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Texas A&M, Jimbo Fisher must lead the world in dollars spent per victory

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Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin talks about his Saturday opponent, the Texas A&M Aggies, as if he is describing the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only perfect team in pro football history.

“These guys are absolutely loaded,” Kiffin said of the Aggies. “It’s actually a mind-blowing collection of talent. As you watch them offensively, defensively, return game, special teams, it really is an NFL roster – height, weight, speed, explosiveness.”

Rick Cleveland

The Ole Miss coach said A&M has “receivers that can score at any time and great running backs. Their defense is playing as well as anyone in the country. The collection of defensive linemen has to be one of the best ever. And Edgerrin Cooper (linebacker) is playing like the SEC Player of the Year. … They’ve done a phenomenal job of getting a collection of players that are extremely elite and talented.”

Well, don’t look now, but that same “mind-blowing” and “extremely elite” Texas A&M talent will roll into Oxford with a 5-3 record, coming off a 5-7 season last year. That’s right: The Aggies are 10-10 over their past 20 games.

Indeed, you can make the case that Texas A&M spends more money per victory than any school in NCAA history and surely more than those perfect 1972 Dolphins. Fisher famously is in the third year of a fully guaranteed, 10-year, $95 million contract. If the Aggie administration doesn’t like the fact that A&M is 10-10 over the last 20 games and 8-9 in games away from home under Fisher, well, he can be bought out. It would only cost them $77 million. That’s a lot of oil, even at today’s prices.

Texas A&M also pays its football assistants a total of nearly $7 million a year. The school recently spent $485 million rebuilding and refurbishing Kyle Field. The Bright Football Complex, where the Aggies train, has been updated to the tune of $20.8 million. And we haven’t even gotten to NIL money, which A&M clearly spends lavishly. As the old saying goes, pretty soon, we’ll be talking about some real money.

So, what do you think? Is A&M getting a good return on its investment? We can put this in simpler terms. Appalachian State spent $8.5 million on football last year. That’s coaches’ salaries, travel, equipment, expenses, everything. Texas A&M paid its head coach more than App State’s entire annual football budget. Final score from College Station on Sept. 10, 2022: App State 17, Texas A&M 14. App State went on to finish fourth in the Sun Belt.

Remember, Kevin Sumlin was fired after achieving a 51-26 record at Texas A&M. That’s a winning percentage of 66.2%. Jimbo Fisher is 44-24, a winning percentage of 64.7%. A&M bought out the remainder of Sumlin’s contract for $10.4 million. So the Aggies paid Sumlin more than $10 million not to coach. They are paying Fisher roughly $100 million to coach. Sumlin won a higher percentage of games. Frankly, Texas A&M is college football’s poster child for fiscal profligacy.

That said, the Aggies are as dangerous as they are under-achieving. Anybody who follows college football recruiting even a little has to know how stacked the Aggie talent is. Here’s a sample: Four years ago, McKinnley Jackson of George County (Lucedale) was the most highly recruited high school football player in Mississippi, a 6-foot-3, 325-pound defensive lineman who threw people around like rag dolls. (I thought he was as good as I had ever seen in this state.) When Mississippi beat Alabama in the annual all-star game that December of 2019, Jackson was the MVP. Yes, a defensive lineman was the MVP. Alabama and LSU wanted him. So did Georgia. So did everybody else. Texas A&M got him. Now a senior starter at nose tackle and a captain, Jackson nevertheless ranks fourth among Aggie defensive linemen in tackles, tackles for loss and sacks. In other words, A&M has several more like him.

So why isn’t Texas A&M kicking butts and taking names? Why did they lose to Miami by 15 points? Why are the Aggies unranked? Why, again, are they a mundane 10-10 over their last 20? Why are they 3-point underdogs at Oxford Saturday?

There’s a bottom line here. Fisher – and his boss Ross Bjork, formerly of Ole Miss – know what it is. Fisher isn’t getting it done.

Yes, you say, but Ole Miss pays Kiffin $9 million a year. That’s a lot of money in Oxford, Mississippi. And you are right. Currently, at least, and no matter what happens Saturday, the Rebels are getting a whole lot more for their money.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1946

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-23 07:00:00

Dec. 23, 1946

Chuck Cooper Credit: Wikipedia

University of Tennessee refused to play a basketball game with Duquesne University, because they had a Black player, Chuck Cooper. Despite their refusal, the all-American player and U.S. Navy veteran went on to become the first Black player to participate in a college basketball game south of the Mason-Dixon line. Cooper became the first Black player ever drafted in the NBA — drafted by the Boston Celtics. He went on to be admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Podcast: Ray Higgins: PERS needs both extra cash and benefit changes for future employees

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-12-23 06:30:00

Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison talks with Ray Higgins, executive director of the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System, about proposed changes in pension benefits for future employees and what is needed to protect the system for current employees and retirees. Higgins also stresses the importance of the massive system to the Mississippi economy.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

‘Bringing mental health into the spaces where moms already are’: UMMC program takes off

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mississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth – 2024-12-23 06:00:00

A program aimed at increasing access to mental health services for mothers has taken off at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

The program, called CHAMP4Moms, is an extension of an existing program called CHAMP – which stands for Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry. The goal is to make it easier for moms to reach mental health resources during a phase when some may need it the most and have the least time. 

