May 2003 Unofficial MSU Football Skuttle-Butt
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05/29/03 - The word I'm hearing is redshirt defensive end Stephen Arant, who is 6-foot-3, is now up to 252 pounds after weighing in the 235 range earlier in the spring. Always a very hard worker, Stephen was told by the coaches that he needed to add more muscle to his frame. He appears to be doing a great job of that. The coaches feel that Stephen has a chance to be a very good player at State once he puts the necessary weight on. For those of you who don't know a lot about Stephen, he has grown up a diehard Bulldog fan and walked on at MSU last season.
05/21/03 - Excerpts from the Lowndes County Bulldog Family Celebration.
MSU Alumni Association Director John Correro
Fund raiser going for the new Band Hall. So far, 1 million dollars has been raised with 1.5 million left to be raised.
He asked the fans in attendance to purchase MSU car tags. It costs $50 more per tag but $31.50 of that goes directly to MSU.
MSU continues to be the largest university in the state of Mississippi with over 16,600 students. Almost 16,000 of those are on the main campus.
MSU had a 20%+ increase in the number of National Merit Scholars in the freshman class last year. MSU leads all the other universities in the state of Mississippi by a wide margin.
8 million dollars was provided by the Mississippi legislators to do renovations and expansion on the MSU Student Union. MSU will go back next year to try and get another 7 million dollars. The balance that will be required to complete the project will be raised from private sources. When the union building was built in the mid-60's, MSU had approximately 6,000 students.
4.5 millions dollars were approved by the Mississippi legislators for a 9 million dollar building to be built for the Agricultural and Biological Engineering departments.
He asked folks to come by and visit the Hunter Henry Center alumni association building the next time they were on campus and he and his staff would show you around. He said it has been called many things, but once you visit the facility, you will really be very impressed with what is inside.
Next up was Director of Football Operations, Rockey Felker.
He emphasized how important season tickets are and that the priority deadline, June 1st, was fast approaching. He mentioned that MSU has a great season ticket package with Oregon, Ole Miss and Alabama on the home schedule. He talked about how important it is to have a full house because MSU competes in a league that has teams that have 80,000, 90,000 and 100,000 fans in the stands.
Head Women's Basketball Coach Sharon Fanning.
She talked about the numerous accomplishments of former MSU great LaToya Thomas. LaToya scored in double digits in every game of her MSU career. She also got her degree just a few weeks ago. LaToya was the first player, men or women, in Mississippi State history to be the first player drafted in the first round.
She emphasized how important the fans are when they are attending games. Having a lot of fans at home games make a difference when it comes to winning.
Two of the last four years, Mississippi would have been able to host an NCAA post-season site, but wasn't able to do so because of either lack of hotel rooms or the state of Mississippi flag.
Next year, without LaToya Thomas, the team will have to defend better, have to run more and be mentally tougher.
Defensive Coordinator Ron Cooper.
Senior defensive end Tommy Kelly: Kelly had a great spring. He is 6-foot-6, 295 and ran a 4.7 on pro timing day. He can be a great football player. He was very impressed with how Tommy handled his off-the-field things. Tommy will play left tackle. Coach Cooper puts his top two run stoppers on the left side because most offensive coaches are right-handed so they will run to the right side, the defense's left, the most.
Junior defensive tackle Ronald Fields: Weighs 305 pounds. Benched 470 pounds on testing day. He will also play on the left side of the line.
Freshman defensive back signee Quinton Culberson: How good is this guy? A few years ago Coach Cooper coached at the University of Notre Dame and had eight guys who were drafted and played in the NFL. Four were first rounders. He evaluated all of those guys on film while they were in high school. He also did the same with Culberson. He said Culberson's film was the best that he had ever seen. He feels like Culberson can come in and help State next year. He has big-play ability. He thinks he is a player that will be special, either on offense or defense. He also said Culberson and the other freshmen corners will compete for playing time at cornerback. Juco signee safety Eric Fuller will also have a chance to come in and play this coming season.
05/09/03 - The first ever Bulldog fan event for Clarke County, MS took place this past Tuesday night, May 6, at Clarkco State Park. A tremendous crowd of approximately 130 was present to hear Coach Rockey Felker speak. He was excited about the new members of the coaching staff and the future of the football program. In addition, he was looking forward to returning the favor to Oregon this coming fall.
[If you attend any of the Bulldog Family Celebrations, email me a report and I'll post it on my site.-Gene]
05/08/03 - About 120 MSU fans from four different northeast Mississippi counties attended the Booneville Bulldog Family Celebration last Thursday night. According to my source, everyone was very impressed with MSU's new defensive coordinator Ron Cooper. A quote from my source: "What a great guy!!! We really enjoyed what he had to say and he got everyone wishing it was football season... NOW!"
If you attend any of the Bulldog Family Celebrations, email me a report and I'll post it on my site.-Gene
05/07/03 - Recruiting information.
Zabran Taylor - Brandon High School, Defensive Back. Interested in Southern Miss, Georgia, Mississippi State, LSU, Tennessee and Alabama.
Joey Bragg - Columbus High School, Offensive Lineman. Interested in Ole Miss, Nebraska, West Virginia, Mississippi State, Auburn, Arkansas, Tennessee.