Nashville football CFP championship connections include one who played for TCU and Georgia
Former Franklin Road Academy defensive lineman Tymon Mitchell will feel right at home in the College Football Playoff National Championship game Monday when TCU plays Georgia.
Mitchell played for Georgia last season when the Bulldogs beat Alabama. He'll be back Monday but playing instead for TCU. He transferred last spring.
Mitchell is one of six local players who will be in the game (6:30 p.m., ESPN) at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
The others include TCU safety D'Arco Perkins-McAllister from Stratford and wide receiver Colton Dobson from Nolensville along with Georgia wide receiver Adonai Mitchell from Cane Ridge, offensive lineman Jacob Hood from Hillsboro and defensive lineman Zion Logue from Lebanon.
Tymon Mitchell, a 6-foot-3, 315-pound redshirt junior, played in eight career games at Georgia. He played in five games in 2021 against Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Missouri, UAB and Charleston Southern. He had two tackles against Vandy and UAB.
He has played a larger role at TCU. He's been in every game, recorded 19 total tackles, 3.5 for loss and 3.0 sacks. He also recovered a fumble. Mitchell is listed as the second-team nose tackle on the Horned Frogs' depth chart.
Perkins-McAllister is a sophomore who has played in 10 games. He has three tackles and a pass breakup.
Dobbs is a redshirt freshman who has played in one game.
Adonai Mitchell, a sophomore, has been hampered by an ankle injury that limited him to two starts this season. He has eight catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns for Georgia, including the game-winning catch against Ohio State in the semifinals. He started in 12 games in 2021.
Hood, a 6-8, 350-pound freshman, hasn't played this season.
Logue has played in the last 33 games for the Bulldogs. He started in six this season and recorded 16 tackles, broke up a pass, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble. He had three solo tackles in a win over Tennessee and three tackles and recovered a fumble in a win over Auburn.
Former Vandy QB Larry Smith is Memphis' new receivers coach
Former Vanderbilt quarterback Larry Smith is the new receivers coach at Memphis.
Smith, who replaced David Glidden, spent the previous seven seasons as receivers coach at UAB and the three years before that as quarterbacks coach at Jacksonville State.
From 2007-11 Smith started in 27 games at Vanderbilt and was a co-captain in his senior season.
He is ninth on the Commodores' career passing/rushing yards list with 3,741. Smith helped lead Vandy to the Liberty Bowl in 2011.
Lipscomb basketball coach Lennie Acuff misses game with illness
Coach Lennie Acuff did not accompany the Lipscomb men's basketball team to play at Liberty on Monday night due to a non-COVID illness.
Lipscomb lost the game 77-48.
Liberty coach Ritchie McKay missed a game at Lipscomb in 2020-21 when he tested positive for COVID-19.
Acuff returned Thursday for the Bisons' 86-62 win over North Alabama at Allen Arena.
Former Cane Ridge star Brandon Miller is SEC freshman of the week again
For the third time this season former Cane Ridge basketball star Brandon Miller, now at Alabama, was named the SEC freshman of the week.
Miller recorded his second consecutive double-double and third of the season scoring 19 points to go with 11 rebounds in a win over Mississippi State.
Miller is the leading scorer in the SEC with 19.2 points per game and No. 34 in the nation.
Groundbreaking ceremony set for MTSU Student-Athlete Performance Center
MTSU will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Student-Athlete Performance Center on Jan. 19 at 4 p.m. The event, which is open to the public, will take place inside the Kennon Sports Hall of Fame prior to the Blue Raiders men's basketball game against Charlotte.
The $66-million Student-Athlete Performance Center will be in the north end zone of Floyd Stadium. The three-story, 85,500-square-foot performance center will provide MTSU student-athletes with new facilities for weight training, nutrition, and sports medicine.
It will also be the new home for football team, allowing MTSU to relocate its football operations from Murphy Center to Floyd Stadium.
Kenan Smith not retained on TSU football staff
Kenan Smith was not retained as Tennessee State's wide receiver coach.
Smith spent two seasons at TSU. He had spent the previous two seasons as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Southern Utah.
TSU was fifth in the OVC in passing yards (181.5) last season. TSU's leading receiver was J.J. Holloman, who tied for ninth in the conference (33 catches, 353 yards, 1 TD).
J.J. Clark is Austin Peay's new defensive coordinator
J.J. Clark has been promoted to defensive coordinator at Austin Peay. He replaced Chris Kappas, who was hired Thursday as coach at Louisville (Ohio) High.
Clark served as co-special teams coordinator and linebackers coach last season.
He spent the previous three seasons as defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at Indiana Wesleyan in addition to being the strength and conditioning coach.
"When we hired J.J. as our linebackers coach, we were looking for someone with coordinating experience and that is exactly what we found,” coach Scotty Walden said. “He was a defensive coordinator for five years prior to Austin Peay, leading dominant, nationally-ranked defenses, including two years where his defenses allowed 9.0 and 11.9 points per game.”
Prior to his time at Indiana Wesleyan, Clark spent four years in various defensive coaching roles at his alma mater Wheaton College.
Walden also announced defensive line coach Chris Jones would serve as co-defensive coordinator.
Trevecca adding women's lacrosse
Trevecca is adding women’s lacrosse as its 17th NCAA Division II sport. It will be the school's ninth women's sport.
The new team will begin practice in the fall of 2023 and play its first match in the spring of 2024.
Once the new coach is named, recruiting will begin immediately.
"The addition of women's lacrosse continues our efforts to increase opportunities for more student-athletes to compete in the sports they love while pursuing their education here as well as continuing our efforts to increase enrollment," athletic director Mark Elliott said.
Trevecca’s lacrosse team will become the seventh in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. The first season for women’s lacrosse in the conference was 2016.
