Former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden, who is probably best known for his two national championships at Florida State as the father of former legendary Auburn coach Terry Bowden*, will speak this week at the Mississippi State High School Football Coaches Clinic.

Besides being father to one of Auburn's most beloved former head signal callers, Bobby's biggest claim to fame is as the assumed inventor of the phrase "dadgum". Bobby has also recently taken up acting, as seen in this work as a commercial actor.

It has been reported by numerous media outlets roopstigo [probably] that Terry Bowden was the one Mississippi State originally wanted to come speak at the clinic. Unfortunately the youngest of the Bowden clan is busy gearing up for another year at MAC powerhouse Akron, and was unable to attend the clinic, so he asked his father to go in his stead. He had this to say to FWtCT with regards to the clinic:

"Although I was unavailable to work at the clinic as requested, I greatly appreciate my father going in my place", said Terry Bowden, speaking from outside the Akron Cineplex. "Some will unfairly say that I am the one with the vast football knowledge, but I promise you, my father is the one that carries with him a great deal of know-how about the game."

*Terry Bowden is affectionately known in Auburn as "the one between Pat Dye and Tommy Tubberville".

Now that's more like it. State came into this past week having losing four-consecutive weekend series and their first three in conference play. They were taking on a down yet talented Florida team this weekend and did what they had to do, winning the first two games of the weekend to clinch the series before falling 8-3 on Sunday.

While there were many things to be happy about, the fifth-inning collapse on Sunday was extremely disheartening after an early 2-0 lead. The eight runs in the inning were the most given up in a single inning this year and most since Florida last came to Dudy Noble in 2011. Before Sunday's game, MSU starters had given up only one run in their 15 innings.

The biggest factor in the first two days was senior starter Kendall Graveman. Graveman posted his second-consecutive complete game, this time a shutout with 19 ground-ball outs. With this performance, he was a shoe-in for SEC pitcher of the week which he was awarded early Monday morning.

Jacob Lindgren was back and rolling through the first four yesterday with only one hit and no runs before getting into major trouble in the fifth and being pulled from the game on an apparent injury. He is said to be ready for next weekend, however.

The Bulldogs (26-9, 5-7) started the week off with a big win on the road against a quality non-conference foe in South Alabama. State got a solid performance out of Brandon Woodruff who is hopefully becoming primed to be a weekend starter. Wes Rea started to get back in his groove as he delivered the eventual game-winning hit in the eighth inning.

So with the three-win week, it was no surprise that the Bulldogs would move back into the top-25 in the two polls they dropped out of last week. Let's look at where they are now in the top-25 followed up by the statistical look at the team.

Individual Offense

Batting Average: 3rd (NCAA 17th) - Hunter Renfroe (.417); 14th- Adam Frazier (.345)

Hits: 5th (NCAA T-18th) - Frazier (49); T-7th- Renfroe (45)

Slugging %: 2nd (NCAA 4th) - Renfroe (.815); 14th- Frazier (.479)

On Base %: 2nd (NCAA T-34th)- Detz (.493); T-3rd- Renfroe (.485)

Runs Scored: 2nd (NCAA T-15th) - Frazier (36); T-10th-Renfroe (27); T-14th- C.T. Bradford (26)

RBI: 3rd (T-13th) - Renfore (38)

Doubles: T-2nd Frazier (11); T-7th-Renfroe (9)

Triples: 2nd (NCAA T-14th) - Frazier (4)

Home Runs: T-2nd (NCAA T-6th) - Renfroe (10)

Total Bases: 3rd (NCAA T-8th) - Renfroe (88); 6th- Frazier (68)

Walks: 2nd (NCAA T-11th) - Detz (29)

Hit by Pitch: T-9th - Brett Pirtle (7)

At Bats: 1st- Frazier (142); T-4th-Bradford (134)

Team Batting

Batting Average: 3rd (.296)

Hits: 2nd (NCAA T-15th) (342)

Slugging %: 4th (.406)

On Base %: 3rd (.394)

Runs Scored: 3rd (NCAA T-23rd) (224)

RBI: 3rd (198)

Doubles: 4th (59)

Triples: T-4th (9)

Home Runs: 5th (17)

Total Bases: 2nd (470)

At Bats: 1st (1157)

Walks: 4th (NCAA T-23rd) (153)

Hit by Pitch: 3rd (NCAA T-26th) (47)

Stolen Bases: 4th (46)

Not a great weekend at the plate led to MSU dropping in several categories just slightly and LSU is the clear leader among the conference at the plate. The Bulldogs do continue to stay among the top-5 in nearly every category which is very encouraging after being dead last at the plate last year. Now to the defensive side of the ball.

