Saturday’s Maroon and White game will kickoff a new beginning for Mississippi State football at 6 p.m.
Seven new assistant coaches came to Starkville to be on Sylvester Croom’s inaugural Maroon and White staff.
Woody McCorvey
Assistant Head Coach
Offensive Coordinator
Quarterbacks
Coach Woody McCorvey traveled the road to Starkville from Knoxville, Tenn., where he coached the Tennessee rushing attack for five years. McCorvey tutored first-team All-American Travis Stephens and current NFL star Jamal Lewis at Rocky Top.
McCorvey said that both Coach Croom and having a coordinating position were factors in his decision to leave Tennessee and come to MSU.
“I know the type of program that he (Croom) wants to institute here,” McCorvey said. “It gives me the chance to be a coordinator again and that’s something that I have always aspired to do.”
McCorvey always held a leadership role growing up. He was a quarterback in high school and in college. McCorvey discussed the style of offense that the Bulldogs will run next year.
“We’re running a so-called West Coast offense that a lot of NFL teams are running,” McCorvey said. “Basically this scheme is the scheme they used at Green Bay. We want to be tough-mannered and hard-nosed and we want to be able to run the football effectively and we gotta be good in terms of the play-action game.”
McCorvey is a 1972 graduate of Alabama State. McCorvey coached at the University of Alabama for eight years during which the Crimson Tide went to six bowl games, and won a national championship. He has a wife, the former Ann Brown, and a son, Marlon.
J. B. Grimes
Offensive Line
Coach J.B. Grimes comes to Starkville from the campus of East Carolina where he resided for only a year. Prior to that, Grimes was an assistant to R.C. Slocum at Texas A&M for four years. The Aggies won the Big 12 title and went to the 1999 Sugar Bowl. He is a graduate of Henderson (AR) State.
He said he came to Mississippi State to help resurrect a once-prominent football program.
“I’m excited about the possibilities that we have here and what we can accomplish here,” Grimes said. “I think this is a program that has the opportunity to take the next step.”
Grimes discussed the situation with the offensive line, which has been weak during the past three years.
We’re not a strong offensive line right now,” Grimes said. “We’ve got to get stronger.” Grimes followed up by saying that many of the offensive linemen will stay in Starkville over the summer to work on building strength and losing weight.
“We’ve gotten a little bit better every day,” Grimes said. “I really like the attitude of the kids. I think they’re trying to do the things that we asked them to do.”
Grimes’ wife is the former Jennifer Graves. They have two sons, Aaron and Nick, and two daughters, Danielle and Lindsey. He currently has a house being built in Starkville and is hoping to move his family in by mid-May.
Stan Drayton
Running Backs
Coach Stan Drayton is a 1993 graduate of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. Dayton helped guide Villanova to the I-AA national crown in 1997. He was nominated for the American Football Coaches’ Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 1999.
Drayton says that his decision to leave the Green Bay Packers and come to Mississippi State was solely on Sylvester Croom.
“He is the guy I look up to as not only my mentor in coaching, but also as a father figure,” Drayton said. “He created this situation for me here at State where I can continue to grow in a direction I’m trying to go.”
Drayton spoke about the offensive game plan for MSU.
“This offense is good when you are able to run the football,” Drayton said. “Running the football is going to help passing, and the play-action pass, it’s going to be able to help everything. We have to be a good running football team. There’s no doubt about it.”
Shane Beamer
Cornerbacks
Right now, 27-year-old Shane Beamer is known more as a coach’s son than a coach. But he’s looking forward to making a name for himself in Starkville. Beamer is the son of longtime Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer. This year will be Shane Beamer’s first year of coaching.
The Blacksburg, Va., native finished his graduate assistant coaching at Tennessee last year and, with the help of Woody McCorvey, was given the opportunity to coach at MSU.
“There’s a lot of similarities,” Beamer said about Starkville and Blacksburg. “They’re identical in a lot of ways-college town, same size-so it’s kinda what I’m used to.”
Beamer says that starting out his coaching career at Mississippi State is impressive.
“To start out at a school like Mississippi State and in a conference like the SEC is beyond anything that I’ve ever imagined.”
Beamer realizes that he has a massive task ahead of him since the Bulldog secondary was one of the worst in the nation last year.
“It’s going well so far,” Beamer said. “We want to keep it simple to a degree without being too simple. We want to be in the attack mode and were never going to sit back and let the offense attack us.”
Freddie Kitchens
Tight Ends
Coach Freddie Kitchens made his way to the Mississippi State campus from North Texas, where he helped guide the Mean Green to three-straight Sun Belt Conference Championships in his three seasons there.
Kitchens, a former high school all-American honoree and “Mr. Football” in his home state of Alabama, was starting quarterback for the Crimson Tide from 1995-97. Kitchens has a wife, the former Ginger Van Over.
“I’m from this part of the country,” Kitchens said about the decision to leave North Texas for MSU. “It just gets me and my family closer to home and it’s a real thrill to have the opportunity to come here with Coach Croom.”
Kitchens has a difficult job ahead of him in replacing senior Aaron Lumpkin from last years’ squad. Kitchens said that sophomore Blake Pettit and upcoming red shirt freshman Dezmond Sherrod are the players most likely to capture the tight end spot.
“There are great challenges ahead,” Kitchens said. “It’s something special to help build a program from the ground up.”
Ellis Johnson
Defensive Coordinator
Safeties
Ellis Johnson will look to improve a defense that ranked 116th out of 117 Division-1 football teams most of last year.
Johnson comes from his alma mater, The Citadel, where he has resided as head coach for three years.
Before that job, Johnson coached at Southern Mississippi and Alabama. Johnson said that the decision to come to Mississippi State from his home state of South Carolina involved two factors. One, he was concerned where football was going to be at The Citadel in years to come.
The other reason was the opportunity to work in the Southeastern Conference alongside Sylvester Croom.
Johnson talked about the look that the 2004 Dawg defense will have.
“We’re going to run a 4-3 defense,” Johnson said. “Primarily a zone principle coverage and we’ll mix quite a bit of blitz pressure in pass situations.”
The 53-year old Johnson said that he wants to confuse opposing offenses with different fronts and his biggest concern is depth.
“We’re a little bit thin in some positions,” Johnson said. “We have some personnel questions right now, but we found enough football players to build around.”
Johnson is married to the former Caroline Courie, and has one son, Eli, and a daughter, Sandra.
Amos Jones
Linebackers
Special Teams
Amos Jones has jumped around from high schools, to colleges and even to the Canadian Football League in his coaching career. Jones was a graduate of Alabama and was a running back for the Crimson Tide. Jones helped Bama win consecutive national titles and SEC crowns in 1978 and 1979.
He also said that coach Croom is one of the main reasons why he came to Starkville.
“I’ve been waiting on the opportunity to coach with Coach Croom for many years,” Jones said. “It’s almost like I’m back at home again, which I am.”
Jones inherits a linebacking core that was less than great last year.
“We’ve moved a couple guys around,” Jones said. “But I’ve been pleased with them.”
Jones has a wife, the former Stacey Merkle, two sons, Joshua and Nathan and a daughter, Samantha.