mize family and will be attached to the south side of Humphrey Coliseum, will be 57,611 square feet and contain 23,500 square feet of court space. Included will be an 84-space parking garage, offices for both the men’s and women’s coaches, two collegiate regulation courts length wise with four high school size cross courts, a weight room, training room and a reception area of 5,000 square feet.

“This is a great day for our men’s and women’s basketball teams, for our entire athletic program and for the university as a whole,” MSU president Dr. Mark E. Keenum said. “Today, we’re launching a project that will be a major asset to our campus, enhancing its attractiveness and functionality by providing new flexibility and increased efficiency to our basketball programs.”

View architectural renderings of the new practice facility.

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The 2009 edition of Mississippi State football began preparing for its upcoming season back in January with winter workouts under the watchful eyes of head strength and conditioning coach Matt Bails. Some eight months and a countless number workouts later, the Bulldogs are ready to begin the final pre-season push.

Head coach Dan Mullen welcomed 102 players to campus on Sunday for a team meeting focusing on policies and procedures. Tomorrow, the head coach will bring his troops to the practice fields for the first time.

Mississippi State’s varsity squad will practice tomorrow at 3:15 p.m., with fans invited to attend. In total, five practices during the first week will be open to the public. The Bulldogs open the 2009 campaign on Saturday, Sept. 5 against Jackson State. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m., and the game will be televised nationally by ESPNU.

Via Media Relations

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STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State junior first baseman Connor Powers was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday in the 11th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.

Powers, from Naperville, Ill., was the 337th overall selection in this year’s draft and the first State player tabbed by the Dodgers since 1999.

After two seasons as MSU’s starting third baseman, Powers moved across the diamond and started 53 of MSU’s 54 games at first base. A

.315 career hitter, Powers compiled a .301 batting average in 2009, tying for fifth in the SEC with 19 home runs and seventh in the league with a .668 slugging percentage. He paced the Bulldogs with 49 runs scored, 15 doubles and 63 RBI.

In just his first season at first base, Powers registered a .998 fielding, committing but one error in 422 defensive chances and having a hand in 46 of State’s 56 doubles plays.

Powers belted eight home runs as a freshman in 2007, 11 in 2008 and 19 in 2009, the most by a Bulldog player since 2004 (Brad Corley). He swatted 14 home runs in SEC competition, tops in the league, and in three seasons totaled 38 roundtrippers, ninth-most in MSU baseball history.

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The weekly syndicated television program SEC-TV will feature a segment on Mississippi State head football coach Dan Mullen when the program airs later this week. The show will air on Thursday, May 7 at 5:30 p.m. (CT) on Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Carolinas and Fox Sports Tennessee. It will also be shown on SportSouth Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. (CT).

SEC-TV has Coach Mullen “mic’d up” at spring practice and provides exclusive insight into how the team will perform during the 2009 football season. The footage was shot as a Fox Sports crew was on the Mississippi State campus for nearly a full week working on a behind-the-scenes half-hour show that will air later this summer. Details of that program and its air times will be announced early in June.

Coach Mullen and members of the athletic department staff and the alumni association are currently travelling around the Southeast as part of the Road Dawgs Tour. Today’s events are in Clarksdale and Greenwood, Miss., with tomorrow taking place in Natchez. Next week the Tour travels to Laurel, Pascagoula, New Orleans, Jackson, Tenn., and Corinth.

Via Media Relations

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As he has said all along, Mullen has officially announced assignments for the coaching staff now that signing day is behind us.

Here is how they break down:

Offense:

Les Koenning – Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks
Mark Hudspeth- Passing game coordinator/receivers
John Hevesy – Running game coordinator/offensive line
Greg Knox – Running backs

Defense:

Carl Torbush – Defensive coordinator/linebackers
David Turner – Defensive line
Melvin Smith – Cornerbacks/nickelbacks
Tony Hughes – Safeties/recruiting coordinator
Scott Sallach – Tight ends

Adminsitrative:

Reed Stringer – Director of recruiting operations
Rockey Felker – Director of player personnel/high school relations
Jody Wright – Coordinator of football operations

I like the reassignment of Reed Stringer. It was clear he was not a good special teams coach at all, but he is a great recruiter. I think he was the lead contact on most of the signees in our class this year.

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Meridian High (MS) quarterback Tyler Russell and wide receiver Chris Smith both signed National Letters-of-Intent with Mississippi State today. Here are a few pics from their signing ceremony in Meridian. Tyler will wear #17 as a Bulldog and was wearing his jersey.

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It appears that former MSU head coach Sylvester Croom is pulling a reverse Spurrier and going back to the NFL after a fairly unsuccessful stint in the college football realm.

The St. Louis Dispatch is reporting that the Rams plan to hire Croom, most likely as a running backs coach.

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Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel is reporting this morning that new MSU head coach Dan Mullen is bringing at least one of his fellow assistant coaches with him from Florida.

Gators tight ends coach John Hevesy will join Dan Mullen’s staff at Mississippi State as the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach.

Hevesy is another long-time assistant of Urban Meyer, first joining him at Bowling Green in 2001.

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The Blog is enjoying the holidays and the lack of MSU sports-related news. We also have some pretty big events coming up including a 10 year wedding anniversary, so we will see you on the flip side of the new year sometime.

In the mean while, Jack Cristil is loved by MSU fans and especially for his no-nonsense, call-it-like-I-see-it attitude. This was especially apparent during the Croom tenure at State. Here are some of the more memorable quotes from this year’s Egg Bowl. This has been posted all over the web so I am not even sure who to attitribute it to.

“The QB and the receiver weren’t on the same page there; but hey, it’s only week eleven.”

“Handoff to Dixon. And Dixon is murdered on the play.”

