Jackson Free Press

Being right or ahead of the curve is one thing you want in this job. Sometimes though you wish you were wrong even though you are right.

Last week before the New Orleans Saints played the Jacksonville Jaguars at home, I mentioned the Saints had to do a better job against the run. Well, New Orleans did a terrible job against the Jaguars running game and in the process made Jacksonville quarterback Blaine Gabbert look like the second coming of Tom Brady.

New Orleans gave up 170 yards rushing for an average of 5.5 yards per rush. That makes it really easy for a quarterback to pass the ball when they are in second down or third down and short.

Gabbert got extra time to throw because the defense had to respect any run fake. Also, helping Jacksonville was the Saints defensive line did a piss poor job of getting off blockers to make plays.

The Jaguars offensive linemen were stuck like glue to the New Orleans defenders. I rarely saw a defensive lineman not get pushed back into the linebackers or beat a block to cause havoc before the running back got to the second level (linebackers/secondary).

New Orleans didn’t do a terrible job in the secondary only allowing 182 passing yards. Against Arizona Cardinals the Saints defense gave up 189 yards passing and against New England Patriots they gave up 188 yards passing.

In today’s NFL those are not bad passing numbers. I will be more than impressed if the Saints can keep up those passing stats on defense when the regular season starts.

The Saints have given up more rushing yards each game. They gave up 112 yards against the Cardinals, 126 yards against the Patriots and finally 170 yards against the Jaguars on the ground.

This Saturday the Saints play the Houston Texans. So far in this preseason the Texans have rushed for 179 yards against the Carolina Panthers and 119 yards against the San Francisco 49ers.

If teams can run they can set up the pass. New Orleans will have to figure out a better way to defend the rushing attack.

Some more to watch for:

Defensive Line

The Saints defensive line struggled against the offensive line of the Jaguars last time out. New Orleans had just one sack against the Jaguars and Gabbert was relativity clean all night.

Heading into this game the linebackers unit is really banged up and the defensive line will have to pick up the slack. New Orleans must get pressure from their defensive line and this unit must be very active in running stopping.

New Orleans offense Over the last few years the Saints offense has been one of the most high powered offenses in the NFL. But the New Orleans offense has struggled to get on track this preseason.

This Saturday is the final dress rehearsal before the regular season begins. It would be great to see …

Rugby was a precursor to American football. Soccer is also attached to early football as well, and all three games can trace their roots back to Greek and Roman games.

The first football game in America is credited to Rutgers University and Princeton University on November 6, 1869. Rutgers won the game 6-4 over Princeton.

Football began to gain popularity in the U.S., especially on the east coast, and at universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University and others. While the game grew fans, it also grew detractors.

Early football was even more violent than today’s football. In fact, punching or drop-kicking an opposing player was not against the rules. Neither were shots to the head or other moves you might see in bar fight or pro-wrestling match.

Football tried to clean itself up with rule changes from the “Father of American Football” Walter Camp. Under Camp, the game added the line of scrimmage, cut players on the field down to 11, changed the size of the field, created the downs system used today and many other advances.

While these rules helped, the game was still dangerous to play. In the early 1900s, the game came under fire to be banned for how violent it was at the time.

There are reports that upwards of 20 people died playing football in 1905. That spurred change even as then-President Teddy Roosevelt got involved because of the public outcry.

Rules were changed again, this time adding the forward pass and the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association the forerunner to the NCAA. These rule changes helped make the game safer in the long run.

Fast Forward to 100 years later and there is a public outcry over the safety of football. This time about concussions.

Let’s be honest. Football, rugby, hockey and other impact sports are going to always have a risk of injury or even death. That doesn’t mean officials should stop working to make the game safer, but there will be a certain amount of risk involved in playing these sports.

While concussions are a part of rugby as well as football, there is something football could learn from rugby.

The Seattle Seahawks and other teams in both pro and college football are teaching shoulder tackling. The Seahawks have even produced two videos on how to shoulder tackle properly.

Both videos show drills that can be done with and without pads to learn to shoulder tackle. The idea is to take the head out of the game. Nothing is 100 percent effective, but it should be worth studying to see if players’ head injuries are reduced by using rugby tackling.

Seattle, like them or hate them, is one of the best tackling team in the league and one of the most physical teams as well. The changes in how they tackle haven’t affected their ability to be physical on …

Anyone who keeps close tabs on the NFL knows that on Friday afternoons it's worth paying attention to press releases. The league has become masterful at dropping news late on Friday afternoons when most people have turned their attention to the weekend.

