Mississippi
Mississippi State Football Recruiting Tracker
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Mississippi State is entering a new era under new head coach Jeff Lebby. The former Oklahoma offensive coordinator has been adamant about recruiting partially in the Magnolia State.
Recruiting is the lifeblood of any college football program, and Lebby understands the importance and already has a nice collection of talent in the class.
This story will be updated regularly.
KaMario Taylor
Commitment Date: October 13th, 2023
Position: Quarterback
Ht/Wt: 6-4, 205 pounds
Hometown: Macon, MS. (Noxubee County
High School)
Consensus: 4-star prospect
ON3: 4-star prospect, No. 94 nationally, No. 10 quarterback, No. 5 player in Mississippi
247Sports: 4-star prospect, No. 221 nationally, No. 16 quarterback, No. 5 player in Mississippi
Rivals: 4-star prospect, No. 6 quarterback, No. 12 player in Mississippi
ESPN: 3-star prospect, No. 7 quarterback, No.14 player in Mississippi
Taylor is among the best pure athletes to play quarterback in Mississippi in quite a while. He has the frame of a quarterback at 6-4 205 and has the speed to be a dual-threat quarterback.
He comes from a high school power in the Magnolia State, Noxubee County, which is also the home of MSU’s great Jeffrey Simmons. It is always important to get a quarterback in the class quickly, and Lebby got a steal in his own backyard.
Taylor could be a five-star prospect when it is all said and done.
Tyshun Willis
Commitment Date: April 22nd, 2024
Position: Edge/Linebacker
Ht/Wt: 6-1, 230 pounds
Hometown: Camden, MS. (Velma Jackson High School)
Consensus: 4-star prospect
ON3: 4-star prospect, No. 36 EDGE, No. 9 player in Mississippi
247Sports: 4-star prospect, No. 234 nationally, No. 20 EDGE, No. 7 player in Mississippi
ESPN: 4-star prospect, No. 265 nationally, No. 27 EDGE, No. 11 player in Mississippi
The Bulldogs have feasted on in-state talent on the defensive side of the ball with names like Emmanuel Forbes, Fletcher Cox, and Chris Jones. Willis could be the next in line for small-town Mississippi kids.
He helped lead Velma Jackson to a state title appearance in Oxford, and he finished the season with 113 total tackles, 30 tackles for loss, and 20.5 sacks.
Aj Rice
Commitment Date: September 4th, 2023
Position: Linebacker
Ht/Wt: 6-2, 240
Hometown: Madison, AL (Madison Academy)
Consensus: 3-star prospect
ON3: 3-star prospect, No. 100 linebacker, No. 36 player in Alabama
247Sports: 3-star prospect, No. 49 linebacker, No. 25 player in Alabama
Rivals: 3-star prospect, No. 25 linebacker, No. 31 player in Alabama
ESPN: 3-star prospect, No. 25 linebacker, No. 26 player in Alabama
The Bulldogs have had success with linebackers from Alabama. Nathaniel “Bookie Watson is the latest example, and Rice could be the next.
He was the first commit of the class and continues to add offers, now holding offers from Ole Miss, Baylor, and Arkansas.
Jack Richardson
Commitment Date: March 24th, 2024
Position: Punter
Ht/Wt: 6-2, 213
Hometown: Madison, MS. (Madison Central)
Consensus: 3- star prospect
ON3: 3-star prospect, No. 1 punter, No. 25 player in Mississippi
247Sports: 3-star prospect, No. 1 punter, No. 44 player in Mississippi
Getting a punter from the high school ranks now seems like a dead art due to the transfer portal. However, the Bulldogs liked what they saw from the Madison, MS. native.
Richardson averaged 46.3 yards per punt in his junior season.
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Mississippi
Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record
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‘When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons. She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.’
Watch: Texas officer wrangles angry gator from family’s front porch
Body camera footage captured the moment a police officer swiftly removed a small alligator from a home in Texas.
After two frustrating nights on the last weekend of the season, a Mississippi hunter caught the alligator he’d been after, but what he didn’t realize when he pulled it in his boat was that not only did it break two state records, it’s possibly a world record.
Jason Ullendorf said a cousin of his was buying a part at a boat shop last week when he was told about an alligator in the Pascagoula River. The alligator had been spotted near a sandbar and had been making people visiting the location uncomfortable.
“We figured we’d help them out and get it out of there,” Ullendorf said. “We went down there to look at it, and it was a pretty good gator. It’s kind of crazy how it happened.”
Catching it was easier said than done, though. Ullendorf and members of his hunting party repeatedly hooked the alligator, only to have the hooks pull out or break off when the alligator would go under logs.
“We chased it from about 9 o’clock until about 3 o’clock in the morning,” Ullendorf said. “By then we’d lost all our hooks.”
More: Hunters bag Mississippi alligator weighing almost 700 pounds
Another long night of hunting alligators
The following day, Ullendorf bought more hooks and returned to the river with only one other hunter, Joseph Mangano of Richton. Fortunately, they found the alligator in the same spot as the night before. Unfortunately, it was shaping up to be a replay of the night before with the two repeatedly hooking the alligator, only to have the hooks pull free.
“It was frustrating,” Mangano said. “At one point, we got so frustrated we left it and an hour later started again. We knew we would hook it, but we were going to have to get it out of the trees.”
At 4:45 a.m., the hunters got a break. The alligator surfaced in open water near the sandbar. The two hooked the alligator with a rod and reel and then got a hand line on it as the alligator towed the two men and their 18-foot pontoon boat upriver. Everything was going relatively smoothly until they pulled the gator near the boat.
“When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons,” Ullendorf said. “She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.”
More: ‘The size and mass of his head is unreal.’ Mississippi alligator hunters bag 800-pound giant
Mississippi hunters suspect their alligator is a female
The two got the alligator in their boat and while Ullendorf referred to it as a “she,” he didn’t think it was a female at the time. This alligator was too big to be a female, and the longest female alligator ever recorded in the state was caught in 2022 by Jim Denson and measured 10 feet, 2 inches.
“As soon as she came up we said, ‘That’s a male,’” Ullendorf said. “We never second-guessed it.”
But then they did. When to two took the alligator to Mangano’s business in Richton, Running M Meat Company, they discovered the alligator didn’t have male sex organs.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Ullendorf said. “We called Andrew Arnett to come down and verify it. I didn’t believe it at all.”
Is this Mississippi alligator a world record?
Arnett is the head of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Alligator Program. He confirmed it was a female and certified it at 11 feet, 3/4 inches long and 324 pounds. Not only was it a state record for longest female, it was the new state record for heaviest.
However, it may have broken another record, if only it existed. Multiple internet searches came up empty for an official world record for female alligators, but some states keep official records. According to searches by the hunters and Arnett, the longest female alligator on record before Ullendorf’s was 10 feet, 6.75 inches long and it was caught in Florida. If that’s true, Ullendorf has the new world record for longest female alligator.
“Just from what I’ve seen online, I think so,” Arnett said.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
Mississippi
Mississippi Mass Choir new album
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The Mississippi Mass Choir has a new album! We Still Believe is available!
The director and some choir members joined Studio 3 to discuss the songs.
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Mississippi
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