It`s time for lunch, but about 125 Mississippi State students aren`t in any hurry to leave an informal lecture in the Union lobby. Maybe it`s the subject, or the lecturer, or both.
The topic is football. The speaker is coach Jackie Sherrill.
”Past coaches have just kind of taken us for granted,” said Nancy Bigelow, a graduate student from Columbus, Miss., who sat on the floor for Sherrill`s half-hour ”Chalk Talk” with students this week. ”They weren`t in tune with the student body.”
Sherrill is the new head football coach here. His name is on a steakhouse marquee on Highway 12. It reads: ”Sherrill For Governor.”
His name is on bumper stickers and billboards. They say: ”The Sherrill Era Begins.”
”I heard a lady say the other day that she`s seen Jackie Sherrill more this year around town than she`d seen other coaches in her lifetime,” said Sonny Mullins, 61, owner of a department store on Main Street. ”He`s definitely a people`s person.”
The coach is also a promoter, salesman and positive thinker. He isn`t too bad as a designer of X`s and O`s.
The Bulldogs, 3-0 and ranked nationally for the first time since 1986, so far have outscored opponents 108-9.
”I`ve never seen our spirit this unified in my lifetime,” said Larry Templeton, 44, Mississippi State athletic director.
”Nor have I,” said Bob Hartley, 71, former sports information director who has been here since 1938. ”This is the highest I`ve ever seen it
(spirit).”
The surprising Bulldogs are glaring into a gun barrel. Awaiting for them in Knoxville Saturday was Tennessee. A week hence, Mississippi State meets Florida in Orlando. That one, originally scheduled for Starkville, was moved for money.
”We`re fixin` to find out how good we are,” said Rick Trickett, offensive line coach.
Mississippi State`s victories have been on campus-47-3 over Cal State-Fullerton; 13-6 over Texas, ranked No. 13 at the time; and 48-0 over Tulane.
Attendance has risen with each win, from 30,307 to 34,123 to 36,429 for Tulane.
”He makes you feel like if you`re not at the game, they can`t win,”
Mullins said of Sherrill. ”He makes you feel that important.”
Sherrill, 47, has experience in reconstruction. He restored Texas A&M to national prominence but resigned after the 1988 season during a high-powered NCAA investigation.
He`s sixth among college football`s winningest active coaches with a 14-year record of 108-45-2. He said the victory over Texas two weeks ago was his biggest.
”It`s totally different at State now,” said junior linebacker Daniel Boyd. ”Coach Sherrill brought in a positive attitude, and now a 3-0 record, and that helps things a lot. There`s definitely a sense of evolution going on here-a big turnaround.”
Sherrill is pleased.
”Anytime you have a change, there are a lot of expectations,” he said.
”I`m very excited that students and fans are happy. And when players have an opportunity to experience what you`re trying to accomplish, it`s a big plus.”
Sherrill was out of coaching two years before Templeton brought him in to replace Bulldog alumnus Rockey Felker, who resigned after a five-year record of 21-34.
”The signal, loud and clear, was that our people wanted a proven winner,” Templeton said. ”He was the first guy I called. He brought instant credibility in the respect that he`d won at other places-and that what we were getting ready to try wasn`t a proving ground.”
”Because of this conference (Southeastern) and the people in it, the rebuilding is certainly more difficult, but any program you go to usually heads one direction and that`s up,” Sherrill said.
”Sometimes it`s a tough strain to stop that train from running downhill. Until you`re able to turn it around, then you`re still sliding.”
In an effort to build interest, Sherrill allowed students to help design new uniforms. He created a ”12th Man” theme of student involvement and enlisted the ”Mad Dawgs”-walk-ons from the student body-to cover kickoffs.
When students stayed up all night last winter in line for tickets to a basketball game against Louisiana State, it was Sherrill who arrived soon after dawn to hand out doughnuts and orange juice.
”He spoke to 30 or 35 alumni meetings, and at every one of them he asked for a show of hands from people who`d left football games before they were over,” Templeton said. ”Then he asked how many had ever left one of our baseball games in the bottom of the eighth when we were behind.
”The point he was making was that we expect to win in baseball, but it`s become different in football. He plans to change that.”
He hired a staff of experienced assistants, including former Vanderbilt head coach Watson Brown, who put in a no-huddle offense that`s been effective. He moved veteran defensive Bill Clay from offensive coordinator to defensive coordinator.
Players appear to have confidence in Sherrill.
”The players see a guy who understands what winning is all about. They see a guy who has coached Tony Dorsett, Danny Marino and Hugh Green (at Pittsburgh),” Trickett said. ”He does a good job of getting players to believe in themselves and understand themselves.”
Boyd is impressed.
”When coach Sherrill walks into a room, you can tell he has confidence in himself and pride in what he`s doing, and that overflows to the people around him.”
Mississippi State fans don`t need to be reminded there have been some good starts in the past, followed by collapses.
”Every time we`ve gotten a new coach, the excitement has been there, but it died,” Bigelow said.
But the feeling is that things will be different this time, mainly because of Sherrill.
”If he keeps winning, the crowds are going to keep getting bigger, and before long a lot of people are going to be sitting out on the grass and listening on the radio,” Mullins said.
Sherrill isn`t making any predictions about the Tennessee game. He told students at the Chalk Talk that he`ll have to ”see how this team travels.”
But he knows what to expect from the crowd in Neyland Stadium. He took his Pittsburgh team there in 1980.
”We beat `em, 30-6,” Sherrill said. ”Willie Gault returned a kickoff for a touchdown, and aside from that, they didn`t cross the 50 except one time.”
He told the students how pep squad leaders at Tennessee use microphones to direct cheering from the student section near the visitors` bench.
”What we did in 1980 was cut their speaker wires before the game,”
Sherrill said, grinning. ”They spliced them at halftime, but we cut them again just before the kickoff.
”We may need to send some of you guys up there with some wire cutters.
”Anybody want to volunteer?”