Earned Run Average: 4th (NCAA 14th) (2.56) Leaders: Ross Mitchell- 3rd (NCAA T-18th)- (1.12); Kendall Graveman- 13th (1.99)

Opposing Batting Average: 2nd (.208) Leader: R. Mitchell-11th (.210)

Innings Pitched: 1st (313.1) Leader: Graveman- 12th (49.2)

Strikeouts: 2nd (NCAA 26th) (292)

Wins: T-3rd (26) Leaders: R. Mitchell and Luis Pollorena- T-6th (5)

Saves: T-3rd (11) Leader: Jonathan Holder- 3rd (NCAA T-7th)- (9)

Appearances: Leaders: Chad Girodo- T-1st (19); Myles Gentry- T-4th (18)

(Least Amount) Hits: 4th (230) Leader: R. Mitchell- T-9th (29)

(Least Amount) Earned Runs: T-4th (89) Leader: R. Mitchell- T-2nd (5)

(Least Amount) Doubles: T-3rd (32); Leader: R. Mitchell- T-8th (4)

(Least Amount) Triples: T-5th (3) Leader: Graveman and Pollorena -T-1st (0)

(Least Amount) Home Runs: 4th (9) Leaders: R. Mitchell and Pollorena- T-1st (0)

(Least Amount) Intentional Walks: 1st (2)

Fielding %: 2nd (.976)

Chances: 1st (1417)

Putouts: 1st (940)

Assists: 1st (443) Leader: Frazier-1st (117); Pirtle- T-9th (89)

Double Plays: 1st (NCAA 1st) (46) Leaders: Frazier-1st (38); Pirtle-9th (25); Detz- 14th (22)

Defense continues to roll across the board after a fantastic weekend. With the majority of the staff being ground ball guys, that makes for more chances on the infield. There will be errors by this group but they are among the best fielders in the country.

Next up for the Diamond Dawgs is the annual non-conference match up at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. against #17 Ole Miss (23-9). The Rebels are reeling after a sweep to top-5 Vanderbilt at home. The sweep was coming off of back-to-back series losses to Texas A&M and Florida. MSU will put Brandon Woodruff (1-1, 4.15) on the mound for his sixth start of the season. He pitched a career-tying six innings last week against South Alabama after four consecutive appearances without a complete inning work.

First pitch in Pearl is set for 6:30 p.m.

Following the rivalry match up, State goes on the road for the first SEC series against Texas A&M (20-13, 6-6). The pitching staff is not yet settled with the only guarantee being SEC pitcher of the week Graveman.

Game times for this weekend are 6:35 p.m. Friday, 12:35 p.m. Saturday and 1:05 Sunday.

I'm back for my semi-annual edition of MSU News & Notes...

- State was unable to complete the sweep vs. Florida as they won Game 3 on Sunday, 8-3. The Gators had an 8-run 5th inning that sealed the deal. Jacob Lindgren was able to start the game and he pitched four scoreless before getting into trouble in the 5th. He left the game with the bases loaded and no out when he twisted his ankle trying to field a bunt. Myles Gentry came in and gave up a 3-run triple and it continued to unravel from there.

This is the THIRD time John Cohen has put freshman Myles Gentry in a SEC game at a critical point and it has backfired and eventually decided the game. You have to wonder when he will start going with a more experienced hand in those situations.

SEC West Standings

1. LSU, 11-1
2. Arkansas, 8-4
3. Alabama, 8-4 (lost 2 of 3 to ARK)
4. Texas A&M, 6-6
5. Mississippi State, 5-7
6. Ole Miss, 4-8
7. Auburn, 3-9

The Dawgs have a great chance to make some hay coming up with a trip to College Station followed by Auburn at home for Super Bulldog Weekend. The Aggies started out hot with a 5-1 start but have since faded and they stopped a 5-game losing streak on Sunday by salvaging their final game with Auburn. The Plainsman as you can see have not been very good this year. If State can win 5 of those 6 games we would be looking at a 10-8 record, which is good 18 games into the SEC season. From there it's Vandy in Nashville (hope for one win there), Bama in Starkville (must win 2 of 3), Ole Miss in Oxford (at least win one, definite potential for two), and South Carolina at home to round out the year (need to win the series). If the Bulldogs can do that we could be looking at a 16-14 or 17-13 year and with our RPI I definitely think we would be hosting a regional at Dudy Noble.

- MSU had a football scrimmage on Saturday at Davis Wade, here is a recap of the action.

-ESPN.com article about the higher expectations in Starkville for the football team.

Congrats to the @mstatesports #discgolf ladies for winning 2nd National title in a row! @bradlocke @msuhoopsgregg @stricklinmsu @pdga

— Hall Roberts (@hallroyal) April 7, 2013

I'm not sure if FWtCT was somehow made a corporate sponsor of the ladies' disc golf team or they just used a unique way of alerting us - but congrats! I played a little disc golf back in my day; we usually went drove over to Lake Lowndes in Columbus back when gas was under $2 a gallon and spent some Friday afternoons playing. Pretty fun game. I know right before I graduated they put a course on campus, played it once, lost a disc or two...and I think that was the end of my playing days.

