Commentary: Mississippi Valley coach must be scratching his head‎

MVSU head coach Karl Morgan: "I am very positive and optimistic about where we can take this program." Last Wednesday, four of Valley players, including the potential starting quarterback and a offensive lineman, were charged with the sale of marijuana on a school campus, arrested and expelled with 11 others.

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. That old saying could easily apply to new Mississippi Valley State head football coach Karl Morgan although he says that's not the case at all. It's been a rough couple of first months since he was hired in January to replace Willie Totten. First, he didn't receive an overwhelming reception from the majority of Valley fans who wanted the school to hire MVSU alumnus Sam Washington, one of the five finalists for the job.

Second, Morgan was called out by some fans after not signing any players on National Signing Day after getting an extremely late start in the recruiting process. He was hired just three weeks before signing day. When Totten stepped down just a couple of weeks after the 2009 season, recruiting probably wasn't a priority for the assistant coaches who, knowing they weren't going to be retained by the new coach, were more worried about feeding their families than recruiting for another coach. So when Morgan came on board in mid-January, he probably had little to work with in recruiting.

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SU football coach Mitchell focused on players' grades

Wednesday night, as he drove through Baton Rouge from one errand to the next, Southern football coach Stump Mitchell discussed priorities for the offseason. Nearly three months have passed since he took over, and in that time, he hired a staff of assistants, evaluated the current roster, instituted a winter workout program, signed 34 recruits and navigated the Jaguars through 15 sessions of spring practice — most of which happened before sunrise.

Nearly four months stand between now and the start of preseason training camp. Still, Mitchell said his No. 1 priority — improving the players’ grades — hasn’t changed. “We’re settling in now as coaches, and we’re getting an opportunity to learn these young men. They’re learning us, too. I think that’s more important,” Mitchell said. “These guys understanding that they’re going to get an education first. We’re not going to allow them to just get by so we can win a football game. It doesn’t mean that much to me.” Of course, winning football games still means quite a bit to Mitchell, and for the players, it’s not all about exams and research papers.

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FAMU'S Green Team wins 27-0 in Orange and Green Game

Defensively, the Rattlers Green Team was led by linebacker Jerod Brisbon, who finished with five tackles (4 solos, 1 asst) and one tackle for a loss of four-yards. The former Hillsborough High standout was arrested (Booking No. 10007525) on February 14, 2010 in Tampa and charged with allegedly possessing less than 20 grams of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and resisting arrest without violence. All three charges are misdemeanor offenses and Brisbon posted a $1,500 bond with the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office and was released. The 5-foot-11, 208-pound Brisbon signed with FAMU last spring and despite coming in as a true freshman, earned a starting spot at linebacker by the end of the season.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The Florida A&M University Football team held their Annual Orange and Green game on Saturday, April 3 at Bragg Memorial Stadium with the Green Team winning 27-0, over the Orange Team. Trevor Scott gave the green team a 3-0 lead as he connected on a 22-yard field goal with 4:21 to go in the first quarter. He would then connect on another 22-yard field goal to increase the Green’s team lead to 6-0 with 11:04 left in the second quarter. Anthony Shutt scored the Green’s team first touchdown of the game on a 46-yard interception return with 4:46 to go in the half, giving them a 13-0 lead.

Lavontae Page scored the Green’s team first offensive TD of the game on a two-yard run with 14:52 left in the fourth quarter, making the score 20-0 in favor of the Green Team. James Owens would score the Green’s team final TD on another two-yard run with 1:10 left in the contest for the 27-0 win. The Green team finished the game with 305 yards of total offense with 124 yards on ground and with 181 yards through the air.

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MVSU football coach sees progress in first scrimmage

Karl Morgan wasn't blown away by his team's performance, but he did see progress. "I saw some things to be excited about, but we still have a long way to go," said the new Mississippi Valley State head football coach after his team's first scrimmage of spring training Wednesday at Rice-Totten Stadium in Itta Bena. "I thought our effort was decent. We're still a work in progress."

