Quarterback Jeremy Johnson from Carver High School in Montgomery, Ala., has committed to Auburn.

“It feels great,” Johnson told AuburnSports.com. “I feel like Auburn is the best choice for me.”

Johnson chose Auburn over LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

Johnson is the third quarterback this month to choose an SEC school over LSU. Cooper Batemen (Alabaa) and Connor Mitch (South Carolina) are the others.

Johnson is the ninth prospect to commitment to Auburn’s class of 2013 and the first quarterback to do so.

LSU will hope to receive some immediate help on offense in 2013 from wide receiver Quantavius Leslie.

The Hinds Community College prospect announced his commitment to LSU on Wednesday.

I will be an LSU TIGER. #geauxtigers

— Q.Leslie (@hi_i_q) May 16, 2012

Leslie is LSU’s 10th commitment for the 2013 class and first from the junior college ranks. His offer list included Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Washington.

Well, as you can see we’ve jumped the gun and officially added Missouri and Texas A&M to the SEC’s roster of schools before they officially join the league.

In doing so, I wondered what the first responses would be:

A.  Thanks from A&M and Mizzou fans?

B.  You’ve got the colors all wrong?

C.  Why don’t you just list the schools in alphabetical order?

D.  You shouldn’t use abbreviations?

Well, it wasn’t A.

Just so you’ll know, we’re still tweaking the placement of the tabs — all centered or all left-justified.

Also, the colors were plucked straight from the official websites of each SEC school.  So if the color looks wrong to you, email your favorite athletic department and ask them to fix their sites.

The schools are listed in alphabetical order by their usual name — Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss — for example, but we chose to use abbreviations so the writing would be much larger and easier to read.

The abbreviations used are those used by the universities themselves, thus MU for Mizzou and UM for Ole Miss.

Finally, depending on your computer — Mac or PC — your browser and your computer’s color settings and pixel settings, your view of the page might look different from someone else’s view of the page.

We’ll keep tweaking where we feel we need to and we’ll do so in relation to the feedback we get from different computer users, different browser users, etc.

Many thanks… and welcome to MrSEC.com officially, Missouri and Texas A&M.

The Management

In a Q&A session with The Jackson Clarion-Ledger’s Brandon Marcello, new Mississippi State hoops coach Rick Ray admits that the wave of defections experienced by State since Rick Stansbury’s “retirement” have him paying close attention to the program’s APR scores:


“I think it’s very important, especially with the stiffer penalties the NCAA has instituted because of the APR.  But I think (athletic director) Scott (Stricklin) is right on with the fact that we probably are going to have a hit this year.  But, once again, as far as the attrition, it’s guys that already made the decision before I even got here — like Renardo Sidney and (Arnett) Moultrie.  Those guys I had nothing to do with.

All we can do is ask those guys like Arnett and Dee (Bost) is to try to help out the university by doing what they’re supposed to do academically before they leave here.  Most of those guys have been receptive and good about it.  To me, at the end of the day, getting an education at Mississippi State helps those guys more than it helps me.”


Maybe so, but there’s no question that if all those people departing leave in good academic standing, it will help MSU avoid taking a double hit in the Academic Progress Reports.  Schools are hurt by early defections.  They’re hurt more by early defectors who don’t go to class.

As for the man he’s replacing, Ray says he’s not yet met with Stansbury.  “I haven’t had the chance to.  I’ve reached out to him a couple of times and, obviously, with my schedule I haven’t had the opportunity, but I look forward to that.”

Uh-huh. 

All coaches say that.  Hardly any of them ever mean it.

Don’t expect junior running back Mark Dodson Jr. to commit to Arkansas if the Razorbacks haven’t found a permanent replacement for former football coach Bobby Petrino by May 14.

That’s when Dodson plans to announce his college decision.

“(Arkansas) most likely wouldn’t be the school I’d choose,” said Dodson, who attends Memphis (Tenn.) Whitehaven High School.

Dodson, who’s also considering Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, said it would be difficult to choose Arkansas if the Razorbacks don’t have a new coach in place.

Petrino was a key reason Dodson has shown interest in Arkansas. He said he felt confident in how he would be used in Petrino’s offense.

“To me, the run was his first option,” Dodson said. “He was running the ball a lot but at the same time he was passing the ball efficiently. He had a balanced offense. Now with the new coach, I don’t know how things will go. The chemistry might be different.”

