Chat Transcript
CBS SportsLine.com
August 1, 2001

Sherrill has a 172-93-4 overall record in 23 seasons as a head coach. (Allsport)

Mississippi State head football coach Jackie Sherrill stoppedy by to chat about the upcoming season, his team and much more.

Sherrill has led the Bulldogs to a 67-48-2 record over his 10 years at the school. Last year the team finished 8-4 overall (4-4 SEC) and ended the season third in the West Division of the SEC. The team went to the Independence Bowl where they won a 43-41 overtime victory over Texas A&M.

The Bulldogs are currently ranked 13th in the SportsLine.com/Lindy's preseason poll. Lindy's ranked the Bulldogs backfield eigth. Coach Sherrill has a 172-93-4 overall record in 23 seasons as a head coach.

Jackie Sherrill: Welcome to SportsLine! It is an honor to be on today!

Question: How good will Mississippi State be this season in college football if you live up to your full potential?

Jackie Sherrill: We have a change to be very good! Having players doesn't guarantee we will win the games. Many teams start out #1 or #3 and never accomplish their goals. Defensively we are as young as we have been but we are talented with 6 of the most talent guys in Kory Banks, Pig Prather, Josh Mordan, Dorsett Davis, Connor Stephens, and Mario Haggans

Question: Is coaching still as interesting to you as ever? What keeps you going?

Jackie Sherrill: Yes it is. More so! It is a lot tougher to be a head coach today. What keeps me going is probably a little fear of failure. We all have that. That plus the opportunity to work with these young people.

Question: Do you see yourself ending your coaching days @ MSU?

Jackie Sherrill: Yes. This is my last rodeo! It has become a very young man's game! There won't be anymore Coach Bryants, Paternos or Holtzs in a short period of time

Question: How have the summer workouts going? Who has impressed you?

Jackie Sherrill: The summer workouts are excellent. Our weight coach Mike Grant is a unique individual. Everyone lifts, but Mike went to the Navy Seals facility for two years. Not just to learn the physical side but the mental, to see how to incorporate the teamwork in small groups like they do. One day they run 6 miles around campus and another day they run an obstacle course that isn't easy. We have a few marines who say it is harder than what they are used to. We work in the heat because you will have to play in the heat.

Question: With Korey Stringer's death from heat stroke today and with the young Florida freshman's death last week from the same thing, do you see changes being made in the way teams handle summer practices? Will there be any changes in your program, do you think?

Jackie Sherrill: We monitor our players awful well. No one has ever done a study to see what heat does to your body. The service academies have the best data, but there is no such thing as fatigue in the service. When I was at A&M we gave the physiology lab room with the agreement they would do heat studies. The problem we all have is, and I tell the players this, your body is like a car. When you run out of gas the engine shuts down. When the body runs out of fluids it looks to the muscles and then looks other places. It runs out of gas. We tell them to fill their tanks before and keep them full during practice. We have done a baseline study for neural problems too. We test the humidity and heat index and have to know when to cut back. I cut back a lot without the other coaches knowing. We rotate players in and out and if they don't perform, they have punishment. We have a solution we have made that includes Pedialyte. For those of you out there playing tennis or whatever in the summer, tonic water is good because quinine has been known to prevent heat stroke. We just have to be cognizant of the conditions and the players. Whatever we are doing must be correct. We opened the season last year against Memphis and it was 130+ under the uniforms. Our 4 DLs who are over 300lbs each were able to play the whole game. Whatever Mike, our trainer, and our doctors are doing, it is the right thing.

Question: As the longest tenured SEC coach how has the game changed over your time in the SEC?

Jackie Sherrill: We all talk about a finesse offense or 4 wides. I had them and people did that in the 70s. I had Dan Marino and 4 wides in the Fiesta Bowl in the 70s. The thing that has changed is the speed match up. It is difficult to say we will spread them out and create an advantage with speed. You still have to throw in this league. When Alabama, Tennessee won the championship, you still had to run the ball and play defense. The teams that line up and throw every down are not the teams that win games.

Question: Coach Sherrill, in your opinion, what will be the toughest game for your Bulldogs this year? All of them!

Jackie Sherrill: The first one too. You can't win the 2nd unless you win the 1st and so on. Our players are excellent and mature. They realize that everybody sometimes want to look down the road. Our guys work to not look down the road and that is a big plus. If we knew what "down the road" held, we could make a lot more money doing something else!

Question: We are so excited about the upcoming season...who, out of the younger guys, do you see stepping forward this season?

Jackie Sherrill: The players that we have, we are excited about. Especially the skill people. We have some young receivers, Hargrove, Bivenes, who are good. Donald Tucker, Weathers. Defensively, Banks is a very good football player. We have a couple others like Richard Ball who have come in and are good." Defensive lineman like Snyder, Fields, Kelley, Nash were all outstanding in Junior College. Jackson is an outstanding linebacker. We are anxious to get these guys in and in early.

Question: Who will be starting QB, Madkin?

Jackie Sherrill: Wayne Madkin has an awful lot of ability. He has won a lot of games for us. Right now it looks like he will break almost all of the records in MSU history. He is 23-10 as a starting QB, tied for the all time wins. One more will put him there. He is the MVP of the 1999 Peach Bowl. And he will graduate in December. We have a talented player behind him by the name of Kevin Fant.

Question: Can you talk about the kicking game which appears to be a question mark going into the season.

Jackie Sherrill: We have players that were here this spring. Bryan West and John Michael Marlin kicked off for us. Where we have the biggest question mark is the deep snapper. We got spoiled for a while with Michael Bender. He was outstanding and you take for granted what that brings to the kicking game.

Question: If you had the choice, would you like to see a playoff in Div-I?

Jackie Sherrill: There is going to be. It will not be under the NCAA format that we know in basketball. The reason we do not have it like that is because the money used in football is used in the non-revenue sports. If you took that money away many universities would not make their budget. Like Michigan is around $50 million and most comes from football. If you have a playoff some will lose money. In a few years you will see a playoff. The tops in certain conferences. The BCS has demonstrated that it will not affect the other bowl games and their revenues and this will not either.

Jackie Sherrill: I wish everyone good luck on your teams. Let's all have a great year and stay healthy. Bye!