After Ole Miss went up 17-0 in the 1st Quarter: “They are going to have to send in their second kickoff coverage unit because the first unit is going to tire out with all of these kickoffs.”

“Ole Miss has just scored and we don’t know who scored because No. 85 isn’t listed on their roster. It’s academic at this point.”

After an MSU holding call, “Well, if you can’t block ‘em, hold ‘em!
John Correro: “One can only hope so, Jack.”

“It’s third down and so long, you will need surveying equipment to see how much is needed for a first down.”

“There are only 45 seconds left. Maybe Ole Miss won’t score another touchdown. In the 1st quarter that is.”

“Coming up on the end of the quarter – the third quarter, that is. We’ve still got another one to play.

“At the end of the third quarter, Ole Miss barely out in front, 38-0.”

“Ole Miss has punted once today for a grand total of 12 yards. They ought to improve on that with this next punt.” (Laughter in the background as he was saying it)

“Let’s punt it again. McAdams has to punt it a lot in his final game as a Bulldog.”

In the 4th Quarter: “For the record both teams have all of their timeouts left. So, that ought to make it fun.”

“Well, what do you know? The Rebels have put a couple of backup linemen in the game.”

“Mercifully, the clock continues to run.”

“About 3 minutes left, many fans have long been gone. In fact, some of them are probably already home by now.”

“Chris Relf can throw it long. He cannot throw it accurately, but he can throw it long.”

“Well, that’s only a loss of 9 there. So, it’s only third and 19.”

“A great many of the 55,000 fans have left the game now (45-0), they might even be home now watching on TV”.

“It’s 4th down and 24 yards to go, this ought to dictate a punt right now.”
John Correro: “One can only hope so, Jack.”

“Well, the Bulldogs take a delay of game. That backs them up to their 4 where it will be fourth and 31. We just wanted to make sure McAdams had plenty of room to kick the ball because he has such a powerful leg.”

“That’s it. Ballgame over. Ole Miss noses out Mississippi State, 45-0.”

“Sonic drive of the game….My drive home to Tupelo, MS I guarantee you that is my drive of the game.” Then he proceeded to give his home address.

After Ole Miss was twice flagged for celebration after scoring: “That’s terrible, throwing a flag on a kid that just made a great play. Let the kid celebrate a little.”

Happy New Year!

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Les Koenning, Jr., a veteran of more than 25 years coaching on the collegiate level including a previous stop at Mississippi State, has been named to head coach Dan Mullen’s coaching staff, pending approval by the Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning.

“Les is a great addition to our staff and he’s an innovative offensive mind,” Mullen said. “He’s been around football his entire life and has a wealth of experience on the offensive side of the ball.”

Koenning comes to Mississippi State from South Alabama, where he spent the past season as the offensive coordinator for the newly developed Jaguar program. South Alabama will begin playing intercollegiate football in 2009.

“I’ve known Coach Mullen for a long time and our offensive philosophies are very similar,” Koenning said. “This is a wonderful opportunity for my family and me and I’m excited to return to Starkville to help continue to build this program.”

Prior to his one-year stay at South Alabama, Koenning, 49, spent five years on the Texas A&M staff, serving as offensive coordinator and working with the quarterbacks. He has spent the last 10 years of his career coordinating offenses and calling plays, starting in 1998 at Duke before stops at Houston (1999), TCU (2000) and Alabama (2001-03).

A native of Houston, Koenning began his career with graduate assistantships at Texas and Alabama before being named wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Louisiana-Lafayette in 1985.

Koenning then served as running backs and wide receivers coach for Rockey Felker at Mississippi State from 1986-89. He moved to Rice as wide receivers coach from 1990-93 before taking the same position at Texas A&M.  Koenning gained a year of experience in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins during the 1997 season before returning to his college roots.

A 1981 graduate of Texas with a degree in Health and Physical Education, Koenning added a master’s degree in sports management two years later.  He and his wife, Lisa, have two children, Les and Lana.

LES KOENNING BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Education:
Master’s in Sports Management – Texas, 1983
Bachelor’s in Health and Physical Education – Texas, 1981

Personal:
Born on February 10, 1959 in San Antonio, Texas
Married to the former Lisa Pihl
Two children, Les and Lana

Via Media Relations

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The 2008 Super Bulldog Weekend was originally scheduled for the first weekend in April, the 3-5. The Diamond Dogs have a series at home against Auburn that weekend. It has been resheduled to April 17-19 to coincide with the first spring football game under Coach Dan Mullen.

Coach Mullen placed a lot of emphasis on having a great turnout for his first spring game, even mentioning it at his introduction as head coach.

The opponent for that weekend will be Kentucky, which sets up another great storyline for the weekend. New baseball head coach John Cohen was hired away from Kentucky after the departure of Ron Polk last summer.

I had already booked a hotel room for the original Super Bulldog Weekend, so now I am scrambling to cancel it and hope that I can get a reservation for the new weekend.

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Mississippi State had a pretty good day. On the first day of the JUCO signing period, the Bulldogs picked up 3 binding letters of intent with possibly more on the way.

Heath Hutchins led the nation in punting in 2008 with an average of 46.1 yards and a long of 69 yards. Hutchins has played at Itawamba Community College and is a native of Saltillo, MS.

Maurice Langston of East Central Community College was named 1st All Region as a wide receiver and return specialist and led all players in the Mississippi Junior College ranks in touchdowns scored.

On the defensive side of the ball, Chris White of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community college totaled 103 regular season tackles, 49 of those were solo tackles. White is a native of Vancleave, MS and played JUCO ball at Gulf Coast CC.

I think bringing in some JUCO players will help add some depth to our team right away so that Coach Mullen can work on building a better team for the future.

All three of these players are expected to enroll at MSU by January 5th and participate in spring practices.

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