Mid-Year Football Exams

Potential collegiate Champions went down in flames as the 2007 campaign approached the half-way mark. Alabama's balloon was busted with two straight losses. Oklahoma was drilled by Colorado. Rutgers was shocked by Maryland in their Raritan Valley backyard. Texas bowed to Kansas State with its field general injured. Washington scared Southern Cal. Florida again lost to Auburn.
Home grown Ole Miss, Southern Miss, and Mississippi State came out on the short end of the count once again. Southern's loss to a winless Rice University in Hattiesburg with two quarterbacks injured was one of the biggest upsets of the new season, particularly with the Golden Eagles a 20-point favorite. State and Ole Miss played South Carolina and Georgia well for a while then wilted in the second half.
Southern's next test is a Homecoming clash with Southern Methodist. On this second Saturday in October Southern's famed 1952 and 1953 Giant Killers will have a Reunion as will the 1982 USM team which beat Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. Jim Carmody,who should be in Southern's M Club Hall of Fame was the winning coach that day. His star was Quarterback Reggie Collier.
Hall of Fame Coach Pie Vann coached the 1952 and 1953 Black and Gold brigade, featuring one of College Football's famed one-two punch, Halfback Hugh Laurin Pepper and Bucky McElroy, the Black Knight of the Bayous. Both Pepper and McElroy should be elected to the National Football Foundation's College Football Hall of Fame. Both were Little All-America selections.
Pepper did not come back for his senior year, accepting the Pittsburgh Pirates' $40,000 baseball bonus offer.Bonus Babies had to stay with the big club for two years in those days which hurt their development. It would have been better for Pepper to pitch every fourth day in the Minors than sit on the bench with the Pirates.
Ole Miss made a big mistake when Jim Carmody was not named Billy Brewer's successor. the job going to Joe Lee Dunn, who lasted just one season. Carmody went on to scout for Arizona for 10 years before retiring. His players called him the "Big Ugly" and his Southern Miss defense carried the tag of " Ugly Boys."
Southern's third straight loss was unusual for Coach Jeff Bower, who has fielded winning teams throughout his career. Sylvester Croom's Mississippi State team still dreams of a winning season and a bowl invitation. Ed Orgeron's Johnny Rebs hope to regroup with home games with Louisiana Tech, Alabama, Arkansas, Northwestern Louisiana State and LSU. Ole Miss has LSU on the ropes in Baton Rouge last year, then could not cash in on the opportunity.
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I enjoyed again attending the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference annual meeting on Cape Cod. Rudy Keeling of Emerson College is the new Commissioner. Retired ECAC Commissioners Scotty Whitelaw and Clayt Chapman were there to welcome the new Commissioner. Jack Daly, the famous New England teller of tales provided entertainment at the Clambake. The All American Football Foundation's next Banquet of Champions will be Dec. 6 in Newton, Mass. between the College Football Hall of Fame Dinner and the Heisman Trophy Banquet. I attended my first Hall of Fame Dinner and Heisman Dinner in 1962 as Executive Sports Editor of the Trenton (N. J. ) Times
I always enjoy seeing Paddock restauranteur John Zartarian at the Cape. John and Emeril LeGasse are longtime friends. Emeril hails from nearby Falls River. He worked in Hyannis in his early cooking days. The final night of the ECAC meeting took place at the Tug Boat Restaurant featuring shrimp, clams, and oysters.
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Back in Jackson my daughter, Joanna, grand daughter Jessica Leroy, and I enjoyed seeing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Classic Evita, starring Cameron Wade, Omar Lopez -Cepero, and Phillip Peterson at Thalia Mara Hall. All were outstanding and are ready for Broadway, truly stars of tomorrow.
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