Belhaven softball coach Kevin Griffin, father of 19-year-old baseball prodigy Konnor Griffin, makes a return Crooked Letter appearance
Release Date: 05/14/2025
Mississippi football’s big opening weekend
Crooked Letter Sports
The 2025 football season is underway, as both Ole Miss and Mississippi State moved to 1-0 with opening game wins. Tyler talks high school upsets and Rick breaks down the Bulldogs’ win over Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. Plus, how many commercials is too many commercials?
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Finally, football is here, so let’s talk a little swimming
Crooked Letter Sports
Football starts this weekend, but it’s not every day we have a world champion in Mississippi. That’s what 17-year-old Rachel McAlpin of Brandon is after the world junior swimming championships in Romania last week. Of course, there’s also a football discussion, including the big State-Southern Miss game in Hattiesburg and what T.C. Taylor has in mind for an encore at Jackson State.
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Brandon High football coach Lance Pogue joins the podcast.
Crooked Letter Sports
Lance Pogue has coached Mississippi high school football teams to 246 victories and 71 defeats, an incredible winning rate of 78 percent. He has won five state championships and one national championship. Now, he takes on another challenge at Brandon High School.
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Here are the football games we most look forward to this fall.
Crooked Letter Sports
Hard to believe the Mississippi football season opens later this month. Not so hard to believe is that the Clevelands have looked ahead at the schedule and picked the five most interesting high school and college football games on the schedule. A hint: You don’t have to wait long for one some of the most intriguing games, both high school and college.
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The Dog Days of Summer in sports...
Crooked Letter Sports
We are in that period of the sports calendar when baseball is winding down and football talk is heating up. The Clevelands discuss Saints pre-season camp, the college football preseason rankings, the lowly Atlanta Braves, and much more.
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Former award-winning Clarion Ledger sports editor Rusty Hampton joins the podcast to discuss the glory years of sports writing in Mississippi
Crooked Letter Sports
Rusty Hampton was the sports editor at the Clarion Ledger for 11 years and worked there for 25 years in two different stints. He talks about some of the highlights, including Mississippi State’s amazing run to the 1996 Final Four. Also discussed: a salute to Ryne Sandberg, the SEC preseason football poll, and Konnor Griffin, the newly elevated top prospect in professional baseball.
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Derrick Nix and Dexter McCluster both go into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame this Saturday night. “Two of the biggest hearts I have ever covered,” Rick Cleveland says. Nix joins the podcast to talk about their relationship and a whole lot more.
Crooked Letter Sports
Derrick Nix played much of his college football career, hindered by a life-threatening kidney problem that sapped his strength and ended his playing career prematurely. Dexter McCluster spent much of his career with coaches and talent evaluators telling him he was too small. Eventually, Nix became McCluster’s coach at Ole Miss. Saturday night, they go into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame together.
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The Open goes to Northern Ireland
Crooked Letter Sports
Randy Watkins returns to the Crooked Letter pod to discuss The Open, where the weather will be wet, windy and coolish at Royal Portrush. Scottie Scheffler will be the betting favorite, but the Europeans, including Rory McIlroy, definitely will have a home-course advantage. The recent Major League Draft also will be discussed.
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The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame Class of ‘25
Crooked Letter Sports
The MSHOF will induct eight new members on Aug 2. Rick Cleveland has covered them all and he and son Tyler talk about what makes them all special.
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Soon to be Hall of Famer Mike Justice joins the podcast.
Crooked Letter Sports
Before he became a Hall of Fame football coach and won 297 games, Mike Justice played on Mississippi’s first integrated high school football team in Fulton. Justice talks about that and a lot more.
info_outlineGriffin talks about his Blazers team, which enters the NCAA softball championship tournament this week, and about his famous son who is killing it in his first season of professional baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization. The Clevelands also size up Mississippi teams entering the final week of college baseball season and also discuss next Monday’s Ferriss Trophy presentation.