OurTupelo

Ricky Fields

High School Student Marchellos Scott, Jr. (center) holds sign in sheet as he helps register a first-time voter in Clarksdale

CLARKSDALE — Students in Brett Wilson’s high school history class said until recently, no one taught them about voting or voter registration. That is, until Wilson helped launch the Clarksdale High School Future Leaders Club, a student social club to help them learn about civic engagement.

With an election looming this school year, Wilson and his colleague Ricky Fields started the club so students and the community they live in can become better informed about the importance of voting and the process.

“Did I really know anything about voting and voter education in my high school years? If not, why? Why did we not have those conversations? Why was that not included in the curriculum or even just small conversations in class?” Wilson said over a Zoom call.  “This is nonpartisan … because voting affects all the sides. We want everyone to have access to that.”

Aallyah Wright, Mississippi Today

Clarksdale High School history teachers Brett Wilson (left to right) and Ricky Fields post during the voter registration event.

The teachers’ efforts empowered Clarksdale students to host a community-wide voter registration drive on Sept. 26. 

“The hope is to bring in the change (and) make sure that everyone knows how important it is, and how important it plays into our future,” said Marchellos Scott, a 17-year-old Clarksdale senior. 

“When it comes to voting, people don’t know, or my peers don’t know how big of an impact and how much of a difference that it really makes,” Scott continued. “But if we don’t fully educate ourselves on those (candidates), how can they accommodate our needs?” 

READ MORE: Mississippi Today Voter Guide

With the Oct. 5 voter registration deadline days away, communities across the state are finding ways to engage prospective and current voters.

In Hinds County, circuit clerk Zack Wallace hosted a socially distanced safer absentee initiative during the week of Sept. 21. This consisted of food vendors, music, and tables with information about the election process and absentee voting. 

“A lot of people are confused about the pandemic, mail-in ballots, and absentee voting. This (event) is to calm people’s concerns during this pandemic,” Wallace said in a phone call with Mississippi Today on Sept. 16. 

Mississippi is one of few states which does not allow people to vote early by mail or in person. The exception is only for people 65 and older, those away from home on Election Day, and those who have a disability. 

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that if a person has a pre-existing health condition that places them at greater risk from COVID-19, it does not mean the person can vote early. This leaves local circuit clerks to make decisions on who can or can’t vote early.

“With the pandemic, we don’t know what it’s gonna look like in the next 30 to 40 days… folks having to stand in line for long times, if a major outbreak occurs, that’s a fear,” said Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the Mississippi affiliate of the ACLU. “Fear there are precincts that may be changed.”

Conor Dowling, associate professor of American politics at the University of Mississippi, said the more confusion there is, the increased chances of low voter turnout.

“The quicker lingering court cases are settled, the better. That way, accurate and consistent information can be disseminated to voters from then on until Election Day,” he said in an email response.

The coronavirus pandemic makes it more difficult to reach voters and build on a younger electorate, but this hasn’t deterred community members from taking action, said N’Spire Walker, a school teacher and community activist.

“That’s why we go to their living areas. We can walk up and catch them when they’re coming out of the house,” Walker said. “The main ones who need to vote are the ones you got to go to or meet them where they’re going.”

Walker, a middle school science teacher and founder of Dream Team of the South, a Meridian-based nonprofit, initially focused her efforts on registering voters. She soon realized some voters were inactive. Others were unsure of how to check their status.

“My main thing now is making sure the people who think they’re registered make sure they’re active and making sure ones who are registered take action,” she said. 

Dr. Thessalia Merivaki, American Politics professor at Mississippi State University

Voter registration drives are usually successful, said Thessalia Merivaki, assistant professor in American politics at Mississippi State University. Incorrect information on registration forms and voters unaware of their rights and options can hinder the process, she said. This can be resolved through outreach and education. 

This is why voter education is essential to the process. If it is not done, especially for the high school and college electorate, it exacerbates inequities in access to information, Merivaki added. For example, if a student comes from a household that is less likely to vote, it is likely the student won’t cast a ballot as opposed to a student in a civically active household, she said.

