| Thursday, July 11, 2019 |
| 2 from NCWV receive Bardsley Scholarships at Mississippi State's College of Veterinary Medicine | |
 | A WVU graduate from Harrison County and a University of Findlay graduate from Monongalia County are among 12 members of the Class of 2023 to have have been awarded Bardsley Scholarships at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine in Starkville. Receiving the awards were Harrison County's Kylie Fisher and Monongalia County's Cassandra Barber. The scholarships are made possible by a gift from the estate of Dr. Charles and Viola Bardsley, who lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and took a special interest in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Each year, scholarships are awarded to eight to 12 incoming students who meet the requirements. Mississippi residents and students from West Virginia and South Carolina, who receive in-state tuition rates as a result of contract arrangements through their respective state Legislatures, qualify for $25,000 scholarships. |
| MEMA 'activated' as tropical depression takes form in Gulf of Mexico | |
 | The second tropical depression of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to form Wednesday or Thursday in the north central Gulf of Mexico. While Mississippi currently remains out of the tropical storm warning area, a Mississippi Emergency Management Agency official said Wednesday that flooding is likely and the threat of tornadoes and severe thunderstorms exists. Gregory Michel, executive director MEMA, said Wednesday that the agency has been activated and is asking residents along the Mississippi Gulf Coast to maintain awareness of the incoming storm. "Folks on the lower three counties along the coast, it looks like they will not get the worse of the storm as of now," Michel said. "But, residents should avoid the water and take heed to beach warnings." Michel, who spoke with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said the potential for the heaviest rainfall in the state lies south of U.S. 84. |
| Four candidates miss filing deadline | |
 | Wednesday marked a deadline for those running for county government positions, as well as positions at the state and federal level to submit campaign finance reports. While fewer candidates missed the July deadline than June, among them were two who did not meet the June deadline and two incumbents. The four candidates who missed the July deadline were incumbent District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams, incumbent District 3 Justice Court Judge Tony Boykin, District 2 supervisor candidate Tremell Orlando Sherman and chancery clerk candidate Martesa Bishop-Flowers. The finance reports submitted Wednesday cover the month of June. |
| Tate Reeves has most campaign cash in Mississippi gov's race | |
 | With party primaries less than a month away, second-term Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves still has more campaign cash than any candidate running for Mississippi governor. Finance reports filed Wednesday show Reeves, of Flowood, had more than $5.8 million in his campaign fund at the end of June. The other two candidates in the Republican gubernatorial primary had less than one-tenth of that amount, combined. Former Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. of Jackson reported about $373,000 on hand, and first-term state Rep. Robert Foster of Hernando reported just over $7,000. Fourth-term Attorney General Jim Hood of Houston had more money than any Democrat running for governor, with $1.5 million on hand. The other Democrats, combined, reported having a fraction of that. |
| Tate Reeves leads fundraising for governor; candidates spend big on TV | |
| Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves raised about $650,000 in June in his bid for the governor's mansion, a haul that outpaces his rivals and beats his own fundraising total from a month earlier. Reeves now has $5.8 million in his campaign coffers about a month ahead of the Republican primary. His campaign spent about $1.2 million last month, much of it on a barrage of television ads, according to reports filed with the state Wednesday. Reeves' Democratic rival, Attorney General Jim Hood, reported raising half what Reeves did, about $330,000, and spending $105,000 in June. He has about $1.4 million in his war chest, though faces a less-competitive August primary. The Reeves campaign continues to say he's focused on Hood and the November general election, and rarely brings up his Republican primary primary opponents, state Rep. Robert Foster and former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. |
| Political speaking schedule set for the Neshoba County Fair | |
 | The political speaking schedule has been set for the 2019 Neshoba County Fair. This is an important year of elections. The speaking gets underway Tuesday, July 30, with local Neshoba County candidates taking the stage. Statewide races will be the focus Wednesday, July 31, with the lieutenant governor and secretary of state candidates getting the spotlight. The biggest day is on Thursday, Aug. 1, where candidates for governor stump for votes. Gov. Phil Bryant will also deliver his final address that Thursday. |
| Movie making is returning to Mississippi following expansion of incentive program | |
