It’s time for college football
The dog days of summer for some reason arrive about the same time as our favorite football teams begin preparing for the upcoming season.
Most of our high school teams began the season last week, although around 24 games were canceled throughout the state. The college football season began last week with only a handful of games. The only college football game featured the Alcorn Braves playing for the first time in 616 days, but they fell to North Carolina Central, 23-14, in Atlanta in the SWAC-MEAC Challenge.
This week the small colleges in our state open in earnest on Thursday night, as Mississippi College will host Albany State. Delta State entertains Bethel, and Mississippi Valley will head to Murray State.
Mississippi State will host Louisiana Tech on Saturday at 3 p.m. while Southern Mississippi will travel down Highway 98 to Mobile to take on South Alabama that night. Jackson State and “Coach Prime” will travel to Miami on Sunday for a 2 p.m. kickoff against Florida A&M at Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL Dolphins. The first week’s action concludes in Atlanta in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff on Labor Day, as Ole Miss will battle Louisville at 7 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the NFL Falcons.
There are several non-conference games this Saturday that will be worth watching. LSU visits the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to take on UCLA. Georgia and Clemson will tangle in Charlotte, North Carolina, while Alabama and Miami meet in Atlanta. Another game of interest is the matchup between Florida State and Notre Dame on Sunday night in Tallahassee.
The best junior college football in the country is played right here within our borders. This week all 14 teams will be in action on Thursday night as Hinds visits Coahoma, Gulf Coast visits Holmes, East Central visits East Mississippi, Itawamba visits Southwest, Co-Lin visits Northwest and Northeast visits Jones.
Saints news
The New Orleans Saints have named Jameis Winston as the starting quarterback for their season opener against Green Bay on Sept. 11 in New Orleans. The Saints’ preseason game against Arizona was canceled last Saturday night. The Saints also headed to Dallas on Saturday to conduct practice this week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington before the arrival of Hurricane Ida.
Odds & Ends
Former Ole Miss football star Deuce McAllister will join the SEC Network as he joins Dave Neal for the afternoon SEC contests this season. Deuce will also still work on the New Orleans Saints radio network.
The Jacksonville Jaguars traded Gardner Minshew to the Philadelphia Eagles over the weekend. The odd man out for the Eagles was former Southern Mississippi quarterback Nick Mullens, who was cut by the team on Saturday.
The Wall Street Journal reported recently that the National Football League would permit sports-gambling companies to advertise.
The Ole Miss men’s basketball team joined the football team as 100 percent of both teams and staff are vaccinated.
LSU joined Oregon and Oregon State as the schools that will require proof of vaccination or a recent negative test to attend football games this fall.
He was Valedictorian of this high school, he was Heisman winner, he was an Olympian, and he also played 12 seasons in the NFL. He announced this week he was running for U.S. Senator in Georgia as a Republican. That’s right, Herschel Walker will run again.
Dale McKee, a Waynesboro resident, has been writing sports in Mississippi since 1973.