Mississippi State News, Notes, and Conjecture for January 9, 2015

Vivians' 21 Points Rallies No. 14/15 MSU To First 3-0 SEC Start - HailState.com

While things continue to go badly for the men, the Mississippi State women's basketball team quietly just keeps winning.  The ladies came back from a second half deficit at home against Arkansas last night to win going away, 72-57, against the Arkansas Razorbacks.  State finished on a BLISTERING 21-3 run, led by all-everything freshman sensation Victoria Vivians.  The defense was ridiculous in the second half, holding Arkansas to 13.8%.  Yes, you read that correctly.  A lot of attention is placed on Vivians, and rightfully so, but there are so many big time contributors on this team.  Martha Awal, Morgan William, Dominique Dillingham, Breanna Richardson, and many more.  This team is one of the best that's played on the women's side, probably ever, and they are sitting pretty at 18-0 so far this season.

There's a lot of really tough games still ahead of them, but you have to be excited about what Vic Schaefer is building in Starkville.

Yahoo! sources say Mississippi State's Benardrick McKinney to declare for NFL Draft - FWtCT

UPDATE: So I typed all of this out about 20 minutes or so before the big guy made it official and declared for the NFL draft. Everything written below still applies sans the official announcement so I'll leave it.  Best of luck, Benardrick!

In the most unsurprising early leak ever, Yahoo! reported yesterday that Benardrick McKinney will forgo his senior season and enter this spring's NFL Draft.  Honestly, I'd be more disappointed if McKinney DIDN'T declare.  His stock can only go down from here as he's currently projected for the first round.  We still don't have official word on his declaration, but it shouldn't be long now. I certainly look forward to watching him play on Sundays.

The only person we seem to be waiting to hear word on now is Dak, who has remained very quiet on what he'll do next fall.  I saw someone on EliteDawgs yesterday saying they heard he registered for grad school (Dak has already graduated), but other than that, things have been mum.  We should hopefully know something soon.  I told y'all earlier in the week where I stand on his decision, but I'll certainly wish Dak the best either way he chooses.

MSU offensive line coach John Hevesy a candidate at USC... or is he? - Twitter

After MSU brought in new defensive coordinator Manny Diaz earlier in the week, we all thought the ingress and egress in the football building would be done for the year.  That seemed to be interrupted last night with the report that John Hevesy was a candidate -- and a leading one at that -- for the offensive line position at Southern Cal.

Was asked today about USC’s next OL coach…just asked, was told to expect Mississippi State’s OL coach John Hevesy http://t.co/sNnVtz3C1h

— FootballScoop Staff (@FootballScoop) January 9, 2015

That caught me off guard, but I quickly accepted it as truth and began wondering who we might target to replace him.  It didn't take long for people to refute that report, however, as Scout's Steve Robertson quickly chimed in on the matter:

Completely false "@FootballScoop: Was asked today about USC’s next OL coach was told to expect Mississippi State’s OL coach John Hevesy

— Steve Robertson (@ScoutSteveR) January 9, 2015

Just told by an impeccable source that Mississippi State OL Coach John Hevesy has not accepted a job at USC or even spoken with anyone there

— Steve Robertson (@ScoutSteveR) January 9, 2015

Since the initial report, I've also seen several others refute its truth, with some even saying Hevesy hadn't even heard he was a candidate.  Of course, you can't really expect a coach to admit that he's looking elsewhere.  But there does seem to be enough supporting evidence to tell us that, at least at this time, this isn't anything to worry about.

My $.02 is that footballscoop's manager, who yes, is an Ole Miss guy, likely got very early info from a source at USC that Hevesy would be a target.  He then put that out there, even before Hevesy was contacted, catching everyone involved off guard.  I STRONGLY doubt that footballscoop reported that news just because DANG REBEL BEARS BE TRYING TAKE US DOWN, but you can't tell some message board heroes that not everything is a conspiracy.  It may work out better for us anyways, as the early leak could stave off an actual push from USC to hire Hevesy. I don't know either way; I guess we'll just wait and see.

"I don't understand what the Stansbury crowd wants" - Sixpackspeak

I saw this post earlier this week, and after reading the very long post on the current MSU basketball mess and how the pro-Stansbury crowd is handling it, I could not agree more with what DawgatAuburn had to say.  Look: you and I and everyone else could debate the Stansbury situation until the sun burns out.  Things weren't handled greatly, but despite what some will tell you, there's no guarantee that we'd be a top 25 team with Stansbury still in the saddle.  We'd probably be better, sure, but I maintain that the change was needed when it happened, regardless of how the following hire and subsequent three years have gone.

At some point I may sit down and put together about 2,000 words on my thoughts on the Stansbury situation, but for now I'll just admit that yes, MSU is in a messy situation, and it's likely time to move on yet again.  As someone said in that thread: our basketball team may be just awful, but the bright side is that for the first time in year's the MSU contingency is united in thinking we need to make a change.  At least we have that, I guess.

That's all I have for you all today.  If I missed a good link, make sure to leave it in the comments.  And if you have comments of your own or just want to yell at me, leave those in the comments too.

Hail dang State