| The Mississippi Legislature approved for part of the film incentive package that expired in 2017 to be revived this year. And it's already drawing new movies to the state. Senate Bill 2603 extends a program that allows Mississippi to offer rebates to motion picture production companies that work in the state. Unlike some legislation, it was effective upon passage when the Governor signed it in April. It allows for 25 percent tax rebates for non-resident cast and crew on films. "Breaking News in Yuba County" will tell the story of a housewife whose husband has a heart attack when she walks in on him with another woman. She buries him and pretends he's been kidnapped. "A comedy of errors ensues after that," explains director Tate Taylor. "An incentive in a state is a chicken in an egg situation," explained Taylor. "At some point, crew has to keep coming and staying in hotels. But they can't start planting their roots, like say in Natchez, if movies aren't going to keep being filmed here." |
| President Trump to announce executive action on census citizenship question | |
 | President Trump on Thursday plans to announce an executive action related to the census, according to a White House official. The action is expected to address the citizenship question that the Supreme Court recently blocked the administration from adding to the 2020 census. Trump tweeted that he will hold a news conference in the afternoon "on the Census and Citizenship." White House officials declined to discuss the content of the executive action, but said it may not be a full-blown executive order. Trump has hinted in recent days that he may use an executive order to force the inclusion of a citizenship question on census forms following the high court's decision in late June. But any executive action taken by Trump is likely to be met with another round of legal challenges. It is not clear how the executive action would satisfy legal concerns and result in the addition of the question in a timely manner. |
| Can the billion-dollar esports industry get some respect? | |
 | Members of Congress fought to the (virtual) death Wednesday night while their staffers, drinking beer and scarfing down cheeseburger sliders, watched. Don't worry: It was live-streamed. The setting was a dimly lit reception room on Capitol Hill. The occasion was a video game tournament, put on by the Entertainment Software Association, that ran on the streaming site Twitch. As some huddled intently around screens to play their own side games, a battle for Florida or New York supremacy was unfolding -- a Rocket League showdown between Reps. Stephanie Murphy and Hakeem Jeffries. While gaming as a child, Jeffries never imagined the industry would grow to the behemoth it is now. "I wish I had the foresight to invest at that particular point in time," he says. Not wanting to date himself, Jeffries wouldn't reveal what his first console was, but it probably rhymes with "matari." But can video games shake off their slacker stigma and gain respect as competitive gaming becomes a billion-dollar industry? Members of Congress can help -- or at least that's what lobbyists are hoping. |
| Three universities awarded over $1M to prepare new teachers | |
| The Mississippi Department of Education has awarded three universities a $1.7 million, three-year grant to help prepare and support new teachers for high-need school districts. The partnership is part of the Mississippi Teacher Residency Program. In 2018, the MDE received a $4.1 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to establish teacher residency programs in Mississippi to address the shortage of diverse and effective teachers in schools. The grant enables the MDE to provide funds for collaboration between higher education institutions and school district partners to develop undergraduate teacher residency programs. n grant years 2019-2022, the teacher residency program will support up to 35 new residents per year for four districts. The following institutions received awards through a competitive process: Delta State University, $599,994; Mississippi State University-Meridian, $598,389; and William Carey University, $600,000. |
| New Accelerated Law Program offers UM students expedited success | |
 | This spring, Mariel Spencer, a 2019 UM graduate, became the first student to graduate through the Accelerated Law Program. The Accelerated Law Program allows students to take some law school classes while pursuing their undergraduate degree. Spencer, originally from Seattle, says she was initially drawn to the program because it allowed her to achieve her long-time goal of attending law school faster than previously possible. Spencer graduated in May with a degree in general business. The Accelerated Law Program allowed Spencer to do so by offering first-year law classes while she was still an undergraduate. During her senior year, Spencer completed rigorous coursework in civil procedure, legal research and writing and constitutional law. "This unique and flexible program provides an opportunity for ambitious and dedicated students to complete their degree in less time," said Susan Duncan, Law School dean. "More importantly, by saving the undergraduate student time, it also saves them an extra year of tuition dollars." |
| UMMC collboration to provide services at Merit Health Madison | |
| A business venture with Merit Health Madison is opening the door for University of Mississippi Medical Center physicians to perform surgeries and provide inpatient post-operative care at Merit Health's hospital in Canton, effectively expanding UMMC's adult hospital capacity and operating room availability. The business venture has been realized through a UMMC-affiliated not-for-profit company, Healthier Mississippi Collaborative, made possible by an act of the Mississippi Legislature in 2017. The act, the first of its kind in Mississippi, paves the way for the Medical Center to engage in health care-related business relationships with public and private entities. The business venture with Merit Health Madison reflects UMMC's commitment to caring for the health and wellness of Mississippians by increasing patient access to specialty services provided by the state's only academic medical center and training opportunities for the next generation of health care providers. |