“This is another population that we know very little about, and it’s very hard to reach,” Merivaki said. “If we track this path towards college, that’s how we can explain why there’s so many students who are very unfamiliar with the process. The first time voters start college and they’re overwhelmed.” 

In spite of challenges posed during this election cycle, exercising the right to vote keeps Clarksdale High School students and other communities motivated.

“By educating our students and bringing them along, they could also bring along their parents, their peers, and other family members that may not have that understanding (of voting),” Fields said. “There are adults my age that don’t understand the voting process.”

The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5. Election Day is Nov. 3. To learn more about the candidates and voting process, visit Mississippi Today’s Voter Guide.

The post Mississippians push to engage voters ahead of Oct. 5 registration deadline appeared first on Mississippi Today.

One of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s favorite cases was an obscure case that originated in chancery court in rural Benton County in north Mississippi. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The mammoth New York Times obituary highlighting the career and accomplishments of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited “one of her favorite cases” as M.L.B. v S.L.J. — an obscure case that originated in chancery court in rural Benton County in north Mississippi.

Ginsburg, who recently died after serving on the Supreme Court since 1993 where she solidified her legacy as a progressive icon, wrote the 6-3 majority opinion that ensured Benton County woman Melissa Brooks (M.L.B.) had the right to appeal a chancery court decision that stripped her of all parental rights of her two young children.

“We place decrees forever terminating parental rights in the category of cases in which the state may not bolt the door to equal justice, recognizing that parental termination decrees are among the most severe form of state action,” Ginsburg wrote in her ruling.

In 1996, Brooks’ ex-husband (S.L.J.) asked a Benton County chancery judge to strip her of parental rights because he contended she was not spending time with the children after the divorce. She countersued, saying her ex-husband was denying her visitation.

The Benton County judge ruled in favor of the ex-husband, stripping Brooks’ parental rights of her two children, removing her name from her children’s birth certificates and replacing it with the name of her ex-husband’s new wife.

Brooks then appealed the judge’s decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court. In a one-page order, the state Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal because she could not afford to pay the $2,300 to purchase the chancery court transcript and provide it to the Supreme Court, as required in Mississippi appeals.

At that point, north Mississippi attorney Danny Lampley, who represented Brooks, contacted Jackson attorney Rob McDuff to get his thoughts on the case. After researching the case, McDuff, a Jackson lawyer who has taken on various social and voting-rights issues during his lengthy career, decided to try to appeal the Mississippi Supreme Court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

McDuff told Mississippi Today said he had always heard that the Benton County case was one of Ginsburg’s favorites and said he was pleased when he read the New York Times obituary validating her fondness for the case.

“It is pretty rare for the Supreme Court to take an appeal from an unpublished one page order from a state supreme court,” said McDuff, now an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice. “But the issue was particularly compelling because it raised the principle of equal justice for the rich and the poor, as well as the principle that a person’s relationship as a parent to her children should not be forever terminated without careful review.”

McDuff had to craft a unique argument because past rulings had made it clear that besides providing a defense attorney in a criminal trial, the government generally was not obligated to provide help to impoverished citizens in court proceedings, and especially in civil cases. He argued that the complete stripping of parental rights was a unique circumstance.

He said “two principles converged” in his successful argument of the case. The first was that the courts had ruled that a person convicted on a criminal charge — even a misdemeanor charge — was entitled to an appeal even if the person could not afford to pay for a transcript.

“That principle had never been applied to a civil case,” McDuff said. But he also argued that “a termination of parenthood involved rights so fundamental that extra procedural protections were required beyond the usual civil case.”

Three of the conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court at that time, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, dissented. Of those three, only Thomas remains on the court, though the conservative wing of the court now holds a majority that could be bolstered by Ginsburg’s replacement.

Amy Coney Barrett, nominated on Saturday by President Donald Trump to replace Ginsburg on the court, credits Scalia for helping to form her judicial philosophy. Many of the other conservatives on the high court also are viewed as similar to Scalia in terms of their views of the Constitution.

After the Ginsburg ruling in 1996, Lampley took the case back to the Mississippi Supreme Court, where the rights of Brooks were later restored.

