Rippee Writes: jam packed with football, golf and media days
Ole Miss goes through SEC Media Days, MS golf update, Texas and OU to the SEC?
Hope everyone is having a good Thursday. We have a new podcast out with Mark Harris of BroBible discussing the Open Championship, the Ryder Cup, Morikawa’s dominance and much more. Check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts. We will also have another one out on Friday recapping SEC Media Days and the first of our SEC football preview content with an Alabama beat reporter, so be on the look out for that. I meant to get a newsletter out on Wednesday, but simply did not have the time, so we have a ton to catch up on. Let’s go.
Kiffin, Corral run through SECMD Car Wash
Ole Miss had its turn at SEC Media Days on Tuesday. Lane Kiffin, Matt Corral and Jaylon Jones represented the Rebels at this made-for-TV event that still pretends to be a press conference. With respect to the sixth-year senior Jones — who, from the very limited interactions I had with him over the years seems like a great, intelligent dude — Kiffin Corral generated the headlines.
As I wrote about on Monday, If there is one general consensus to take away from the day, it’s that Ole Miss is relevant again for all the right reasons. This is why Keith Carter hired Lane Kiffin. I wrote a column for SuperTalk at the time calling it a power move. Carter never shied away from it publicly or privately. He wanted to make a splash, and the ripple effects are still felt, particularly at events like this. Ole Miss shared the day with Kirby Smart and Georgia, a Kentucky team that many are predicting to finish 2nd in the east and Tennessee with a first-year head coach. There’s an argument to be made that the Rebels were the headliner. It won’t matter if the team doesn’t win, but it’s also not completely insignificant.
Anyway, what did we learn from this? Well, other than the fact that a lot of media folks still ask painfully stupid and lazy questions, not a whole lot. But, I still need to fill space, and, in all seriousness, there were a few things I found interesting. Here are a few.
Lane Kiffin finally conceded that John Rhys Plumlee has in fact moved to receiver. My incredibly-plugged in colleague Neal McCready reported this a few weeks ago, but Kiffin spoke publicly about it for the first time on Tuesday after months of saying that he and Plumlee would “have a conversation” about his future after baseball season ended. I found Kiffin’s quote(s) genuine and telling.
“I’m excited to utilize him and see what we can do with him,” Kiffin said. “For a guy to go and make big plays in a bowl game playing a new position, this isn’t little league where you just go throw a guy in there and say, ‘Go over there and make plays.’ This is major college football.”
Kiffin is of course referring to Plumlee’s five catches in the Outback bowl, including arguably the biggest of the game late in the fourth quarter. I think most people reading the tea leaves saw Plumlee’s move to receiver in preparation for the bowl game — which, in fairness, was absolutely out of necessity dues to injuries and op-outs — as a hint at his future, but neither Kiffin nor Plumlee would concede that at the time.
“For him to do that, there’s not many kids that do that anymore,” Kiffin said. “They’d be somewhere else. They’d take their ball and go home. It says a lot about him and his feelings for the university. He’s a special kid, and that goes way beyond him as a player.”
Kiffin even pointed to his son, Knox, who attended Media Days with his father, and noted that if Knox turned out to be like Plumlee, that’ he’d be really excited.
It’s really not much of a secret that Kiffin and Plumlee have a unique bond that even a skeptic like myself can determine is genuine. But for a guy that usually says a whole lot of nothing on purpose to dish out a deeply personal compliment like that, speaks volumes to me. He’s not wrong, either. Whatever you think of Plumlee’s skillset and personality, selfishness is not something you can accuse him of, and that’s uncommon for kids his age in general. Spare me the speech about how millennials and Gen-Z just don’t get it, that’s becoming increasingly rare in society in general.
As for Plumlee’s outlook as a receiver, this is a fascinating storyline to me. To me, Plumlee clearly showed a base-level of competence in the bowl game that he can be a viable option at receiver for the Rebels, but that is the ceiling? The skillset is tantalizing and the speed is elite. If he’s able to pick up on the intricacies of the position, how effective can he be? I don’t have much doubt that the coaching staff will use him effectively. I won’t First Take you and claim he can be the next Elijah Moore, but what kind of weapon could he be if the hands and footwork are up to speed? I am fascinated to find out.