| State launches teacher recruitment campaign to entice new educators | |
 | Inspiring and empowering change for generations to come may sound like a tall order, but the state of Mississippi is looking to lead the charge when it comes to education. A new recruitment campaign from the state superintendent's office was announced this week to encourage high school and college students -- as well as professionals seeking a new career opportunity -- to consider teaching. "One student, one classroom, one school at a time" is the branding being used for TeachMS, the campaign's theme. As part of the campaign's development, high school and college students provided insight into what's important to them if they are to consider a career in education. Also, current teachers from across the state shared stories about what motivates them to commit to the profession. |
| U. of South Carolina students want politics out of the school's presidential search | |
 | University of South Carolina students don't want politicians telling them who their next president should be. That was the message students sent at a Wednesday forum on campus. The forum was scheduled after news broke that Gov. Henry McMaster successfully pressured USC's board of trustees to schedule a vote on Friday on whether to elect Robert Caslen,the former superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, as the school's next president. "Our opinion about Caslen was shown in April and May," student Sawyer McDuffie said. "We're really here to tell the Governor to stop what he's doing. "When we found out about this we felt betrayed and blindsided." Caslen was one of four presidential finalists in the school's search for a replacement for Harris Pastides. After the board of trustees could not come to a unified decision, it reopened the search and named USC Upstate Chancellor Brendan Kelly interim president. |
| Seven students testify at LSU hazing trial; two say Matthew Naquin 'targeted' Max Gruver | |
 | Matthew Naquin targeted Max Gruver the night the Phi Delta Theta pledge died of alcohol poisoning by peppering Gruver with questions during an initiation ritual and ordering him to chug hard liquor every time he gave a wrong answer, two LSU students who pledged the fraternity with Gruver in 2017 told a Baton Rouge jury Wednesday. "I believe that Max would still be here today if Naquin had not been in that (fraternity) house that night, or if he (Naquin) had acted differently that night," Brayden Rabalais, who is from Seneca, South Carolina, and has been a student at LSU since the fall of 2017, testified at Naquin's negligent homicide trial. Christian Taulli, who said he considered Gruver his best friend at LSU, testified Naquin was over-aggressive at the Sept. 13, 2017, "Bible study" hazing ritual at which Gruver died. "He seemed mad the entire night," said Taulli, of Houston, Texas. "He definitely seemed to target Max." |
| Arkansas Scholarship Lottery's take for fiscal 2019 record $516M | |
| The 10-year-old Arkansas Scholarship Lottery raised $98.4 million for college scholarships in the fiscal year that ended June 30, eclipsing the previous record set in its second full fiscal year of operations, the lottery reported Wednesday. The record for net proceeds was $97.5 million in fiscal 2012. Total revenue of $516.2 million in fiscal 2019 also set a record, outdistancing its previous record of $500.4 million last fiscal year, the lottery said in its monthly report to Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Legislative Council's lottery oversight subcommittee. "We really challenged the staff and they rose to the occasion and the results were fantastic," lottery Director Bishop Woosley said in a written statement. The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery started selling scratch-off tickets on Sept. 28, 2009, and has helped finance Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships for more than 30,000 students during each of the past nine fiscal years. |
| U. of Florida honors Chinese doctoral student as inquiry proceeds | |
 | Photographs of Huixiang Chen flashed across a television screen at the University of Florida Baughman Center Wednesday. The photograph displayed at UF's memorial service for the doctoral student was taken sometime before Chen was found hanged in a UF Benton Hall office where he worked, and a university investigation into the circumstances surrounding his suicide was launched. More than 150 family members, colleagues and friends attended Chen's memorial service. Chen, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was found the morning of June 14. Authorities found a note among his belongings that alleged research misconduct by his faculty adviser, Tao Li. The allegation led the university to launch an investigation, looking at whether there was any academic misconduct by Li or mistreatment of Chen. There also have been allegations that Li threatened students who talk about the purported academic misconduct. University of President Kent Fuchs also acknowledged the investigation in a July 3 email to graduate students. |
