Kellenberger Reopens Old Wounds

Oct 4, 2014; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott (15) throws the ball against the Texas A&M Aggies at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Hugh Kellenberger has done it again. The Ole Miss beat writer notoriously wrote this article back in July claiming that the Heisman talk in July was just talk. To say the least, Mississippi State fans’ reactions were less than happy. The editor of our site had something to say in response to Hugh Kellenberger’s article. We really haven’t heard much from Kellenberger since then about Dak until Sunday night. Kellenberger decided to tweet this out to the world.

Well people don’t move on so easy. Especially when it comes to a beloved figure by a fan base like Dak Prescott is. Six Pack Speak called him out on it and Kellenberger proceeded to respond more.

Yes, MSU people thought it had a negative slant because it had inflammatory language. The first thing he said that made me angry was “If you are a believer in the power of Dak”. It makes it sound like Dak Prescott is out trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes about something he has or hasn’t done. It’s just not called for.

His second offense was to call it a “dog-and-pony show”. I have never heard that phrase used unless you were trying to insult someone or something. Maybe Hugh was trying to be a trailblazer. Maybe Hugh wanted to change the connotation surrounding that phrase. Whatever he thought he was doing by using that phrase, it certainly wasn’t going down the middle.

Hugh Kellenberger then had this to say in that article

"What will eventually determine if Prescott is a contender for any type of individual hardware is how many games Mississippi State wins and how Prescott performs this season.Nothing. Else. Matters."

With Kellneberger being a trained journalist, he knows that the presentation of  “Nothing. Else. Matters.” is going to incite a reaction from people. Presentation is so important because it can change the way you make someone view anything you say or do. The two extra periods make a world of difference. You stick those three words in the previous paragraph with just one period and it reads differently.

In Kellenberger’s description of Prescott’s deficiencies, he says Dak “almost threw an interception” in the Egg Bowl. That never happens anywhere, apparently.

Look, Kellenberger hasn’t addressed this since he wrote it, and in doing so now, he should have said something that was slightly more apologetic. I believe that it would have been very easy to write that article that Kellenberger wrote in July and do so in an objective manner. Kellenberger did say a number of complimentary things about Dak in the article, but when you use phrases and presentation to incite a reaction from the fan base of that player, please don’t insult our intelligence and claim you wrote it down the middle. That may have been your attempt, but it came across as an attempt to make the fans of the team you cover feel good about screaming at Mississippi State fans for even thinking our quarterback was a Heisman contender. If this was Kellenberger’s attempt to smooth the waters, then he failed as badly as he did in writing that piece down the middle.