The University of Mississippi used a similar approach last Friday. Before the holiday weekend, UM released its response to a NCAA notice of allegations, using Memorial Day weekend and the dumpster fire that is Baylor University football as cover to quietly put out its report. In that 154-page response, the university self-imposed 11 total scholarships in football over the next four years.

The school also asked for a delay on a scheduled hearing with the Committee on Infractions until it could fully investigate the Laremy Tunsil draft-night fallout. UM is scheduled to meet with the COI this summer.

Of the 13 allegations the NCAA has leveled against the school, nine came under the watch of current head coach Hugh Freeze. Four of those allegations are Level I violations (the most severe), two are Level II violations and three are Level III violations.

On Monday, Freeze began damage control as he defended his program. Freeze said he takes full responsibility for the violations and then said the violations were more about mistakes made than an effort to cheat.

The head coach zealously denied that he or anyone on his staff had knowingly violated rules. In an ESPN story, Freeze said, “There’s a big difference between making mistakes in recruiting and going out there with the intent to cheat."

Freeze knows, like any coach, that it is important to win the court of public opinion. He is also trying to repair his reputation. Freeze was quick to point out that several of the violations linked back to former coach Houston Nutt.

UM is hoping that suspending a couple of assistant coaches from recruiting for a month, the loss on scholarships and disassociation with boosters will keep the NCAA at bay. The organization could take all of the Rebels self-imposed punishments and call it a day.

It is highly unlikely that the NCAA won't add to the Rebels punishment. Also, it seems like Freeze and the university aren’t “owning” their violations by trying to point out Nutt's complicity at every chance.

Freeze and the Rebels still have to deal with the Tunsil draft-night fiasco, and the NCAA could reopen its investigation. This is not a simple as Freeze is trying to pin the worst parts on past coaching staff.

There have been rumblings about how Freeze and his coaches recruited since his highly regarded draft class of 2013. Freeze tried then to play off those rumblings as ranting from haters.

Now, it seems the haters were right, and Freeze is trying to hand at deflection. If even more comes out after the Tunsil draft night, it might be time for a coaching change in Oxford.

The NCAA would be wise to listen …

Sending an email or text to an unintended recipient is something that has either happened to you or something that you fear. An email fail from the New Orleans Saints cost them a chance to add a player late last week.

When the Cleveland Browns cut quarterback Connor Shaw, his rights went on the waiver wire. The Saints put in a claim on Shaw, but instead of sending their intentions to just the league office, New Orleans emailed the other 31 clubs.

That email let the Chicago Bears know the Saints plan and claim Shaw instead. Chicago was awarded the rights to the quarterback due to having a worse 2015-2016 season than the Saints.

Shaw became expendable in Cleveland after the team signed Robert Griffin III and drafted rookie quarterback Cody Kessler and veteran Josh McCown to their roster. ESPN.com’s Adam Caplan was the first to report on the Saints email blunder.

Chicago might have had plans on claiming Shaw regardless before knowing the Saints intentions, or they could have played some gamesmanship on New Orleans. In addition to Shaw, the Bears now have starter Jay Cutler and backups Brian Hoyer, David Fales and Dalyn Williams.

New Orleans has stated that it would like to add another quarterback for training camp to go with starter Drew Brees, backup Josh McCown, brother to Luke McCown, and second year quarterback Garrett Grayson. The Saints will have to continue their search before camp opens later this month.

Former University of Mississippi cornerback Tee Shepard is one of six players eligible for this year’s NFL Supplemental Draft. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the annual summer draft will be held July 14 at 1 p.m..

Shepard is a former four-star recruit from Fresno, Calif., who originally signed with the University of Notre Dame in 2012 out of high school. He enrolled early, but a reported academic issue forced him to leave the school.

His next stop was Holmes Community College in 2012 and 2013, and he committed to Mississippi State University before flipping to the Rebels. Shepard missed the 2014 season due to a toe injury.

Shepard, who is deaf, appeared in the first five games of the 2015 season before announcing he was quitting football. He later alleged that the coaching staff cut his playing time due to the fact he was deaf.

Then came the announcement that he would transfer to Miami University in Ohio if he could graduate by May. Shepard’s graduation is now moot since he applied for and has been accepted into the supplemental draft.

Joining the former Rebel cornerback in the draft is long snapper Eddie D’Antuono out of Virginia Tech, defensive tackle Ra’Zahn Howard out of Purdue University, running back Jalen Overstreet out of Sam Houston State University, defensive end Cameron Walton out of Concordia College and wide receiver Rashaun Simonise out of the University of Calgary in Canada.

The format for the supplemental draft is …

The University of Mississippi is one of a few SEC football teams in a unique position going into this season. The Rebels have a proven starter at quarterback while most of the conference is looking for answers in that position.

Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly and University of Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs are the only returning starters who were ranked in the top five in passing yards. The rest of the top five, Dak Prescott, Brandon Allen and Jake Coker, are all in the NFL now.

Former Texas A&M University quarterback Kyle Allen, who was sixth in passing yards, is now at the University of Houston. Louisiana State University quarterback Brandon Harris, seventh in passing, might be the starter for the Tigers, but his performance was up and down at best last season.

Patrick Towles, eighth in passing, transferred from the University of Kentucky to Boston College after Drew Parker replaced him as the starter. University of Georgia quarterback Greyson Lambert, ninth in passing, and University of South Carolina quarterback Perry Orth, 10th in passing, are locked in a battle for the starting job at their respective programs.

Auburn University is trying to find a starter out of a trio of quarterbacks, including two who earned playing time last season and a junior-college transfer. The University of Alabama is also working with three quarterbacks, trying to find out who will separate himself from the others.

The University of Florida has named Luke Del Rio as its new starter since both starters from last season have left the school to play elsewhere. The University of Arkansas has named Austin Allen as the player to replace Brandon Allen under center.

Texas A&M will start transfer Trevor Knight at quarterback after Kyle Allen left for Houston. The University of Missouri will have quarterback Drew Lock, who won four games in four starts last season.

Vanderbilt University will go with Kyle Shurmur at quarterback after limited playing time last season. Shurmer joins Austin Allen at Arkansas, Del Rio at Florida, and Lock at Missouri on the list of quarterbacks who have little or no starts for their respective programs.

Mississippi State University might go into the season looking for a starter between Nick Fitzgerald, Damian Williams and Nick Tiano. Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen has gone with multiple quarterbacks before, as with Chris Leak and Tim Tebow at Florida and Tyler Russell and Prescott at MSU.

Kelly and Dobbs will have a chance to lead their teams to division titles as the rest of the conference works to figure out who will take the reins at quarterback. The rare exceptions are Alabama and LSU, who both have strong defenses and powerful running games, and just need quarterbacks who won’t lose them games.

The rest of the SEC could see their bowl hopes go down in flames if they can’t find the right player under center. MSU is one of those teams …

The Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning released the following verbatim:

More than 95 percent of jobs created during the recovery have gone to workers with at least some college education, while those with a high school diploma or less are being left behind, according to America’s Divided Recovery: College Haves and Have-Nots, a recent report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

Understanding the crucial link between higher education and economic development, the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and the Mississippi Development Authority have worked together for decades to leverage higher education assets to attract business and industry to Mississippi. The two entities formalized this partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by Glenn McCullough Jr., Executive Director of the Mississippi Development Authority, Dr. Douglas W. Rouse, President of the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning and Dr. Glenn Boyce, Commissioner of Higher Education, at a Board of Trustees meeting held today in Jackson.

In collaboration with Mississippi’s eight public universities, the Board of Trustees and MDA will showcase Mississippi to companies that will create jobs and invest capital.

“Mississippi's public universities are a strategic advantage in community and economic development so MDA is pleased to formally recognize our partnership with the Institutions of Higher Learning to provide new career opportunities for Mississippians,” said MDA Executive Director Glenn McCullough, Jr. "Working together, MDA and the IHL will aggressively leverage the assets we share to accelerate economic opportunity for Mississippians throughout the state.”

As outlined in the MOU, the expected outcomes include: Increased pipeline of companies to consider Mississippi for expansion and growth Increased number of corporate contacts and project leads for MDA Increased opportunities for corporate entities and Mississippi’s public universities to support one another Defined and mapped catalog of the respective economic development strengths of Mississippi’s public universities Increased business growth across the state Stabilization and growth of jobs in defined sectors

“Working together, our university system and the state’s economic development engine can build on our collective strengths for the benefit of the state,” said Dr. Glenn Boyce, Commissioner of Higher Education. “This Memorandum of Understanding better defines our roles and efforts, enabling the partnership to become a force multiplier for the state’s economy.”

Some of the planned efforts include shared marketing messages, joint outreach to strategic clients and business leaders and identifying and supporting shared legislative priorities. Each organization will designate a representative to serve as a point of contact and liaison for the effort who will support the goals of the MOU.

In addition to the MOU signing, another initiative was announced at the ceremony. This initiative is an online tool designed to help recent and soon-to-be graduates find jobs in the state, www.msgradjobs.com. Set to complete the pilot phase and begin statewide implementation soon, the site allows students to receive email alerts when jobs in their desired career tracks become available. The online tool was conceived by Mark Henry, …