It seems appropriate to talk about the latest development in The Dispatch’s sports department in the sporting vernacular. Philip Poe, who has served as our interim sports editor since late May, has been given the responsibility of leading our sports department on a permanent basis.

In this respect, we are confident he will be more Dabo than Arnett.

In 2008, Dabo Swinney took over as interim football coach at Clemson seven games into the season following the resignation of Tommy Bowden.

By season’s end, he had done enough to impress Clemson officials to get the job permanently. All he has done in the 15 intervening seasons is win two national championships and eight conference titles.

Closer to home, Zach Arnett was named interim coach at Mississippi State on Dec. 11, 2022, after the sudden death of head coach Mike Leach. Four days later, he was given the permanent job but was fired just 11 games into his tenure.

Wins and losses are for coaches, but sports editors are judged on more subjective standards. Suffice to say, we believe we have a winner in Philip.

Unlike Swinney and Arnett, the decision to have Poe serve in an interim capacity was a mutual decision. As a full-time associate professor of communication at Mississippi State, neither party was certain whether dividing his time between classroom instruction and managing a daily newspaper sports department would work out.

Originally, Poe was expected to serve as sports editor for only a couple of months as the search for a permanent sports editor continued. As it turns out, the best candidate for the permanent job was already in the role, as demonstrated by his leadership of the department over the past six months.

In addition to his 12 years as a journalism instructor, Poe’s resume includes work as a journalist at Fox Sports Southwest before transitioning into athletic video at the University of Houston is his native Texas.

The diversity of his career, along with his engaging writing style, make him a great fit for the job.

Because Poe will continue to work at MSU and MSU Athletics is a big part of The Dispatch’s emphasis, we are aware of potential conflicts of interest that could emerge. Because the sports department is a part of the news department, Dispatch managing editor Zack Plair has responsibility over both. We are confident that Poe’s maturity and understanding of the ethics of sports journalism and Plair’s overarching leadership over all of the journalism provided by The Dispatch will serve well in dealing with any potential conflicts of interest that might emerge.

Given all that, we are pleased to note that Phillip Poe is now the permanent sports editor of The Dispatch and confident we will continue to succeed in this role. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.