And Dodson’s choice might be different now that Petrino is no longer the coach at Arkansas.

Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com isn’t my favorite writer.  I believe he is brash and abrasive for the sake of being brash and abrasive… because that kind of thing is what stands out, grabs pageviews and equals dollars into today’s media world.

Ironically, Doyel writes today that it could be dollars that save Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino.  There’s nothing new in what Doyel opines and — to be honest — it’s a little surprising that he didn’t immediately wonder if Petrino’s value to Arkansas might save his hyde.  Most everyone else did.

That said, here’s part of his take on why the Razorback administration might be dragging its feet on giving Petrino the boot:


“Maybe Petrino won’t remain in his job for long, once Arkansas concludes its review of his motorcycle crash/cover-up, but I’m not hopeful.  Which is to say, I’m not naive and gullible.  Not anymore.  Not as naive and gullible as I was a few days ago, anyway, when the news first broke of Jessica Dorrell’s position under Petrino (ahem) and I fired off a scathing missive that said of course Petrino would be fired.  Because I was under the illusion on Friday that real-world rules applied to the Candyland that is college football.

Don’t I feel dumb.

Over the weekened I did some research, read everything I could read about the marriage in question, and realized Arkansas probably can’t afford to divorce Bobby Petrino.  He is the biggest provider for the Arkansas athletic department, and not because he’s the football coach — but because he’s the best football coach in Arkansas history.  Since Petrino got the Hogs rolling in 2009, accoridng to Forbes magazine, the value of the Arkansas football program has increased more than any football program in the country (59 percent), all the way to $89 million.  That value will skyrocket ever higher once the school completes construction on its 80,000-square-foot football facility, a facility that will cost at least $35 million, a facility helped along by Petrino’s run of success.

A facility that has not been paid for, as yet.

The school has commitments for much of the money, but a commitment is not cash.  And those commitments were made by donors under the impression that Bobby Petrino would be the coach working in that new facility.”


Whether it’s a crime or a college athletic department, always follow the money, folks.  If Petrino were losing games in front of a partially-filled stadium he would already be gone.  That statement should shock no one.  And it works the other way, too.

How many times have we written on this site that the fans — not the ADs and presidents — hold the futures of their favorite schools’ coaches in their hands?  If attendance drops and donations dry up, forget the positive track record, the A+ NCAA compliance, and the positive influence stuff.  None of that matters.  If a coach isn’t putting rumps in seats he’s a goner.

See: Rick Stansbury this season.  He is the winningest coach in Mississippi State history.  But disappointed Bulldog fans stopped coming to games and he “retired” after the season.

Go back to 2008 and the end of Phillip Fulmer’s reign at Tennessee.  He’d won a national title and two SEC crowns in 16 seasons at his alma mater, but when Alabama fans took over Neyland Stadium in 2008, we wrote that the clock was ticking down on his tenure.  Turns out, Fulmer lasted one more game before being forced to announce his resignation.

It’s all about the money.  If a school’s making it, then a coach is hard to touch (Petrino).  If a school’s revenue stream starts to decline, any coach can be given his walking papers.

If Petrino is ousted, it will because there’s so much dirt behind the scenes and on the horizon that the school can’t possibly find a way to save him.  Because they most definitely want to save him.  Doyel’s right on that one.  Petrino’s too valuable not to save.

Regardless of how you spin it — “We’ve got a lot of private dollars!” — Mississippi State traditionally has the smallest athletics budget in the cash-happy SEC.  Yes, smaller than Vanderbilt’s.

So while many State fans thought their school had enough history to interest a “name” coach — it does — a tough location to recruit to and money were also big factors.

Mississippi State AD Scott Stricklin new this.  The idea that State went after up-and-comers, first-year coaches and assistants that most fans had never heard of simply because Stricklin enjoys rolling the dice is ridiculous.  If Stricklin could have landed Bill Self instead of Rick Ray, you can bet he would have.

Former MSU AD Greg Byrne — who Stricklin consulted with during his most recent search — told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal the following:


“You’re not going to outspend Kentucky for a basketball coach.  And at the same time, too, you need to find somebody that fits well at Mississippi State.”


We all may find that Ray is the perfect fit for Starkville.  But please stop with the emails suggesting Stricklin and State chose Ray because they were looking for “upside.”  They were looking for a man with upside… who they could afford.  It’s no coincidence that Ray will make about half-a-million bucks less than Stansbury did per year.

There’s nothing wrong with admitting that.

