Mississippi State, Mississippi Valley to kick off 2013 in Starkville

Itta Bena, Mississippi -- By 2013, Mississippi State will have paid more than $1 million to the state's three historically black universities for football games against them.

The Bulldogs will play Mississippi Valley State to open the 2013 season and will pay the Delta Devils $350,000 for the one-year deal, MSU athletic director Scott Stricklin said Tuesday.

Mississippi Valley, currently on a 14-game losing streak, will be the third Mississippi-based historically black university from the Southwestern Athletic Conference to travel to Scott Field over a five-year span.

Mississippi State played Jackson State in 2009, the first meeting between the schools that are about two hours apart. The Bulldogs played Alcorn State for the first time last year.

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Hard times dog Mississippi Valley Delta Devils athletics

Home football games moved to Greenville High; financial woes keep Delta Devils living on edge.

As bad days go for football coaches, Karl Morgan's story ranks up there. It was last winter - Morgan doesn't remember the date, and it's hard to blame him - when he was summoned to a campus-wide meeting to discuss Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to merge his new employer, Mississippi Valley State, with the state's other two historically black public universities. Morgan, on the job just a few days, also found out that Rice-Totten Stadium was declared unsafe to use this season. Oh, and he wouldn't be able to hire all of his staff until a few months later.

"It was tough," he said with a laugh on a recent morning in his office.

Much of the scares from those days have blown over. The Legislature has since squashed the idea of consolidation, though the state's bleak fiscal picture at least suggests that further talks aren't out of the question. By the time August practice starts in advance of Valley's Sept. 4 opening game at Alabama State, Morgan expects to have his staff hired.

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Valley ends miserable season with another lopsided loss

Should this be it for Totten?

A season filled with lopsided losses for Mississippi Valley State ended with one of its worst thrashings of the year. Valley's disappointing season ended with a a miserable 58-23 loss to Alabama A&M Saturday at Rice-Totten Stadium in Itta Bena. Bulldog quarterback Kevin Atkins had a career outing as he carved up the Delta Devil defense for 357 yards and five touchdowns on 24-of-35 passing.

Valley ends the season at 3-8 overall and 1-6 in the Eastern Division of the Southwestern Athletic Conference - leaving the Delta Devils in last place in the division for the second straight year. If this was it for beleaguered MVSU head coach Willie Totten, it's not the way he would've hoped to go out as the Delta Devils allowed the most points to a SWAC team in Totten's seven-year tenure.

Totten, who is 28-44 at the helm of his alma mater, has one year left on his contract that pays him $92,928 a year. But there has been wide speculation that he will be fired after his fifth losing season in seven years. After Saturday's game, a frustrated Totten refused to discuss whether this was his last game at Valley."We've just got to put this behind us and go out and recruit some better players," he said.

With an announced crowd of just 789 - which looked much slimmer than that - not many Delta Devil fans showed up. The ones who did saw a familiar sight: a pitiful showing by the defense. It was the fifth loss of the season by 34 or more points. This marked the third straight game missed by second-year defensive coordinator Dennis Winston. Totten refused to comment on Winston's status.

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Attendance: 789 at Rice -Totten Stadium, Itta Bena, MS (Capacity: 10,000).

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Former MVSU All-American hired for Richmond Spiders football

Photo: #59-Vincent Brown durning his playing days with the New England Patriots.

Another loss for the University of Virginia football program is the University of Richmond's gain. Vincent Brown, who served as a graduate assistant at University of Virginia last season, will join new coach Mike London's staff at University of Richmond. He will be the linebackers coach for the Football Championship Subdivision program.

Brown was an All-American at Mississippi Valley State University and spent eight years in the NFL with the New England Patriots, retiring in 1995. In 2006, the Atlanta native worked as inside linebackers coach for the Dallas Cowboys under Coach Bill Parcells.

