After a much needed hiatus of avoiding all things sports I feel better. After 8 months of football and basketball games you just get tired.

Over the next couple of months I’m going to interview former Tigers for my blog. The first “A Six Pack with…” interview is with Rusty Clayton. Clayton spent four seasons as the Tigers long snapper. I decided on interviewing Rusty first because of his academic accomplishments more than his football accomplishments. Rusty is going to graduate with his Masters of Arts in Criminal Justice tomorrow morning at FedEx Forum. This after already getting his BA in both history and psychology. He’s been honored on multiple occasions:

–2002 Rex Dockery Scholarship winner
–2006 All-CUSA (first time a long snapper was ever voted on)
–2006 ARA Sportsmanship Award
–3-time CoSIDA Academic All-District IV honoree (first-team in 2004 & 2006; second-team in 2005)
–2006 C-USA All-Academic team

Rusty and his mother, Sandi, still attend all the Tigers football games. He’s hoping moving into the work force won’t prevent this from continuing. During a game last year Rusty could be seen sporting a kilt and his “Braveheart” Tigers face paint. And even his car shows his spirit as his Mississippi license plate is his number 98.

Here’s the six questions with Rusty Clayton.
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Now that Derrick Rose has announced he’s going into the NBA draft we wait for CDR to announce his intentions. He’s got 12 days to make this decision and I hope he reads this and makes what I believe is the right one. I think his decision was affected by Cal’s extension being signed, sealed and delivered. But if he hasn’t made up his mind, I hope this influences him.
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It’s being reported that Derrick Rose will declare for the NBA draft. I can’t say I blame him since he’ll be the 1st or 2nd pick.

As painful as it was last Monday night for Tigers fans we should realize that we just watched the Tigers have a very, very special season. I don’t want to sound too obvious but if you play in the last game of the season then you had a great year. In the end, seeing my new granddaughter come to life last Friday and spending a couple of days playing on the floor with my 4-year-old grandson made me put things in perspective.
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I’ve been in sports TV exile over the past 2.5 days. I have avoided ESPN, FSN, read any websites or anything else that would be considered sports. I just couldn’t take it. Yes, I know that’s probably a bit overboard but, as Cal would say, “it is what it is.” You saw the game I don’t need to talk about it. It speaks for itself.
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5 down, 1 to go.

Anyone who doubts this team now is just stupid. This team has justified themselves as one of the elite teams in college basketball. I’d like to say it doesn’t matter if they win tomorrow night or not. The truth is the Tigers must do win this or it goes down as just another season in most people’s eyes. We Tigers fans will always remember this team. When we’re old and gray we’ll tell our grandchildren about this team and season. But for a fan in another part of the country to remember this team, they have to be standing alone on the floor for “One Shining Moment.”
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I have to address the Andre Allen suspension first although I’m not exactly crazy about it. I think this will have little to NO effect on this team. They have what Tommy West says all the time, “You’re with us or you’re against us.” They will be fine. You’ll see Willie Kemp (you know the starting PG from 2006-07) and Doneal Mack more. When you see Mack you’ll probably see Antonio Anderson play the point some.
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“So now we’ll see what the next knock is.” That’s what CDR said yesterday after the game. From where I’m sitting that may be the mantra for this Tigers team. Keep it up national media because we want you to “knock” the Tigers to two more wins. Andre Allen said something a while back that still sticks out in my mind, “we’ll just have to kill everybody” when asked about the Tigers being respected. I think those two statements by those kids (and they are kids) tells me that no matter what the media may say this week the Tigers won’t feel fully vindicated until next Monday night.
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