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The crazy season is already insane, witness Texas A & M, Miss. State

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The crazy season is already insane, witness Texas A & M, Miss. State
Texas A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher, right, talks with Mississippi head coach Zach Arnett, left, before the start of A&M’s 51-10 victory Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in College Station, Texas.A&M fired Fisher the next day. Mississippi State fired coach Zach Arnett on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, just 10 into his first season on the job as the late Mike Leach’s replacement. (AP /Sam Craft)

College football’s crazy season โ€“ the one in which we watch as our institutions of higher learning play an expensive of musical coaches โ€“ is off and running. Already, the 2023 crazy season has gone slap-dab insane.

On Saturday night, Texas A & M pummeled Mississippi State 51-10 with its third string quarterback accounting for four touchdowns.

Rick Cleveland

Nevertheless, on Sunday, Texas A & M fired football coach Jimbo Fisher, which means the Aggies must pay off the $76 million remaining on his contract. A & M’s football program, fueled by Texas oil money, will pay Fisher more than $200,000 a day over the next few years not to coach. How insane is that?

Monday morning began with the Mississippi State has fired its coach Zach Arnett 10 games into his first season. The Bulldogs are 4-6 and have lost three straight. Arnett’s buyout is a reported $4 million.

The two buyouts, so drastically different in enormity, are also different in another important aspect. Fisher will be paid in full no matter whether he takes another coaching job. However, if Arnett takes another job, his new salary will be subtracted from his MSU buyout. In other words, in ‘s world of NCAA Power Five conference football, State’s buyout of Arnett is chump change. Not so with Texas A & M, no matter how many oil wells Aggie alumni own.

So, what happens next?

Today is Nov. 13. The NCAA transfer portal will open on Dec. 4. Schools can begin signing recruits on Dec. 20.

There will be an urge to hire quickly with those two dates in mind. But, as Lee Corso says so often, โ€œNot so fast my friendโ€ฆโ€ If we’ve learned anything in the Jimbo Fisher and Zach Arnett sagas, it is this: There is an age-old proverb that goes โ€œhaste makes waste.โ€ It applies in college football.

First, let’s go back to the crazy season of 2020-21. Fisher’s Aggies had finished 9-1 and No. 4 in the country during the Covid-ravaged season. Fisher was already making over $7 million a year, but the LSU job was open and there were reports that the Tigers wanted Fisher. So, the Aggies, in essence, panicked and signed Fisher to the 10-year, $95 million extension.

How did that work out?

Mississippi State’s rush to judgment came last December. Granted, the Bulldogs were in a bind because of Mike Leach’s , the transfer portal, the upcoming signing day and bowl preparations. Four days after Leach’s death, Arnett was promoted to head coach.

We could debate at length whether or not State should have moved so fast. What we can’t debate is this: Not quite 11 months after Arnett’s hiring, State saw fit to fire him.

Would State have been better suited to let Arnett serve as interim coach through the bowl season and then hired a proven head coach โ€“ say, Tulane’s Willie Fritz? I’d say, yes.

Arnett, who had never been a head coach, a difficult task, and he didn’t make it any easier when he decided to scrap Leach’s offense and hire new offensive coaches. Never mind that he had a senior quarterback threatening to break every passing record known to the SEC. Will Rogers, that quarterback, was steeped in Leach’s Raid offense and surrounded by players recruited to play in that offense. Nevertheless, Arnett switched to a more -oriented offense. You ask me, that was the glaring error of his short tenure. It did not work. Granted, injuries to quarterback Rogers and a running back have hurt. What’s more, State’s defense regressed this season.

You could also make the argument โ€“ in fact, Lane Kiffin did make it in his weekly Monday press conference โ€“ that State rushed to judgment in firing Arnett before his first season was complete. Said Kiffin, “It’s not like it used to be. It used to be that you had time to build things. You had years to sign classes and see them develop before people make a decision. โ€ฆ To get let go 10 games into your first season when you get hired late, I don’t know how you do that that fast.โ€

Kiffin is right about that. But patience became a thing of the past when schools began paying millions and millions of dollars with the expectation of immediate results.

I have no idea what direction State will go in replacing Arnett. Whoever comes next faces a gargantuan task. Obviously, the talent level at State isn’t up to the SEC level in a league that adds Oklahoma and Texas next season. NIL and the transfer portal have virtually insured that the rich will only get richer. And that the annual crazy season will only get crazier.

We can only imagine how much Texas A & M will spend next.

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1875

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-11-02 07:00:00

Nov. 2, 1875

Pictured here are U.S. Sen. Hiram Revels of Mississippi, left, with six Black members of the U.S. House, Ben J.S. Turner of Alabama, Josiah T. Walls of Florida, Jefferson H. Long of Georgia, and Robert C. De Large, Joseph H. Rainy and R. Brown Elliot, all of South Carolina. Credit: Library of

The first Mississippi Plan, which included violence against Black Americans to keep them from , resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the

A year earlier, the Republican Party had carried a majority of the votes, and many Black had been elected to office. In the wake of those victories, white leagues arose to Republican rule and began to use widespread violence and fraud to recapture control of the state. 

Over several days in September 1875, about 50 Black Mississippians were killed along with white supporters, a school teacher who worked with the Black community in Clinton. 

The governor asked President Ulysses Grant to intervene, but he decided against intervening, and the violence and fraud continued. Other Southern states soon copied the Mississippi plan. 

John R. Lynch, the last Black congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: โ€œIt was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.โ€ 

A federal grand jury concluded: โ€œFraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.โ€

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

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Mississippi Todayโ€™s NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi

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mississippitoday.org – Mary Margaret White – 2024-11-01 12:34:00

High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader ; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.

In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy , civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Here at we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.

Why NewsMatch and Why Now?

This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.

Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday โ€”whether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that understand and engage with what’s around them.

Special Event: โ€œFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ€

As part of the campaign, we’re to host a special virtual event, โ€œ of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ€ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ€œ25-foot law,โ€ which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.

We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!

How You Can Help

Make Your Gift Today

Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.

Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโ€”not only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to .

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

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Hinds County loses fight over control of jail

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-11-01 12:57:00

The sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.   

Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, a failure to protect detainees from harm. 

However, the appeals court called the new injunction โ€œoverly broadโ€ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.

The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be

The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โ€œfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ€ โ€“ especially if the receivership has no end date. 

Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย 

In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which people facing trial. 

โ€œBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ€ the appeals court wrote.  

This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022. 

The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in

The county had a to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old and use of force. 

Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.

But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff. 

The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference. 

Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work. 

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

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