Good luck!
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040612/SPORTS030102/406120370/1025
June 12, 2004
*Sherrill gets his day before infractions committee today*
*By Todd Kelly* [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
INDIANAPOLIS — Jackie Sherrill and his attorney are scheduled to meet face to face today with two NCAA staff members who led the investigation of Mississippi State's football program.
Don't expect much in the way of friendly banter.
"I don't think there's any secret we don't agree," said Wayne Ferrell Jr. of Jackson, who is representing Sherrill. "There isn't one physical piece of hard evidence against Mississippi State. They spent 2 1/2 years (in Mississippi) and half a million dollars with (Rich) Johanningmeier going after Jackie Sherrill."
With a few minor exceptions, Ferrell said, "all they've got is disputed hearsay testimony."
Ferrell's words echoed Sherill's statements to the Associated Press last December after he was named in three of the 13 allegations that led the NCAA enforcement staff to accuse MSU's former head coach of unethical conduct. Sherrill, who retired last November after 13 seasons in Starkville, disputed the allegations.
"I think there is a group of people that went after Mississippi State," said Sherrill, who was forced out at Texas A&M in 1988 after the school's football program received harsh sanctions from the NCAA. "The investigator (Johanningmeier) didn't want to know the truth when he was given information. I did not talk to the guy because I felt that he was not truthful."
Johnanningmeier and his boss on the enforcement staff, Mark Jones, spent several months in 2002 and '03 conducting interviews In Mississippi that led to MSU's infractions case — the football program's second in eight years.
Although some have suggested the Committee on Infractions, which will hear today's case, is less inclined to be in lockstep with the enforcement staff than in previous years, Ferrell remains skeptical.
"I hope they're willing to listen, but who knows?" Ferrell said. "I don't think it's difficult to present our side of the case at all. It's whether we get people (on the infractions committee) who are open-minded and willing to listen to both sides of the story. If they do, there's no case. But we've already presented that to Rich Johanningmeier and Mark Jones, and they refused to listen."
Two of Sherrill's former assistants, Glenn Davis and Jerry Fremin, also are slated to appear before the committee today to address charges of unethical conduct. Mike Younger of Brandon, who's representing Davis, and David C. Dornan Jr. of Biloxi, who's representing Fremin, would not comment.
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