BULLDOG BITS
Football
Cory Bichey, who has spent the last six years as a strength and conditioning coach in the Southeastern Conference, including the 2018 season at Mississippi State, has been elevated to head strength and conditioning coach, it was announced Wednesday by head coach Joe Moorhead.
“Cory has earned the respect of our team and been around the strength and conditioning profession his entire life,” Moorhead said. “Our team believes in his style of training, and they saw clear results as we were among the fittest and most physical teams in the country last season. With Cory's SEC experience, he understands that physicality and toughness are critical to success in this conference week after week. We understand that this is a line of scrimmage league, and Cory's plan will continue to put us at the forefront of college football's fittest teams.”
Last season, Bichey served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach under Anthony Piroli, who reunited with new Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians in January. Bichey helped mentor one of the most physical and well-conditioned teams in the SEC in 2018. He trained a school-record eight different Bulldogs who recently earned invitations to this year's National Football League Scouting Combine, including All-americans Johnathan Abram, Elgton Jenkins and Montez Sweat.
“I'm very thankful to coach Moorhead for this opportunity.” Bichey said. “We laid a solid foundation last year with our strength and conditioning program, and I take great pride in that he has the respect and trust in me to lead our program. We have a great group of young men who love to train and compete, and we're going to keep building, progressing and getting them bigger, faster and stronger. This is a line of scrimmage game that's won with tenacity and physicality. If we can keep building on that and instilling that culture, I truly believe we'll go to places we've never been. Our guys love to show up and train every single day, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be their coach.”
Prior to joining the MSU staff, Bichey was on staff at the University of Arkansas under the mentorship of master strength coach Ben Herbert from 2013-17, including serving as associate strength and conditioning coach from 2015-17.
At Arkansas, Bichey helped develop nearly 20 Razorbacks who were selected in the NFL Draft and worked with two first-team All-americans and 15 ALL-SEC honorees. He aided in the development of Frank Ragnow, who was a first-team All-american center in 2017 and a first-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions. He also helped develop Hunter Henry, a consensus All-american and John Mackey Award winner in 2015, who was selected in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Chargers.
An Ambridge, Pennsylvania, native, Bichey was a graduate assistant from 2012-13 at the University of Cincinnati and interned in 2012 at Indiana State. He was a four-year letterwinner while on scholarship and playing on the offensive line at Indiana State from 2008-12.
Men's Golf
The list of national recognitions keeps growing for Mississippi State men's golf junior Peng Pichaikool.
Early Wednesday afternoon, Pichaikool was selected to the prestigious Ben Hogan Award Watch List, as announced jointly by the Hogan Trophy Award Founda-