Sports Radio 105.5

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Mississippi State’s two-headed quarterback may be here to stay.

The Bulldogs opened with junior Chris Relf Saturday in a 49-7 thumping of Memphis. But highly regarded redshirt freshman Tyler Russell came in early and played late, throwing for 256 yards and a school-record four TDs.

Russell completed 13 of 16 passes overall and six straight at one point. On his first collegiate series, he directed the Bulldogs 91 yards, going 3-for-3 through the air.

“I feel like I have the confidence now where, in tight game situations, if you’re one of the best players you want the ball in your hand,” Russell said.

State coach Dan Mullen wouldn’t tip his hand this week which quarterback will get the nod against Auburn — be shocked if it’s not Relf.

But prepare to see a lot of Russell again.

“We’ll see how practice goes,” Mullen said. “I plan on us playing both quarterbacks and they’re doing a nice job. When you’re on the sidelines with the headphones on and you hear the play called, you might see some of the things that you don’t always see while you’re standing out there with a 300-pound guy coming at you trying to hit you.”

via Mississippi State likes 2-QB system enough to stick with it against Auburn | al.com.

Ole Miss fans more than likely figured that 3 1/2 hours after kickoff, they’d be in The Grove celebrating an easy victory over Jacksonville State.

Instead, they were still in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, standing and pleading with their defense to come up with a stop.

The defense – the one that was supposed to be the team’s strength – couldn’t deliver.

Jacksonville State’s Calvin Middleton reeled in a two-point conversion pass from Coty Blanchard, capping off an amazing comeback and shocking Ole Miss 49-48 in double overtime in the season opener.

While the visiting Gamecocks players celebrated in front of their band, there was a far quieter scene in the home dressing room.

“Nothing was being said,” coach Houston Nutt said. “It was a disappointing locker room, which it should be. Just sad.”

via Unbelievable | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger.

Down and depleted, North Carolina was overmatched from the start, but had enough resources to make it interesting down the stretch.

Missing 13 players — many of them starters — because of NCAA and school investigations, the Tar Heels made a furious late comeback effort, but were held off by LSU in the Tigers’ 30-24 victory at the Georgia Dome.

After trailing 30-10 in the fourth quarter, North Carolina recovered an onside kick with about two minutes left, down 30-24 with a shot to score the winning touchdown. But a T.J. Yates fumble while scrambling gave the ball back to the Tigers, ending what looked like it would be Carolina’s last shot.

But LSU’s Stevan Ridley fumbled on the ensuing possession, and North Carolina had one more chance with 1:08 left.

Yates quickly moved the Tar Heels down the field, completing short passes at first and then a couple of longer ones to Jheranie Boyd and Joshua Adams.

via LSU survives close one with depleted Heels  | ajc.com.

Join me and co-host Lee Shirvanian from 6 to 9 a.m. on Friday on 105.5 FM WNSP.

Scheduled for the show:

Bill Cole of the Winston-Salem Journal joins us at 7:20 a.m. to preview the LSU-North Carolina game and also give us the latest on Marvin Austin.

Also on the show:

At 7:05 a.m., South Alabama coach Joey Jones.

Laura Megginson of Two Chicks and Lee at 7:45 a.m. for our Auburn report.

We’ll also qualify you to win in our weekly football picks.

To join the show, call 251-694-1055 or listen live at www.wnsp.com.

