SWAC commish checks out Southern environment

By Kareem Copeland, Clarion Ledger

BATON ROUGE — Duer Sharp just had to see for himself.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference interim commissioner was scheduled to be in Little Rock, Ark., to watch Arkansas-Pine Bluff host Grambling on Saturday. But then came the situation with Jackson State coach Rick Comegy calling the environment around Southern football games "hostile" and expressing concerns over bringing family.

Sharp ended up giving Comegy a written reprimand, but decided to attend the Jackson State-Southern game to see if there was any truth to the statements.

"You hear so many things, but to actually have first-hand experience and actually be at the game ... ," Sharp said, "I just wanted to be here. After everything ... it's probably best that I be here."

Sharp said finding a solution for the incident wasn't a problem. Comegy made the comments during the SWAC coaches teleconference Monday and the league issued its statement Wednesday.

"You just deal with the facts," Sharp said. "Then you got to enforce the bylaws. There's policy there that dictates what your actions are going to be.

"But sometimes based upon the severity of the offense, I'm allowed to kind of supercede the policy. But we felt like this (was) someone basically misspeaking."

So how was the trip to Baton Rouge?

"Everything's good," Sharp said. "It's good for Southern and it's good for Jackson and the rivalry that it's 25 minutes before the game and people are still coming over the bridge.

"I haven't had any complaints from anybody."

Photo: JSU Sonic Boom of the South Marching Band Drum Majors

PERFECT AGAIN

Jackson State kicker Eric Perri won SWAC special teams Player of the Week after going 3-for-3 on field goals last week.

The sophomore from Miami put on a repeat performance in JSU's 32-26 win - going 3-for-3, again.

Perri connected on field goals of 27, 37 and 27 yards. Saturday marks the third consecutive game he has gone 3-for-3

Perri is 11-for-13 on the season.

BREAKOUT EFFORT

Jackson State receiver Chris Johnson had a career-high 160 receiving yards against a pass defense that was giving up 198.5 yards through the air.

The senior caught five balls, including a 58-yarder and a 5-yard touchdown.

"I can't say too much about myself because it's a team thing," Johnson said.