Russell stands tall for Dogs

ENROUTE FROM STARKVILLE TO OXFORD — About this time two years ago eventual national champion Auburn escaped Starkville with a narrow victory over Mississippi State.

The difference, I wrote then: Cam Newton. Had State successfully recruited Newton, State would have won that game going away. The difference was so obvious and it was the man behind the center.

Today, at Scott Field, the tables turned. State's Tyler Russell, poised, precise and so, so much better than his Auburn counterpart, was, in a word, the difference.

Russell completed 20 of 29 throws for 222 yards and three touchdowns. He was not intercepted. He stood tall in the pocket, took some monstrous hits and delivered time after time after time. He looked like the Meridian High quarterback who knocked off South Panola four years ago in the state championship game.

The final score — 28-10 — gives little indication of the whipping State put on Auburn this day before a bell-ringing crowd of more than 56,000. Auburn crossed the goalline only once and that on a 100-yard return of the second half kickoff. Otherwise, the Bulldogs limited Auburn to an anemic running game that looked like a juggernaut compared to when the Tigers tried to pass.

Gentle giant Hull was rock-solid

(The late Kent Hull will be honored Saturday at Scott Field when he becomes the fifth person and fourth football player to have his name added to the stadium facade. This is a column I wrote for The Clarion-Ledger the day Kent died last October.)

Solid. That's the one word to best describe Kent Hull. He was solid. Solid as a football player. Solid as a teammate. Solid as a person. Solid as a friend. Solid. Solid as granite.

There was no pretense, nothing phony, about Kent Hull.

Hull, whom I covered when he was a skinny, 18-year-old freshman at Mississippi State, became one of the greatest centers in NFL history. He died Tuesday from gastrointestinal bleeding at 50, far, far too young.

Kent was a good friend, so this is going to be personal.

He was in his first month at State, and I was in my first month at The Clarion-Ledger when we met in September of 1979. He was tall and long-limbed, the son of former Mississippi State basketball star Charlie Hull. Kent looked more basketball player than football player at that point, and the truth is, first-year State coach Emory Bellard probably wanted to redshirt him and bring him along slowly.

Injuries changed all that. Early on, Kent was starting, usually outweighed by 70 pounds or so by the guys whom he was assigned to block.

Orley Hood, then the sports editor of the old Jackson Daily News, interviewed Kent a couple days after his first start against Florida when a senior nose tackle thoroughly abused Hull.

"How was it?" Hood asked.

"I thought I was going to get killed," Hull answered.

"You mean hurt?" Hood asked.

"No, killed. I thought the guy was going to kill me."

That was Kent. He was a great interview, so honest, from Day One.

A Cristil-clear memory

Auburn and Mississippi State will play a huge game Saturday in Starkville. Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Cristil will attend, health permitting, and Jack long ago lost count of how many Auburn-Mississippi State games he has seen.

No doubt, it's close to 60.

But Jack does remember one above all others.

“It was the mid-1950s and it was at Auburn,” Cristil said by telephone from his Tupelo home Thursday morning. “Oddly enough, Auburn won the game 26 to 25 or 27 to 26. This was back when players went both ways, and it was just a whale of a game.”

What a memory! The score was 27 to 26, Auburn, and it was 1955.

“Boy, what a game,” Cristil said, his distinct voice as strong as ever. “I remember out Arthur Davis (another Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer) was just marvelous all day."

Davis certainly was. Playing with a separated shoulder and injured knee, Art Davis (Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, Class of 1981) ran for a touchdown, passed for another score, had a 54-yard punt and made 11 unassisted tackles.

Payton: the best ever

After more than 45 years in sports writing, I have often been asked, "Well who's the best football player you ever saw."

I'm lucky. I covered the NFL's all-time leading passer (Brett Favre), the NFL's all-time leading receiver and scorer (Jerry Rice) and Archie Manning, patriarch of the first family of American football. All are from small-town Mississippi.

But the best, all-around football player I ever witnessed remains Walter Payton, another small-town Mississippian.He could do it all.

Sometimes, we need a reminder. Here's one:

Remembering Rube. . .

My good friend Michael Rubenstein would be 61 today. I, as so many, miss him. Here's a remembrance of Rube, narrated by Bert Case, which was shown at the annual Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Banquet in July:

Week II: Orley, Rick agree to disagree

 

Orley Hood's picks:

Auburn at Mississippi State:  Last year, oh man.  Big. Auburn coming off the national championship. State full of ambition after making Michigan look like a junior high team in the bowl game.  State plays great. Wipes the field with Auburn. Loses. Splat. This time? State 24, Auburn 20. A year late, Bulldog nation’ll take it.

UTEP at Ole Miss: Doofus defense early. Lots of offense later. But it was Central Arkansas all game. Not this week. UTEP played Oklahoma tough last week. Rebs, depleted after two awful seasons and a coaching change, could go o-fer in the SEC. Again. Big, big game. UTEP 31, Ole Miss 24.

 Georgia at Missouri: Mizzou’s SEC debut. Georgia trying for a second straight SEC title game. Most every season Georgia seems to be overrated. This is a bad time, going to Columbia when maybe you ain’t what you oughta be. Missouri 20, Georgia 17.

Florida at Texas A&M: Same thing as above, traditional SEC power vs. newbie. Florida was awful last week. Two straight stinkers? Nah. Florida 31, A&M 21.

Confessions of a football addict

 

Yesterday, I learned how the other 99.99 percent lives. With no game to “cover,” I watched football on TV from 8 a.m. until midnight.

TV timeouts?

I just switched games.

It began with Notre Dame and Navy. “Are they really playing this early?” the wife said.

It ended with Oklahoma and UTEP. “They can't still be playing,” she said.

Gotta admit. I almost ODed on football. Some of those second-tier announcers are really, really awful. On the other hand, there's always the mute button.

A few observations:

Best halftime speech: Didn't hear it, but it had to be from Hugh Freeze: Ole Miss, down 20-14 at halftime to Central Arkansas, scores 35 straight points to win 49-27.