Fromer Mississippi State Strength and Conditioning Coach Fired in wake of Jordan McNair Investigaton

Former Mississippi State Strength and Conditioning Coach Rick Court has been fired due to his handling of Jordan McNair’s health when he died tragically on the practice field at the University of Maryland.

Rick Court was the strength and conditioning coach for Dan Mullen for a time period toward the end of Dan Mullen’s tenure at Mississippi State. Court took on a similar position with D.J. Durkin at the University of Maryland for the 2016-17 academic year.

Today, Rick Court is out of a job due to his involvement, or lack thereof, in the wake of Jordan McNair’s death on the University of Maryland’s practice field.

His firing was announced today during the Maryland press conference. Pat Forde was the first I saw to tweet the news.

This isn’t much of a Mississippi State story outside the fact the Court was one time the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Bulldogs. But it did make me wonder if Court had still been in that position at Mississippi State, could something like this have happened in Starkville?

I want to believe the answer to this question is no. There is still a lot to learn about what all happened in the way Jordan McNair’s care was handled in the moments leading up to his death. There will also likely be more people fired in the wake of McNair’s death.

But this should be an eye-opening moment for Mississippi State fans. The first person to be implicated in the on field death of a player was at one time the one responsible for the care of the student athletes on the field. Being the strength and conditioning coach, it is his job to not just train the athletes, but to ensure their health and well being while under the coaches supervision. Rick Court is being held properly accountable, and any other coaches that could have prevented this awful tragedy need to be held just as accountable as well.