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Click here to read Coach Brown complete bio:

http://www.patriots.com/alumni/index.cfm?ac=alumnibiosdetail&bio=2761

Hawaii players having Devil of a time at MVSU

By Kalani Takase, The Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

The small town of Itta Bena, Miss. has a population of just over 2,000 and if not for a former All-Pro receiver, it may have never become more than a dot on a map.

Instead, Itta Bena is home to Mississippi Valley State University, whose most famous alumnus is future Hall of Famer Jerry Rice and the impact on the school's football team is reaching further than ever.

The Delta Devils went 21-9-1 during Rice's tenure (1981-84), including a school-best 9-2 in 1984.

A wave of players from Hawai'i are hoping to re-create that success at the 450-acre campus located 100 miles north of Jackson, Miss. and 120 south of Memphis.

Kicker Zack Gilarski (King Kekaulike '06 of Ha'iku), considered to be the best in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, kicked a 42-yard field goal in the season opener, a 16-9 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff. However, MVSU has lost its next three games, including Saturday's game against Jackson State.

Backup kicker Jamie Whitworth (Radford '06) kicked a 25-yard field goal Saturday. Holding for Whitworth was sophomore reserve quarterback Ryan Burciaga (Radford '06 of Honolulu). Sophomore linebacker Kevin Aguigui (Campbell '06 of 'Ewa Beach) also sees special teams action.

Freshman Marc Moody (Saint Louis '07 of 'Ewa Beach) has ascended to the top of the depth chart at one of the defensive back positions.

Also on the MVSU roster is freshman offensive lineman Esrom Pascual (Saint Louis '06 of Wai'anae).

The Delta Devils (1-3) compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). Other notable schools in the SWAC are Grambling State, Southern and Alcorn State.

Valley first SWAC foe for league defending champ Alabama A&M

ITTA BENA, Miss. -- Alabama A&M hosts Mississippi Valley State in a Southwestern Athletic Conference clash on Saturday and is hoping for a happier ending than last year.

MVSU (1-1, 1-1 SWAC) won that game 23-20 on a 48-yard field goal with only seconds left.

"A&M is always good, but this year they're scoring a lot more points," MVSU head coach Willie Totten said.

A&M (2-0, 0-0) is averaging 529 yards of total offense compared to MVSU's 173.

A&M quarterback Kelcy Luke passed for 301 yards and four touchdowns against Clark Atlanta last week.

The Delta Devils lost 23-6 last Saturday to Southern and Totten wants his players to put that game behind them before the kickoff in Normal, Ala.

"We knew Southern would be a tough opponent, and we'll face an even tougher opponent in Alabama A&M," Totten said.

Alabama A&M coach Anthony Jones said the Bulldogs can't be satisfied being 2-0.

"I don't want our guys to think we're great because we're not," Jones said. "We've played two good football games, and now we're ready to get into conference play. We have to continue to get better. If we don't, everything we've done will be for naught."

In other games Saturday involving Mississippi's smaller colleges, Alcorn State goes to Alabama-Birmingham; Delta State hosts Henderson State; Mississippi College hosts Texas Lutheran; Belhaven hosts Texas College; and Millsaps plays Austin College in Sherman, Texas.

Alcorn (0-2, 0-2 SWAC) has scored just 13 points in losses to Grambling State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Alcorn goes up against the Division I-A opponent in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday. UAB (0-2) has not won since a 35-29 win over Memphis last Oct. 7. This season, UAB has lost to Florida State and Michigan State.

"We're up beat and we know what we have to do," said Alcorn head coach Johnny Thomas. "Our main thing is that we've got to be more consistent on offense and improve. Our defense has to continue to be aggressive."

UAB head coach Neil Callaway said Alcorn has a cadre of veteran players and that experience is important to any team.

"They do a lot of multiple things on both sides of the ball. From a defensive standpoint, we have to recognize what's going on. The same goes for offense because they bring a lot of types and forms blitzes and they will create problems if we're not sharp," Callaway said.