Other schools in Tennessee with women's lacrosse include Vanderbilt, Lee, Lincoln Memorial, Tusculum, Rhodes, Sewanee and Tennessee Wesleyan.
Local sports talk radio host and pro wrestling commentator Don West dies at 59
Don West, who served as host of two sports talk radio shows on WNSR 560-AM/99.9-FM before becoming a pro wrestling commentator, died on Dec. 30. He was 59 and had been diagnosed with cancer in 2021.
West first made a name for himself on the Shop at Home Network in the 1990s as a high-energy host of a sports memorabilia show.
He arrived as WNSR in the early 2000s as host of the "Afternoon Press Box" during afternoon drive. In 2005 West started "The Sports Reporters," which aired from noon-3 p.m.
West dabbled in pro wrestling announcing while he was at WNSR and in 2008 made that his fulltime gig with TNA. In 2017 he joined Impact Wrestling where he became one of the organizations most popular commentators.
Clarkrange's Lamar Rogers gets 1,300th win
Longtime Clarkrange girls basketball coach Lamar Rogers won his 1,300th game when the Buffaloes beat Blacksburg (South Carolina) 64-23 on Dec. 29. He got win No. 1,301 Tuesday when Clarkrange beat Gordonsville 45-40 and improved to 12-4.
Rogers, in his 46th season, came into the year with 1,289 career wins. He is the winningest girls basketball coach in TSSAA history and has the second most wins nationally among active coaches.
Rogers earned The Tennessean Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement award on June 8 and was inducted into the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame on July 1.
Nashville Sounds communications director Chad Seely hired by the Texas Rangers
Nashville Sounds director of communications Chad Seely is the new director of business communications for the Texas Rangers.
Seely has been in minor league baseball since 2010. He started out as assistant director of broadcasting and media relations with the Daytona Cubs then joined the Reno Aces in 2014.
He has been with the Sounds since 2015.
Seely's assistant with the Sounds Collin Perry will replace him.
Longtime DeKalb County coach Harold Luna dies at 84
Former Smithville High and Martin Methodist (now UT Southern) basketball star Harold Luna, who went on to win more than 500 games as a high school coach, died on Dec. 26. He was 84.
Luna was a guard who led Smithville to its first state tournament win in 1959. He scored 12 points in the 42-40 victory over Litton.
Luna went on to play for coach Jimmy Earle at Martin, a junior college at the time, where he averaged 20.3 points per game as a sophomore in 1961. Luna finished his playing career at Athens State.
He coached girls and then boys basketball at DeKalb County from 1964–89. His overall record was 516-179.
Jason McCormick is the new FCA area director
Jason McCormick is the new Fellowship of Christian Athletes multi-area director of Greater Nashville.
McCormick, who has been with the FCA since 2013, previously served as the Northern Middle Tennessee area director overseeing Macon, Robertson, Sumner and Trousdale counties.
In his new role McCormick will add Davidson, Williamson and Wilson counties to his footprint.
McCormick graduated from Gallatin High and MTSU. In 2011 he was named the collegiate minister at Calvary Baptist Church in Murfreesboro where he spent two years.
Katie Myers promoted at Nashville Superspeedway
Katie Myers has been promoted to director of marketing for the Nashville Superspeedway.
Myers, an MTSU graduate, previously served as manager of content and digital strategy at the facility where the Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race is run each June.
She has worked at the track since 2021.
Tennessee Tech gets 1,000th win, coach Kim Rosamond gets 100th
On Dec. 29 the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team recorded its 1,000th win when the Golden Eagles beat Southern Illinois Edwardsville 85-70 in the OVC opener. The program began in 1970-71.
Two days later coach Kim Rosamond recorded her 100th career victory when Tech beat Lindenwood 72-35. Both wins came on the road.
Rosamond, in her seventh season, became the third Tech coach to reach 100 wins. Rosamond, whose career record is 100-91, has led Tech to four straight winning seasons.
Former LaVergne hoops star Willie Taylor dies at 42
Willie Taylor, an All-State basketball player from LaVergne who went to play at VCU, died on Jan. 1. He was 42.
Taylor was one of the leading scorers in the Midstate in 1998 when he averaged 26.6 points per game.
After spending a year at Georgetown, he transferred to VCU where he scored 41 points in a game against Evansville in his first season.
Taylor went on to be named twice to the All-Colonial Athletic Association team and the all-tournament team in 2003. He scored 1,367 career points.
Presley Merida leaves Vanderbilt to become Austin Peay senior associate AD
Presley Merida, who previously served as an assistant business manager at Vanderbilt, is the new senior associate director of athletics and chief financial officer at Austin Peay.
Merida spent five years in Vanderbilt's athletics department. She joined the Commodores staff as an accountant in 2018 and was promoted to assistant business manager in 2020.
She is a Kentucky alumnus who began her career as an accounting assistant in the Wildcats athletic department following her graduation in 2005.
Tennessee Tech winding up for 100th-anniversary celebration
All former Tennessee Tech baseball players are invited back for the team's First Pitch banquet and 100th-anniversary celebration of the program on Jan. 28. The banquet will be at the Salt Box Inn in Cookeville.
Each of Tech's 12 Ohio Valley Conference baseball championship teams will be recognized, with special attention for the 1988, 2013, and 2018 squads celebrating their 35th, 10th and fifth anniversaries, respectively.
The program's All-Century Team will be released in the coming days. Complimentary tickets will be available to those attending the banquet for the women's and men's doubleheader basketball games against Little Rock. All Golden Eagle baseball alumni will be recognized during the games.
For more information contact Kristie Phillips at kphillips@tntech.edu or at 931-372-6857.
If you have an item for Midstate Chatter contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville football players in Georgia-TCU CFP national championship