 By PETE IACOBELLI û
 AP Sports Writer û
 
 COLUMBIA, S.C. — Steve Spurrier’s starting to like his offense at South Carolina.
 It’s not his old, Florida “Fun-n-Gun” — yet. But Spurrier thought enough of his attack on Thursday night, he was shooting to hang half-a-hundred on Southern Miss.
 “I was thinking for the first time ever here we might score 50,” Spurrier said.
 Instead, the Gamecocks coach had to settle for a 41-13 victory that was his 18th straight win in college openers.
 Quarterback Stephen Garcia and freshman runner Marcus Lattimore had two touchdowns each as South Carolina posted its most points since winning the 2006 Liberty Bowl 44-36 over Houston.
 Back then, Spurrier thought he and the Gamecocks were close to big-time success. After all, they had won their final three games and backed that up by starting 2007 with a 6-1 record.
 South Carolina had gone 14-17 since and left Spurrier shaking his head at times about his mission to turn the Gamecocks into Southeastern Conference champions.
 After this one, Spurrier has to like some of the offensive weapons he’s got.
 Lattimore, considered the top high school rusher last winter, had a terrific college debut with scoring runs of 3 and 7 yards.
 Sophomore receiver Alshon Jeffery had seven catches for 106 yards and speedy freshman Ace Sanders had a 53-yard run, the Gamecocks’ longest in four years.
 At the center of it all was Garcia, who shook off months of Spurrier touting first-year backup Connor Shaw with a solid showing against the Golden Eagles.
 Garcia got things started with a gritty, 22-yard scoring run. He also had a 3-yard touchdown carry where he crashed hard into a defender but reached to get the ball over the line.
 Did Garcia grab the starting job for good? Not even he’d jump to that conclusion given the head ball coach’s whims.
 “We’re going to come in and watch film tomorrow,” Garcia said. “I hope I played pretty well. I think I did.”
 The victory also brought South Carolina something to cheer about after a restless summer.
 Spurrier and the Gamecocks have been dogged by the NCAA the past two months. Standout tight end Weslye Saunders, a central figure in the probe for possible contact with agents, did not play because of an unrelated team suspension.
 Then South Carolina scratched two starters — left tackle Jarriel King and cornerback Chris Culliver — right before kickoff, although the athletic department would not say why.
 Spurrier said it was a relief to have only King and Culliver gone because earlier Thursday it looked like several more players might have had to be held out. While Spurrier hoped the missing players would be back in time for next week’s Southeastern Conference opener with Georgia, the Gamecocks were not clear of the NCAA yet.
 Spurrier said there are issues with “a couple of guys and we’ll see how that turns out in the next couple of days.”
 Southern Miss kept the Gamecocks offstride early on, forcing a punt on South Carolina’s opening series and quickly driving to the Gamecocks 22.
 That’s when momentum changed for good.
 Akeem Auguste broke up a third-down pass that settled into the hands of safety DaVonte Holloman and South Carolina followed with a solid drive of its own led by Garcia.
 The junior was 4-for-4 passing for 51 yards on the series and finished things with a gritty, 22-yard TD run.
 Then South Carolina’s youngest guns took control.
 Speedy Sanders had his back-breaking end around to the Southern Miss 9. Two plays later, Lattimore bounced through for his first college score from 3 yards out.
 Lattimore, considered the country’s top tailback prospect last February, got the call a series later. This time, he picked his way through Southern Miss defenders for a 7-yard scoring run as South Carolina led 24-6 — its most points by halftime since the 2006 Liberty Bowl.
 Garcia, who ended 16 of 23 for 193 yards, has always seemed to be on the wrong side of Spurrier. The Gamecocks coach touted the competition between fourth-year junior Garcia and first-year player Shaw throughout the offseason.
 Garcia may have put such talk to rest temporarily with his play against Southern Miss.
 Golden Eagles coach Larry Fedora followed Spurrier as Florida’s playcaller in 2002 and tried to out-scheme him with a no-huddle, flood-the-field attack.
 But Southern Miss twice bogged down in the red zone after the early pick, settling for two field goals.
 Playmaking receiver DeAndre Brown was covered up most of the night by South Carolina’s secondary. The junior, who caught 114 passes his first two seasons, didn’t catch one against the Gamecocks until the final period when Southern Miss trailed 41-6.
 Brown had the Golden Eagles’ only touchdown, a 29-yard scoring catch with 1:33 left.
 “Early in the game I felt very confident, very calm,” Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis said. “Our tempo, our communication was good. We made a few mistakes in the red zone and the score got away from us.”