Cuonzo Martin knows Rick Ray.  Tennessee’s head coach worked as an assistant under Matt Painter at Purdue with Mississippi State’s new head coach.  And he likes MSU’s decision to hire his old colleague:


“So many times we make a hire based off of, well, ‘Is he going to be great at the press conference?  Is he going to be great with the media?’  He’ll be a guy that will be in Starkville for the duration and he will develop players and also help them get degrees and have successful careers.  I applaud the fact that Mississippi State made the move and hired the guy.  That’s impressive because they went against the grain.”


The press conference comment is an interesting one because Martin isn’t known for being Mr. Personality at public functions himself.  But the first-year Tennessee coach led a team picked to finish 11th in the SEC to a surprising second-place regular-season finish in the league.

If Ray can duplicate his friends surprisingly quick turnaround, no one will worry about his personality.  (Though as we told you earlier today, he had enough personality to win over many MSU fans yesterday at his opening presser.)

It took 17 days from the “retirement” of Rick Stansbury to now, but Mississippi State will introduce its new basketball coach today in Starkville and in Jackson.  Bulldog fans, meet Rick Ray, Clemson assistant.

Ray — who came from far, far off the radar — is the only one of the SEC’s 14 head coaches to be hired with zero previous head coaching experience.  Scott Stricklin clearly took the up-and-comer approach with his search, targeting mid-major coaches (two with just one year’s experience) and assistants (like Kentucky’s Kenny Payne, who was also a finalist). 

For State fans, they must hope that Ray turns out to be the basketball version of James Franklin.  Vanderbilt grabbed Franklin away from Maryland’s coaching staff a year ago despite his lack of Southern recruiting ties.  His hiring was met with everything from head scratches to yawns.  But he’s quickly proving to be a great hire for the Commodores.

Ray has been at Clemson since 2010.  The head coach there — Brad Brownell — said of Ray: “This guy is a home run.”  Brownell also credited him with being a “tremendous recruiter.” 

Before joining Clemson’s staff, Ray served under Matt Painter at Purdue.  Painter said yesterday: “Rick Ray is a tireless worker and fierce competitor, two traits that will serve him well as he leads Mississippi State basketball into a new era.”  At Purdue, Ray worked with Tennessee head coach Cuonzo Martin, who also gave MSU’s AD a good review.

Stricklin released a statement last night:


“Rick fits the model of head coach we have sought to bring into our program over the last several years.  He is bright, enthusiastic, disciplined and is a man of integrity.  He has served with some of the top head and assistant coaches in college basketball and will bring a piece of all of them to our head coaching position.”


State apparently beat out Winthrop for Ray’s services.  The small South Carolina school was also targeting the Midwesterner for its head coaching vacancy.  He becomes MSU’s first-ever African-American head basketball coach.

From a salary perspective, Ray is expected to receive less than the $1.5 million Stansbury was paid last season, according to The Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

Ray’s hiring doesn’t appear to be having a quick impact on State’s recruiting.  The Magnolia State’s top player still has MSU crossed off his list and Josh Gray — a point guard who requested a release from his signed national letter of intent — said he is still leaning toward a release.

Eventually, Clemson’s Brownell believes Ray will connect with players.  “He’s done an unbelievable job with our guys in the last two years of knowing how to be demanding with them to make them work, but also knowing when to love them up and hug them up, and how to build meaningful relationships with the guys.  They trust him,” Brownell said.  “He’s going to do that at Mississippi State.”

If so, he’ll be viewed as a good hire by a fanbase that seems a bit skeptical today.  Remember, many State fans thought their school would replace Stansbury with a Shaka Smart or Frank Martin.  For Stricklin to choose someone with no head coaching experience to replace the winningest head coach in State’s history, well, it’s a real dice roll.

CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish credited the AD for having the guts to roll said dice:


“I know Rick Ray doesn’t excite State fans, but guess who else knows that?  Scott (Stricklin).  And yet he made the hire.  He really put himself out there to make this hire, and I can appreciate that because too often athletic directors take the predictable and easy way out.  Scott didn’t do that, though.  This is his hire.”


Indeed.  But it might be a little misleading to suggest Stricklin could have landed a bigger name if he’d so desired.  Bryce Drew and Steve Prohm — for example — chose to re-up with Valparaiso and Murray State, respectively.  Whether this was a hire of great intestinal fortitude or one of necessity, we can’t truly know.

