Mississippi State football coach Jackie Sherrill has an impeccable record as a head coach in the college ranks.
He has had head coaching tenures at Washington State, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M and State. He is ranked fourth among active coaches with 178 wins – behind only Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden and Lou Holtz.
From 1979 to 1981 Sherrill led Pittsburgh to three straight 11-1 seasons and New Year’s Day bowl wins. He has coached in 14 bowl games and is the winningest coach in Mississippi State football history.
But in the past two seasons, the Bulldogs have limped along with a 6-17 record (2-14 Southeastern Conference) and are 0-3 heading into their game with LSU at 8 p.m. on Saturday in Starkville, Miss.
The rumor mill was loud this offseason with talks of this being Sherrill’s last year with State, and he addressed those comments at a preseason press conference.
“The train has bottomed out,” Sherrill said. “But the train is going back uphill. It is exciting to know you have players who will be around for a long time who are talented players.”
Sherrill points back to the beginning of the 2001 season as the origin of the Bulldogs’ downfall.
State was 1-0 heading into a game with a newly revamped South Carolina team led by the aforementioned Holtz. Their 30-10 win against Memphis to open the season gave them confidence, and the Bulldogs were ready for their fifth straight winning season.
“One play,” Sherrill said. “A fourth-and-three, South Carolina runs a sweep, and it goes for 43 yards. That popped the bubble, and we couldn’t blow it back up.”
The Bulldogs lost the game 16-14. They lost five more games that season by a touchdown or less and finished with a 3-8 record. Last season the Bulldogs finished 3-9 and were winless in eight SEC games, which led to reporters asking Sherrill if he felt his job was on the line.
“I can’t answer that,” Sherrill said. “The only one who answers that … that’s the president of the institution. It’s the prerogative of the president at every institution. Whatever his decision is is what you deal with.”
Sherrill cleaned house in the coaching staff during the offseason, firing both coordinators, including defensive guru Joe Lee Dunn and five assistants overall. Dunn gave the Bulldogs the reputation of a physical, aggressive, blitzing defense whose objectives were to rattle the quarterback and plug the running holes.
But the Bulldogs yielded an average of 27 points per game during the past two seasons, and Sherrill let him go. LSU tackle Rodney Reed was a redshirt freshman when Nick Saban replaced Gerry DiNardo as LSU’s head coach. He knows what it feels like to be a player at a program whose coach is rumored to be in his last season.
“I know one thing, when you’re back is up against the wall, you normally play your best,” Reed said. “One thing that was really going on with us, we didn’t really care about all the coaching staff stuff. But as a group, we wanted to play hard for each other. I’m sure that they’re disregarding all the turmoil stuff as a team.”
Mississippi State was picked to finish in last place in the SEC this season by the media after an 0-8 SEC campaign last year.
“That’s OK,” Sherrill said. “Last time we went to the championship we were picked last too. We may not go to Atlanta [for the SEC Championship Game], but we’ll have a say-so in who does.”