| U. of Alabama law professor calls for review of Tuscaloosa jail | |
 | A University of Alabama law professor is calling for an investigation into the Tuscaloosa County Jail and a commission to examine practices within the criminal justice system here. Steven Hobbs, the Tom Bevill chairholder of law at the University of Alabama law school, is asking government leaders to form what he proposed calling the Tuscaloosa Justice Commission to review the policies and practices of local agencies. Hobbs said his son was raped while incarcerated in the Tuscaloosa County Jail when he was 18. He said his son came to him in 2013 and told him that he was sexually assaulted by at least 30 inmates during a single incident while he was being held on a criminal trespassing charge. Hobbs said he has filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice and with local officials. County attorney Robert Spence said the county hasn't received a complaint from Hobbs or his son. "We don't know what he's talking about," he said. |
| U. of Missouri nears $1.3B campaign goal | |
 | The University of Missouri is within sprinting distance of completing a $1.3 billion fundraising campaign launched formally in October 2015. Officials celebrated a record fundraising year on Wednesday morning, with $200 million in new pledges and cash gifts during the 2018-19 academic year. The donations bring the Mizzou: Our Time to Lead campaign total to just $50 million short of its $1.3 billion goal. Exactly when the drive will reach the goal will be determined by donors, but Tom Hiles, MU vice chancellor for advancement, said he expects it will occur before the new year. "It will depend on cash flow and a couple of big requests we have out, but we believe it will be sometime this fall," Hiles said. The Mizzou: Our Time to Lead campaign began with a “silent phase” that saw donors pledge or give about $650 million prior to the formal unveiling. The campaign’s goals are to increase the institutional endowment to more than $1 billion to help MU attract and retain the best students and faculty, establish new academic units such as the Kinder Institute for Constitutional Democracy and the Novak Leadership Institute, and support campus building projects. |
| Top Ed Department official discusses focus on public-facing data rather than regulation | |
 | So far the Trump administration's take on trying to hold colleges more accountable has relied largely on releasing more public-facing data about their performance at the program level, while also deregulating and dropping sanction-bearing rules from the Obama era. The U.S. Department of Education's top higher education official, Diane Auer Jones, the principal deputy under secretary, described this approach on Wednesday at an event held in Baltimore by Inside Higher Ed on the future of public higher education. "Our philosophy on accountability is that government has an obligation to make data and information available to consumers. But we don't think government knows better than an individual what is right for that individual," she said. "People should know what the outcomes might be so that they borrow responsibly. But somebody who's interested in philosophy should still pursue philosophy, and somebody who's interested in welding should pursue welding." |
| Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Address Campus Hunger | |
| A recent federal watchdog report about the breadth of food insecurity on America's college campuses came with a caveat: "Nationally representative survey data that would support direct estimates of the prevalence of food insecurity among college students do not exist," the Government Accountability Office wrote in the report to lawmakers. There is a growing body of research saying that college students are routinely going hungry, but it is not consistent in describing the scale of the problem. Conservative critics of research on campus food insecurity, who oppose interventions to assist these college students, have used the lack of definitive, nationally representative samples to discount the work. Survey response rates were too low, they argued; there were shifting definitions of insecurity; the surveys were not optimally designed. A new bill, released Thursday by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, with companion legislation sponsored in the House by Representative Jahana Hayes, also of Connecticut, and Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio, aims to eliminate that doubt. |
SPORTS
| Joe Moorhead gives a peek inside the Mississippi State playbook | |
 | College football coaches are typically intent on keeping their offensive schemes a secret. From outlandish play cards with pop culture references to assistant coaches holding up towels behind coordinators as they signal in plays to block camera angles that could steal the signs, teams are hell-bent on keeping their ins and outs confidential. That said, gathered reporters were offered a rare look inside the Mississippi State playbook Wednesday with the help of overqualified tour guide/coach Joe Moorhead. "I'm a Yankee, so I talk fast, just stop me if I need to slow down," Mississippi State's leader quipped as he started the presentation. With the help of a slideshow and spliced game film, he delved into a number of concepts the Bulldogs will run this fall -- most notably the inside run. |
| Mississippi State's Joe Moorhead talks x's and o's with the media | |
