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As of now it is on. Obviously, that is subject to change this week. I hope it does get played though.

I hope COVID does not negatively affect this game. Please note this game is Saturday night (August 28th) at 7P in Ray Stadium. I am very pumped about this game. This game was played annually for about 70 years starting back in the 1920’s until Laurel broke it off in 1992. Since then we have only played each other about 6 times. In the old Big 8 days, this was the opening game almost every year. Ray Stadium/Between the Bricks would be packed every year and the visiting team always brought a huge crowd as it is an easy 45-50 minute drive up/down I-59. Neither team liked the other, fans, band, cheerleaders etc. did not either. Much respect between each school but the game was a very physical hard fought game. Nothing and I mean nothing came easy. Meridian leads the series 42-29-5. I think there are lot of unknowns with each team coming into this game. Look for it to be hard fought and I will say the team with the fewest turnovers will win. Taking care of the ball will be important. One special note. Meridian is honoring Michael “Chico” Brooks at halftime. He has been Mr. Everything to the Wildcat football program for fifty (50) years. Yep, I said FIFTY YEARS. Just a great individual and super nice man… Well earned and deserved recognition. Great to see this ole rivalry get renewed this year. This ought to be fun but it will not be for the faint of heart fan. Go Wildcats!!!!

Egg Bowl will probably be completely unpredictable by the time we get there. I think 6 wins is a reasonable prediction for State. If things go south , 5 wins are possible. If things go right for us, 7-8 wins are possible. I am less concerned about the number wins and will be looking to see how we play. If we continue to build on the last 4 games then I will be pleased. Right now, I think that is a reasonable expectation. For Ole Miss, you may have a higher ceiling than State this year but again still a lot of uncertainty. Schedule on paper does not look too tough but you have some games that could tricky. Wins-Austin Peay, Vandy Probable Wins-Louisville, Tulane, Liberty, Arkansas Toss-Ups-Tennessee, Auburn, LSU, State, A&M Loss-Bama Schedule sets up for a good-to-great season provided there no hiccups against Liberty and Tulane. Those games could be tougher than you expect.

I think will State will have the better defense. Ole Miss will be improved as well. With their offense, just having some improvement on D will be beneficial to them. If their “D” is improved then Ole Miss could have a very good year. State’s offense should certainly be improved and more efficient this year. The air raid offense gets a bit misunderstood. It can be a very effective ball control offense when it is executed properly. I think some people think you are slinging bombs every other play when that is not really the case at all. In fact, I think we will actually see a higher percentage of running plays this year. Expectations for State are quite low so we might surprise a few pundits this year.

I think division’s are toast now. They will go to 4 - 4 team quads. Conference schedule will be 9 games. Best record wins the SEC and if two are tied then a tie breaker mechanism will be used. Why, you ask? With the playoff going to 12 or possibly 16 teams, there is no need in playing an extra game. These will be the quads or something similar: Quad East-UF, UGA, USCe, UK Quad Central-Bama, AUB, UT, Vandy Quad River-State, OM, LSU, Arky Quad SW-A&M, TX, OK, Mizzou You would play your quad teams yearly and then the other 12 teams two times over a four year period.

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Buy on Arkansas losing both of these games. Though I think they have improved some, I look for them to back track this year. Back to Auburn….losses to Penn State, A&M, LSU, UGA, Bama means they already have 5 losses. Then I think someone else picks them off as well. That is a murderous schedule. I just think all the fluky luck they always get comes back to boot them in the butt this year. Longer term, Harsin has the potential to be a good hire but I think the SEC is going to be brutal to him. This is not the MWC. Buy/Sell: A&M beats Bama but stumbles against two other teams (State or Ole Miss) and one other team to blow its chance to make it to ATL.

I am going to sell on Georgia.Kirby is heck of a coach and they will be in the mix but I think they will come up a bit short of the playoffs. Buy/Sell:Auburn under Hardin goes 6-6 this year. New coach, they will have several WTF moments during the season and the Gus luck they usually have goes south this year.

Sell. O will wiggle his way through this season and 2022. After 2022, though I think he may hang it up. Buy/Sell. State starts 3-0 beating LaTech, NCState and Memphis (the latter two are going to be difficult games and MEM is on the road though we will have a sizable crowd there as well).

I agree on Bama. They lose one maybe two regular season games this year. Their run has been incredible but at some point there will be some cracks in the armor and this maybe the year it happens. Buy or Sell: State ends up with more Rushing Yards than Ole Miss this year. On paper, it appears to be an easy sell but it might not be. Could be a bit tricky.

LSU will be improved but I know this is cliche to say; usually a coach struggles some in their first season (Lemonis was an exception but he also had Jake Mangum leading the team which was huge). Not sure LSU has a Mangum type that will take a team in his shoulders. I do think they will be a force again soon but most likely it will be 2023 and beyond for them. The SEC is still going to be loaded in baseball across the board with the exception of Missouri who I don’t think will ever be competitive in baseball in the conference. They are just facing a huge uphill battle. Otherwise everyone else is going to be good. Auburn should be much improved in 2022. Glad to see Tim Elko come back for Ole Miss. He is a tremendous player and I hope he stays injury free next year. I appreciate good players around the conference and what he did after the injury was amazing.

Would not think Jordan would return. Nothing left to prove and I am sure wants to give the Bigs a shot. He is capable of making it.