2. The Matt Corral stories will publish in abundance this fall if the the offense continues on the trajectory it was on a season ago and the same television talking points will be repetitive and exhausted by October, but it really is an incredibly and unlikely story, if you really think about it.
In this modern age of college football in which the transfer portal has essentially become free agency, Corral, after being essentially forced off of his commitment by Dan Mullen and Florida, chose a school in Mississippi, across the country, after being pitched as the face of a program that could offer early playing time as it came out of a half-decade long NCAA colonoscopy. Corral sat for most of his first year, got wrapped up in an embarrassing on-field squabble in a blowout loss to Mississippi State in 2018. The head coach that recruited him like a lifeline then proceeded to spend that entire offseason selling Corral and the young core around him as the foundation of a championship program, only to have an unhinged offensive coordinator (Rich Rodriguez) bench him three games into the 2019 season in favor of a kid who allowed him to relive the glory days of EA Sports NCAA Football 2006 with Pat White. You know, back when Rodriguez peaked two decades ago and was actually offered the Alabama job before Nick Saban (what a world). Corral then came in cold off the bench in an utter clown show of a 2019 Egg Bowl, defied said unhinged coordinator’s play calls (remember the 4th and a mile to Braylon Sanders? Yeah, that wasn’t planned nor called) to lead a comeback drive, only to be squandered by an immature (yet hilarious) celebration and an incompetent kicker.
ALL OF THIS happened, in a time in which transferring is as easy as entering an imaginary portal and posting a horribly-worded notes app screenshot asking the collective internet to respect your decision, and yet Corral is still here. Not only is he here, he’s a Heisman Trophy candidate per most betting markets and has a chance to be the player of the year in the toughest league in America. On top of all of that, he’s embraced a town and school once foreign to him, as well as a program that initially failed him more than it appreciated him.
“Coming from California, I had no idea what to expect,” Corral said in a recently released promotional video. “You can read about this place. You can see it on ESPN, but you won’t get it until you are here. This is home.”
Perhaps the best encapsulation of Corral’s maturity is sticking with a place that didn’t always love him back, but maybe he needed a bit of that too to help him grow. A lot has changed since the last time Corral entered the main room at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover — both internally and externally. He’s matured and the world and circumstances around him have changed. The results will ultimately decide what Corral’s legacy at Ole Miss, but it’s pretty remarkable and unlikely match nonetheless.
3. Kiffin spoke about being hesitant to run Corral this season and wanting to be cautious with his All-SEC signal caller. This is stating the obvious, of course, but it made me think how the Rebels might protect him with a supplemental run game. My mind didn’t go to the classic wildcat package with Plumlee (or the Wild Rebel if you’d like some Houston Nutt PTSD), but rather to Jerrion Ealy and how Ole Miss will utilize him out of the backfield, both as a runner and as a pass catcher. Corral made it seem like the plan was clear.
“We’re going to move fast and he’s going to be right next to me one play and way out there the next,” Corral said. “Defenses are going to be like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on?’ And the way Jerrion has been working, he’s constantly in the building and he’s constantly wanting to learn. That says a lot because he wasn’t like that last year. What you saw last year was just pure, raw talent, and that’s insane.”
I will be interested to see the leap Ealy makes as a prospect and as a weapon within what could be the SEC’s most dangerous offense.
4. Ole Miss is not at the 85 percent vaccination threshold. Again, Neal was all over this earlier this week, despite claims elsewhere. I won’t spend a ton of time on this because I find both sides of the discourse nauseating. Kiffin said he will recommend the vaccine to his players, but of course, will not mandate it.
“We’re not going to get into exact numbers today and we’re pushing our kids that direction,” Kiffin said. “You’d probably think everybody does it but families have personal reasons. We’re having, I would say, a constant battle continuing to push it and we’ll continue to push it as we get closer.”
This is not a political statement and I care not for your thoughts for or against the vaccine: getting vaccinated will be a competitive advantage this fall. There’s simply no getting around it. If a team is vaccinated, it will bypass so many arbitrary benchmarks otherwise required to take the field on Saturdays. If a team is not vaccinated, it will run the risk of potential forfeits, and that’s straight from Greg Sankey’s mouth. Again, opinions aside, you want your team to reach this threshold to avoid headaches and 2020 flashbacks.
We will have more on media days on Friday.
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Magnolia State Golf Update:
We are back to our regularly scheduled programming from a Mississippi golf standpoint.
