Dan Mullen: Mississippi State looking at all aspects of Simmons situation
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Recent charges against Jeffery Simmons have cast a dark cloud over the star of Mississippi State’s 2016 recruiting class.
Simmons, a five-star DE, faces charges for disturbing the peace by fighting and simple assault, both misdemeanors, after being caught on video allegedly striking a woman multiple times on Thursday evening.
Head coach Dan Mullen spoke with ESPN.com on Wednesday, saying the Bulldogs are looking at the incident from all angles in order to figure out what to do next.
“To me, like any situation you get into, you evaluate all the details and research every aspect of it,” Mullen said. “Our responsibility is to make sure we investigate every part of it.”
“I want to see some of the police reports. There’s so much more I want to evaluate within the situation before I make a decision about what’s best for our program.”
According to 247Sports’ composite rankings, Simmons was the highest-rated recruit in the state of Mississippi and No. 3 DE in the class. Simmons issued an apology to Sophia Taylor and her family on Facebook this past Saturday, the same day that WCBI News in Mississippi released footage of the incident.
As far as that video goes, Mullen — who said he’s had multiple phone conversations with Simmons about the situation — said nothing appropriate can be found in that five-second clip.
“But looking at the bigger picture is where we’re spending our time.”
Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.
