Mississippi State will look into the possibility that former head coach Jackie Sherrill’s involvement in a spring practice here earlier today constituted an NCAA violation, a school spokesman said.



Sherrill, the MSU head coach from 1991 to 2003, appeared to interact and work with placekickers and punters for about 10 minutes in the early part of practice. Moments later, he was with the placekicking unit during full team drills, and walked into the middle of the line at one instance to appear to speak with a player.



“Obviously, NCAA compliance is one of our department's five defining principles,” MSU spokesman Joe Galbraith said. “And as such, we'll review today's events and respond appropriately.”



Sherrill was with coach Dan Mullen on both instances. Mullen said he invited him to today's practice, but denied that Sherrill actively participated in coaching players, which would seem to violate the NCAA's rules that regulate the number of coaches allowed on the field at a given time.



"No, because he was coaching me," Mullen said. "I don't think there's any limitation of coaches that can coach your coaches."



Said Sherrill: "I wasn't coaching them. I was trying to coach the coaches how to coach them."



NCAA bylaw 11.7.2 limits schools to one head coach, nine assistants and two graduate assistants. Bylaw 11.7.1.1.1.4 allows for the use of consultants to train the staff, but that consultant can't interact with players unless he or she is counted against the coaching limit.



If State finds that it has broken a rule, it will be submitted to the NCAA as a secondary violation, associate athletic director for compliance Bracky Brett said.



Sherrill spoke to the team before practice, which started around 1:45 p.m. Afterward, he sat in a golf cart with director of player personnel and high school relations Rockey Felker, another former MSU head coach, and left practice after it was halfway finished.



Sherrill was 75-75-2 in 13 seasons at Mississippi State. Under Sherrill, State won a Southeastern Conference division title and played in the SEC Championship Game, and also played in six bowl games. But State was twice placed on NCAA probation for violations that occurred while Sherrill was the coach.


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Well............................................. I think this will blow over. If the NCAA comes out and says we did nothing wrong I'm all for Sherrill sticking around.

Us MSU faithful like him, but just about every other person hates him. People hated him for a reason. He recruited well (illegally maybe?) and won games against teams who won a lot more games than we did.

He's a loon. Maybe a Satan worshiper... in my eyes a good coach.

Get Sherill out of there and stop making it tough on Bracky. Met him a couple times. He's a good guy.

He really is. I think Sherill was there actually talking to the coaches, not the players.. that's what someone at practice told me anyway. Regardless it's best that he doesn't talk to anyone at practice.. I'm not completely opposed to having him involved with the program, though.. i.e. fund raising, pregame speeches, etc

im all for JWS being around the program....he is kind of a loon but knows football very very well....i honestly think if he hadnt lost the fire, he would have decided whenhe wanted to leave state despite the sanctions...i hope this blows over but i wouldnt be suprised if the ncaa screwed us just to be a jackazz...

I will personally take a trip the NCAA headquarters and fight whoever the receptionist is if that happens. Why do they have to pick on us when USC does all sorts of illegal things?

Really?... I mean... come on. The NCAA follows Jackie around.

But like Benny said, maybe he just needs to give speeches and stuff. I'd like to see him do something like Fulmer is doing at Tennessee. Maybe he can get Rocky's job when Rocky retires.

Problems arising from this would have to the most chicken-sheet crap I've seen come down the pike in a while. The NCAA needs to get a grip before they go pulling the trigger on this horse hockey.