Mississippi scorecard highlights one Mississippi or person with Mississippi connections who plays or coaches SEC football in Ole Miss, another in Mississippi State, and another at an SEC school outside of the State every week.
By Robert Wilson
LAUREL HIGH AND EAST MISSISSIPPI CC ALUMNUS DONTARIO DRUMMOND SET OLE MISS RECORD RECEIVED FOR EGG BOWL
Laurel High and East Mississippi Community College alumnus Dontario Drummond did what no catcher Ole Miss ever did in the Egg Bowl.
Even though the senior catcher didn’t score a touchdown in the No.9 Ole Miss’s 31-21 win over Mississippi State Thursday night in Starkville, Drummond hit a career high and Egg Bowl Ole Miss recorded 13 catches for 133 yards in the game.
Drummond, Ole Miss’s top receiver this season, keeps Ole Miss’s training alive. Seven of its captures gave rise to the first tests.
He made four catches for 20 yards – two for the first downs – for Ole Miss, which gave the Rebels a 24-6 lead with 11 minutes and 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Drummond leads Ole Miss with 53 catches for 786 yards and eight touchdowns this season. He missed a game, against Liberty, this season.
Only one other player in Egg Bowl history on either team has had more catches than Drummond. David Smith of Mississippi state caught 14 passes for 194 yards in 1969.
Drummond was one take away from equaling the school record for most takes in a game. Elie Moore (2020 vs. Vanderbilt), AJ Brown (2017 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette) and Laquon Treadwell (2015 vs. Memphis) are tied for the school record with 14 catches each.
Drummond has three 100-yard games this season and four in his career. He had a career-high 177 yards in Game 1 of the season against Louisville and 107 yards in Game 2 against Austin Peay.
Drummond was second to Moore last season with 25 catches for 417 yards and seven touchdowns. Drummond caught two passes for 84 yards and a 48-yard touchdown against Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl win. And without Moore in the bowl game, Drummond led the team with six catches for a career-high 110 yards and one touchdown in the win over Indiana.
Drummond was a member of the All-American Junior College First Team at East Mississippi Community College and helped the EMCC to the National Championship in 2017 and Second Place National in 2018. He is the Career Leader in Receiving and reception courses at EMCC. He was ranked as the fourth best receiving prospect in the country by 247 Sports from the EMCC. He chose Ole Miss over Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado State, and Arkansas State.
Drummond produced 3,474 all-purpose yards during his career at Laurel High and had 1,568 receiving yards and 17 touchdowns as a senior. He played football, basketball and baseball in Laurel and helped his team win state titles in football and basketball.
LAUREL HIGH ALUMNUS AND CHARLES CROSS OF MISSISSIPPI STATE WIN THE KENT HULL TROPHY
Charles Cross, a Laurel High alumnus and sophomore from the Mississippi State Redshirt, was named the winner of the Kent Hull Trophy this week.
The award is named for the best Mississippi varsity offensive lineman and named after Greenwood High and Mississippi State alumnus and former NFL offensive lineman the late Kent Hull, who has played in four Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills.
Cross has started all 12 games in left tackle for MSU this season and ranks fifth among Southeastern Conference offensive linemen with an 86.4 rating by Pro Football Focus (PFF) ahead of Thursday’s Egg Bowl. . He holds the SEC’s second-highest passing blocking rating at 86.2 and is fifth in running blocking at 85.4.
The 6-foot-5, 310-pound Cross is the fifth Bulldog to win the Kent Hull Trophy since its inception in 2013 alongside Gabe Jackson (2013), Justin Senior (2016), Martinas Rankin (2017) and Elgton Jenkins (2018) ).
Cross has appeared in 25 career games and made 22 starts. He was named All-SEC Freshman by league coaches last year and has been named SEC offensive lineman of the week twice this season.
Cross was ranked No. 1 rookie in Mississippi by 247 Sports and Rivals and ranked No. 8 nationally as an offensive lineman as a senior at Laurel High. He played in the US Army All-American Bowl and the Mississippi / Alabama All-Star Game.
GULFORT HIGH AND OLE MISS ALUMNUS MATT LUKE LARGE PART OF NO. 1 THE SUCCESS OF GEORGIA
Former Gulfport High and Ole Miss student and former Ole Miss head coach and assistant Matt Luke is a big part of Georgia’s No.1 success as the Bulldogs play their final regular season game in Georgia Tech Saturday at 11 a.m. on ABC.
Luke is in his second season as Georgia offensive line coach. The Bulldogs are fifth in the SEC in rushing at 201 yards per game.
Luke, joined the Georgia staff in December 2019, having served the previous two years as a head coach at Ole Miss. Luke framed 42 all of the conference selections at stops at Ole Miss, Duke, Tennessee and Murray State. He was head coach and offensive coordinator at Ole Miss and offensive coordinator at Duke. In his first year at Ole Miss, Luke replaced Hugh Freeze as interim head coach just before fall practice and led the Rebels to a 6-6 record, winning three of the last four games, including winning the Egg Bowl in Mississippi State. While he was an offensive line coach at Ole Miss, Luke was ranked eighth among scouts in 2016 by 247 Sports. He also trained tight ends at Ole Miss.
Luke started 33 center games for Ole Miss from 1995 to 1998 and was the team captain in 1998 and led Ole Miss to a 7-5 season and victory over Texas Tech in the Independence Bowl.
Luke’s father, Tommy, was a defensive back at Ole Miss from 1964-66 and his brother, Tom, played quarterback at Ole Miss from 1989-91. Tom is Ole Miss’s assistant athletic director for player development. since 2013. He was also Ole Miss’s coordinator for football operations from 2004 to 2005.
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