fbpx
Connect with us

Mississippi Today

Jim Carmody, a huge part of state’s football history, is dead at age 89

Published

on

Jim Carmody, a huge part of state's football history, is dead at age 89

Jim Carmody, a renowned defensive football mastermind and a prominent figure in the football histories of Southern Miss, and Mississippi State, died Wednesday after a brief illness. Carmody, a Madison resident, was 89.

“Big Nasty” was Carmody's nickname given to him by his defensive players at Southern Miss, but the moniker had more to do with the way his defenses played. They swarmed to the football and hit hard, whether he was coaching at State, Ole Miss or Southern Miss — or in the NFL. At Southern Miss, where he was first the defensive coordinator (1978-1980) and then the head coach (1982-87), his defenses were called “The Nasty Bunch” — a nickname that endures to this day.

Rick Cleveland

Carmody served two different stints at all three of the state's largest universities — and he was part of monumental victories at each. Perhaps the most memorable of all was in October of 1982 when he was the head coach of a Southern Miss team that defeated Alabama and the legendary Bear Bryant 38-29 at Tuscaloosa, thus ending Bryant's 59-game home winning streak. It was the first time a visiting team had won at Alabama in 19 seasons.

Reggie Collier was the star quarterback of that USM team. “Coach Carmody demanded a lot of you, expected a lot out of you,” Collier said Thursday afternoon, shortly after learning of Carmody's death. “He was very up front with his players. You knew where you stood. You wanted to do anything you could to please him. I loved the man. I loved playing for him.”

Advertisement

Southern Miss had winning seasons in five of Carmody's six years as head coach, playing most of the more difficult games on the road. He was also part of program-defining victories at Ole Miss and State. A sampling follows:

  • In 1977, when he was the defensive coordinator at Ole Miss, the Rebels knocked off eventual national champion Notre Dame 20-13 at Mississippi Memorial Stadium. Carmody was the architect of a defensive game plan that stymied the heavily favored Fighting Irish in one of the signature football victories in Ole Miss history.
  • In 1989, two years after leaving Southern Miss, Carmody was the coordinator of a Mississippi State team that knocked off nationally ranked Southern Miss and Brett Favre 26-23 before a standing room only crowd at Hattiesburg. Southern Miss had defeated Florida State the week before and had defeated Mississippi State eight consecutive times. Said Rockey Felker, the head coach of that State team, “We were the tougher team that night in Hattiesburg and it was because of Jim Carmody. He taught toughness. He instilled toughness.” While Carmody was at Southern Miss, the Golden Eagles won eight of 10 games against State. When Carmody moved to State, the Bulldogs were 2-0 against USM.
  • In 1992, still later in his career, Carmody came back to haunt State, this time at Ole Miss. The Rebels won that Egg Bowl 17-10 when Carmody's defensive front held State out of the end zone on three consecutive goal line stands, 11 plays, all from inside the 10-yard-line. “That was unbelievable, really,” Carmody once told me. “I have never seen anything quite like that sequence before then or since.”

Carmody was part of Mississippi history in other ways. In 1987, Carmody's USM team was the first historically white to play against one of state's historically black universities. Southern Miss defeated W.C. Gorden-coached State 17-7 before an overflow crowd in Hattiesburg. Carmody had pushed for the game to be played and afterward had nothing but praise for the JSU Tigers, whom he said, “were well-coached and talented and could beat a lot of the better teams on our schedule.”

Early in his career, Carmody coached on Paul Davis's staff at Mississippi State (1964-66) and helped the Bulldogs to their first victory over a John Vaught-coached Ole Miss team 20-17 at Oxford in 1964, “Man, that was a big deal back then,” Carmody once told me. “It was on national TV and Coach Vaught had just dominated State for years and years. I remember they let classes out at State the Monday.”

As it happens, Paul Davis was on Bear Bryant's last staff at Alabama. In the photo that accompanies this column, you can see Steve Carmody shaking hands with Davis in the background, while Jim Carmody and Bear Bryant shake hands in the foreground.

Jim Carmody coached the late, great Ben Williams both at Ole Miss and then with the Buffalo Bills of the NFL. “Jim came to Ole Miss in my junior year (1974) and we got better real fast,” Williams once told me. “He knew how to motivate and he knew so much about technique. He made me a better player.”

Advertisement

Years later, when Williams was playing for the Bills, the team had an opening for a defensive coach. Williams said he told Buffalo head coach Chuck Knox, “You hire Jim Carmody and we will win our division next season.”