Of his interactions with Ginsburg during oral arguments, McDuff said, “Justice Ginsburg had a quiet voice, but her questions were always incisive and went to the heart of the case. She constantly proved that a person doesn’t have to be loud or blustery to have a great impact on the world around them.”

Even among the select group of U.S. Supreme Court justices, McDuff contends that Ginsburg had an impact greater than most.

“Three justices who joined the Supreme Court in the last hundred years already had remarkable careers as social justice lawyers,” McDuff said. “Louis Brandeis joined in 1916 after many years fighting against industrial monopolies and protecting the welfare of workers suffering under appalling conditions in factories in the early years of mass production in the 20th century. Thurgood Marshall, the first Black justice, joined in 1965 after decades as a brilliant trailblazing civil rights lawyer in the legal battle against racial discrimination.

“And Justice Ginsburg joined in 1993 after many years at the forefront of the legal movement against sex discrimination. Like the other two before her, Justice Ginsburg lived a rich and momentous life with a particular focus on helping those who were the victims of unfair treatment in this country. And she brought a perspective to the court that was sorely needed and made it a much better institution.”

Some might contend that M.L.B. v S.L.J. was an example of that perspective.

The post One of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s favorite cases originated in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

William Ayers plays basketball with his foster children, Kayden Pam, center, and Jamaine Pittman in the backyard of his home in Greenville, Miss. Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Editor’s note: This story first published on April 17, 2019, but has been recirculated this week after The New York Times obtained and published information about many of President Donald Trump’s tax returns. You can find all of Mississippi Today’s coverage of poverty, class and economic justice here.

Last summer, William Ayers received a letter in the mail — it was registered and required a signature, suggesting its contents.

“Ah, that’s the IRS,” Ayers, 58, recalls thinking. “Here we go again.”

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

William Ayers discusses being audited while sitting in his living room in Greenville, Miss., Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Ayers works in a Leland furniture factory, where he upholsters hospital furniture and earns roughly $27,000 a year. Across the U.S. each year, less than one percent of taxpayers — 0.77 percent — face an income tax audit.

This was the fourth time in the last two decades that the Internal Revenue Service had audited Ayers’ tax return, he said, asking for myriad documents many families don’t maintain.

Ayers said his experience is partly why it’s no surprise to him that the Mississippi Delta, one of the nation’s poorest regions, has among the highest rates of IRS income tax audits in the country.

Humphreys County — home to a town of 2,200 called Belzoni (pronounced bel-ZO-nuh), dubbed both the “Catfish Capital” and “Heart of the Delta” and where four out of ten people live in poverty — is the single most heavily audited county in the nation, according to a recent ProPublica report.

Ayers, a Greenville father of five, plus many more foster children over the years, claims the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal end-of-year financial boost for working class families designed in the 1970’s as an alternative to welfare.

Because he qualifies for this benefit, which varies by amount depending on family size, he’s twice as likely to be audited by the IRS than people who make more than 10 times his salary, according to a ProPublica analysis of IRS data.

“It doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t seem fair. It doesn’t seem efficient from the government’s standpoint,” said Ben Wilkerson, an attorney with North Mississippi Rural Legal Services.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Belzoni, Miss. Thursday, April 11, 2019.

The only county in Mississippi where people are audited less frequently than the national average is Rankin County, the state’s second wealthiest county and where many of the state’s top leaders, including a congressman, the governor and lieutenant governor, call home. Nearly 12 out of every 1,000 taxpayers in Humphreys County are audited, compared to fewer than eight out of 1,000 in Rankin County.

Washington County, just west of Humphreys and where Greenville is located, has an audit rate of over 10 out of 1,000 and much of the same challenges, low incomes and few job opportunities, as the surrounding Delta. The populations in both Washington and Humphreys counties are also over 70 percent African American.

The IRS, through a written statement, maintains the agency enforces tax laws “with integrity and fairness to all.”

The government’s intense examination of working families who claim the earned income tax credit — designed to reward work — parallels experiences of low-income people applying for other benefits, such as food assistance, child care vouchers and cash assistance.

