The Clevelands discuss last weekend and the one coming up, including what appeared to be a routine quarterback sack by the Saints’ Carl Granderson of the Giants’ Jaxson Dart that was somehow called roughing the passer. The Saints, believe it or not, won anyway. Also, the conversation turns to what might have been the last Sanderson Farms Championship and the upcoming weekend in college football.
Ole Miss and Southern Miss are off this weekend and Mississippi State is on the road, but the Sanderson Farms Championship, Mississippi’s only PGA Tour tournament returns to the Country Club of Jackson. Today’s discussion includes golf – both a Ryder Cup review and a Sanderson Farms preview – and a Mississippi college football season that keeps getting more interesting.
Our resident golf expert Randy Watkins breaks down the Ryder Cup. Our discussion also includes LSU-Ole Miss, Mississippi State-Tennessee and a whole lot more.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State move to 3-0 and Southern Miss picks up a pivotal win over Appalachian State, plus the Saints finding new ways to lose and one singular high school performance that tested the record books.
An eventful week in Mississippi football is highlighted by Mississippi State’s huge, exhilarating victory over No. 12 Arizona State.
The 2025 football season is underway, as both Ole Miss and Mississippi State moved to 1-0 with opening game wins. Tyler talks high school upsets and Rick breaks down the Bulldogs’ win over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. Plus, how many commercials is too many commercials?
Football starts this weekend, but it’s not every day we have a world champion in Mississippi. That’s what 17-year-old Rachel McAlpin of Brandon is after the world junior swimming championships in Romania last week. Of course, there’s also a football discussion, including the big State-Southern Miss game in Hattiesburg and what T.C. Taylor has in mind for an encore at Jackson State.
Lance Pogue has coached Mississippi high school football teams to 246 victories and 71 defeats, an incredible winning rate of 78 percent. He has won five state championships and one national championship. Now, he takes on another challenge at Brandon High School.
Hard to believe the Mississippi football season opens later this month. Not so hard to believe is that the Clevelands have looked ahead at the schedule and picked the five most interesting high school and college football games on the schedule. A hint: You don’t have to wait long for one some of the most intriguing games, both high school and college.
We are in that period of the sports calendar when baseball is winding down and football talk is heating up. The Clevelands discuss Saints pre-season camp, the college football preseason rankings, the lowly Atlanta Braves, and much more.
Rusty Hampton was the sports editor at the Clarion Ledger for 11 years and worked there for 25 years in two different stints. He talks about some of the highlights, including Mississippi State’s amazing run to the 1996 Final Four. Also discussed: a salute to Ryne Sandberg, the SEC preseason football poll, and Konnor Griffin, the newly elevated top prospect in professional baseball.
Derrick Nix played much of his college football career, hindered by a life-threatening kidney problem that sapped his strength and ended his playing career prematurely. Dexter McCluster spent much of his career with coaches and talent evaluators telling him he was too small. Eventually, Nix became McCluster’s coach at Ole Miss. Saturday night, they go into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame together.
Randy Watkins returns to the Crooked Letter pod to discuss The Open, where the weather will be wet, windy and coolish at Royal Portrush. Scottie Scheffler will be the betting favorite, but the Europeans, including Rory McIlroy, definitely will have a home-course advantage. The recent Major League Draft also will be discussed.
The MSHOF will induct eight new members on Aug 2. Rick Cleveland has covered them all and he and son Tyler talk about what makes them all special.
Before he became a Hall of Fame football coach and won 297 games, Mike Justice played on Mississippi’s first integrated high school football team in Fulton. Justice talks about that and a lot more.
We begin a series of podcasts with Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025, which will be inducted the first weekend in August. First up is highly successful baseball coach Scott Berry, who won big first at Meridian Community College and then at Southern Miss.
This week’s pod touches on a number of subjects: the grit of J.J. Spaun, Cam Akers to the Saints, the College World Series, the NBA playoffs and tomato pie.
With the U.S. Open returning to diabolical Oakmont, Jackson’s Mr. Golf, Randy Watkins, returns to Crooked Letter to discuss what golfers will face. Watkins, who once played in the US. Open at famed Winged Foot, knows a thing or two about high rough, slick greens and fairways only slightly wider than hallways. The Clevelands and Watkins also discuss the college baseball phenomenon also known as Murray State
So much to discuss, including bitter endings Monday night to the Ole Miss and Southern Miss baseball seasons, a new baseball beginning with Brian O’Connor at Mississippi State, the SEC’s surprisingly poor showing in NCAA regionals, and the success of the little guys (Murray State, UTSA, Little Rock, Wright State, etc.) Also, a salute to LSU-Shreveport and a 59-0 season…
La Sasso becomes the second Rebel ever to win the NCAA golf title, which qualifies him for the U.S. Open in two weeks and next April’s Masters. Also, the Clevelands discuss how Mississippi’s baseball coaches should address pitching in the upcoming NCAA Regionals.