Knox hired Carmody away from Southern Miss. And the Bills led the league in defense and sacks and won their division. Ben Williams made All-Pro.

Jackson lawyer Steve Carmody (the oldest of Jim and Noonie Carmody's four sons) was a fine center on the Southern Miss team that knocked off Bear Bryant and Alabama.

“He was tough, but fair. He treated me the way he treated all his players,” Steve Carmody once said of his father. “It was really neat to see your dad at work every day. Not everybody gets a to do that. I thought he was so successful for two reasons. One, he was so smart. And, two, he always was so thoroughly prepared. Nobody was going to out-work my dad.”

Advertisement

Jim Carmody was once asked about his working two different times at the three Mississippi universities, surely something nobody else has ever done. Carmody laughed before answering, “I guess that says that I didn't burn any bridges.”

•••

A memorial service for Jim Carmody will be held Jan. 12 at 3 p.m. at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and in Jackson. In lieu of flowers, the requests donations be made to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame or the Jim Carmody Scholarship Fund at Southern Miss.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Advertisement

Mississippi Today

Senate committee passes Medicaid ‘expansion’ bill that leaves hundreds of millions in federal dollars on table

Published

on

mississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth and Taylor Vance – 2024-03-27 16:39:21

The only surviving Medicaid expansion bill in the passed the Senate Medicaid Committee Wednesday and is headed to the full Senate for a vote. 

But the proposal, as it passed the Senate committee, is not considered traditional “expansion” under the Affordable Care Act, and therefore would not qualify for the enhanced federal funding the to newly-expanded states. It would leave the cost of the expanded coverage up to the .

The Senate committee passed the House Republican bill with a strike-all, meaning it replaced the bill's original language with its own plan, which Medicaid Committee Chairman Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, refers to as “expansion light.”

Advertisement

Blackwell estimated about 80,000 people would be eligible under this version of expansion, and half of that would apply. The House plan was expected to cover more than 200,000 people.

When a draft of the Senate's bill was leaked on March 20, Blackwell stressed to Mississippi Today that he and Senate leaders were still tweaking parts of the legislation. However, the legislation that passed the committee is essentially the same as what was outlined in the leaked draft. 

The Senate proposal would:

  • Cover working up to 99% of the federal poverty level. For an individual, that would be an annual income up to $15,060. For a family of four, that would be an annual income up to $31,200.
  • Not cover those making between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty threshold — not even through a private-care option. A plan that doesn't cover people making up to 138% is not considered “expansion” under the Affordable Care Act, meaning Mississippi wouldn't qualify for the 90% federal match rate that the Affordable Care Act grants to new expansion states, nor the additional, two-year 5% increase in match rate the federal provides to newly-expanded states under pandemic relief spending passed by Congress. Instead, as was the case with Georgia, Mississippi would only get its regular federal Medicaid rate of about 77%.
  • Leave the insurance exchange, the online marketplace that offers federally subsidized plans to people who make between 100% and 138% of the federal poverty level, intact. The Senate plan, unlike Arkansas' Medicaid expansion, would not provide extra subsidies from the state's federal Medicaid money available from the ACA.
  • Include a work requirement mandating at least 120 hours of employment a month in a position for which health insurance is not paid for by the employer. That's more stringent than Georgia's plan, which mandates 80 hours a month. There are several exemptions, such as for full-time students or parents who are the primary caregiver of a child under six years old.
  • Go into effect 30 days after the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approves a waiver necessary for the work requirement. That's unlikely to happen under the Biden administration, which has rescinded work requirements previously approved for other states during the Trump administration and has not approved new ones. If the federal government denies the waiver, Mississippi would have to wait until a new administration took office, or sue the Biden administration. Georgia remains in litigation with the federal government over the work requirement issue, and has suffered low enrollment and missed out on millions in federal funds by not fully expanding coverage.
  • Require anyone who voluntarily dropped private insurance to wait 12 months before applying for Medicaid coverage.

Senate Democrats voiced several concerns about the administrative burden of the work requirement and the 120 hour a month minimum, which is even stricter than Georgia's plan – currently the strictest expansion plan in the country. 

Sen. David Blount, D-

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, asked Blackwell about the enhanced match from the federal government.

“So the federal government paying our match for two years and 90% after the two years – we would not qualify for that?” Blount asked.

Advertisement

Blackwell said that is correct, and they would leave that money on the table.

Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, introduced two amendments: one to decrease the recertification requirements from four times a year to twice a year, and the other to reduce the work requirement hours from 120 hours a month to 80 hours a month. 

Both amendments were voted down by Republicans, who make up a majority of the committee's membership. Despite their amendments getting shot down, the Democrats still voted in favor of the bill. Only three Republican senators in the committee voted against the plan. 

When asked about the administrative burden of enforcing the work requirement, Blackwell said he is not worried and believes the Division of Medicaid has enough employees for its implementation. 

Advertisement

But Georgia, the only state currently with a work requirement in its expansion plan, has spent $26 million taxpayer dollars to ensure a mere 3,500 people to date. More than 90% of that has gone to administrative and consulting costs. 

The bill is expected to be taken to a floor vote as early as Thursday, with a deadline of April 10. 

Since the Senate plan is drastically different than the House proposal – which is a mostly-traditional expansion plan insuring those who make up to 138% of the federal poverty level and would go into effect whether or not the federal government approves a work requirement waiver – a final version will likely be hammered out later in the in a conference committee.

Any final plan would realistically need a two-thirds majority from both chambers to show it has the potential to override a potential veto from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who has privately told lawmakers he plans to veto any Medicaid expansion bill.

Advertisement

Reeves on Tuesday night hosted around 20 state senators at the Governor's Mansion in downtown Jackson where he, again, reiterated his opposition to any form of Medicaid expansion, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. 

At the Tuesday night event, Reeves said he would veto the Senate's expansion plan if it reached his desk, though he reportedly said he approved the Senate's work requirement provisions. 

Shortly after the committee passed the expansion legislation, Reeves posted on social that the Senate plan is “still bad policy” and he will oppose it.

“And so I will continue to do what I told the voters I would do – fight Obamacare Medicaid Expansion with every ounce of my being,” Reeves said.  

Advertisement

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

Michael Guidry named Mississippi Today managing editor

Published

on

is pleased to announce Michael Guidry as managing editor.

Guidry, who joined the Mississippi Today staff in February 2024, manages the newsroom's day-to-day and plans broader editorial strategy.

He previously served as managing editor at Mississippi Public Broadcasting, where he developed skills in audio storytelling as a producer, writer and editor.

“Michael is a perfect fit for what we're building at Mississippi Today,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief. “He's a proven newsroom leader, and he knows Mississippi. He also brings us a lot of digital and audio skills that can expect to see more of pretty quickly.”

A native of Destrehan, , Guidry moved to Mississippi to attend Millsaps College, where he earned a dual Bachelor of Arts in History and Theatre. After graduating, he worked as a public school teacher for more than a decade.

Advertisement
Michael Guidry

While at MPB, Guidry helped a team that received recognitions from the Radio Television Digital Association, the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters and the Public Media Journalists Association.

MPB's special feature on Memorial Day – which he co-produced and co-narrated – received the 2023 Region 9 Edward R Murrow Award for Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Guidry continues to host MPB's weekly politics show @Issue.

“As someone who spent years in a adjacent to Mississippi Today, it became evident the newsroom was quickly becoming a leader in local, nonprofit news,” Guidry said. “I could not be more to join a publication dedicated to elevating the voices of while holding power to account.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

Geoff Pender named Mississippi Today politics editor

Published

on

Mississippi is pleased to announce Geoff Pender as Politics and Editor.

Pender, who first joined the staff as senior political reporter in May 2020, will oversee the day-to-day reporting of Mississippi Today's politics team.

He brings more than 30 years of experience covering Mississippi politics to the new role.

“If you follow Mississippi politics, you know Geoff Pender,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief. “He's been a vital member of our politics team since 2020, and we couldn't be more for him to now lead it. He's been a mentor to so many of our reporters, and he's led several impactful investigations for us. Readers can expect more of that from him in this new job— and if you're wondering, you'll also continue to see plenty of his analysis of the 's biggest stories.”

Geoff Pender

Before joining Mississippi Today, Pender was political and investigative editor at the Clarion Ledger, where he also penned a popular political column. He previously served as an investigative reporter and political editor at the Sun Herald, where he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Hurricane coverage.

A native of Florence, Pender is a journalism graduate of the of Southern Mississippi and has received numerous awards throughout his career for reporting, columns and of information efforts.

Advertisement

“I truly appreciate this and appreciate being able to continue working with the great team of journalists at Mississippi Today providing in-depth coverage at such a crucial time for the state,” Pender said.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=344148

Continue Reading

News from the South

Trending