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Bulldog football gets 4 new players

Four players have joined Mississippi State's football team and have enrolled in classes in time for the spring semester and spring practice, the school confirmed today in a news release.

The group includes one traditional junior college signee, 6-foot-6, 290-pound Copiah-Lincoln offensive lineman Phillip Freeman. He was among the 25 best juco recruits in the state as selected by The Clarion-Ledger.

The group includes two players who originally signed with State in its 2007 recruiting class: O'Neal Wilder, a 6-5, 190-pound wide receiver from Carthage and Mike Hunt, a 6-2, 210-pound defensive end from Meadville.

The quartet also includes a recent high school graduate. Nelson Hurst, a 6-4, 240-pound tight end from Plainfield, Ind., graduated high school a semester early and has enrolled in classes at MSU.

The team also confirmed that wide receiver Brandon McRae, who transferred to State two years ago from Morehead (Ky.) State, has been placed on scholarship.

Nintendo DS UK | Jewelry Boxes | Wrestling | Goggles State's spring practice begins Feb. 26.

Tennis: Murray ready to begin assault on the top spot

ANDY MURRAY will stake his claim to enter the elite of world tennis in Melbourne over the next fortnight with his confidence soaring as surely as his world ranking.

The fact he is officially the ninth best player in the world right now was one cause for British optimism as he completed his preparations for the Australian Open which begins on Monday.

Listen to those who know him best and you get a clearer indication of why 2008 could be the year of the Scot.

His mother and tennis mentor Judy puts the improvement which saw him kick off the year with victory in the Qatar Open down to technical changes made by his coaching team following the parting of the ways with Brad Gilbert.

Greg Rusedski, Britain's former No 1, believes Murray currently is the third best player in the world and possesses the talent to become the No 1 while Davis Cup captain John Lloyd is perhaps best placed to offer an objective opinion.

Lloyd, who is the last Briton to reach the final of the Australian Open, losing to Vitas Gerulaitis in five sets in 1977, said, "I make him one of the five players with the best chance of winning the Australian Open, placing him in the mix with Andy Roddick, behind Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

"Andy is going to be a threat at all the Grand Slam tournaments this year."

Considering Federer's preparations have been disrupted by a stomach virus and Nadal was thrashed by Youzhny in Chennai last weekend it is not too fanciful to ponder the prospect of Britain at last soon being able to herald its first men's singles Grand Slam title winner since Fred Perry back in 1936.

The wrist injury which prevented Murray from taking part in the French Open and Wimbledon last year and was still affecting him at the US Open in September, has fully healed.

His fitness - he trained in the heat of Florida for a month in December - has never been sharper.

His boldness in breaking away from Gilbert, who took him into the top 10 but with whom his personality never gelled, has given him a renewed freshness and drive to deliver his ambitions on his own terms.

His form in the Kooyong Classic, where he had a heavy defeat to Marat Safin earlier in the week, should be ignored. It is an exhibition tournament to warm up for Melbourne and shake out the jetlag rather than a competitive environment.

Passion for boxing

To Adam Pollack, boxing is much more than a hobby. Even calling it a passion is putting it lightly.

Every spare moment of the Iowa City lawyer's time is pretty much taken up by the sport. He studies it, coaches it and even writes about it.

"I have always had an appreciation for the skill," said Pollack, 35. "A lot of people don't really understand boxing. They just think it is two guys beating the hell out of each other. "I understand the skill. The beauty of it."

In an attempt to educate people, Pollack has published three books on heavyweight champions of the gloved era. His latest, "In the Ring with Bob Fitzsimmons," hit stores Dec. 1, 2007. Pollack refers to Fitzsimmons as "boxing's first pound-for-pound great."

Though weighing in at only 158 pounds, Fitzsimmons, who began professionally boxing in the 1880s, could knock out heavyweights.

He won the world middleweight title and became the world heavyweight champion and later light heavyweight champion.

Pollack's other two titles are "John L. Sullivan: The Career of the First Gloved Heavyweight Champion" (2006) and "In the Ring with James J. Corbett" (2007).

"My books are trying to fill a void of what I thought was missing in boxing history," Pollack said.

"A lot of times there's a mixture of reports on the same fight and nobody really knows what happened. I go back to the original reports to try to solve the mysteries."

Iowa City boxer Emily Klinefelter has read all of Pollack's books.

She said she has yet to see any other boxing book give such detailed reports.

"He's done the research that will give you the best possible view of that era," Klinefelter said. "They are excellent resources."

She's not the only one to think so.

Michael Hunnicutt of the International Boxing Research Organization wrote: "Mr. Pollack has continued to set the standard that, at least this writer wishes, could be done for all important boxers. He is a wonder."

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