Mississippi State practiced Tuesday and selected assistant coaches and players were made available to the media via Zoom after that workout. Following is the transcript with nickelbacks safety coach Tony Hughes:
Question: What’s it been like being on this staff?
Hughes: I think the culture that Coach Leach and his staff has brought in here is one of work ethic. It is one that identifies with the culture of Mississippi State from the past teams. He brings in confidence, hard work, and the toughness, and the grind and the love and the passion for playing football. Practices are very physical and very tough, and very organized. So, he’s getting the best out of the players.
Question: Do you see the same thing from the assistants?
Hughes: No question. Coach Leach’s philosophy is the reason he’s been a big winner at other schools. It’s because of the way he runs his program and the assistant coaches, the guys that came with him, are all on one page. They know what he wants, the way he wants it, and how he wants it. So, it’s been a smooth transition learning his expectations and watching us practice and the team play, you can see his stamp the way his teams have played at the other schools he’s been at.
Question: What have you seen so far from Marcus Murphy?
Hughes: A lot of growth and development. You know, Marcus is a special young man. Everybody knows that he’s got a circumstance in his personal life, but for him to come back day after day, he’s one of the most dependable guys on the team. He does a great job in the weight room, he does a great job in the meeting room, he does a great job on the field. He plays extremely hard and he has a tremendous up-side. Like you said, he’s still a young player. Even though this is his third year, he hasn’t played an awful lot of football, so now, our expectations are very high for him going into this season.
Question: How is your depth chart shaking out?
Hughes: Well, we’re still repping a lot of kids. The way Coach Leach runs the practices, everybody has the opportunity to show what they can do. With us not having a spring training, it’s kind of a different circumstance. We had so many days before school started, and then school started, and you’re still three to four weeks out. There’s still a lot of football, a lot of competition among our group. We’re just trying to find the right players. It’s still a process where kids are learning what to do. It’s a new system, new terminology. So, everybody has a chance to jump in there and see what they can do.
Question: Do you feel like you have versatile guys back there?
Hughes: Well, you’ve got a guy like Fred Peters that’s played a lot of football, a junior college transfer, who really played well toward the end of the season. And you’ve got Marcus Murphy. (That’s) two guys that have been around and played a lot of football. Then, you’ve got Martin Emerson that’s a returning starter and is a really good player. So, athletically, those three guys are SEC players. On top of that, you’ve got Shawn Preston, he’s out there fighting. He got into some games last year, and Landon Guidry is a guy we have our eye on. Between the three safety positions, there’s probably six guys that are fighting for playing time.
Question: How has Marcus handled his situation?
Hughes: There is no question, the things he’s been through in his personal life, it is nothing but the grace of God that he is doing what he is doing, playing division I football, being a man of the house, the man of his family, coming to work everyday, coming to practice, class everyday. He is still a model student, makes great grades off the field, and he doesn’t let his off-the-field problems, issues, distract him on the field. The main thing we try to do is encourage him, keep him focused, and let him know that as a coaching staff we love him, we support him, and we’ve got his back on any issue that may be going on in his life. Once a kid knows that you love him, they respond to you, and I can’t say anything but great things about the way he’s responded.
Question: What do you think about starting practice with a bull-in-the-ring?
Hughes: It’s a toughness drill, and coach Leach’s approach is about toughness. Mississippi State’s tradition and history is about toughness. That’s our edge, makes us different. Starting that out in front of the team – you get a guy from offense and a guy from defense – and they go against each other in a one-on-one. It gets everybody’s juices flowing and everybody gets excited about it. It’s an approach where there’s nowhere to hide. You may be in a game and you may be in a situation one-on-one against a great player in the Southeastern Conference, and all the eyes are on you. You’ve got to make a play. That’s the reason that you do it, so that everybody can see what you do in front of the team. The kids respond to it, they enjoy the challenge. That makes us a better football team each and every day Coach Leach does that.
Question: Do you have your own name for it?
Hughes: It’s one-on-one. Some people call it the circle drill, because the team circles up. Coach will call out one guy from offense and one guy from defense; the offensive guys cheer for the offensive guy, and the defensive guys cheer for the defensive guy. The guy that wins, everybody jumps up and down and celebrates. It’s like scoring a touchdown or making a big stop in the ball game.
Question: What have you seen from the two young guys in camp?
Hughes: Janari Dean is a very athletic kid. He has great movement skills. Mostly, he was an offensive player in high school, so he’s having to make the adjustment to a defensive player. There is no doubt in my mind that with his work ethic, tenacity and toughness, he’s going to be an outstanding player here, beside being a great young man and a great student. J.P. (Purvis), it’s a miracle that he’s out there practicing with us and going full speed. Missing spring ball, not having spring ball with those kids definitely had setbacks, but at the same time, we’ve got to continue moving forward and prepare for the season and both of those guys are part of our plans back there.
Question: You have a unique perspective as a former member of the Marine Corps and a black coach in college football, what was it like last week to see your guys use their voices?
Hughes: It is a defining time in our country. Much different than I have ever seen in my adult lifetime. As a coach, you try to be an example to the African-American kids. I’m a guy who was born and raised in a small town in Mississippi. I know what it’s like to grow up in poverty. I know what it’s like to grow up without running water, outdoor toilets. I didn’t go to an integrated school until the seventh grade in the state of Mississippi. I think I have a lot of experiences I can share with our players, to say we understand your struggle, we understand the hardships, we understand where you come from. A lot of these kids come from small towns in Mississippi where they have experienced the same things I did as a young man growing up. I used my background and I used the hard times that I suffered as a foundation to take me to places I never would have imagined…assistant coach at Mississippi State…all three major universities in my home state. Just try to be an inspiration to them, that this can be a starting point to something great, not just for the state of Mississippi, but something great in your life. And you can be a difference maker for a lot of people being a young African-American that grows up in this state.
Question: What does all that look like to you now ?
Hughes: They’re exercising their right to protest, and peacefully want to be heard how they actually feel about what’s going on in our world, our society. And they have that right to do that. It’s not anything new in our country. In the 1960s, there were protests by college students that brought about change. The things they want to see changed, I trying to show them the correct protocol and how to go about seeing those things changed in their lifetime, standing up for the things they believe are right in our society.
Question: Have you ever felt oppression or racism as a black coach?
Hughes: When I decided to become a coach, most every job or school I worked at, I was the only African-American coach in the whole school. I never looked at it as that, I looked at it as an African-American that had achieved an opportunity to be a coach in my home state, in the state of Mississippi, that could be an inspiration and an example, a role model, to the other young African-Americans in that school. I was the only one there. Persistence and work ethic, dependability and accountability, doing things the right way all the time. Not being perfect, by no stretch of the imagination, but letting them see that they can achieve greatness, or whatever they want to achieve. A lot of those young men went on to be successful, and I can’t count how many of them are coaches now, because they might have seen me do something in the right way. That makes me proud to see those young men develop their characteristics as a human beings, not as black, not as white, but as good men, good people, that raise their family the right way. I’ve experienced racism, segregation. Growing up in segregated Mississippi, I remember separate rest rooms, riding in the back of the bus, having to go to the restaurant and not being able to go in the front door, the doctor’s office in the back, and all of those things. But I didn’t let that stop me from where I wanted to be and where I wanted to go, and what I wanted to accomplish in my life. The thing I’m most proud of is the young men who have grown up in this state and have faced similar tasks as I have are now successful coaches. They’re leaders, some are head coaches, but they’re leaders of young men continuing to do the same thing, establishing the legacy.
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