STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen said Monday the dynamic of the 2011 Egg Bowl matchup against the University of Mississippi remains the same after the announcement that Houston Nutt won’t return as Ole Miss’ coach after that game.
Ole Miss announced Monday that Nutt, who is in his fourth year as coach, won’t be retained but will be allowed to finish the rest of this season.
Mullen said the coaching situation of Nutt and his assistant coaches hasn’t changed his view of the annual rivalry game he has won each of the past two seasons.
“Word out of there last year and the year before, they were pretty focused on that game as well,” Mullen said, “so I imagine it’ll be just as passionate as it always is.”
MSU will play host to the annual Egg Bowl matchup Nov. 26.
Mullen, who has been at six Football Subdivision schools but has never dismissed, said “it was a shame” what happened Monday to Nutt and his assistants.
“When you live in this (coaching) world, you have a very different perspective of how that affects, not just the head coach, but an awful lot of assistant coaches, their families, and their livelihoods of how hard that can be on a family,” Mullen said. “A lot of times people get caught up in what it is, and sometimes it’s just a game. Other times it’s more than a game to people in the coaching profession. This is hard on our family’s lives. I commit so much time away from my family. It’s not something we take very lightly, so any time you see a coach potentially lose a job, it’s a sad day.”
Ole Miss has lost 12 consecutive Southeastern Conference games, including a 30-13 loss to the University of Kentucky on Saturday. The Rebels are 2-7 (0-6 SEC) this season. Nutt is 24-23 in four years at Oxford.
Griffin gets more experience but still not 100 percent
Redshirt freshman tailback Nick Griffin saw action Saturday for the second time this season since recovering from a severe knee injury.
Griffin, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament this past spring, had a career-high 80 yards on 10 carries in a 55-17 victory against the University of Tennessee-Martin.
In his only other action of the season, Griffin had 25 yards on four carries at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Even on field you can see he’s got a little hitch in his step with the one leg,” Mullen said. “Nick didn’t go through all summer, rehabbed, but didn’t train all summer, and so I would say his strength is still not 100 percent.”
Griffin scored on a 5-yard run in the fourth quarter to give MSU a 49-10 lead. The three-star recruit from New Augusta will be asked to compete for a starting role next season.
“I think getting him in the ballgame and getting him touches is only going to help him grow as a player,” MSU running backs coach Greg Knox said. “He needs to get tackled, hit, and find out that, ‘yes my knee can handle this’ from the mental aspect of it more than anything.”
Bulldogs to be on CBS for the first time since 2005
The SEC announced Monday that MSU’s game next week at the University of Arkansas next week will be a nationally televised game at 2:30 p.m. WCBI at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark. It will be MSU’s first CBS telecast since a 17-0 loss to Alabama in 2005.
When asked about the decision Monday, Mullen had one word to say.
“Fantastic,” Mullen said. “We’ve been asking CBS to put us on. I thank the guys at CBS for finally doing it.”
Last year, MSU lost to Arkansas 38-31 in overtime at Davis Wade Stadium two weeks before the end of the regular season.
“They could have put us on last year against Arkansas (because) that was a pretty exciting game,” Mullen said. “They may have had some good ratings that day. Hopefully it’s a good game. It’ll be neat.”
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