NCAA.com | August 18, 2014 Miss St. walk-on receives scholarship Share It started simple enough: Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen invited down linebacker DeAndre Ward to receive his award. He was being rewarded with training camp walk-on MVP honors. Mullen then handed Ward the reward and instructed him to read the note out loud. But when Ward opened the piece of paper Mullen gave him, it had a different message -- "You are now on Scholarship." The message also read across the projector screen behind Ward and his Mississippi State teammates rose and cheered for Ward. That moment you get put on scholarship... #Special #ChangingLives #Grind pic.twitter.com/myA3rAe3Ze — MSU Football (@HailStateFB) August 18, 2014 Ward is expected to have an increased role with the Bulldogs this season, only appearing in two games the past season -- against Alabama and Rice in the Liberty Bowl. Mississippi State opens its season against Southern Miss at home on Aug. 30. Congrats to DeAndre Ward who is now on scholarship #hardworkpaysoff http://t.co/Ru5d4WCbPX — Dan Mullen™ (@CoachDanMullen) August 18, 2014 2022 SEC baseball tournament: Final bracket, schedule, scores See the final 2022 SEC baseball bracket and all scores from the 12-team competition in Hoover, Ala., at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. No. 1 Tennessee defeated Florida, 8-5, in the conference championship game. READ MORE NCAA Video Vault: The dramatic end of UConn's 111-game streak in 2017 Final Four Relive Mississippi State's epic win over UConn in the 2017 Final Four, where the Huskies' 111-game winning streak came to an end. READ MORE Mississippi State is women's basketball Team of the Week after two shorthanded wins After going 2-0 on the week and improving to 11-4 overall, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are NCAA.com's women's basketball Team of the Week. READ MORE