2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour Blog
Welcome to the 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour Blog! During our travels around the Southeast this week, our staff will be updating this page regularly with thoughts from this year's tour.
Please visit often as the 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour Blog comes to a city near you!
- 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour Information/Schedule
Day 1
Monday, May 9
(7:50 a.m.) - The bus is rolling on the way to a BancorpSouth visit in Flowood followed by lunch in Brookhaven then dinner in Biloxi. Coach Mullen is joined this morning by Volleyball Coach Jenny Hazelwood, Athletic Department Staffers Joe Galbraith, Bo Hemphill, and Mike Richey and Michael Richardson along with Dr. Jimmy Abraham the Executive Director of the MSU Alumni Association. Of course, the Golden Egg and the Gator Bowl trophy are on board as well. Once again, we have a spectacular bus complete with internet and satellite television from Senators Coaches of Killen, Alabama. Turn on the television and what is on? Hoosiers...the Jimmy Chitwood references begin immediately.
(8:30 a.m.) - Between laptops, iPads and television there is quite a bandwidth battle going on this morning. Jimmy Chitwood drains the buzzer beater and shouts "This is Our State"!
(10:45 a.m.) - Just leaving the BancorpSouth branch in Flowood. Had a great visit with those folks and their customers. Back on the bus now heading to Brookhaven. Surprise visit from former Bulldog receiver Justin Jenkins who, along with Eric Moulds, holds the school record for career touchdown receptions with 17. Athletic Director Scott Stricklin is now on the bus with us after catching up in Flowood.
(1:21 p.m.) - Brookhaven sets the bar high right out of the gate as over 150 Bulldogs packed out Poppa's restaurant for the first official 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour stop. Another surprise appearance as former Bulldog defensive tackle Jessie Bowman came out for catfish and football talk this afternoon. Bus is rolling to Biloxi to visit the Howard Avenue branch of BancorpSouth at 4 p.m. The day ends with dinner at the Biloxi Yacht Club at 6:30 p.m. Sports talk on the bus has shifted from Jimmy Chitwood to Andrew Bynum as SportsCenter continues to replay highlights from last night.
(5:30 p.m.) - Bus is leaving a nice visit at BancorpSouth in Biloxi. Another one of our recent football alums joined us at the bank visit as former kicker Adam Carlson was in attendance. 3 for 3 so far today with offense, defense and special teams all represented. We had a great trip from Brookhaven and found out that Scott Stricklin, Dan Mullen and Jenny Hazelwood make a great Family Feud team. They are now undefeated on the bus and are not humble. Tonight, the BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour continues at the Biloxi Yacht Club. Family Feud will continue in the morning as we head to Lucedale for breakfast.
(8:01 p.m.) - Wrapping up the evening in Biloxi. What a beautiful setting the Biloxi Yacht Club is for an evening event. Another huge crowd to listen to Coach Mullen and another young former Bulldog as Sean Brauchle joined us tonight on the coast. Tomorrow morning, we get an early start as we head out at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast in Lucedale, lunch in Laurel and dinner in Meridian. Day 1 of the 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour is in the books and was a huge success. Hail State!
(8:35 p.m.) - Bus is rolling out of the Biloxi Yacht Club on the way to our hotel after more than 400 Bulldogs joined us tonight. The Mayor of Biloxi, A.J. Holloway, has declared today "Dan Mullen Day" in Biloxi. Looking forward to celebrating this holiday this evening before a good night's sleep and heading to Lucedale. Pretty sure that tomorrow's bus ride will have more Family Feud since the dream team of Mullen, Stricklin and Hazelwood took a loss earlier this evening to the scrappy group is Galbraith, Hemphill and Richey who obviously know a lot about musical instruments played on street corners.
Day 2
Tuesday, May 10
(6:50 a.m.) - It's an early morning start on the coast. The bus is rolling to Lucedale for breakfast and everyone is bright eyed and ready to kick off Day 2 of the 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour. Today is a full day with lunch in Laurel and dinner in Meridian along with a stop at a BancorpSouth branch in Laurel.
