Mississippi
Four reactions from Mississippi State football practice: Receiving room ready to show improvement
Watch as Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby speaks after preseason practice
Watch a part of what Mississippi State football coach Jeff Lebby discussed after his first preseason practice in Starkville.
STARKVILLE — Close to a week ago, Mississippi State football wide receiver Jordan Mosley saw the name of a group text that he and other receivers had and didn’t like the ring to it.
Mosley consulted with MSU wide receivers Kelly Akharaiyi, Kevin Coleman, and others after listening to a group called Concrete Boys, which rapper Lil Yachty donned. He figured that name might be related to their wide receiver room. Mosley brought it up around the group, and thus, the name stuck: the “Concrete Boys.”
“We think we’re the hardest group in the nation,” said Mosley on Friday, who wouldn’t say what the name of the previous group text was. “We all think we’re good, and I think that’s the best part of our team. I think we have a very competitive team. Everybody feels like they’re the best in their position.”
Receiving room looks to improve from bad year in 2023
When Mosely was asked his thoughts on the 2023 season, he didn’t remember how many wins or losses the Bulldogs had. He just knew it wasn’t enough wins for the standard he and his team wanted.
“I think we had a good room last year, but I think we were missing that (competitive) component,” he said.
Last season, MSU ranked second to last in the SEC with 2,182 receiving yards and last with 15 receiving touchdowns.
During preseason practices, Mosley said stiff competition within the group is a clear advantage because it forces each receiver to work for a starting spot.
MORE JEFF LEBBY: What Jeff Lebby said about first Mississippi State football practice and wants Bulldogs to do more
“We have a lot of guys who can play for effect,” he said. “… But having that competitive spirit just helps a lot more. It makes us good. It makes us who we are.”
Blake Shapen confident in MSU, Jeff Lebby offense
Blake Shapen points to a unique area he’s experienced here in Starkville with Jeff Lebby, which is being pushed to a limit he hasn’t had before.
“There’s an expectation level, and if you don’t reach it, obviously you need to figure out a way to reach it,” Shapen said. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I haven’t had in the past is to be pushed like I’m being pushed right now up to a level that I need to get to. I’m very blessed to have that’s what I need right now. In my career.”
With skillful transfers and a good young core on offense, Shapen said he likes where the teams currently at but can see it reaching highs outside of MSU being picked to finish 15th in the SEC.
“We don’t sit there and look at that all day, but we’ve all seen it,” he said. “… We brought in some transfers have young guys that have come in and had a big impact on our receiver core. They want to get better every single day.”
Seydou Traore hopes to make impact in first eligible season at MSU
Tight end Seydou Traore was forced to sit out the 2023 season due to NCAA transfer rules and is looking to make an immediate impact.
“I mean, I just want to get the ball in my hands. I want to make plays, and I want to score. I mean, anyway that we have to do that, I’m open to it and I’m excited about it.”
A potential battle between him and Justin Bell is set to take place, which adds to the depth at the tight end position with Justin’s brother Cameron, along with Nick Lauderdale and Sam Paxton.
“We’ve had a lot of transfers come in, and I’ve been a transfer before, so I know how it is,” said Traore, who transferred from Arkansas State. “It’s really competitive. Everyone wants a starting spot, and everyone wants to play. When you have that iron sharpens iron.”
Offensive lineman off-field bond aims to replicate on field
Senior Ethan Miner said he’s been at a few football programs that don’t accept new transfers. But when Miner and others arrived at MSU, he said it was an experience he’d rarely felt.
“They were very accepting of us,” he said. “I’ve been at places where your transfer in guys don’t like you because it’s a threat. I mean, it’s a threat to come in to compete for a spot, and (here) that wasn’t the case at all.”
DAY 1 PRACTICES: What Jeff Lebby said of Mississippi State football transfers Blake Shapen, Kevin Coleman
It was also shocking for Miner to suit up alongside linemen with a bigger frame than him.
“Coming from (Group of 5) schools where I was one of the biggest guys definitely feels nice having somebody 6-5 next to me and 320 (pounds),” Miner quipped. “So I’m very confident.”
Michael Chavez covers high school sports, among others, for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at mchavez@gannett.com or reach out to him on X, formerly Twitter @MikeSChavez.
Mississippi
What channel is Mississippi State football vs Missouri on today? Time, TV schedule to watch Week 13 game
Mississippi State football comes off a bye week with a chance to earn a win over nationally-ranked Missouri on Saturday.
The Bulldogs (2-8, 0-6) last played on Nov. 9 in a loss at Tennessee and have two more games against SEC opponents this year.
The Tigers (7-3, 3-3) lost a back-and-forth game at South Carolina last weekend.
Here’s how to watch the Mississippi State football vs. Missouri game today, including time, TV schedule and streaming information:
Mississippi State vs. Missouri will broadcast nationally on SEC Network in Week 13 of the 2024 college football season. Taylor Zarzour and Matt Stinchcomb will call the game from the booth at Davis Wade Stadium, with Alyssa Lang reporting from the sidelines. Streaming options for the game include FUBO, which offers a free trial to new subscribers.
- Date: Saturday, Nov. 23
- Start time: 3:15 p.m. CT
The Mississippi State football vs. Missouri game starts at 3:15 p.m. CT Saturday from Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville.
Clarion Ledger reporter Sam Sklar’s prediction: Missouri 37, Mississippi State 20
The Bulldogs are allowing 41 points per game in SEC play, and it’s difficult to see Missouri not having the same level of success. Expect big days from Burden and/or Wease, plus running back Nate Noel as MSU loses another game by double digits.
