Sometimes it can seem as though nothing is going your way. Aside from hammering Arkansas in late Novemeber and John Banks winning the Jim Thorpe Award, pretty much nothing has gone right for MSU football since we were 7-0 in late October.
Alabama loss, A&M loss, LSU loss. The Egg Bowl. Conerly Trophy.
There were a couple of Juco commits in December, but everything had been pretty quiet on that front since the good ole days of October.
Melvin Smith left for Auburn on Christmas Day. Kailo Moore decommitted soon after.
Throw in a loss to Alabama A&M by the basketball team and things are looking pretty bleak.
Then comes the Gator Bowl. Ugh. Losing to a Big Ten team through much fault of your own. 7-0 becomes 8-5. Questions abound.
To pile on, reporters created stories about the strength of Chris Jones’ commitment to MSU. Then Yancy Porter fabricates a story about Will Redmond wanting to transfer to Ole Miss. Not that either one was true – but it just added to the anxiety.
Geoff Collins is promoted to defensive coordinator – a good thing, hopefully. But then Chris Wilson leaves for Georgia. So State is without a cornerbacks coach and a defensive line coach.
But then Sunday, the brand new Leo Seal, Jr. Football Complex opens up. I’m not sure that’s amazing news for fans, but it’s great that it was completed on time (not always the safest of guarantees in construction) and ready for the the upcoming recruiting visits.
Headed to the new football facility!
— Richie Brown (@richiebrown39) January 6, 2013
Then on Monday afternoon, 4-star running back Ashton Shumpert committed to Mississippi State. He has bounced back and forth between Tupelo and Fulton, MS, but spent his senior year at the latter. He’s 6′-2″, 210. Most of the recruiting services have him listed as a safety, and he could even bulk up to play linebacker. But Shumpert liked the fact that he would be the only RB committed to MSU for the 2013 class, and that’s where he’d like to play. He has the potential to be an every-down back, something Moore would not have been.
With Shumpert’s addition State is now up to #13 by Scout. 24/7 has State listed as 20th on their website, but Paul Jones tweeted something different…
Correction: MSU's Class of 2013 now ranked 11th nationally by 247Sports
— Paul Jones (@PJ247Sports) January 7, 2013
Either way, this class is filling out pretty nicely. According to Scout, none of the 21 commits have any less than a 3-star rating, and only Artimus Samuel has a 2-star on 24/7. There are at least five 4-stars in this class as per both services.
Hopefully the good run of bad luck has ended, and State will finish recruiting strong up until National Signing Day, and be able to find some good replacements for the assistant coaching spots.
Because it’s in my head and you know you want to hear it now…