University of Alabama football student-athlete Marcell Dareus must miss two games and repay benefits as a condition of becoming eligible to play again, according to a decision today by the NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff. Mr. Dareus must repay the $1787.17 of benefits to a charity of his choice.

The university declared the student-athlete ineligible for violations of NCAA preferential treatment and agent benefits rules. According to the facts of the case submitted by Alabama, these benefits included airfare, lodging, meals and transportation during two trips to Miami, Florida.

During the reinstatement process, the NCAA staff considers a number of factors including guidelines established by the Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, the student-athlete’s responsibility for the violation, as well as any mitigating factors presented by the university.

Based on the mitigating circumstances in the case, the staff reduced the withholding from a potential four games to two competitions.

The university can appeal the decision to the Division I NCAA Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement, an independent committee comprised of representatives from NCAA member colleges, universities and athletic conferences. This committee can reduce or remove the condition, but it cannot increase the staff-imposed conditions. If appealed, the student-athlete will remain ineligible until the conclusion of the appeals process.

Join Mark Heim and Lee Shirvanian from 6 to 9 a.m. on Monday.

Guests include:

6:35 a.m. Scott Phelps, coach at Robertsdale

7:20 Erik Stinnett of CrimsonConfidential.com

7:35 Brian Matthews of AuburnUndercover.com

8:05 a.m. Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com

8:20 a.m. Bradley Handwerger of wwltv.com

8:35 a.m. John Rachiatti on golf

To join the show, call  251-694-1055.

Mark Heim and Lee Shirvanian – along with your on-air feeback – presents the Morning SportsCenter’s All-Infractions and Arrest team.

QB

Jeremiah Massoli – Ole Miss, Oregon State

Ryan Perrilloux – LSU, Jacksonville State

Cam Newton – Florida, Auburn

RB

Jimmy Johns – Alabama

Eric Smith – Auburn

Maurice Clarrett – Ohio State

LeGarrett Blount – Oregon

Cecil Collins – LSU

Reggie Bush – Southern Cal

OL

Andre Smith – Alabama

Pouncey twins – Florida

DL

Marvin Austin – North Carolina

Defensive backs

Jamar Hornsby – Florida

Eric Ramsey – Auburn

Antonio Langham – Alabama

TE

Wesley Saunders – South Carolina

WR

Nu’Keese Richardson – Tennessee

DeAndre Green – Auburn

K

Sebastian Janikowski – Florida State

Coach

Lane Kiffin – Tennessee, Southern Cal

Asst. coach

Mike Price – Alabama

Mike DuBose – Alabama

Terry Bowden – Auburn

AD

Damon Evans – Georgia

Join Mark Heim and Lee Shirvanian from 6 to 9 a.m. on Tuesday’s Morning SportsCenter.

Scheduled for the show:

At 6:35 a.m., Tommy Wasden, coach at Mobile Christian

At 7:05 a.m., Mark Schlabach of espn.com

At 7:15 a.m., Travis Reier of BamaOnline.com

At 7:45 a.m., Jeff Lee of AuburnSports.com

At 8:05 a.m., Orlando Alzugarey out of Miami.

To join the show, call 251-694-1055.

Join Mark Heim and Lee Shirvanian from 6 to 9 a.m. on Monday’s Morning SportsCenter.

Guests include:

6:15 a.m. – South Alabama defensive coordinator Bill Clarke

6:35 a.m. High school coach Kelvin Sigler

6:45 a.m. Former MLB pitcher Blake Stein

7:05 a.m. Chase Goodbread of the Tuscaloosa News

7:35 a.m. Brian Matthews of Auburn Undercover.com

8:05 Ivan Maisel of ESPN.com

8:35 a.m. John Raciatti on golf.

To join the show, call 694-1055.