Maroon Friday Update: June 27

Happy Maroon Friday!

It's a great day to be a Mississippi State Bulldog!

We learned this week that Blake Shapen earned the 2025 Philanthropic Spirit Award for his initiative around the spring game where he invited a couple hundred kids to Davis Wade Stadium as his personal guests, presenting each of them with food vouchers and a postgame autograph meet-and-greet, as well as a special maroon and white 'Blake's Bulldogs' T-Shirt. Blake's use of his platform and resources to inspire the next generation of Bulldogs is special! Proud of Blake!

The D.A.W.G. Program – Developing a Winning Game Plan – continues to foster education around life skills, personal and professional development, while prioritizing community involvement and advancement. This program was started shortly after Coach Lebby's arrival and has been a powerful ingredient fundamental to the culture that is being established. Led by Greg Knox, Gerri Green, and Starkville native Ravon Collier, there are year-round activities with the D.A.W.G. Program and an uplifting presence in the Starkville community. You've probably seen them on Friday mornings and afternoons during the season at local schools for morning drop-off, lunches, and classroom visits. This is the first time we have had a football-specific player development program, and it's paying dividends in getting our athletes ready for life, and is certainly a shining bragging point on the recruiting trail. Over the last couple of weeks, the D.A.W.G. Program student-athletes, joined by other sport programs and our Bulldog Athlete Services unit, engaged in the inaugural Bulldog Literacy Tour. Stops on the tour included Willie Morris Library, Mississippi Children's Museum, and Margaret Walker Alexander Library in Jackson, and then over to Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library and the Mississippi Children's Museum in Meridian.

Earlier this month, our student-athletes set a school-record 3.37 departmental GPA for the Spring 2025 semester. This is the 16th consecutive semester with a GPA above 3.0 and is the second straight term the Bulldogs have set a new academic high. A total of 282 student-athletes earned Bulldog Honor Roll recognition with a 3.0 GPA or better. Among them were 105 President's Scholars (3.80+ GPA), 55 Dean's Scholars (3.50-3.79 GPA), and 74 "Top Dawgs" who achieved a perfect 4.0. We are so grateful to the entire Mississippi State campus community for allowing such an enriching and successful experience for our student-athletes. We know many people contribute to this success. Thanks to each and every one of you!

As I have shared with you on a couple of occasions, at the start of meetings within our department, I ask our staff to go around the room and give one of their teammates what we call a "S.T.A.T.E. Shoutout" – S.T.A.T.E. Shoutouts are earned through exemplifying our core values – Serve – Together – Act – Transform – Excel. With the outstanding academic success our student-athletes continue to achieve, I'd like to give our entire academic staff, including four award recipients below, a "S.T.A.T.E. Shoutout" for showcasing our values of Serve, Transform and Excel.

Don't just take my word for it; these staff members are also receiving recognition on a national scale. Annually, the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals awards four honors to the top professionals in the country. This year Mississippi State Athletics Academics ran the table! Wow!

Christine Jackson - Distinguished Service Award
This prestigious award is presented annually to a N4A member who has demonstrated continuous N4A membership, distinguished themselves as a leader in N4A at the regional or national level and contributed above and beyond the normal service required by positions of leadership. It is one of the organization's highest honors.

Tonya Stewart - Model Practices Award for SUMMIT Tutoring Program
The Model Practices Award is presented annually to a university or college that displays best practices in their academic and student-athlete development programming.

Molly Coln - Professional Excellence Award
The Professional Excellence Award honors professionals with 6 to 15 years in the field who shows commitment to improving their department, often going above and beyond the tasks/responsibilities outlined in their job descriptions, have the ability to meet their students' needs and address critical issues within athletics and/or the campus community, and are viewed as leaders/mentors among their colleagues and are well respected within the industry.

Erin Trapp - Kenneth O. Miles Professional Promise Award
The Kenneth O. Miles Professional Promise Award honors "new" professionals who serve student-athletes and have dedicated their energy to the Association and its mission.

Great work, team!

The Selmons wish each of you a safe and restful weekend! Rachel, our family activities planner, has made some fun plans for us next Friday to spend time together for the Fourth of July, so I am not sure if you will hear from me this time next week. We'll see!

Thanks for all you do…Hail State!
Zac
Zac Selmon Signature Left

Mississippi State University Athletics

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