The Delta Devil offense ran 60 plays against the defense and struggled early with timing and pre-snap penalties. The offensive unit did, however, gather momentum late in the scrimmage and find the end zone a couple of times. "The offense came back at the end with a couple of drives and big plays," said Morgan, who was hired in January to replace Willie Totten, who stepped down following the 2009 season. "Our running backs ran harder as the scrimmage went on, but they did put the ball on the ground too many times. And I think our offensive line showed some progress."

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Mississippi Valley expels 15 arrested in sweep; includes four football players‎

Valley football coach Karl Morgan, who was hired in January, says football players Eddie Ivory (QB), Kyle Hurt (DE), Keldrick Hooks (DE) and Nicholas Dwayne Sherman (OL) were arrested and have been expelled from the University.

Mississippi Valley State University has expelled 15 students, including four football players, arrested in a drug sweep Wednesday morning. Sixteen people were arrested in a collaboration between several law enforcement agencies, including Valley police and the North Central Narcotics Task Force. Valley confirmed that 15 of those arrested were students. MVSU Police Chief Robert Sanders said he believes the bust nabbed a substantial amount of the drug activity on campus.

“We are continuing to put our officers out,” he said. “We are stepping up patrols and asking students, staff and faculty to be involved with reporting suspicious activity.” A six-week investigation culminated in 11 felony and five misdemeanor arrests by the narcotics task force. Commander Gordon Ward said about seven ounces of marijuana, $4,700 in cash and two vehicles were confiscated.

The arrests were made in dorm rooms, Sanders said. It was not clear if the expelled students had left the campus, but only two remained incarcerated as of this morning. “There is a policy in place that we do not tolerate any sort of drug activity on campus,” Sanders said. Ward said the task force had captured video evidence of the marijuana sales. The bust involved about 40 officers. The sweep involved the MVSU Police Department, Leflore County Sheriff’s Office, Greenwood Police Department, U.S. Marshals, Parchman K-9 Unit and the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

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SU Cador hopes fish tale helps spark Jaguars‎

Late Tuesday night, sometime after the Southern baseball team outlasted Nicholls State and returned from Houma, longtime coach and part-time motivational speaker Roger Cador found himself transfixed on a television nature show. It detailed the life cycle of the salmon — how they start in Alaskan rivers, swim downstream into the Pacific, grow into adults, then swim upstream to lay eggs in the same Alaskan river ... only to die a few weeks later.

Somehow, in Cador’s ever-expansive mind, he saw how the story applied to his own team, which heads into the meaty part of its Southwestern Athletic Conference schedule this month. The salmon and the Jaguars. Who knew they had anything in common? Southern (8-9, 5-1 Western Division) kicks off a three-game series against second-place Texas Southern (13-14, 4-2) with a doubleheader that begins at noon today, and two days before the first pitch, the Jaguars gathered around their 26th-year coach for story time. Cador spoke of the salmon — about how they adapt from freshwater to saltwater, about how they swim against raging rapids and sometimes even leap waterfalls, just to return to the place where they mate.

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Spring Game: Florida A&M QB battle is on‎

Today's Orange and Green football game means one thing to the three Florida A&M quarterbacks who are competing for the starting job: showtime. Nothing that Eddie Battle, Martin Ukpai and Austin Trainor have done since spring practice began two weeks ago will mean as much as what they deliver in Bragg Stadium. It will be as close as they'll get to a real game situation before the season begins in September.

r-Senior QB Eddie Battle #8 has the experience and patience to be the Rattlers leader for 2010. Come out and see for yourself at the ORANGE AND GREEN SPRING GAME, Today: 5 p.m., at Bragg Memorial Stadium.

"It's going to weigh heavily and we're going to really grade this one," FAMU coach Joe Taylor said. "We should do better. It's one thing to play, but it's another thing to know the game and the more we can put them in a game-like siPublish Posttuation it gets them ready for the game." Each of the quarterbacks has very distinct styles that they have to make work in Taylor's spread offense. Battle and Trainor have a penchant for the pocket, whereas Ukpai has shown an ability to run if he has to. Of the three, Ukpai is more a situation-type player who strives on moving the offense with his arm as much has he does with his feet.

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