Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2002)
Peter Hockaday (20-16) . % , ^nnp 4 m Adam Jude (21-15) mmL -.mm Hank Hager (19-17) Jesse Thomas (19-17) :W Mindi Rice (22-14) Michael Kleckner (16-20) the editor-in-chief and one designer) choose teams against the Las Vegas spread, meaning that if the picker (pat team would have to beat the spread — win by more points than the spread — for the picker to ‘win’ the pick. (Spread in parentheses next to favored team) Washington Oregon Oregon State Stanford use Arizona St. California California Ohio State Ohio State Texas Tech Texas Oregon Oregon Oregon Oregon State (IS) @ Stanford Stanford Stanford Stanford Arizona State <® USC (14) use USC Stanford Arizona St. Arizona St. Arizona Arizona <® California (16.5) California California California Ohio State (9) @ Illinois Ohio State Ohio State Ohio State Texas (5.5)<@ Texas lech Texas Tech ^ Texas Tech ; S S Texas Tech Texas Tech llinois Washington Washington Stanford California Ohio State Texas Mississippi State coach won’t resign post Jim Mashek Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) BILOXI, Miss. — The losses are mounting, and the critics are grow ing, but Mississippi State coach Jack ie Sherrill said Tuesday his resolve is as strong as it’s ever been in his 36 year career. Sherrill, 58, addressed his job secu rity during his usual Tuesday after noon press conference at the Bryan Building on the MSU campus. He also was given a vote of confidence by State’s longtime athletics director, Lar ry Templeton. Templeton and former MSU presi dent Donald Zacharias brought Sher rill to Mississippi State after the 1990 football season. Sherrill has the longest tenure of any coach in the Southeast ern Conference. Sherrill’s squad faces Tennessee on Saturday at MSlFs Scott Field, the first meeting between the schools since the 1998 SEC championship game in Atlanta. This game, however, is being played under much different circumstances. Tennessee, a familiar team in the Top 10, is 5-4 overall and 2-3 in SEC play. State, which finished in the fi nal Associated Press poll in both the 1999 and 2000 seasons, has become the last-place team in the SEC West. The Bulldogs have lost 13 of their last 15 SEC games, as well as 14 of their last 20 overall. They’re also facing NCAA scrutiny, for the first time since the squad was hit with light sanctions in 1996. State (3-6 overall, 0-5 in the SEC) has been outscored 180-71 in league games this season. But Sherrill sees brighter times ahead for the Bulldogs, with him on the sideline'toboot. “You can go either one of two ways,” Sherrill said. “It can either wear you down, or you can become more excit ed about it. I’m the kind of guy that when the daylight goes out, 111 turn the lights on to make sure we keep playing until I win.” The Bulldogs had won just three SEC games in the previous four sea sons before Sherrill’s arrival in 1991. State went 7-5 and played in bowl games in each of his first two seasons, and posted an 8-4 record in 1994. After two lean years, State went 7-4 in 1997, but did not play in a bowl game, fol lowed by the ‘98 squad that represent ed the SEC West in the league champi onship game. State lost that game to eventual na tional champion Tennessee. In 1999, Sherrill led MSU to its first 10-win season since World War II, and the Bulldogs won their first bowl game since 1980. The next year, State knocked off nationally-ranked Florida and Auburn in successive weeks be fore slumping late in the season. State finished 8-4 after outlasting Texas A&M 43-41 in the Independence Bowl. Since then, the Bulldogs have gone due south, but Templeton seems con vinced Sherrill is the man to lead State back to prosperity. “We always evaluate our coaches af ter the season,” Templeton told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I don’t have any reason to believe we should be thinking about changing coaches. ” Sherrill’s record at State is 73-62-2, including a 42-49-1 mark in the SEC. “Jackie Sherrill didn’t become the winningest coach in Mississippi State history without knowing what to do to fix it,” Templeton said. “He has our support that we’re going to get it fixed.” Support from influential State alum ni, including the Bulldog Club, might be another story. Sherrill has three years left on his contract and is one of the lowest-paid coaches in the SEC. Including perks, Sherrill’s annual con tract is worth about $700,000. It’s been a disastrous 2002 season for the Bulldogs, as starting quarter back Kevin Fant was suspended by the NCAA for State’s opening game at Ore gon. Freshman tailback Nick Turner, a key part of a celebrated recruiting class, was arrested last month for pos session of counterfeit money, and NCAA investigators have interviewed MSU athletes on the Starkville campus on at least two separate occasions since August. © 2002, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.). Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. . Enrollweni 1 Ifee I f You 5^9 special include processing tee Student specials available Beltline riijtijif, ,