The PGA Tour is in the Twin Cities this week for the 3M Championship. After having Hattiesburg native Davis Riley in the field last week for the Barbasol, there are no Mississippians in the field this week. But as we say each time in this space, there will be multiple next year.
The Korn Ferry Tour went from Springfield, Illinois, to Springfield, Missouri, for the Price Cutter Charity Championship. All five usual Mississippians are in the field.
Brandon native and Ole Miss alum Jonathan Randolph tees off at 7:10 Thursday morning and 12:30 on Friday. Randolph has made three consecutive cuts, but has been unable to put solid rounds together on the weekend to place well in these events. He was in the final group on Saturday at the tournament in Colorado, but a third round 76 derailed his chances at career-altering finish. Randolph sits 95th in the standings, and with only a handful of events left in the season, he should be eyeing a jump into the top 75. That would qualify him for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, which is a three-week stretch of Tournaments that awards an additional 25 PGA Tour Cards beyond the ones given to the top 25 in the regular season standings. Randolph had a T-7 finish here in 2019. A replication of that this time around would do wonders for his chances at returning to the PGA Tour for a third time in his career.
Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley tees off at 7:31 on Thursday and 12:51 on Friday. Riley locked up his PGA Tour Card nearly two months ago. He should already be on the PGA Tour now. He won twice in 2020 before the COVID shutdown, which induced this two-year-long wraparound season. Riley has essentially been cashing checks and seeking a third win the would award him an immediate battleground promotion to the PGA Tour. The 24-year-old has had a remarkably quick ascent in professional golf and I will guarantee you he makes waves on the PGA Tour next year.
Tupelo native and Mizzou alum Hayden Buckley tees off at 7:52 on Thursday and 1:12 on Friday. Buckley is currently 38th in the points standings and has slowly lost ground after a February win in Florida. He’s still in decent position to surge into that coveted top 25, but needs to start playing better golf down the stretch. He’s missed back-to-back cuts. Buckley is one top-5 finish away from being in contention to lock up a PGA Tour card. It’s just a matter of finding results at the most crucial times. This juncture in the season is a crucial time.
Olive Branch native and Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry tees off at 1:54 on Thursday and 8:34 Friday morning. Thornberry currently sits at 57th in the standings and has missed the cut in three of his last five events. Thornberry is still in solid position to make the Korn Ferry Tour Finals, and is in the neighborhood of sneaking in the top 25 with a win or a top-five finish or two. Like Buckley, he’d benefit greatly from a strong finish over these final few events.
Fulton native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey is on one, as the youth say. He tees off at 1:23 on Thursday 8:03 Friday morning. Ramey — who locked top his Tour card a month ago, won in Maine six days later, and then took a week off two weeks ago — finished T-11 last week in Illinois. Seriously, I think this guy could register at top 15 finish left-handed at this point. I have a story coming out on him soon, but my god, this run of golf he’s had over the last 18 months is insane. He’s missed three cuts in 38 events over the last two years and has made 20 straight cuts. This is insane stuff. Remember the name. This man is PGA Tour bound and will be a mainstay for years to come.
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Deion Sanders uses C-L reporter for publicity stunt
I cannot believe I just typed this headline, or that I am about to discuss how to properly address a coach, but if the last 18 months of my life has taught me anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. Former NFL great, Barstool Sports employee and Jackson Stead head football coach Deion Sanders went viral on Tuesday for walking out of an interview at SWAC Media Days. The reason he walked out of said interview is because the reporter had the nerve to call him by his name, Deion. Seriously. Here’s the clip.
You might even recognize the reporter. That’s Nick Suss, the Clarion Ledger’s Ole miss beat writer. Because the C-L is owned by Gannett, an absolute travesty of a company that has gutted mid-sized newspapers in this country, already over-worked staffers like Nick are having to cover Jackson State via zoom while attending SEC Media Days. If you want a reference to just how bad it’s gotten, when I interned at the Clarion-Ledger in 2015, the sports section had a full-time MSU, OM, USM and JSU beat reporter, along with a high school and recruiting reporter and a general assignment reporter — and things seemed dire even then. Now, quite literally, there are three sports reporters on staff and no sports editor — seriously, the ‘sports editors’ for Gannett now oversee entire regions instead individual of papers and don’t work in the newsrooms of the communities they serve.