What we do know is that State’s last two head coaches were also assistants with no head coaching experience when they took over the Dogs’ program.  Of course, Richard Williams and Stansbury were both promoted from their predecessors’ staffs at State.  That’s not the case with Ray.  No one in Starkville aside from Stricklin knows much about the man.

By the time he’s finished making speeches on the chicken-dinner, fundraising circuit, most State fans will convince themselves that he’s the right guy for the job.  That happens at every school, regardless of the hire and his resume.  For their sake and for Stricklin’s, here’s hoping Ray will be the right guy.

Fifteen days ago, many Mississippi State fans were rejoicing in the news that Rick Stansbury was stepping down as basketball coach.  We heard from a number of them each and every time we suggested that Stansbury should be given one last chance to rid his program of Renardo Sidney and turn things around.

“Stansbury can recruit, but he can’t coach.”  “It’s time for him to go.”  “With our tradition, why wouldn’t a name coach jump at the chance to come to State?”

And now?  MSU AD Scott Stricklin yesterday had to put out a message to calm Bulldog fans who are growing impatient with his yet-to-bear-fruit coach search.  This just hours after former Dog Robert Hood — father of current Dog Rodney Hood — claimed the school’s program “is not in shambles.”

Stricklin’s statement reads as follows:


“Like Bulldog fans everywhere, I eagerly anticipate the hiring of Mississippi State’s next men’s basketball coach.  However, from the beginning of this process, no deadline has been imposed on the search.  It’s important that we hire the right candidate to lead our program, a person of integrity who will instill discipline, character and accountability into the men’s basketball program at Mississippi State.  Thank you for your patience.  Hail State!”


I’m sure that will calm the State fans who’d hoped for Shaka Smart or Frank Martin or Gregg Marshall.  Instead they’ve seen at least three mid-major coaches re-up with their old schools (Steve Prohm at Murray State, Bryce Drew at Valparaiso) or take other jobs (John Groce to Illinois).  The Bulldog player roster is also emptying.  And Mr. Basketball in the Magnolia State, Devonta Pollard, has scratched MSU from his list of suitors.

Today longtime Vanderbilt assistant Dan Muller is being mentioned as a potential candidate.  A show of hands from anyone in Starkville who’d heard of Kevin Stallings’ 12-year assistant before yesterday, please?

Thought so.

Tubby Smith’s Minnesota Gophers lost in last night’s NIT finals to Stanford so now his name can begin to be kicked around in Starkville, too.  (Smith at one time or another has been mentioned in connection with every basketball job in the SEC and — if I checked — probably a couple of football jobs, too.  He’s the Jon Gruden of SEC hoops searches.)

So what’s the problem at State?  Here’s the short list:


1.  Most coaches believe Stansbury did an unreal job of recruiting to Starkville.  It’s a nice town.  I’ve been there.  I like it.  The people are Mayberry-friendly.  And that’s a compliment, not a dig.  But there’s a reason Dan Mullen signs most of his football recruits from inside state lines.  The aforementioned Martin will have a much easier time bringing outside recruits to a fancy new facility in the more cosmopolitan Columbia, South Carolina than he would have had if he’d talked to and landed at State.  Stansbury’s recruiting work was under-valued.

2.  Martin — to keep using him as an example — will make $2 million per season at Carolina.  It doesn’t appear Stricklin has that type of cash to toss around right now.  Thus the large number of newbie coaches and assistants on his list.

3.  State fans pooh-poohed when this site referred to Stansbury as the top coach in their school’s history.  “He only won a bunch of games because he was here so long.”  Well, you can bet any coach considering a move to State will know that he’s walking into a job with big expectations.  Whether fans viewed Stansbury as their Win King doesn’t matter.  Any candidate to replace him knows that the school just ran off the winningest coach it had ever had.  A smart candidate will wonder if he can do better than Stansbury did.


In the end, Stricklin might still find the right guy for MSU on Day 15, Day 25 or Day 35.  One of those up-and-comers he’s chatting up might just say “yes” and then turn into the next Dean Smith.  Could happen.

But we continue to believe State’s AD would have been better off giving Stansbury one more year with the instructions to boot Sidney and — how’d he put it? — “instill discipline, character and accountability into the men’s basketball program at Mississippi State.”

Instead, he’s talking to longtime SEC assistants that most fans have never heard of and putting out press releases asking for patience.  Might as well ask for peace, love and understanding while he’s at it.