MSU hoops coach Ben Howland: Football is ‘most important’ college sport
After two seasons away from the game, Ben Howland became the new men’s basketball coach at Mississippi State last month. He hopes to resurrect a program that has struggled in recent years, but will first get a chance to serve as a guest coach during the Bulldogs’ spring football game on Saturday.
On the football field, the Bulldogs ascended to No. 1 in the rankings late in the year, but lost three of their last four games. Howland said part of the allure of accepting the MSU job was the football program’s success. He even said that football is “the most important sport on a major college campus.”
“When you look at football and basketball, all the best programs in the country, with the exception of a few maybe, have both,” Howland said, per Al.com. “I knew that having good football only helps basketball.
“Let’s be clear here. The most important sport on a major college campus is football because it costs the most and it has the most revenue potential to bring money into the university. Football is very, very important. I love college football.”
Some coaches want their respective sport to be the center of attention and wouldn’t be attracted to a job where basketball plays second fiddle. Howland isn’t one of them and said that the SEC’s football prowess was a major selling point.
“There’s no question, it’s not even debatable, who has the best football conference in America. Period. It’s the SEC,” Howland said. “It’s raised everybody’s level. Mississippi State was No. 1 in the country for five weeks last year in football, and that’s absolutely awesome.”
As for his short stint as guest football coach on Saturday, Howland has a plan.
“I have a formula. Get the ball to Dak Prescott,” he said of MSU’s senior quarterback. “We’re going to run the ball. We’re going to run the option.”
For more Mississippi State news, visit BulldogBlitz.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