(For full disclosure, Nick is a buddy of mine and an all-around good dude)
Anyway, with that in mind. Let’s talk about this. This is an absolutely absurd publicity stunt by Sanders, who spent much of the day (correctly) pointing out that the SWAC as a league is not covered adequately. Why he chose to use this as an attention grabber is beyond me, but everything he says in this clip is asinine.
I have never addressed a coach I have covered in my life as ‘coach,’ mostly because that’s weird as shit. The person is not my coach. They didn’t attain any degree of higher education to warrant a special title. Hell, most of these dudes (Deion not included because of his spectacular career as a two-sport athlete player) would be P.E. teachers if not for their ability to draw up plays and recruit teenagers at an elite level. I address them by their name, a novel concept I know, and not a single one of them have ever said a word about it nor should they. Not even Mike Bianco and that maniac hates my guts.
This is also not a common thing. Reporters don’t call coaches “coach,” beyond the occasional local TV try-hard or the ‘reporter’ who shows up to games wearing the team’s logo. It’s not a thing. Do you call your boss CEO Smith or CPA Bob? Of course not. That would be weird, and even in that hypothetical, there’s at least a presumed power structure in place. Reporters are not subordinates to coaches, and any asshole you see on the internet claiming ‘it’s a sign of respect,’ has absolutely no clue what they are talking about, like most morons on the internet. It’s not a sign of respect to call a coach you cover ‘coach.’ Unless you want to refer to me as Journalist Blogger Grease Selling Savant Rippee, then I hope you found this as absurd as I did and continued on with your day.
Deion’s notion that Nick Saban cusses reporters out for calling him Nick is even more preposterous than him taking offense to being called Deion. Saban was referred to by his first name 10 times today at SEC Media Days. I truly cannot believe this even needed to be said.
Credit to Suss for being totally unfazed by this. The second “okay, Deion” nearly made me soil myself. What an alpha move. I didn’t know the guy had it in him. Suss, if you’re reading this, I am sorry and I knew you had it in you the whole time.
The irony of a grown man that is completely fine with being called ‘Prime Time’ or ‘Coach Prime,’ manufacturing faux outrage over being called by his first name is thick. But then again, Deion doesn’t actually care. This was clearly a publicity stunt, and I can seriously respect the creativity in that.
But there’s also this element to it.
Jackson State reportedly barred another C-L reporter from covering the team at SWAC Media Days because he reported on a domestic violence charge involving the highest rated recruit in the program’s history. Not a great look, to say the very least.
Oklahoma, Texas reportedly want to join the SEC
A Houston Chronicle report set the college football media landscape into flames yesterday.
This stunned just about everyone, but makes sense when you think about it. Money talks. In 2020, the SEC distributed $45.5 million to its 14 schools. The Big 12 gave $34.5 million its 10 member institutions. So why wouldn’t these two athletic powers want to join the richest conference in the country? The argument about them fading into irrelevancy and not being competitive with regard to making the college football playoff doesn’t hold water to me, and I can promise you that is not a driving behind the thinking of any of the decision makers involved in this.
It also seems predictable right? With landscape of college sports changing faster and more drastically than at any point in its history, you knew someone was going to take advantage of the disruption. This nearly happened a decade ago when the two schools, along with Texas Tech, eyed joining what what as the time known as the PAC 10, which would’ve left the Big 12 in ruins. Could they pull it off this time? Who knows. A 75 percent vote among the member institutions in favor of Texas and Oklahoma joining would be needed for the SEC to allow it to happen. We know of one school that would vehemently oppose it: Texas A&M. Your old pal Ross Bjork made his thoughts on the matter perfectly clear yesterday.
Bjork said the report shocked him and that conference administrators are aware of the Aggies’ position. Who knows what Missouri would do. But I tend to get the feeling that if enough people want Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC, it’ll get done one way or another. Neither school denied the report, but rather offered the classic “no comment.” Greg Sankey did the same thing.
I am not privy to the inner workings of any of this, but it seems obvious the forces have been set into motion. Whether this plan is pushed through successfully remains to be seen.
On the horizon:
Mailbag Friday pod with some SEC Football preview content
Friday newsletter with more expansion, Ole Miss thoughts and more.
That is all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and well them to join the fun. Back with more tomorrow.