Wednesday Bulldog Update - 4/10/13
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It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it? There’s something nice about walking around the office after beating your rival and last night’s win in The Governor’s Cup was a fun one for our Diamond Dawgs. I’m very proud of the game MVP Ross Mitchell, as well as the fans of Our State for setting an attendance record at Trustmark Park in Pearl.
2013 EGG BOWL SET FOR THANKSGIVING ON ESPN
Speaking of our friends to the north, we’re really excited about this morning’s announcement that the Egg Bowl will return to its once-traditional place on Thanksgiving night on ESPN. Many of my personal favorite Egg Bowl memories have been in Thanksgiving games and our team, university and fans will receive a tremendous amount of exposure. One note I found particularly interesting: the Egg Bowl has averaged 481,000 viewers the last three years. In that same time span, the Thanksgiving night games on ESPN had an average of 3.6 million people watching. We’re pretty thrilled about the opportunity to showcase our campus and people in such a way.
ESPN approached both schools about the possibility a month ago and the only hesitation I had was knowing we had already agreed to one Thursday night game this year against Kentucky. After talking with our staff and several Bulldog fans, we felt it was a unique scenario where, unlike most weeks, Thursday is a holiday for everyone and functions like any other Saturday would. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone for Thanksgiving at Davis Wade Stadium.
GOLF TEAM ON A ROLL
I find myself yet again extending a congratulations to Coach Homan and the men’s golf team, who won a school-record fourth tournament of the season yesterday, a thrilling sudden-death playoff victory in the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship.
After our women’s team had a great outing finishing sixth out of 18 schools at their tournament in Oxford Sunday, Ally McDonald earned SEC Player of the Week honors for the second time this season, making it the fourth conference honoree in the last five weeks between the men's and women's programs.
We’re all excited for the season both teams are having and wish them good luck going forward, particularly in the SEC Championship. The men will be playing in St. Simon's Island, Ga., while the women will be in Birmingham beginning April 20.
SUPER BULLDOG WEEKEND REMINDER
In case you haven’t yet finalized your plans, we’re getting very close to one of my favorite times of the year. Super Bulldog Weekend kicks off next week with the SEC women’s tennis Championship on campus Wednesday and the baseball series against Auburn on Thursday evening. As always, it’s a full schedule of events, the entire list of which you can find at HailState.com/gameday. As we’ve noted, the main change this year concerns the Maroon-White Spring Football Game. With the ongoing expansion and renovation of Davis Wade Stadium, only the east side of the stadium will be open for the 1:00 p.m. scrimmage, limiting our capacity to 25,000. We’ll have the entrance open at the southeast corner by The Junction and look forward to seeing the significant progress made both on the stadium and on the field for Coach Mullen’s team.
BIG WEEKEND IN STARKVILLE
While we’re naturally excited for Super Bulldog Weekend, there will be lots of important action on campus this coming weekend, as well. It’s another fun rivalry note, as our softball team will be hosting Ole Miss in a three-game series this weekend, including a televised game on ESPNU Friday night. Coach Stuedeman is currently undefeated against teams from Our State – including a sweep in Oxford last year - and I’m looking forward to cheering her on as she keeps that streak going.
Our women's tennis team will also be in action at home this weekend, closing out the regular season before getting set to host the 2013 SEC Championship (April 17-21 during Super Bulldog Weekend). The Lady Bulldogs will welcome our two new conference foes this weekend, taking on No. 3 Texas A&M Friday in a 3 p.m. affair at the Pitts Tennis Centre before entertaining Missouri Sunday at 1 p.m.
MARCH EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH
We’re a little ways into April, but I’d like to recognize Wilma Peterson, our March Employee of the Month in the athletic department. Wilma works in our business office and has been with us for nearly four years now working on everything from travel and courtesy cars to accounts payable. She’s always willing to jump in and help where ever she can and is a smiling face everyone in the department knows. Congratulations, Wilma.
We appreciate what you do for Mississippi State Athletics and want to encourage you to get others involved. There are three things you can do to help the athletic department at Mississippi State reach its desired goals –
1. Buy Season Tickets
2. Financially Support the Bulldog Club
3. Get Others To Do The Same
Thanks for taking the time to read this Update.
Hail State!
Scott Stricklin