Jackie Sherrill

Jackie Sherrill was a college football coach for more than three decades, including 20 seasons as the head coach at Texas A&M and Mississippi State. After playing for legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama in the 1960’s, Sherrill began his coaching career as a graduate assistant to Bryant in 1966. He worked as an assistant at Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa State and Pittsburgh before breaking through as a head coach at Washington State in 1976.

Sherrill took over the A&M program beginning in 1982 and stayed in College Station for seven seasons. His Aggies peaked from 1985-1987, winning three straight Southwest Conference titles with a combined record of 20-3 against conference opponents in that stretch. Those teams went 10-2, 9-3 and 10-2, reaching three straight Cotton Bowls and winning two of them. Sherrill left A&M following the 1988 season with a 52-28-1 combined record. He was three-time SWC Coach of the Year from 1985-87.

He returned to coaching in 1991 as the head coach at Mississippi State. Sherrill led the Bulldogs for 13 seasons, leading them to seven winning seasons, six bowl games and the 1998 SEC West title. Sherrill’s teams were just 2-4 in bowl games at MSU, but they finished ranked in the final Associated Press poll four times. His program began to decline in 2001, and after three straight losing seasons (3-8, 3-9, 2-10) Sherrill retired from coaching once again. He left Starkville with a 75-75-2 combined record, and was 180-120-4 for his career as a head coach.

Ethan Levine

A former newspaper reporter who has roamed the southeastern United States for years covering football and eating way too many barbecue ribs, if there is such a thing.