(9:30 a.m.) - Fantastic stop in Lucedale. Over 150 Bulldogs in attendance as we kick off day 2 on the 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour. The bus is now on the way to Laurel. Family Feud has gotten personal and led to finger-pointing and personal attacks so Tiger Woods golf has now become the game of choice. Scott Stricklin and Jenny Hazelwood are playing Sawgrass...appropriate since the Gator Bowl trophy is on board. The good folks of Lucedale hooked us up with some shrimp and grits for the road along with some jars of strawberry honey to take home. A great morning and we're all looking forward to the rest of our day.
(3:05 p.m.) - Just finished a great lunch at Howard Industries in Ellisville. Billy and Linda Howard have always been great supporters of Mississippi State and they did an exceptional job of hosting the crowd of almost 200. So it's back on the bus as we make our trek up I-59 to Meridian. Mike Richey was voted off the bus and I (Bart Gregory) will take his place. He was scheduled to be here all week, but to be honest, he just wasn't doing a good job with the blog. Scott just came to the back of the bus to ask Coach to send a tweet to help him be the most-followed AD in the SEC on twitter. He said it was important to the university. (I think it's as important as hair gel is to Richey...just kidding Scott). One may think I'm being a little harsh since jumping aboard the bus, but the dry-erase board with all of the grievances against me has taken it's toll. Anyway, looking forward to another tremendous event in Meridian.
(8:11 p.m.) - Day 2 goes in the book as we finish up with another capacity-crowd event. Meridian has always had a tremendous Mississippi State contingent and we always enjoy our time in Lauderdale County. It's almost become redundant but we continue to be amazed at the excitement of the MSU family. As Scott noted tonight, we must continue to press forward aggressively to accomplish the goals we have in front of us (football office complex, stadium expansion, etc). But at the end of the day, this is a great time for OUR university. So now we head back to Starkville for the night. Vicksburg and Greenville awaits the Road Dawgs tomorrow. As for now, we're watching the Bulls-Hawks game on the bus much to the dismay of Joe Galbraith and Bo Hemphill. They want to watch Glee. Of course for guys that watched the Notebook and Serendipity on DVD today, we're not surprised. So long until tomorrow.
Day 3
Wednesday, May 11
(8:30 a.m.) - The Road Dawgs are on the way to a couple cities on the river today as we'll see the fine people of Vicksburg at lunch and then on to Greenville tonight. It's an area that's certainly facing some adversity right now as the Mississippi River continues to swell. The state has seen many challenges over the past few years with natural disasters but we always show tremendous resilience and we know this time will be without exception. After lunch we'll travel around the city of Vicksburg to see some of the people working tirelessly to guard against the floodwaters and we'll make a few stops to see some who have been displaced. So it will be somewhat of a bittersweet day for us as we try to uplift the spirit of a lot of people but completely understand the tough situations they're experiencing.
(4:00 p.m.) - Vicksburg - Wow, the flight over here was extremely eye-opening. Words can't really describe what the Mississippi looks like. In some places we had a hard time telling where the river was even supposed to stop, as it had over taken levees. We met up with the bus at the airport in Tallula (after the drivers recovered from Bart's navigation) and headed to the Vicksburg Convention Center. Another packed room of Bulldog supporters were there and we were excited to have such a huge turnout amid less-than-ideal circumstances in the area.
After lunch, we met with a group at the BancorpSouth in Vicksburg, where current Bulldog long snapper Reed Gordon and his family were in attendance.
Following that visit, Bulldog Club member Steve Golding and his son Austin welcomed us to the headquarters of the Golding Barge Line, which is where the Weather Channel is broadcasting live this week. Coach Mullen did a great job representing OUR state in a live interview with the Weather Channel's Julie Martin (who, incidentally will get a degree from Mississippi State in August - Bulldogs everywhere!).
We then spent some time with long-time Bulldog supporter Ray English and his son Steve. Ray is one of the Bulldogs that shows relentless effort as he's always there to greet us on the road.