- This is pretty interesting if you're into SEC football history - Team Speed Kills maps out series matchups between programs.

Have a great week!

Kendall Graveman pitched another masterful game to lead the Dawgs to victory against Florida on Saturday in Game 2 of the series. After throwing a complete game against Arkansas, he does even better here with a shutout on 5 hits, 2 BB, 2 K on 107 pitches.

Including three double plays, 21 of the 27 outs he recorded were via ground ball.

State got all the offense they needed in the first inning as Adam Frazier broke out of his slump with a double, Detz singled, and Renfroe was hit by a pitch to load the bases eventually leading to a RBI walk by Rea and a RBI groundout by Bradford.

MSU takes their first SEC series of the year and they improve to 5-6 in league play.

Game 3 will be Sunday at 1:30. John Cohen said Jacob Lindgren would warm up in the bullpen before the game and a decision would be made from there as to whether or not he starts.

The Bulldogs struggled through the first for the sixth-straight game but came back with a vengeance behind a strong pitching performance by Luis Pollorena, Ross Mitchell and Jonathan Holder, as well as a multi-hit game from four different players as they defeat the Florida Gators, 7-3.

In the 100th all-time game between the two national powers, Pollorena (6-1) gave MSU his best start of the season to garner his team-leading sixth win of the year. The senior southpaw went a solid six innings, giving up six hits and two runs while striking out four.

After a 1-0 start to the ball game, MSU once again found itself fighting from behind. State had given up a run in the first inning for the sixth consecutive game (8 out of the last 10) with four of the first five games ending in losses. But the Bully bats were not to be denied on the night.

After threatening in the second by loading the bases, Frazier would fly out and end the inning. Starting the bottom of the third with a ground out by Alex Detz, Renfroe would get on first with an error. Brett Pirtle stepped to the plate and dropped a fly ball into left center all the way to the wall sending Renfroe around the bases and tying the game. A single by Wes Rea and back-to-back walks had the bases loaded for Sam Frost who sent a fly ball into the outfield for the sacrifice fly.

A passed ball on the pitch to Jacob Robson brought Detz to the plate for a run followed by a hard hit ball booted by the short stop putting Robson on base and driving in Rea and State would take over the game with a 4-1 lead.

Rea would line a shot over the head of the shortstop in the fourth and bring in Detz following his double to give state the 5-1 advantage.

Florida would get a run on the board against Pollorena in the sixth inning but after a single with two outs, the runner tried to stretch Renfroe's arm at third base and was gunned down from center field and State led 5-2. He would follow that up in the bottom half of the inning with a one-out solo blast to right center field, his 10th of the year and a 6-2 MSU lead.

Mitchell, who worked a quick top half of the seventh in relief, would give up two doubles to start the eighth inning and was pulled in favor of Jonathan Holder who would retire all six batters he faced and grab his ninth save of the year.

State tacked on one more run in the eighth inning for the final margin of 7-3.

The Bulldogs (25-8, 4-6) were led at the plate by multi-hit games from Renfroe (2-4; HR, BB, 2R, RBI), Pirtle (2-5; 2B, RBI, R), Mitch Slauter (2-3) and Rea (2-3; 2RBI, R). Florida (14-17, 4-6) recorded eight hits on the day with four being doubles, three by sophomore catcher Taylor Gushue.

MSU now tries for their first series win against the Gators since 2007 with a 3 p.m. ball game on Saturday being televised on CSS. Kendall Graveman (3-2, 2.43) will be on the mound for the Dawgs looking to best his complete-game win against Arkansas last week.