“It’s like they’re giving the credit and want to take it back,” said Latoya Skinner of Tax Genie, a tax preparation service in Belzoni. “You designed it for the low income (people), now you want to scrutinize them because they’re getting it.”

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Tax Genie owner Latoya Skinner, left, and Teresa D. Taylor-Williams discuss why Humphreys County is the most heavily audited county in the nation Thursday, April 11, 2019 in Belzoni, Miss.

But there are deeper reasons why poor, rural communities may face more inquiries and, on top of that, have a tougher time answering them.

The Delta has “old school” landlords, Skinner explained, who don’t prepare leases for tenants and accept rent payments in cash. In an area lacking industry and employers, many workers conduct odd jobs for cash, enterprises with little official documentation of income.

For people who move frequently, addresses recorded with employers, schools or medical providers may not match, making it difficult to prove a child’s residency.

Add in the complexity of tax laws and low-wage workers’ acute reliance on lump sum tax returns to meet needs they’ve staved off all year, and it’s easy to see how mistakes can happen.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Belzoni “The Heart of the Delta,” located in Humphreys County, is the most audited county in the nation.

Ayers lives in a tidy, modest house with his wife, Dycia, and three foster kids, Kayden, Jaterrica, and Jamaine. In his living room, the walls are filled with framed computerized sketches of his kids and he built the furniture himself out of old wooden pallets.

This tax season, Ayers received a roughly $9,000 total refund, which he plans to stash away and dip into only to pay for visits with his grown children in Dallas or unexpected expenses. Otherwise, Ayers said his family lives virtually paycheck to paycheck.

The Earned Income Tax Credit lifts more than 9 million people, half of them children, above the poverty line every year. In Mississippi, consistently among the most impoverished states in the nation, one in six taxpayers who qualify don’t go after the credit.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

William Ayers takes a look at a tax letter while at his home in Greenville, Miss. Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Ayers uses black reading glasses to examine a stack of papers generated throughout his last audit. In the first letter last July, the IRS said it had found a deficiency on his 2016 taxes and he owed the federal government $9,791. He must pay the debt, it said, or file a petition in court if he disagreed with its finding.

Ayers said it was like he was guilty until proven innocent. “That’s an intimidation tactic.”

Ayers sought the help of the IRS-sponsored program, the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic, that provides free legal services to low-income workers who are audited. Wilkerson, the tax attorney whose office is in Oxford, runs the only such clinic in Mississippi.

In 2017, Ayers’ tax preparer, a relative, incorrectly labeled him as “head of household,” which is reserved for non-married people with dependents. Ayers said he had no idea why that happened. The simple mistake likely triggered the audit that put his entire filing, including the legitimacy of his dependents, under question. Like with any audit, the records gathering process was cumbersome.

Ayers requested a letter from Child Protection Services to prove his guardianship over his foster children, but the IRS rejected it because it only included the date the children were placed in his home, not specifying that they’d been in the home all year. He had to obtain a second letter.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

William Ayers is photographed with his children, from left, Kayden Pam, Jaterrica Pittman and Jamaine Pittman at their home in Greenville, Miss. Thursday, April 11, 2019.

“The biggest burden on me is the frustration, not being able to do the things you need to do with your money because you don’t know what you’re going to have to do with the IRS,” Ayers said. “It kind of puts you in a sticky situation with your money.”

Eight months later, his case is almost complete, Wilkerson said. Ayers not only no longer owes the IRS, he’s expected to receive a roughly $800 additional refund.

In past audits, Ayers did not have legal representation and was unable to produce documents proving answers on his tax return, such as his kids’ residency, so he got on a monthly payment plan to pay back thousands to the federal government.

“What I’ve seen is, if they cannot prove the audit, instead of them going for an appeal, they let it go,” Skinner said. “It’s just a lack of knowledge. They don’t realize they can appeal it. They don’t realize they can get more time and try to gather these documents.”

Some taxpayers who get audited feel discouraged and may choose not to file their taxes in the coming years, Skinner explained, meaning they’ll never get the refunds the government owes them. “They’ll just say, ‘Forget it, I’m already poor.’”

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Travis Jones is photographed at his thrift store Thursday, April 11, 2019 in Belzoni, Miss.