Now it's a quick flight up the Mississippi River to Greenville where we know another capacity crowd will gather for the Road Dawgs Tour.
Day 4
Thursday, May 12
(7 a.m.) - About to hit the road again and Coach Mullen is on the radio with 790 the Zone in Atlanta and about to do a hit with Matt Wyatt in Tupelo. We've got a busy day planned with trips to Columbus for breakfast, a stop in Smithville, lunch in Tupelo and dinner in Memphis.
Picked up a couple of new passengers for the day as we traded Mike Richey and Bart Gregory for the Clarion-Ledger's Brandon Marcello and a pair of minor leaguers (Stephen Foshee and Mark Melichar from the Bulldog Club).
We'll check in again after the Smithville stop, and after witnessing the flooding in Vicksburg and along the Mississippi yesterday, it's hard to imagine what we'll find. But as we've said all along and many others have echoed, the great people of OUR state are a resilient bunch.
(11:00 a.m.) - What an awesome start to Day 4 of RoadDawgs! We had a packed house in Columbus for breakfast, and Coach Mullen got a wonderful introduction from Dr. Chad Altmyer. We even had a great turnout of athletic department staff (apparently free breakfast will get them to drive 20 minutes!)
After breakfast, the bus headed north to visit with displaced students from Smithville and to see the destruction in their town. Words can't really describe what the EF5 tornado did to their community. I think we each have a new appreciation of the phrase "pictures don't do it justice."
We're on our way to Tupelo now, and for all of you wondering about the Family Feud contest we've got going here, my team has finally dropped the dead weight of Bart Gregory and Mike Richey, so we're getting better. Stay tuned for updates...
(1:13 p.m.) - Huge crowd in Tupelo for lunch on Day 4. The BancorpSouth Center is a great venue and MSU Alum and former manager of the Humphrey Coliseum Todd Hunt and his staff gave us a great conference room for today's Road Dawg stop. There are many MSU staffers here today and at this point a lot of them will go separate ways as Michelle McBride heads toward Atlanta for tomorrow's dinner, Scott Stricklin, Bo Hemphill and Marketing Director Chad Thomas head back to Starkville and Bart Gregory and SA President Rhett Hobart head to Oxford for some Bulldog Baseball. Straton Karatassos, Mike Richey, Jenny Hazelwood, Stephen Foshee and Mark Melichar are heading to Memphis for dinner tonight, after which Mike will drive to Nashville to get ready for tomorrow's lunch meeting there. The bus just isn't the same without Mike on it...he is so funny and really brings a lot of thought provoking conversation to the table. Dr. Jimmy Abraham and Dan Mullen are clearly the Road Warriors and look to be the only two who will have attendended all Road Dawg events this year when we are finished tomorrow.
Day 5
Friday, May 13
(1:35 p.m.) - Friday the 13th in Nashville but nothing unlucky here today. What a huge turnout at the Boundry for today's luncheon. The Nashville Chapter, led by National Young Alumna of the Year, Courtney Jones, did a great job putting together today's event, which is our next to last event for the 2011 BancorpSouth Road Dawgs Tour. Many former athletes and support staff joined us here today...Rob Fesmire, Will Coltharp, Matthew McRae and Bo McKinnis just to name a few. We had a lot to celebrate today as the Diamond Dogs picked up a win in Oxford last night and the Men's Tennis team cliched a victory over Florida State in the first round of the NCAA Tennis Tournament while we were meeting this afternoon. Jenny Hazelwood and Chad Thomas made the trip to Nashville today, which means Jenny will join Coach Mullen, Jimmy Abraham and Joe Galbraith as the only ones to make all the stops on the tour...true Road Warriors.
Unfortunately, there was no blog update last night as our crew was way too wrapped up in the baseball game, and debating a detour through Oxford. In the end, we went right back to Starkville to get ready for today. The crew is wrapping up activities here in Nashville and wll be departing for Atlanta soon.