Dale’s Sideline View

LSU leap frogged Alabama to take over the top spot in the college football polls this past weekend. LSU with their win over Auburn will now travel to Tuscaloosa on November 9 to tangle with the Crimson Tide. Both teams are 8-0 on the season. The game will definitely have a huge bearing on the final four teams that will take part in the College Football Playoffs. 

The undefeated teams are dwindling fast each week. This week Oklahoma fell from the unbeaten ranks as Kansas State (5-2) derailed the Sooners. The week before, Wisconsin fell to Illinois, and the week before that Georgia was stunned in Athens. This week the ‘hot seat’ team may be SMU. The Mustangs  (8-0) survived Houston this past week and will head to Memphis (7-1) this Saturday. 

MSU falls at Texas A&M 

The Mississippi State Bulldogs (3-5) will have to beat Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl to go to a tenth straight bowl. Most of the experts predicted that State would be (5-3) at this point. Kansas State was a surprise loss, but the Wildcats are proving they are a pretty good football team, as is Tennessee. The Bulldogs are in a must-win situation this Saturday at Arkansas. 

Southern Mississippi (5-3) downed winless Rice this past Saturday. The next four USM games will be hotly contested. USM is off open this week, but the Eagles will have their hands full at home with UAB (6-1) on November 9. Looking down the road, the Golden Eagles will be in dogfights with both Western Kentucky (5-3) and Florida Atlantic (5-3). 

Ole Miss (3-5) was open this weekend and needs to win out to go bowling. It’s hard to see three Rebel wins with Auburn, LSU, New Mexico State and MSU left to play.  

Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame names 2020 class 

Jerry Boatner, Pete Brown, Antonio McDyess, Janet Marie Smith, Larry Templeton and Patrick Willis will join the HoF on August 1, 2020. 

Good week for small colleges

Alcorn defeated Southern University and also retired Steve McNair’s jersey this weekend. Jackson State (3-5) and Mississippi Valley (2-6) also won. Millsaps (4-3) and Mississippi College (4-3) also won on Saturday while Belhaven (1-6) and Delta State (4-3) took the week off.  

Drew Brees is back!

The old master hit on 34-of-43 passes for 373 yards and three scores in leading the Saints past Arizona, 31-9, last Sunday.  Brees is now the only NFL quarterback to throw for 75,000 yards in his career. New Orleans (7-1) is open this week but will host rivals Atlanta Falcons in two weeks. 

World Series News 

Forest Hill graduate Lance Barksdale worked behind the plate in the fifth game of the World Series this past Sunday night. He began calling in the pros in 2006. 

Jim McIngvale is called “Mattress Mack” in Houston, Texas. The Starkville native owns Gallery Furniture, a chain of furniture stores in the area. He has made news in the sports world betting on his favorite team the Houston Astros. He has bet over $10.6 million dollars on the series. He started his spree with a $3.5 million bet in D’lberville at the Scarlet Pearl on October 1. Since then he has bet a half dozen more times on his Astros. Mack even bet on his team after they lost the first two games of the series to the Washington Nationals. He plans on giving away the possible $18.2 million winning in a store mattress promotion. 

MHSAA crowns champs 

The Mississippi High School Activities Association has been busy this week. They crowned the last slow-pitch softball champions in Neshoba Central and Lake. Then last week, executive director Don Hinton sent out a press release saying the sport is down to only 75 teams and would be discontinued. 

The tremendous growth of volleyball is one of the main reasons for dropping slow pitch. Clinton, Center Hill, Vancleave and OLA of Bay St. Louis won the state volleyball titles at Mississippi State this past weekend. 

MHSAA is also in the midst of swimming championships as well as cross-country state championships. In the swimming championships St. Andrews boys and girls each won the swimming championships in Tupelo.

Contact Dale at ddmckee18@yahoo.com. He is a Waynesboro native who has been writing sports since 1973.