The Super Bowl will feature a couple of former Mississippi high school football greats in Cam Akers of Clinton and Darrell Henderson of South Panola High School. Akers was the Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year in his senior year at Clinton as he played both running back and quarterback. Akers played in college at Florida State where he shined enough to be drafted in the second round by the Rams. A torn Achilles hindered Akers and was supposed to sideline him for the entire season, but he returned to play in the Rams’ final game of the season. Henderson headed north to Memphis to play his college football. He finished in the top 10 voting for the Heisman Trophy in 2018 as he led the Tigers in rushing. Henderson was a third round selection of the Rams coming out of Memphis. Former Ole Miss defensive back Mike Hilton and former Southern Mississippi wide receiver Mike Thomas will both suit up for the Bengals.
Houston businessman “Mattress Mack” is all in on the Bengals. He slipped into Louisiana recently and placed a $4.5 million bet on the Bengals to win the game. If he wins his bet, he will turn a profit of $3 million.
Former Ole Miss assistant football coach Ron Middleton coached the winning National team in the Senior Bowl last Saturday. The former Ole Miss tight end coach worked as head coach of the National team in a new format for the Senior Bowl. New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh selected Middleton to handle the head coaching duties for the Senior Bowl.
The college football national signing day came without much celebration, unlike in the past. Most of the D-1 schools signed the high school stars in December and then added transfers in January. Jackson State and Deion Sanders signed six players, including two Top 100 high school recruits, and also added 11 transfers last month. Seven of those transfers came from elite programs like Texas A&M, Florida State, South Carolina, Indiana and Utah. JSU also picked up transfers from USM, Florida International and Middle Tennessee. Ole Miss and USM also hit the transfer portal in a big way, with each signing 11 transfer players.
Mississippi State and Southern Mississippi have agreed to a home and home football series. The Bulldogs will visit Hattiesburg on September 14, 2030, while USM will visit Starkville on September 13, 2031.
Ole Miss basketball whipped LSU in Baton Rouge for the first time in a decade, but the win was costly as they lost their dynamic freshman guard Daeshun Ruffin. He suffered a season ending knee injury. The Rebels (12-11, 3-7) will host Alabama and travel to Missouri this week. The MSU Bulldogs (14-8, 5-4) will host Tennessee and travel to LSU this week. Southern Mississippi (6-16, 1-8) will travel to UAB on Thursday.
The Ole Miss Lady Rebels (18-4, 6-3) will travel to Mississippi State (14-7, 5-4) this Sunday at 3 p.m. for their second meeting of the season. Southern Miss (14-7, 6-4) will host UTSA and UAB this week. Jackson State’s Lady Tigers (11-6, 10-0) are still perfect in SWAC play as they downed Mississippi Valley this past weekend.
Congratulations to former Mississippi State baseball great Will Clark who will have his baseball jersey #22 retired by the San Francisco Giants in ceremonies scheduled for July 30.
The MHSAA crowned their soccer champions this past weekend. In boys’ play, Clinton won Class 6A, Long Beach won 5A, Richland won 4A and St. Stanislaus won Class I. In girls’ play, Northwest Rankin won 6A, Florence won 5A, Stone won 4A and Our Lady Academy won Class I. MHSAA also crowned Bowling Champs as Hancock girls and D’lberville boys won Class III, Long Beach girls and Cleveland Central boys won Class II, and Kossuth swept the Class I titles. This week the MHSAA District basketball tournaments will begin in earnest.
Dale is a Waynesboro resident who has been writing sports in Mississippi since 1973. Listen to Dale’s Brouhaha Sports Show with Marshall Wood on Tuesday at 6 p.m. on WABO FM 105.5 in the Waynesboro area. This week’s guest is former All-SEC Ole Miss running back Mike Dennis who also played in the NFL with the L.A. Rams and Green Bay. To listen to the broadcast on your computer or smart phone anywhere in the world, go to Google Chrome, go to wabo105.com and click listen live. You may also go to The Brouhaha on YouTube. Contact Dale at ddmckee18@yahoo.com.