CHAMP4Moms offers a direct phone line that health providers can call if they are caring for a pregnant woman or new mother they believe may have unaddressed mental health issues. On the line, health providers can speak directly to a reproductive psychiatrist who can guide them on how to screen, diagnose and treat mothers. That means that moms don’t have to go out of their way to find a psychiatrist, and health care providers who don’t have extensive training in psychiatry can still help these women. 

“Basically, we’re trying to bring mental health into the spaces where moms already are,” explained Calandrea Taylor, the program manager. “Because of the low workforce that we have in the state, it’s a lot to try to fill the state with mental health providers. But what we do is bring the mental health practice to you and where mothers are. And we’re hoping that that reduces stigma.”

Launched in 2023, the program has had a slow lift off, Taylor said. But the phone line is up and running, as the team continues to make additions to the program – including a website with resources that Taylor expects will go live next year. 

To fill the role of medical director, UMMC brought in a California-based reproductive psychiatrist, Dr. Emily Dossett. Dossett, who grew up in Mississippi and still has family in the state, says it has been rewarding to come full circle and serve her home state – which suffers a dearth of mental health providers and has no reproductive psychiatrists

“I love it. It’s really satisfying to take the experience I’ve been able to pull together over the past 20 years practicing medicine and then apply it to a place I love,” Dossett said. “I feel like I understand the people I work with, I relate to them, I like hearing where they’re from and being able to picture it … That piece of it has really been very much a joy.”

As medical director, Dossett is able to educate maternal health providers on mental health issues. But she’s also an affiliate professor at UMMC, which she says allows her to train up the next generation of psychiatrists on the importance of maternal and reproductive psychiatry – an often-overlooked aspect in the field. 

If people think of reproductive mental health at all, they likely think of postpartum depression, Dossett said. But reproductive psychiatry is far more encompassing than just the postpartum time period – and includes many more conditions than just depression. 

“Most reproductive psychiatrists work with pregnant and postpartum people, but there’s also work to be done around people who have issues connected to their menstrual cycle or perimenopause,” she explained. “… There’s depression, certainly. But we actually see more anxiety, which comes in lots of different forms – it can be panic disorder, general anxiety, OCD.”

Tackling mental health in this population doesn’t just improve people’s quality of life. It can be lifesaving – and has the potential to mitigate some of the state’s worst health metrics.

Mental health disorders are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death, which is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as any death up to a year postpartum that is caused by or worsened by pregnancy. 

In Mississippi, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2016 and 2020 were deemed preventable, according to the latest Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report.

Mississippi is not alone in this, Dossett said. Historically, mental health has not been taken seriously in the western world, for a number of reasons – including stigma and a somewhat arbitrary division between mind and body, Dossett explained.

“You see commercials on TV of happy pregnant ladies. You see magazines of celebrities and their baby bumps, and everybody is super happy. And so, if you don’t feel that way, there’s this tremendous amount of shame … But another part of it is medicine and the way that our health system is set up, it’s just classically divided between physical and mental health.”

Dossett encourages women to tell their doctor about any challenges they’re facing – even if they seem normal.

“There are a lot of people who have significant symptoms, but they think it’s normal,” Dossett said. “They don’t know that there’s a difference between the sort of normal adjustment that people have after having a baby – and it is a huge adjustment – and symptoms that get in the way of their ability to connect or bond with the baby, or their ability to eat or sleep, or take care of their other children or eventually go to work.”

She also encourages health care providers to develop a basic understanding of mental health issues and to ask patients questions about their mood, thoughts and feelings. 

CHAMP4Moms is a resource Dossett hopes providers will take advantage of – but she also hopes they will shape and inform the program in its inaugural year. 

“We’re available, we’re open for calls, we’re open for feedback and suggestions, we’re open for collaboration,” she said. “We want this to be something that can hopefully really move the needle on perinatal mental health and substance use in the state – and I think it can.”

Providers can call the CHAMP main line at 601-984-2080 for resources and referral options throughout the state. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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