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Tuesday! News! Notes! Words strung together to form sentences! It's all right here in your Tuesday MSU News and Notes!
- Kyle Tucker of the Courier-Journal, who is one of our two suggested Kentucky follows later in the day in our game week vitals, with a good story on Kentucky's football program's progress, which has been full of missteps.
- Did you miss Dan Mullen's Weekly Press Conference yesterday? Here's some highlights, via HailState.com:
Opening Statement
"Our guys are rested and ready to go. They're ready to get back to work this afternoon in practice. This will be our first SEC road game, which should be a challenge for our guys. We're playing a team that has some talent. [Kentucky] played a very emotional first half [vs. South Carolina] and had a good halftime lead against the No. 6 team in the country. We're going to have our hands full."
On expecting an outcome similar to last year's game...
"Yeah, statistics, a lot of times, will balance out at the end. Last year, [Kentucky] put nine guys on the line of scrimmage, so it doesn't matter - good or bad - it's hard to run the ball when you have that many guys to block. We had to resort to the pass game and were able to throw on them and make some plays through the air. We missed a couple of plays in the air too, but we were able to make enough and come out with a win. We are more balanced at this point in the season than we were last year."
On Malcolm Johnson...
"His return is huge. With him returning to practice we can see what he can do. He hasn't played football since last April so it's not like he can just get back in there and go. Basically, his training camp starts now. Everyone else has already started the season, but he's a playmaker."
- Video Interviews with Les Koenning, Melvin Smith, Greg Knox, Geoff Collins, LaDarius Perkins & Darius Slay:
- BOOOOOWWWWL PRROOOJJEECCCTTTIIOONSSS: ESPN (Chik Fil A), CBS (Cotton), Phil Steele (Cotton). It's interesting, Phil Steele has State projected to play Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl. IF that worked out and State does, in fact, play Oklahoma State to open the 2013 season, that would have to be one of the few times that has happened in college football. How would you feel about playing the Cowboys back to back to end/start the season?
- What's State wearing this weekend against Kentucky? Glad you asked. MONDAY MORNING MANNEQUIN, via Mississippi State | Joe Galbraith:
- According to the Bulldogs 24/7 recruit/player timeline, Mississippi State was paid a visit this weekend by *** PF Fallou Ndoye of Fort Pierce, Florida. Ndoye, a 6'10" 215 lb power forward from Faith Baptist School, has offers from MSU, Virginia Tech, and USC, among others. With State's depleted frontcourt, Ndoye will definitely be a name to watch as the basketball recruiting process for the class of 2013 moves along.
- Not really an "analysis" of State's baseball schedule, per say, but I did ask Perfect Game's Kendall Rogers on twitter yesterday what he thought about the Bulldogs 2013 slate of games:
@mstatesports Not horrible, but not ultra-challenging either .... #Portland and #FresnoState certainly aren't bad. Otherwise, meh.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) October 1, 2012
That's it for today's News and Notes. Make it a great Tuesday! Or don't, just bum around and watch Judge Judy and Matlock instead.