Bulldog Chewies

• RIVALRY BREWING: State and Florida has become quite the rivalry over the past few years since Kevin O'Sullivan and John Cohen have become skippers of their respective teams. With Florida leading the all-time series 57-43, the two teams have now played 100 games against each other.
• DOUBLE-DIGITS WIN: State recorded double-digit hits for the 19th time this year. When putting double digits on the board, the Diamond Dawgs are 15-4 on the season.
• FIRST-INNING TROUBLE: MSU struggled a bit in the first inning as Florida laced a one-out double into left center field scoring a run. It was the sixth-consecutive game that State had given up a run in the first inning losing four of those contests so far. They've also given up a run in the first in eight out of 10 games. In SEC play, State has now been outscored 11-5 in the first inning.
• WALK THIS WAY: Alex Detz walked twice in the ball game Friday night. He leads the SEC in that category and has now walked in 19 of 31 games this season with nine multi-walk games.
• PIRTLE IN A HALF-SHELL: Brett Pirtle started the season slow. He now has a seriously hot bat. he tied the ball game up in the third inning with a one-out double scoring Renfroe from first. It was his fifth RBI in 10 SEC games this season after recording just six in non-conference play thus-far and he has now upped his SEC hitting to .322. He had a two-hit day for his fourth multi-hit game of the year with three of those coming in the first 10 games of conference play.
• MAKING THE BEST OF THE COLD: Not talking about the weather here folks. Adam Frazier and CT Bradford, two of the hottest hitters in the country a month ago, have gone ice cold at the plate which makes tonight's game all the more impressive. The two combined for an 0-for-9 night at the plate with only Bradford reaching via the walk. Frazier has been the most peculiar of the two after being automatic the last two seasons. After leading the SEC and being among the country's leaders in hits, he went 0-for-5 on Friday and is currently 2 out of his last 23.
• REN-THROW: Hunter Renfroe continues to build his MLB resume. After gunning down a runner going to third to end the top of the sixth, he smashed his 10th home run of the season to deep right center. It was also his team-leading 37th RBI of the year. He finished the night 2-for-4 for his 14th multi-hit game of the year.
• SLAUTER-HOUSE: Mitch Slauter returned to the diamond for the first time in two weeks and looked like he never left. The senior catcher recorded his fourth multi-hit game of the season and went 2-for-3 reaching base three times as he walked as well.
• BIG WES SMASH: Rea is finally starting to get healthy and it shows in his swing. After scoring the only run of the day against Arkansas last Sunday with his second home run, Rea brought in the game-winning run on a single Tuesday against South Alabama in the eighth inning. He returned to the same form tonight with a 2-for-3 ball game driving in two runs. He's now hit safely in a career-high six games.
• SHUTDOWN: Jonathan Holder is getting back in the groove. The sophomore closer has now garnered saves in back-to-back games and now has nine on the year equaling his total from last season. He pitched a solid two innings retiring all six batters he faced with four strikeouts. His nine saves place him seventh all-time in single-season saves and his 18 total in two Bulldog seasons put him in sole possession of fifth place breaking a tie with former major leaguer, Jay Powell. The 13 single-season saves and 29 career are in striking distance for the talented flame thrower. Holder also struck out four of the six batters he faced on the day and leads the bullpen with 30 on the year.

Hello friends. In the midst of a two week study binge in preparation for a very important test, I originally decided that I would be FWtCT-free for two weeks, until after I took the test. But a man needs a break here and there, and frankly I was getting tired of Metal Building Dawg calling me in the middle of the night with Journey's "Open Arms" blaring in the background.

So I'm back, if only to give you brief news and notes and then my nose goes directly back into the large book that it has called home recently.

• It is again time for the MSU baseball team to go out and take on a conference opponent, and this weekend, it's the always tough Florida Gators on the schedule. Florida come to Starkville a weekend after taking down Ole Miss at home - a result that I'd say surprised most after a bit of a rough start to the season for the very young Gators. This is a dangerous and very important series for State, as the Bulldogs have played three close series so far in-conference against top 15 teams, losing all three. Florida is getting better as the season progresses, so this could be a tougher task than many think. State frankly needs a series win here, if only to maybe get the team on a roll heading into the back half of the schedule. Here's the deets on this weekend's action.
• Speaking of baseball, there is an update to the HailState app on your iPhones that will now allow you to watch certain games on your device through the app. Pretty sweet, as it says that the app will stream live for 9 of the final 13 home games on MSU's schedule for this season. May be worth it for some of us that don't get to make it up for many games (or are stuck at a wedding rehearsal dinner and the bride's cousin just.won't.shut.up). Also, hopefully your carrier has good service where you are wanting to watch the game

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That's all I have for today, folks. Hope everyone has a great weekend, and hopefully we'll be back on the winning side of things on Monday with MSU baseball.

Don't miss the 14th annual Crossroads Film Festival, set for April 12-14, 2013, in and around Jackson, MS. Enjoy films from every corner of the world, plus music, art, workshops, and much, much more.

WEBSITE:
http://crossroadsfilmfestival.com

Attention LGBTQ campus activists!      The UM Pride Network, Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition, and William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation are co-sponsoring “Breaking the Silence LGBTQ Symposium: Changing Campus Climate” April 19-20, 2013, at the University of Mississippi. The event includes workshops, skill-sharing sessions for GSAs across the state, and a keynote by Paulina [...]

So this happened today. Apparently Mississippi State sent Michael Ferns, a 4-star LB/TE prospect out of Ohio, the above simplistic letter. Did they waste time telling him about the schools' accomplishments? NO! Did they talk about Mullen's back-to-back-to-back bowl appearances? NOPE!

The coaches simply opted to tell Michael how they felt about him and his abilities on the field.

NOTE: this could be a joke/prank left over from April Fools, or this could be real. If it's real, my money is on it being written by Collins, due to his twitter use.

h/t Ferns' instagram