Articles by Brandon Walker
Akins caps 30-year career with MSU athletics
STARKVILLE – Few men truly get to live out their dreams.
MSU football loses two players to transfer
STARKVILLE — Two positions of need for the Mississippi State football team took unexpected hits Tuesday.
MSU’s offensive line lost three of five starters from last season, and both starting safeties graduated, leaving questions at both spots. Those questions remain following the transfers of offensive lineman Kent Flowers and defensive back Jahmere Irvin-Sills.
Pitcher Brown leaves MSU baseball program
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State’s starting rotation will feature a different look next season.
MSU’s McBride targets 800 title at NCAA meet
STARKVILLE — To peer inside the mind of Mississippi State’s Brandon McBride is to study an honor student and a soft-spoken business major who is exceptionally talented on the track.
It’s a great place to start because the mind also is where races sometimes are won and lost.
MSU’s Taylor will try to improve on career-best day
STARKVILLE — Zach Taylor has a tough task ahead of him.
Taylor, a decathlete at Mississippi State, will compete today against the top athletes in the country at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
He also will compete against himself.
MSU looks to benefit from extra SEC revenue
STARKVILLE — There was a moment, several actually, during Mississippi State’s rise to the top of the college football world last fall when MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin took a second to look around him and soak in everything that was happening.
SEC champ Hearn turns attention to nationals
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State track & field coach Steve Dudley says there are no surprises at this point. With his team set to travel to
Black leaves MSU men’s basketball team
STARKVILLE — Ben Howland’s reinvention of the Mississippi State men’s basketball team continues.
Since becoming MSU’s coach March 21, Howland has signed two highly touted recruits. He also has watched two players leave the program.
Late Tuesday night, MSU’s attrition continued when freshman Oliver Black, who saw action in all 31 games this past season, decided to leave the program. Black’s departure was confirmed by a MSU spokesman.
Cohen recaps MSU’s ‘disappointing’ season
STARKVILLE — During a week that will see 16 teams compete in eight super regionals for the right to advance to the College World Series, Mississippi State’s 2015 baseball season was put to rest Tuesday, two weeks after a season-ending sweep at Tennessee.
Early Tuesday afternoon, MSU coach John Cohen talked about the heartbreak involved with a 24-30 season.
“We were very disappointed,” said Cohen, whose team finished 11-30 after a 13-0 start. “If you look at all phases of the season in terms of our overall production and the health with our club, everything was pretty disappointing.”
MSU-USM will have late start for opener
STARKVILLE — With the start of college football season a little more than three months away, Mississippi State learned the time for its first game time Monday.
MSU will open its season at 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, against Southern Mississippi at Carlisle-Faulkner Field at Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg. Fox Sports 1 will televise the game.
Bulldogs to share in record revenue from SEC
STARKVILLE – How much does the SEC Network mean to Mississippi State and the other 13 schools in the Southeastern Conference?
MSU’s Price moves from small town to big stage
STARKVILLE — Everything about Rhianwedd Price is calculated.
Price, a sophomore distance runner for Mississippi State’s track and field team, works out at the same time each day. She runs the same distance every time. She wears the same color socks for each race. She has a well-rehearsed plan of attack in each race, and knows when to be patient, when to attack, and when to make her move.
So how did someone as collected and organized as Price make the most important decision of her life? Blindly, of course.
Cohen, Bulldogs look for answers after 2015 season
STARKVILLE — For Mississippi State’s baseball team, the questions about next season’s team started before MSU’s disappointing 2014 season ended.
MSU men’s basketball adds four-star prospect Holman
STARKVILLE — The transformation of Mississippi State’s basketball program under new coach Ben Howland continues.
West Point High’s Lashley backs off commitment to MSU
WEST POINT — In the span of two hours Monday night, Mississippi State’s football program landed one of the nation’s hottest high school prospects and then lost him.
Scott Lashley, a four-star prospect from West Point High School, committed to the Bulldogs at approximately 6 p.m. Monday after making an unofficial visit to MSU.
He is believed to have made his only public comments about his decision moments later, when a message on his personal Twitter account said, “Thanks to all the schools who recruited me, but I am committing to play for the Mississippi State Bulldogs.”
By 8 p.m., that message had been deleted. Those closest to Lashley said the 6-foot-7, 300-pound offensive tackle had backed off his commitment.
MSU’s Gridley, Heck honored
STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State’s baseball team had its share of disappointments on the field this season.
Off the field, one Bulldog added to an impressive legacy.
Senior Seth Heck, a junior college transfer from Tacoma (Washington) Community College, was named the Southeastern Conference’s Scholar Athlete of the Year for baseball for the second consecutive season. This season, Heck started 27 games at shortstop and 21 games at third base.
Tulane cancels football game vs. MSU in 2016
Mississippi State Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin suddenly has work to do to finish MSU’s 2016 football schedule.
A slate that originally looked finalized when MSU announced a home-and-home deal with BYU in March now has a hole in Week 3, as Tulane informed MSU that it is canceling the Sept. 24, 2016, game in Starkville between the teams.
Oxford ends New Hope’s title run
OXFORD — Through two games in their Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A North State championship series, the New Hope and Oxford high school baseball teams traded thrilling wins, alternating walk-off victories.
First, the Chargers celebrated thanks to a game-winning, two-run home run by Ben Bianco for a 3-2 win in Game 1 Tuesday night. On Thursday night, the Trojans countered with a game-winner of their own, a solo home run by junior catcher Will Godfrey that gave new Hope a 1-0 win and pushed the series to a Game 3.
There wasn’t a walk-off in the finale.
MSU baseball team will try to keep postseason hopes alive
STARKVILLE — Trevor Fitts never imagined his Mississippi State baseball career could end like this.
The senior closer was part of MSU’s run to the College World Series and national championship series in 2013. He also enjoyed NCAA regional appearances as a freshman in 2012 and as a junior in 2014.
McBride hopes to win title at SEC meet at MSU
STARKVILLE — One by one, Mississippi State track and field athletes gushed Tuesday about the opportunity to compete for a conference championship on their home turf during a news conference at MSU’s Humphrey Coliseum.
Each athlete questioned about the advantages of MSU playing host to the Southeastern Conference Championships for the first time since 2002 talked about the advantage of being able to sleep at home, to avoid strenuous travel, and to compete in familiar surroundings.