MSU News & Notes | Father’s Day Weekend

Happy day before Father’s Day and welcome to another Saturday edition of MSU News & Notes.

1. MSU hired Gary Henderson as the baseball pitching coach to replace Wes Johnson who left for the same position at Arkansas. Great hire for John Cohen. Henderson has been the head coach at Kentucky since Cohen left Lexington in 2009 and even won SEC coach of the year in 2012. Cohen hired Henderson at UK when he took the job in 2003 so there is familiarity there.

Will Coggin will take Nick Mingione’s spot (who left to become head coach at UK) on the staff as hitting coach. Coggin was promoted as he served as MSU’s director of camps.

2.

There you have a national writer saying the rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State has gone too far. Is he right?

Wolken has become a marked man recently in Ole Miss circles as he has been closely following their troubles with the NCAA. So he’s been exposed to a lot of the back and forth that happens in “Egg Bowl twitter”.

But that’s all it really is. Egg Bowl twitter and/or just twitter/facebook/etc. in general is not a real interpretation of how people actually act.

Sure, folks go after each other and seethe with hatred with remarks that would make your mother blush, but would they say such things to their face, in person? I don’t think so. Not in Mississippi anyways.

More from Mississippi State Bulldogs News

• College football schedule week 4: 3 must-watch under-the-radar games
• M&WN Staff – Week 3 SEC Picks and Best Bets
• Mississippi State football film study: Why did MSU’s defense fail vs. LSU?
• SEC football standings after Mississippi State football steamrolled by LSU Tigers
• College Football Schedule Week 3: Under the Radar Games to Watch

There might be some things said while in the throws of intoxication at a tailgate but in day to day life do you experience any yelling or violent behavior rooted in the MSU/Ole Miss rivalry? I’d be shocked if you did.

Alabama/Auburn has some stories of hatred for one another that went too far. From Harvey Updyke to women fighting and so on, but I’ve spent enough time in Alabama to know it’s not as toxic as Red Sox/Yankees or other northeast professional sports rivalries. There is some bad blood there for sure, but most of the time southerners stop short of letting sports rooting interest determine how they should treat other people.

No where is it more true than in Mississippi. I had to pay to get into an event last week and I was wearing a MSU hat – the guy taking the tickets was in a Ole Miss hat. He said it costs double for State fans. I said haha and that was it. That’s about how toxic it is in real life.

Twitter fans who are over the top because they have some electronic courage need to take it down a notch, but rational twitter fans also have the choice to ignore them and/or not take them so seriously. I don’t get on twitter during a game (because I want to watch it without distraction mostly) or just after it and I’d advise you do the same because it’s a wasteland of idiocy.

3. I don’t have anything to say about the US Open other than I guess I’ll watch the back nine on Sunday and that will complete 25% of my golf watching this year. I’m more interested in the NBA Finals – can LeBron get it done?

A lot of people don’t like LeBron James but I’ve never really been one of them. Not sure why, but I’ve rooted for him to win (except when playing the Hawks). I thought it was great how much he elevated Cleveland during his early years, and it didn’t really bother me when he went to Miami. But the second time around with the Cavs has me rooting for him even more. Cleveland is known as the arm pit of America and they can’t ever catch a sports break. Now they finally have one so I hope it works out and they can get that monkey off their back.