Skinner said taxpayers and even some preparers are largely uneducated about IRS processes and what documentation the agency requires. With thousands of dollars on the line, anxieties are high at the start of tax season.

The amount of this year’s Earned Income Tax Credit ranges from $529 for a person with no children to $6,557 for a taxpayer with three children.

To qualify, a filer must earn under a specified annual income, from $15,270 to $54,884 depending on the filer’s marital status and how many children are in the home. The taxpayer must then produce a series of records to prove their relationship to their dependent and their dependent’s residency, such as birth certificates, school, medical, daycare or social service records or official letters from those entities.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Rural Legal Services Tax attorney Ben Wilkerson discusses audits at his office in Oxford, Miss. Thursday, April 11, 2019.

Skinner said some common filing scenarios send up red flags to the IRS, such as when two separated adults claim their child as a dependent in two different homes or when someone other than a parent, such as an aunt, uncle or grandparent is a child’s primary caretaker.

Because the credit only increases in amount up to three children, Skinner said, a parent might allow their relative to claim their fourth or fifth child as a dependent. That other adult might have legitimately assisted with the family’s expenses, so the tax filing feels honest, Skinner said, but a taxpayer is not supposed to claim a dependent unless the person lived in their home.

If a taxpayer took care of a dependent and therefore earned the benefit, but lacked documentation to prove it, they’re technically ineligible. Some lose out on money they earned simply due to poor record-keeping.

“If the people knew, they probably would do better. And some of them probably still won’t do better,” Skinner said.

Tax return errors are not limited to the legitimacy of dependents. Every year, people visit the Tax Genie asking to file their taxes using their last pay stub before they’ve received a W-2, the document employers send both the IRS and employees, which reflects their official annual earnings. This can lead to discrepancies between the taxpayer’s filing and paperwork the IRS already possesses.

“They’re depending on their taxes, so as soon as the IRS open up the gates, they’re running to somebody who can use a last check stub,” Skinner said. “And if you say you don’t know how to do it, they’re going to go get on the computer and they’re going to put it in themselves.”

Wilkerson said some preparers may also be tempted to tweak numbers in their clients’ returns to maximize the amount they get in earned income credit, especially if they receive a commission on the refund.

Belzoni Mayor Carol Ivy told Mississippi Today she chalks up Humphreys County’s high audit rate to tax fraud in the area. “It’s everywhere … The people are not truthful with their income tax. They’re not,” Ivy said.

Wilkerson takes issue with the mayor’s characterization: “Fraud is kind of a strong word,” he said. “I would say it’s more optimistic thinking.”

At the same time, Ivy said it doesn’t make sense that the U.S.’s poorest taxpayers should face more audits than folks earning several hundred thousand dollars a year. “Everybody should be audited,” Ivy said.

Any of these scenarios are compounded by the existing conditions of a community where the average household earns $23,000 and the unemployment rate of 10.2 percent is more than double the statewide average.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Roddy Berry sits on a bench in Belzoni, Miss., Thursday, April 11, 2019. Humphreys County, where Belzoni is located, is the most audited county in the nation, according to a recent ProPublica report.

Skinner estimates half the taxpayers in the area are self-employed, which includes the operators of the car wash down the street from her office.

Residents’ low earnings also sometimes cause suspicion, Skinner added.

“I’ve even been told by an IRS examiner before, ‘How are they head of household with this little money?’” Skinner said.

Take a single parent raising her children with an annual income of $5,000. Skinner points out that $5,000 is enough to pay $350 in rent every month for a year, which may satisfy half the household’s expenses, qualifying them as the head of household.

Skinner said in this way, the IRS discriminates against communities it doesn’t understand.

Mississippi Today asked the IRS for an interview to discuss how the agency ensures its inquiries do not target low-income or minority populations. In a written statement, the IRS said its process for selecting who to audit “is designed to select returns with the highest likelihood of noncompliance” using a “systemic risk-based scoring criteria.”

“(F)airness and integrity are built into the foundation of our return selection process,” the statement reads. “The selection criteria does not include any components or factors related to the geographic location or ethnicity of the taxpayers.”

