Mississippi State AD John Cohen issues statement following Armed Forces Bowl brawl
The 2020 Armed Forces Bowl was won by Mississippi State, as the Bulldogs bested No. 24 Tulsa 28-26 on Thursday, but the most memorable sequence of the matchup occurred after the game.
If you missed it, moments after Mississippi State beat Tulsa, a huge brawl broke out involving both teams.
Mike Leach’s postgame comments didn’t come off very well and one of the key Bulldogs involved in the fight (receiver Malik Heath) posted a video bragging about his involvement, which included kicking a Tulsa player that was on the ground in the face before running off, immediately after the game.
Leading up to the start of the College Football Playoff, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit blasted Mississippi State and Mike Leach during the latest College GameDay pregame show.
Following all the attention Mississippi State has received following the brawl, MSU AD John Cohen has issued the following statement:
“While I’m proud of the representation of our football student-athletes in our previous 10 SEC games and applaud the effort of our team during the Armed Forces Bowl, I’m deeply concerned about the actions of some student-athletes. No matter what led to the situation, fighting is inexcusable and does not represent Mississippi State University’s core values. Our administration and Coach Leach are working diligently with the SEC office to review yesterday’s events and will address the situation in an appropriate matter.”
Tulsa started it, State defended themselves and eachother. The dude that got kicked was on his feet a moment earlier throwing punches. Excuse me for not feeling sorry for him.
The players will get punished appropriately, that’s part of why we hired Leach. Can we move on now or do people want to keep blowing this out of proportion?
It doesn’t matter who started it and it won’t go away until action is taken, or not taken.
That’s no excuse to kick someone in the face when they’re on the ground and then brag about it.
Come on aub, if you are going to comment on something like this at least get the facts straight. The kick Malik delivered was to the chest on the pads and contrary to many comments I have seen the guys helmet was not off at this time. It came off later after he got back to his feet and followed the fight down the sideline.
And before you say I’m just a homer, I have already said I think he should be gone. Just get the facts right, as the facts in this case are bad enough without ignorant embellishment.
Exactly. He kicked him on his shoulder pads. Was more of a tap than a kick.
Bu bu bu TULSA started it. Man you sound like a little girl. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the conference
Watched it live. Looked like it was the face in real time. It’s moot, in any case. Face, shoulder pads, or the arm hair, kicking someone is inexcusable, even if it’s just a “tap.”
Out of proportion? If it had been a couple of kids and not on national TV, I might agree with you. But this was a full blown “mostly peaceful” BLM march. Coach Leach has some house cleaning to do and from what I hear of him, he will.
Lmao dude, shut up. You can just say “hey I’m racist” instead of the Black Lives Matter comment.
Normally, I try never to call someone an idiot, because I don’t know where they’re coming from, but your case,it doesn’t matter. Idiot
We don’t have to say it… you make it quite apparent. But hey, I expect nothing less from the most uneducated and ignorant state in the UNION.
@Coozie Just curious. What about the BLM comment makes the poster racist? The fact that he connected violence on the field and violence in the movement on the basis of race alone? Seemed pretty innocuous to me, but yeah, I guess the comparison didn’t need to be made.
To phillypop, what does texas have to do with anything? (No. 49 is california)
Actually the NCAA AND SEC can take action in conjunction with or separately from the school. Not to mention law enforcement. This could be bad for several players.
To be clear. He does not kick him in the face. He kicks him in the shoulder. And, I know that doesn’t excuse the behavior.
You would think a writer would be sure of what he is saying rather than just go with “kicked him in the face” when he didn’t. It was in the shoulder. But, I’m not surprised with sds writers doing anything they can to get people to pay attention to them.
I watched it live & of course many replays now. It is an awful embarrassing look for MSU. Coach Leach seemed to disregard & downplay it in his comments. Made him look just like Mullen justifying UF brawl at half time with Missouri.
Leach seemed totally nonplussed. Not really a good look for the program.
I think he didn’t really see it and wasn’t prepared to comment on it until he reviewed it. His statement included, “It was dumb” and “I’m not sure where the dumb started.” Immediate and emotion led discipline isn’t necessary. They have time to get it right, and I think they will.
Well Leach definitely did not know details during his 1st on field interview, but he could not help seeing the scale of the fighting, given that he was on the field while it was happening. I am a Mike Leach fan, but thought he should have been much more demonstrative in his comments. Not opening an umbrella while standing in rain is dumb. Full scale on field athletic brawls go far beyond just being dumb.
I guess disregard and downplay means he didn’t eliminate players from their scholarships on the spot to please the cameras. Would be a shame to miss the chance for a strong PR statement just to carry out due diligence. Maybe calling it dumb and wanting to look into the cause of it is the same as justifying it. Making comments about players protecting each other is a ridiculous justification of this episode. Wait was that the other coach that did that?
Cohen wrote this with his shirt off so it will probably lead to a fight later.
It was certainly a bad look for the teams. It looks like the fight broke out on the MSU sideline. When someone comes looking for a fight there is a good chance they will find one.
You’re full of it AD. Your coach has already made his statements to the media and it just compounded the problem. But if you want guys like Heath to bring bangin to the field then proceed and deal with the consequences.
That reads as “We’re putting out this statement to curb any criticism of our program and pretend like we’re actually doing something about this, but you’ll all forget after a couple of weeks and nothing will come of this.”
You obviously don’t know our school President. Heads will roll.
I may be incorrect, but the first punch that I saw came from a Tulsa player. And if someone punches you, what is going to be your reaction? The brawl started when everyone was trying to defend their own. Where Mississippi State should be criticized is going on Twitter and bragging about how they kicked a**. Anyone on the team posting a social media comment bragging about it, should be disciplined.
Heath deserves deserves tp be criticized for kicking a player who is on the ground.*
Heath deserves to be ridiculed for then running and hiding like a kid caught stealing candy.
Heath deserves to be tossed off the team for his chest pounding on social media.
*Bratton deserves to be criticized for his sloppy reporting regarding where the kick was delivered.
Totally agree with you. Don’t forget that Leach has a law degree so his post-game interview was in line with his training to not answer until reviewing the facts. Bad look for MSU, esp the social media post.
Seriously, “Tulsa started it” is any sort of an excuse? How about don’t kick someone when they’re down and then run away and brag about it later. That sort of behavior can’t be justified.