Rippee Writes: Wednesday Scoop
An odd transfer, Magnolia State golf update and a bear attack
Happy Wednesday to you all. We’ll have a new podcast out this evening with LBs Greg in another edition of Grill Corner, as well as a discussion about the Belmont, his latest horse ventures and more. Send your questions in now. There is a lot to get to today.
Let’s go.
Rebels lose leading tackler to transfer portal
Ole Miss senior linebacker Jacquez Jones has entered the transfer portal, according to AL.com. Jones was the Rebels’ leading tackler in 2020 and second-leading tackler in 2019. He’s been one of the leading voices throughout the spring and offseason regarding the change in attitude and mindset amongst a defense that wants to change its reputation as the worst in the SEC. This news and its timing are quite odd on the surface. As I have admitted to you guys on multiple occasions, football is the sport I am least plugged into for a variety of reasons. I don’t have any intel to form an educated opinion on this. The best guess I can come up with is that he saw depth formulating around him in the linebackers room, notably the impending arrival of Maryland transfer Chance Campbell, and decided to go elsewhere where there’s no chance of his snap count taking any sort of a dip? Jones would’ve undoubtedly played a major role on this defense this fall, so I am not sure if this theory holds a ton of water, but it is my best guess. There’s likely something else to this that has not come out and may never, but there’s no way to spin it other than it being a consequential loss for Ole Miss on the field this fall. I will be interested to see how this position group shakes out in fall camp.
Lillard scores ridiculous 55 points in loss to Denver
I haven’t done much NBA on this newsletter, simply because I am not sure the interest level is there, but I couldn’t help but give Damian Lillard some space this morning, which is what Denver gave him too much of last night. The Blazers guard scored 55 points in a double overtime loss to the Nuggets last night in a crucial game five. He made an NBA record 12 three-pointers that included these two absurd shots to send the game into overtime and then into a second OT period.
Michael Porter Jr., the man defending Lillard in this clip, is 6-foot-10. He likely gave a little too much space given Portland had to have a three there despite there being enough time for a quick lay up, but good lord. What the hell are you supposed to do?
This one seems somewhat difficult as well.
Whatever your opinions are on the NBA, it has never had as much talent and skill in the league at one time than right now. The regular degree of difficulty in the shot-making would have been hard to wrap your head around 10 years ago, much less 25 or 30. These playoffs have been awesome. I’d encourage you to give it a try if you haven’t tuned in yet.
DEAL ALERT: Greg’s chucking y’all a curveball to start the week. You can still get a 16 oz. prime strip for $10 bucks and $2 off any fish in the freezer, but he’s also adding $5 off any frozen sausage purchase this week. Go by and see the man. Best place in Mississippi to get meat.
Lady fights off bear with no weapon to save pets
As we come out of this pandemic, I am testing a theory that people are as fearless as ever before when it comes to other aspects of life. If we all survived a plague that saw us tie cloth to our face for a year and brought every single major aspect of American life to a halt, then we can survive anything. To hell with fear and to hell with bears. I present my first piece of evidence:
A woman in California decides to push a fully grown bear off the edge of a fence like he’s Humpty Dumpty in an effort to save her pets from harm. The first part of this that confused me was one of the woman’s dogs being so large it could be mistaken for a small bear, but that soon faded from the forefront of the mind as I was mesmerized by the boldness of this move. No knife, gun or even a broomstick to deter this beast. Just her bare hands. This clip would make Bear Grylls soil himself, no pun intended. May we all be a little more like this lady in our collective attitude toward life.
Magnolia State Golf Update
Here's one more plug on the podcast Chase Parham and I did with Ole Miss Women's assistant Zack Byrd. We talked about the team's national title run, his time as Dustin Johnson's college teammate and more.
The PGA Tour is at Muirfield Village outside Columbus, Ohio. There are no Mississippians in the field to my knowledge. As we always say in this space, there will be soon.
The Korn Ferry Tour is in Raleigh, North Carolina this week at the REX Hospital Open. Four of the usual five Mississippians are in the field.
- Tupelo native and Mizzou alum Hayden Buckley tees off at 1:13 tomorrow afternoon and 7:48 Friday morning. Buckley is coming off back-to-back top 20 finishes. He sits at 32nd in the points standings and has hovered in that 27-40 range ever since his February win in Florida in the first event of the tour's 2021 portion of the wraparound season. Buckley is one or two good finishes away from cementing himself inside the top 25 and securing a PGA Tour card.
- Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley tees off at 12:10 tomorrow and 6:45 Friday morning. Riley officially locked up his 2021-2022 PGA Tour Card three weeks ago by reaching the fail-safe mark in points that guarantees he will remain in the top 25. Riley won twice in 2020 before the pandemic caused a shutdown and a wraparound season. He's essentially playing for cash, or a third win which would promote him to the PGA Tour immediately. Riley has had a remarkably quick ascent in professional golf and is a star in the making.
- Ole Miss alum Braden Thornberry tees off at 1:55 tomorrow afternoon and 8:30 on Friday morning. Thornberry took the week off last week and sits at 50th in the standings. He's still within striking distance to get inside the top 25 and sits in good position to make the Korn Ferry Tour finals, which consists of the top 75 players in the standings and awards an additional 25 Tour cards after a four-week stretch of tournaments.
- Tupelo area native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey took last week off as well. It was well-earned as Ramey has put together a pretty insane 16-month stretch of golf. He's missed three total cuts in 31 events in this wraparound season and sits at 10th in the standings despite not having a win. It's hard to express how difficult this is to do. He'll go off at 12:20 tomorrow and 6:55 on Friday morning. Ramey is well in line to realize his PGA Tour dream.
- Brandon native and Ole Miss alum Jonathan Randolph appears to have taken the week off. He notched a t-18 finish last week. He sits at 95th in the standings and should be eyeing that top 75 cutoff line to get into the Korn Ferry Tour finals.
SkyBox just wrapped up their NASCAR Coca Cola 600 promo. They did not pick the winner of the race correctly, so no $1000 giveaway, but if you threw down $100 per unit on their entire card, you profited $900. Not a bad consolation prize. More promos are on the way. Go check these guys out. They have a picks package for your preferred sport that will fit your price range. Use the promo code “Rippee” for 20 percent off any purchase.
Ewing wins on LPGA Tour
Tupelo area native and Mississippi State alum Ally McDonald Ewing won on the LPGA Tour last week in the tour's match play event at Shadow Creek. It's her second win in nine months and she is now 6th in the standings. She tees it up at the US Women's Open this week. She tees off at 8:50 tomorrow morning.
On the Horizon:
- Grill Corner with Greg
- Regional preview and NCAA Tournament picks with Collin
- Two more newsletters
That's all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join in on the fun. Back with more tomorrow. Have a great Wednesday.
That “lady” in California who fought off the near is 17 years old!!