Ayers looks at the IRS audit trend through the lens of his family’s history. His father, Jake Ayers, helped organize during the Civil Rights Movement and even brought the successful suit against the state board of education over Mississippi’s segregated public university system in the late 1980’s.

It’s easier, he said, for him to connect the dots.

“Minorities, low-income people, I feel like they’re always getting a raw deal from the government and government officials,” Ayers said. “They’re easiest to step on. They’re more vulnerable than other people.”

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Mississippi State quarterback K.J. Costello threw for 623 yards at LSU on Saturday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Eager Mississippi football fans had waited months for the coaching debuts of Mike Leach at Mississippi State and Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss.

And while both famous coaches had their moments Saturday, the day belonged to Leach, his new quarterback K.J. Costello and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. All they did was set school and Southeastern Conference passing records en route to a 44-34 victory over defending national champion LSU at Baton Rouge.

“Better than average,” Leach deadpanned, and Leach is most assuredly the master of deadpans.

With Costello throwing an array of lovely passes for a stunning 623 yards, State defeated the nation’s sixth-ranked team and is certain to rise high up into college football’s Top 25. The Southeastern Conference is in its 87^th season of football, and it took Leach’s Air Raid offense just one game to set the league’s single game passing record.

Earlier in the day, Ole Miss put up a whopping 617 yards of total offense against fifth-ranked Florida, but the Rebels were virtually defense-less against the Gators and wound up on the short end of a 51-35 decision. Kiffin’s imaginative Ole Miss offense will score lots and lots of points this season, but the Rebel defense must improve dramatically for all those yards and points to translate into many victories.

Rick Cleveland

Let’s put it this way: The over/under betting number for the Egg Bowl might be 90, maybe more.

I’ll just go ahead and throw this out there: Florida is a lot better football team than LSU presently. I don’t care who you are, you don’t lose 14 NFL draft picks, including five first rounders, the Heisman Trophy winner, your defensive coordinator, five other players who signed free agent contracts, your passing game coach — you don’t lose all that and just keep on keeping on.

LSU was also missing its best cover cornerback, All American Derek Stingley, Jr., who was ill. That would hurt you against anybody, but against Leach and Costello and the Air Raid offense, Stingley was especially missed. The Tigers stubbornly continued to play press man-to-man coverage against the Bulldogs and Costello picked it apart. Receivers were open and Costello, both accurate and resourceful, hit them in stride.

That said, the biggest difference between Mississippi State and Ole Miss Saturday was on the defensive side of the ball. There, Leach has inherited more SEC-caliber players than Kiffin, especially in the front seven.

State limited LSU’s normally strong running game to 2.1 yards per rush. The Bulldogs sacked Tiger quarterback Myles Brennen seven times.

Meanwhile, at Oxford, Ole Miss often looked defense-less. Florida threw for 442 yards and ran for nearly 200. The Gators averaged nearly nine yards per play. “Video game numbers,” Kiffin called the Gators offensive stats, and they were.

But this wasn’t a lack of defensive scheming. This wasn’t coaching. This wasn’t Xs and Os. It was, as they say, Jimmys and Joes. Seems like we’ve been writing this for years now, but Ole Miss simply has to get better, bigger and faster on that side of the ball.

Offensively, the Rebels are fun. They have many, many weapons, including wide receiver Elijah Moore, who caught 10 passes for a whopping 227 yards. Those are video game numbers, too. Quarterback Matt Corral threw for 395 yards. Running back Jerrion Ealy produced 161 yards running, receiving and kick returning. Receiver Dontario Drummond threw one pass for 45 yards and caught two more for 60 yards. Transfer tight end Kenny Yeboah is still another weapon.

But again, the first big day in this weird football season belonged to Mississippi State. Think about all the factors: New coach, new quarterback, new offense, new defensive coordinator, no spring training, first game on the road against the defending national champion in a national network broadcast.

Yes, and every time those CBS cameras focused on Leach along the Mississippi State sideline, he seemed to be taking it in as if he were picking out produce at the market.

“Better than average,” he would later say.

Well, yeah.

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