 | College football coaches speak two distinct languages. One is coach speak, which we all understand. The other is x's and o's, which can sound like Greek to the untrained ear. Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead let the media into his world this afternoon at his chalk talk presentation. Moorhead went into great detail breaking down the principles of run plays and passing plays. "The big thing is that we don't create a new offense every week," said Moorhead. "We've got a ton of banked reps where we've done it in spring ball, we've done it in fall camp and we've done it during the season." |
| John Cohen named to NCAA Baseball Committee | |
| The NCAA is going to put John Cohen's baseball acumen to good use. The Mississippi State athletics director has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. He will serve a four-year term, which starts Sept. 1. Cohen was MSU's baseball coach for eight seasons and took the Bulldogs to the College World Series finals in 2013. He was named AD in 2016. The NCAA's baseball committee is composed of 10 members. Cohen is replacing South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner as the Southeast representative. "It's a great honor," Cohen said, "and it's one of those things where you want to listen a lot more than you want to talk in the beginning, to learn the nature of what they're doing." |
| Mississippi State AD John Cohen excited about new baseball opportunity | |
| Mississippi State Athletic Director John Cohen grinned ear-to-ear Wednesday afternoon. With the news that he had been named to the NCAA Division 1 Baseball Committee having become public less than 24 hours before, Cohen excitedly addressed the media regarding his position while also reflecting on a historic year in Bulldog athletics. The one-time MSU and Kentucky head baseball coach will serve a four-year term beginning Sept. 1 and running through Aug. 31, 2023 as he helps the committee select host sites for the NCAA regionals and fill in the 33 at-large bids for the annual NCAA Tournament, among other tasks. "It's a great honor," Cohen said. "I think it's one of those things that you want to listen a lot more than you want to talk at the beginning to kind of learn the nature of what they're doing." Cohen will replace South Carolina Athletic Director Ray Tanner on the committee after his term expires in August. Tanner has spent the past two years as the chair of the committee. "I have a lot of respect for Ray," Cohen said. "It's tough to stand up in front of the microphones when there's some people who are upset about not getting in the tournament and you have to answer questions about certain teams that did get in the tournament." |
| How the Mississippi State women's basketball team earned more than a silver medal | |
| It started with a friendly against Japan on July 1, but friendly is just a technical term. Vic Schaefer took his Mississippi State women's basketball team to Italy to represent the United States of America with one profound purpose: to win. That was evident in a game that simply served as a tune-up for the 2019 World University Games in Naples. USA Team, which was comprised of 11 current MSU players and one former one, fell behind by 14 points to Japan in the second half of the friendly. The girls could have packed it in and saved their mettle for the games that actually counted. They didn't. USA Team turned it on and eventually edged Japan by one point, 79-78, thanks to a three-point play from sophomore Jessika Carter with 4.5 seconds remaining. How much did one come-from-behind victory in a practice match really matter? "I thought that set the tone," Schaefer said. It sure did. |
| Bulldogs fall to Australia in gold medal game | |
| Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer could see the downtrodden faces. Soon after the Bulldogs fell 80-72 to Australia in the gold medal game of the 2019 Summer World University Games Wednesday in Naples, Italy, Schaefer recognized the disappointment his players felt in falling short of a world title but remained positive about the experience. "I'm incredibly proud of our kids," Schaefer told the Dispatch. "What we've asked them to do in three and a half short weeks, we basically threw November/December at them without a preseason, September, October or practice and asked them to come over here and play seven games against seven countries who have the best 18-25 year olds that they have in their country." The loss aside, Schaefer said the Bulldogs became the first collegiate team representing the United States to medal in the event -- earning silver for their efforts. |
| Mississippi State announces schedule for 25th season of soccer | |
| After earning its first NCAA Tournament berth in program history, Mississippi State soccer will return to the field for its 25th season on Aug. 22. MSU has 18 regular-season contests on tap in head coach James Armstrong's first season, with 11 of those scheduled at home. The schedule features nine NCAA Tournament teams from last season, including five that finished in the top 30 of the final RPI. "We are very excited to announce our fall schedule," Armstrong said. "The diversity and challenge of our non-conference schedule will certainly prepare us for what is always a tough SEC schedule. We cannot wait to get on the field to face these opponents, especially for those games in front of our awesome fans in Starkville." Before opening the season, State will play two exhibition matches. The Bulldogs will take a trip to Columbus, Georgia, to face Georgia Southern on a neutral pitch at 2 p.m. CT on Aug. 15 before closing the preseason against Southern Miss in Starkville on Aug.17 at 4 p.m. |
