Good morning! Get ready for possibly the best news you will hear all day. Today is July 11th which means you need to head to your nearest 7-Eleven gas station to pick up your FREE Slurpee. No need to thank us, we always got you covered!

What else did we throw into the Brew today?

🏈 Opponent Preview
🥎 USA! USA!
🐶 And much, much more!

🎥 HAIL STATE PLUS

Recalling Greatness. On this episode of Dear Ol State, courtesy of HailState+, hear from MSU men’s hoops legend Mario Austin as he walks us through some of his best days as a Bulldog as well as what he’s up to nowadays.

🎥  Dear Ol’ State: MSU Great Mario Austin

🎧 Listen on Spotify

🍎 Listen on Apple Podcasts

With HailState+ you get to watch wherever you want to watch. Web, mobile, and (later this year) all major OTT streaming apps like AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, Roku, and Android. We got it all.

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 USA! USA! MSU softball alum and All-American Dawg Mia Davidson-Smith is heading to Dublin, Ireland for the WBSC Softball World Cup. She is just the ninth Bulldog softball player to represent her country, and the seventh to represent Team USA.

The No. 1 ranked U.S. Women’s National team will open up group stage of the tournament later today against Chinese Taipei. Along with their first opponent, the U.S. sits in a group with Australia, Botswana, Great Britain, and Ireland.

🔼 Going Up On A Tuesday. Yesterday we celebrated Colton Ledbetter’s status as an official member of the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Today, we get to celebrate him in a whole new slew of ways.

📝 Billboards are going up around Starkville for our most recent draftee

📚 The Tampa Bay Rays’ first day draft grades are in, and let’s just say they passed with flying colors.

Additionally, we had another member of this season’s Diamond Dawgs join the ranks of major leaguer. Pitcher Cade Smith was drafted with the No. 192 pick by the New York Yankees in the sixth round of the MLB Draft. Smith becomes the 28th player to be drafted under the coaching of head honcho Chris Lemonis.

🔼 Strictly Academics. While we saw State tennis’ success on the court, they were putting in equally hard work in the classroom. Among both the men’s and women’s tennis programs were a combined 13 student-athletes that were named as ITA Scholar Athletes.

On the list of athletes who finished the year with a minimum 3.50 GPA is:

🎾 Emmanouela Antonaki

🎾 Gregor Ramskogler

🎾 Maddie Bemisderfer

🎾 Petar Jovanovic

🎾 Gia Cohen

🎾 Seth Richey

🎾 Maddie McKee

🎾 Patrick Lazo

🎾 Chloe Cirotte

🎾 Ewen Lumsden

🎾 Emily Surcey

🎾 Nemanja Malesevic

🎾 Maria Rizzolo

The women’s tennis team finished not only as the program with the highest cumulative GPA at MSU during the 2022-23 calendar year, but also tied the highest GPA in team history. The men were tabbed as one of the ITA DI Men’s All-Academic Teams.

🔼 Opponent Previews. After this weekend, we only have to wait eight more Saturdays until the Bulldogs return to the football field. Hallelujah!

For the next couple of weeks, the Bulldog Brew will take you through State’s opponents one by one to help get you ready to see what the boys will be dealing with this upcoming season. First up? Southeastern Louisiana!

Quick Hits

• The Lions are an FCS team out of the Southland Conference

• Finished with a record of 9-4 last season

• Went on five game win streak to end the 2022 regular season

• Lost in the Second Round of the FCS Playoffs to Samford

• Tallied over 35 points per game

• Played with a balanced attack in the passing (242 ypg) and run (198 ypg) game

SLU Players to Watch

🏈 QB Eli Rogers: Threw just one interception all last season, and is back in the starting role as a true sophomore.

🏈 WR Maurice Massey: the Lions’ best returning receiver; scored four touchdowns on 525 receiving yards gained.

🏈 RB Rodeo Graham Jr.: besides the cool name, he is the only returning running back who played meaningful minutes last season.

🏈 LB Jack Henderson: led the Lions last year in solo (55) and total tackles (90); tied for the team-lead in tackles for loss (7).

What Does This All Mean?

Last season, the Bulldogs faced a singular FCS opponent in East Tennessee State and (to put it mildly) they handled their business, beating them 56-7 in Starkville.

SLU played two opponents from the FBS division last year and was outscored by a combined 70-16 in those two games.

The stadium will be rocking at Davis Wade with the return of college football for State fans, and while Southeastern Louisiana may have seen more success than ETSU in the FCS last year, they drew one heck of a tough draw with their season opener. It should be a fun one.

🤔 BULLDOG TRIVIA

Easy Dubs. We mentioned in our 2023 opponent preview that last season, the Bulldogs went 1-0 against teams from the FCS division of football.

Our question today — do you remember what the final score was from the game against ETSU?

Think you know the answer? Scroll on down to the bottom to find out.

📬 STICK WITH US

Did someone send you the Bulldog Brew? Well, the first thing you should do is thank them. The next thing you should do is subscribe here and get it in your inbox every weekday morning just in time for your first cup of coffee!

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: 56-7!

It was a convincing win to say the least. Quarterback Will Rogers threw for 301 yards and five touchdowns while the defense did their part by picking off the opposition thrice including an Emmanuel Forbes 82 yard pick-six. Stay patient, those glorious Saturdays are coming back soon.

Have a great Tuesday, y'all.