If they can get the ole Vet up to standard, then I am fine with a 4 city rotation. Oxford, Starkvegas, Jackson and Hattiesburg. I have a lot of fond memories of the Vet from the 1970’s and 80’s when State played there. But sadly the old venue has fallen way behind the other three stadiums with regard to field conditions, amenities, video boards, concessions etc. Accessibility is not an issue anymore with the four lane highways and the three smaller cities have adequate hotel capacity now too. Mississippi is a lengthy state from N-S. I think it is about 350 miles from Pascagoula to Southaven. Anyway you slice it, there is going to be a long drive if you live on the coast or the TN line. It is almost a 4 hour drive from Corinth to Jackson. So while Jackson is the most centrally located, it no longer has all the advantages that it used to enjoy and as I mentioned the stadium lags considerably behind the other three.

The conservative approach by Lemonis this year was very effective with our pitching staff. It paid dividends at the end of the year because our pitchers were fresh. One thing I find interesting is that in the first 100 years of baseball, three days was the normal rest for a starting pitcher in the big leagues. College was probably similar. Pitchers were very durable. In 1971, the Baltimore Orioles had four 20 game winners on their staff. Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, Pat Dobson and Jim Palmer. Each starter had about 37-38 starts during the year. 4 man rotation and they pitched every 4 days. In 1985, Jeff Brantley threw 145 innings and Gene Morgan 134 innings for State. This year, Bednar threw 92 innings and McLeod 82 innings to top State for innings thrown. Obviously, today there is a different mindset with regard to pitchers. But it struck me that the media made such a big deal about Bednar throwing on three days when just a short time ago that was the norm for an entire season. 83, you are right though that Rocker and Leiter carried Vandy this year but they paid a price at the end of the season because they had thrown so many innings.

The defense has been talked about a lot by the media (or at least last night). From what I can gather, no team has played 7 games at the CWS without an error. An incredible performance all the way around. Of course getting a lot strike outs certainly helps too. I agree that it was a huge key to us winning the CWS. Jim Ellis on STM this afternoon said he thought the defense turned the corner the last third of the season.

WOW is all I can say!!!! So proud of this team that persevered throughout a difficult season and endured some low points that were painful. Being swept at home by Arkansas, losing 2 of 3 to Mizzou at home, completely tanking at the SECT that was balanced by a number of highs!!! I said during the season that experience was one of the most important factors of success and that was instrumental in the team winning through out the year. That was very apparent in the CWS this year. No way we win this year had this been our first rodeo. The fact it was third trip in a row was very important. After the first inning on Monday, we outscored Vandy 23-3. Just complete domination for the last two games. The fans. What can you say? The fans helped will this team to a championship. Vandy must have felt like they were in tsunami on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Well this is it guys. This is what this team has been playing for all year. Forget the last two games. I am sure both teams have flushed those and are looking forward to tonight. I would expect this one to be a one run game that comes down to the wire. 3 keys for State (and this is not anything new) 1. Throw Strikes 2. Continue to play solid defense 3. Work the counts at the plate, lay off the slider and keep the bats hot from last night. Obviously, much easier said than done. But I like our chances. This is what makes baseball great. We have to beat their best and they have to beat our best. Let’s Go Dawgs!!!!

Obviously tonight is it. But if we find a way to win tonight, I believe we will beat Rocker tomorrow night. I just have that feeling. He is a great pitcher but he has some vulnerable outings this season. Harding is going to have to pitch his best game of the year and preferably get us 5-6-7 good innings. Vandy is great at taking advantage of mistakes. Sounds easy but throwing strikes and making the plays in the field is paramount to keeping them at bay.

We all knew coming in to this three game series that Vandy had a decided advantage and we had an uphill climb. That said, we are still more than capable of winning the next two games. Last night we had a couple of smashes go right at somebody that turned into DP’s. Those balls find holes then the game is potentially much tighter and the crowd becomes a factor. Not saying we win last night as the first inning was just an absolute killer but it could have gotten closer. As 83 noted, we have to score some runs tonight and continue to play solid defense. Pitching wise. Our games we have lost have been because of BB/HBP. Throwing strikes is the key. We will see what happens.

Obviously Vandy has a massive advantage of playing one less game and that Leiter can start Monday night. However, for State we just need to forget all that and go out and win. It is what it is. As I said before like Al Davis said ”just win baby”

Something about guys named Tanner on this team!!!! WOW!!!

As far pitching Sims last night. I am glad our coaching staff trusted the system that got us to this point. Sim’s usually did not pitch unless we have a lead. Obviously today, is do or die and it is possible he will be earlier than normal.

Don’t think they will play Virginia/Texas tonight at least before 9P. So not sure what the plan might be if they get completely washed out. One scenario says they will play at 9A in the morning. Another scenario says they will play tomorrow night and our game will get pushed back to Saturday. I would doubt the latter scenario would be it. I think the first will be it. But what do I know?

I get that but what did they do during the regular season when they played a three game series F-S-S? In this case this is a third game in five days. Surely they had some additional arms to call on. Otherwise I don’t see how they made it all the way to the CWS. and yes I do understand “all hands on deck.” Obviously, that is where a coach makes decisions that can win/lose a game and they go with their best instincts. OTOH, you occasionally see someone unexpectedly rise to the occasion in those situations even though they may have been sparingly used during the season. At the end, credit to Vandy, they were beat for 26 and two-thirds outs but they took advantage of their opportunity when the door cracked open for them.

One other thing I do not understand. This goes back decades and it is unique to baseball. A coach generally uses his pitching staff in a certain manner through out the season and has success. Then in the postseason, he changes what created their success and more often than not it backfires and they fail. Case in point , last night, Stanford brings in their ace starter as a relief pitcher. Why? That is not his role. Why not trust your bullpen that has gotten you to this point? Now on paper it looks like the right move and for 2.2 innings it appeared to be gold. But when he did that, I still had that feeling that something was going to awry before it was over. Oh well, on one level I get it. But at the same time, I think it hurts the confidence of the team because basically you are saying to you other bullpen pitchers “you are not good enough for this moment.” Trust what has gotten you to this point.