Native Mississippian and longtime coach Tony Hughes says state flag change will help in recruiting

Hughes has coached in Mississippi for more than three decades and says he has seen firsthand how the old flag and its history hurt on the recruiting trail

When it comes to college football and specifically college football recruiting, Tony Hughes is one of the most respected names in Mississippi. The current associate head coach and nickelbacks coach of Mississippi State, Hughes has spent the vast majority of his 35-year coaching career in the college game inside the Magnolia State. 

Hughes, a native Mississippian from Forest, has recruited kids from all around to play college football in his home state. It was a task that until the last few days had a speed bump Hughes occasionally ran into – a controversial state flag with the confederate battle emblem that many viewed as racist. The flag was officially retired earlier this week after flying since 1894. Hughes is convinced it'll be a tremendous benefit as he and other coaches seek to get athletes to come to Mississippi and play sports in the years to come.

"There’s no doubt," Hughes said earlier this week. "(The old flag) has had its negativity toward us in recruiting. I wouldn’t say it made or broke the program because we did have success recruiting kids out of state. But there were some kids or parents that would bring up, ‘Hey Coach, we appreciate the offer and the opportunity, but we’re not coming to a school in Mississippi because of this.’”

It's hard to quantify exactly how much the old state flag might've hurt not only MSU, but also Ole Miss, Southern Miss and other college programs around Mississippi out on the recruiting trail. Cowbell Corner reached out to several coaches that have been a part of coaching staffs inside the state at some point in the last two decades. All that responded could recount at least one instance where either the state flag or a stigma of racism in Mississippi impacted recruiting. 

Arguably no one would be as familiar with the flag's impact as Hughes though. Since 1985, he's been all over the state at every level. He worked as a high school coach in Mississippi with stops at Philadelphia, South Natchez and Hattiesburg. He's coached at the junior college level at Hinds Community College. He's also been at all the state's best-known four-year schools – MSU, Ole Miss, Southern Miss and Jackson State.

Hughes' knowledge of Mississippi has helped him forge a reputation as one of the most valuable recruiters anywhere. But even Hughes says he's faced some barriers from particularly out-of-state recruits – more specifically those people close to the recruits – who sometimes viewed Mississippi in a negative light.

"The people that were out of state always considered the old Mississippi – the civil rights movement and some of the brutal and harsh things when you say the word, ‘Mississippi,'" Hughes said. "Especially the older generations. They’d have statements like, ‘Me and my child can’t come to Mississippi. We appreciate it, Coach, but we’re just not coming.’

"As far as recruiting young people, the youngsters themselves, it didn’t have as much of an impact because not all of them understand the history of it. But their parents or grandparents or elders did. In recruiting, there is always someone that’s going to help you with a kid, whether it’s their coach or their parents or their grandparents or a cousin or uncle – whoever it is. So when the people involved in the recruitment are there and the kid goes to them and says, ‘What should I do’, they would oftentimes be educated on the meaning of what the flag was or the brutal racial history of Mississippi. I think that’s where it came from more than the kids themselves."

Just how many recruitments did the flag put the brakes on? It's hard to say. A couple of former coaches in the state noted that so many of the kids who play college football in Mississippi are from inside the state or region, so those players were already familiar with the issue of the flag or the past anyway before recruitment even began. There was little to address with those players. What about the others though?

"Sometimes you ran into it and don’t even know," Hughes said. "You might not know until after the fact. You might have a kid and think things are going well and something just happens and something changes. You just can’t quite put your finger on it. Then later on, somebody will tell you and you’ll know, ‘That’s what it was.’"

Just like there's no way to put a finger on the exact impact the old flag had, it's going to be impossible to measure how beneficial no longer having the banner will be when it comes to recruiting players to the state in the long run. But if anyone would be able to gauge it, it'd be Hughes. He's confident his job and other college coaches' jobs around Mississippi just got at least a little easier with the lowering of the old flag.

"It definitely helps and changes the dynamic of how people outside the state look at us and look at the state," Hughes said. "It’s definitely going to be helpful as far as recruiting in the future for sure."