| SEC football: Here are the top 10 games on the 2019 schedule | |
| For nearly a decade, every SEC football season has started with a similar feeling. Alabama is going to win the SEC West. There will be a team from the SEC East capable of contending with the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship Game but that team -- which will likely be Georgia once again -- probably won't get it done. That's just the most likely scenario. It doesn't have to play out that way. There are games between now and December that could change the course of the conference's season. Here are some of those games, plus non-conference games that might have College Football Playoff implications. Speaking of teams trying to find their place in the conference's landscape, LSU and Mississippi State are two of them. Is LSU ready to truly compete with Alabama in the West? If so, a win over Mississippi State at Davis Wade Stadium would be a must. But if the Bulldogs are able to emerge victorious, then could head coach Joe Moorhead's team make a serious jump and flirt with being the SEC's sleeper? |
| SEC announces Media Days attendees | |
| SEC Media Days will be held Monday, July 15 through Thursday, July 18 in Hoover, Ala. Coaches and players from all 14 SEC institutions will meet with more than 1,000 members of the media in the annual ceremonial kickoff to the football season. |
| Tennessee AD Phillip Fulmer: Vols 'headed down that road' with alcohol sales | |
| The University of Tennessee is still "in the process" of determining whether beer and wine will be sold at Neyland Stadium during football games, according to athletic director Phillip Fulmer. Fulmer said during an appearance on 104.5 The Zone radio in Nashville on Tuesday that Tennessee still has questions that need answers vis-a-vis selling alcoholic beverages in Neyland -- which becomes the fifth largest city in the state of Tennessee six or seven times per year. The SEC in May adjusted its long-standing rule forbidding schools from selling alcohol in general seating areas, leaving individual schools with decisions to make on whether to sell beer and wine. Only one SEC program -- Texas A&M -- has made the leap and announce plans to serve alcohol during football games this season, but several programs have gone the other way. Georgia, Alabama and Auburn quickly announced they wouldn't serve alcohol during games in the immediate future, and South Carolina joined that group earlier this week. |
| Aggies turn to Southern Miss assistant Chad Caillet to replace Will Bolt | |
 | Texas A&M head baseball coach Rob Childress agreed that it took quite the sales pitch to pull a Southern Miss alumnus away from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, after a 12-year career as an assistant coach. Ultimately, it was the A&M program that spoke for itself, Chad Caillet said. Childress officially announced the hire Wednesday with Caillet coming on as an assistant coach with the Aggies, orchestrating the offensive game, infield defense and coaching third base. He filled a similar role at Southern Miss while serving as associate head coach. "Honestly, I was in a terrific situation at Southern Miss, working with a terrific staff," Caillet said. The Hahnville, Louisiana, native takes over for Will Bolt, who left his post with the Aggies to take the head coaching position at his alma mater, Nebraska. |
| Jeremy Pruitt commits NCAA violation for congratulating alma mater on hoops title | |
 | A tweet landed Jeremy Pruitt a slap on the wrist. Tennessee's football coach mentioned Plainville High School, his alma mater, in a congratulatory tweet from his verified account in March. Pruitt's tweet wasn't even directed to Plainview's football team. It was in response to the Plainview boys basketball team repeating as state champions. A Tennessee compliance department staff member saw the tweet and notified Pruitt and a football staff member responsible for social media that the tweet was an impermissible endorsement of a high school team and its coach. The tweet was deleted 37 minutes after it was posted. Tennessee's compliance office provided rules education to Pruitt and the social media staffer, and the SEC and NCAA took no further action. Pruitt's tweet was one of nine NCAA violations that Tennessee reported during the first six months of 2019. All were Level III violations, which are considered minor. UT released a report detailing the violations to the News Sentinel on Wednesday in response to a public records request. |
| Memphis coaches begin move to new offices, indoor practice facility to begin construction | |
| Memphis football is getting closer towards the building of its long-in-the-works indoor practice facility. On Wednesday, the Tigers football staff, including coaches, began moving their furniture into their new offices at the Billy J. Murphy Athletic Complex. The offices are part of Phase I of the indoor practice facility project, which also includes new athletic training, dining and recruiting areas. Phase II, which is the actual facility, will begin construction as Phase I goes through its final inspections. Groundwork prep has begun directly behind the Murphy Complex. Construction of the indoor practice facility was approved on June 26 after Memphis President M. David Rudd shared a statement on Twitter from the Tennessee State Architect. "Everything is in order. You may proceed with construction." the statement read. It has been a long road towards building the practice facility, which first broke ground in April 2017. |
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