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Friday, Nov. 22
- Odds: Missouri -7.5
- O/U: 61.5 points
- Money line: Missouri -300, Mississippi State +240
- Aug. 31: EKU, W 56-7
- Sept. 7: at Arizona State, L 30-23
- Sept. 14: Toledo, L 41-17
- Sept. 21: Florida, L 45-28
- Sept. 28: at Texas, L 35-13
- Oct. 5: OPEN DATE
- Oct. 12: at Georgia, L 41-31
- Oct. 19: Texas A&M, L 34-24
- Oct. 26: Arkansas, L 58-25
- Nov. 2: UMass, W 45-20
- Nov. 9: at Tennessee, L 33-14
- Nov. 16: OPEN DATE
- Nov. 23: Missouri, 3:15 p.m. on SEC Network
- Nov. 29: at Ole Miss, 2:30 p.m. on ABC and ESPN+
Record: 2-8 (0-6 SEC)
- Aug. 29: Murray State, W 51-0
- Sept. 7: Buffalo, W 38-0
- Sept. 14: Boston College, W 27-21
- Sept. 21: Vanderbilt, W 30-27 2OT
- Sept. 28: OPEN DATE
- Oct. 5: at Texas A&M, L 41-10
- Oct. 12: at UMass, W 45-3
- Oct. 19: Auburn, W 21-17
- Oct. 26: at Alabama, L 34-0
- Nov. 2: OPEN DATE
- Nov. 9: Oklahoma, W 30-23
- Nov. 16: at South Carolina, L 34-30
- Nov. 23: at Mississippi State, 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network
- Nov. 30: Arkansas, TBD
Record: 7-3, 3-3 SEC
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Mississippi
SMU drops nonconference game at home as Mississippi State finds bench-led boost
Reserve KeShawn Murphy scored 16 points and led a quartet of Mississippi State bench players in double-digit scoring and the Bulldogs beat SMU 84-79 on Friday night.
Reserves RJ Melendez scored 15 points, Riley Kugel 13 and Claudell Harris Jr. 10. Josh Hubbard was the lone Mississippi State (5-0) starter in double figures with 14 points on just 4-for-18 shooting. The Bulldogs’ starters went 10 for 33 from the floor compared to the 18-for-35 effort from the bench.
Cameron Matthews made a layup with 5:13 remaining to break a tie at 66. Murphy made a 3-pointer and Kanye Clary made 1 of 2 free throws and Mississippi State led for the remainder.
Reserve Kario Oquendo scored 13 points for the Mustangs (4-2), Matt Cross, Boopie Miller and Samet Yigitoglu all had 12 points and B.J. Edwards scored 10.
Mississippi State will get almost a full week off before returning to action on Thanksgiving night at the Arizona Tipoff in Tempe. The Bulldogs play their first game of the event against UNLV.
The Mustangs will head to Palm Springs, California, for the Acrisure Holiday Invitational, where they face Cal Baptist on Tuesday.
Find more SMU coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Mississippi
Attorneys want the US Supreme Court to say Mississippi’s felony voting ban is cruel and unusual
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court should overturn Mississippi’s Jim Crow-era practice of removing voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies, including nonviolent crimes such as forgery and timber theft, attorneys say in new court papers.
Most of the people affected are disenfranchised for life because the state provides few options for restoring ballot access.
“Mississippi’s harsh and unforgiving felony disenfranchisement scheme is a national outlier,” attorneys representing some who lost voting rights said in an appeal filed Wednesday. They wrote that states “have consistently moved away from lifetime felony disenfranchisement over the past few decades.”
This case is the second in recent years — and the third since the late 19th century — that asks the Supreme Court to overturn Mississippi’s disenfranchisement for some felonies. The cases use different legal arguments, and the court rejected the most recent attempt in 2023.
The new appeal asks justices to reverse a July ruling from the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said Mississippi legislators, not the courts, must decide whether to change the laws.
Stripping away voting rights for some crimes is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual punishment, the appeal argues. A majority of justices rejected arguments over cruel and unusual punishment in June when they cleared the way for cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places.
Attorneys who sued Mississippi over voting rights say the authors of the state’s 1890 constitution based disenfranchisement on a list of crimes they thought Black people were more likely to commit. A majority of the appeals judges wrote that the Supreme Court in 1974 reaffirmed constitutional law allowing states to disenfranchise felons.
About 38% of Mississippi residents are Black. Nearly 50,000 people were disenfranchised under the state’s felony voting ban between 1994 and 2017. More than 29,000 of them have completed their sentences, and about 58% of that group are Black, according to an expert who analyzed data for plaintiffs challenging the voting ban.
To regain voting rights in Mississippi, a person convicted of a disenfranchising crime must receive a governor’s pardon or win permission from two-thirds of the state House and Senate. In recent years, legislators have restored voting rights for only a few people.
The other recent case that went to the Supreme Court argued that authors of Mississippi’s constitution showed racist intent when they chose which felonies would cause people to lose the right to vote.
In that ruling, justices declined to reconsider a 2022 appeals court decision that said Mississippi remedied the discriminatory intent of the original provisions in the state constitution by later altering the list of disenfranchising crimes.
In 1950, Mississippi dropped burglary from the list. Murder and rape were added in 1968. The Mississippi attorney general issued an opinion in 2009 that expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny, carjacking, felony-level shoplifting and felony-level writing bad checks.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a 2023 dissent that Mississippi’s list of disenfranchising crimes was “adopted for an illicit discriminatory purpose.”
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