John Cohen the new AD per Bonner

[BossDawg78]

Oh.

My.

God.

Lol....typical MSU laziness.....an no, I'm not saying Cohen will be a terrible AD. I just figured we could've at least tried to get an AD with some experience while keeping some consistency in baseball.

I'm pretty damn pessimistic when it comes to MSU athletics, so I really do hope I end up looking like a fool for all my b!+€#ing.

 

[GhostOfJackie]

Could you imagine Cohen sitting in that chair in Destin trying to explain to reporters why we only suspended a kid for 1 game after he beat a woman?

If this is true, I'm not worried about our baseball program. We will go out and hire the best coach, and follow that up with building the best stadium in college baseball. We won't miss a step. I am worried that he has no sports admin. experience. We will see.

 

[FQDawg]

You're right... he'd be a complete unknown as an AD. Is that what we want?

I suppose I could be wrong and he could be a great AD. And as I mentioned above, I'd be happy to be wrong. What concerns me is that he has only ever been a baseball coach. He has no experience in any other area in any other athletic department - not marketing, not facilities, not academics, not development. Nothing.

Say what you want about Stricklin but he at least worked at several other universities in a variety of positions in an effort to learn how to run an athletic department. Cohen has only ever been a baseball coach.

If Cohen has "Being an AD" as his heart's ultimate desire, he needs to give up coaching and go start learning how to run a department (whether here or somewhere else). This is the top job at an SEC school. We shouldn't have to hire someone who needs to learn on the job. We should be able to hire someone with a wealth of experience already under his or her belt.

Yeah, I'm not at all excited by this hire, but how do you know that Cohen will not be able to continue the marketing and fundraising efforts of Byrne and Strickline and continue to push Mississippi State forward? I mean, maybe that is exactly what he is going to do.

What you may be thinking is simply that Cohen is a complete unknown as an AD, and you would rather MSU had hired someone who has already proven he can continue the great work of the past 8 years. I would agree with that. But I don't think it is fair to just write off Cohen as incapable of attaining that status, particularly since he seems to have the endorsement of the people who are actually in position to form an opinion on his AD abilities compared to the AD we are losing.

I'm not thrilled, but I'm at least willing to wait and see what happens. I agree with another post in this thread that hiring his own replacement for the baseball team will be an early indicator of his AD acumen

 

[kired]

This just tells us one thing --- our baseball team will suck next year**

I actually have no clue because I don't follow baseball very closely. But I'm reminded of the best football coach my high school ever had. He resigned from coaching after the best 3 year run in school history. He stayed on in an administrative role and we all wondered why he gave up coaching. The team went 0-10 the next season. He knew what was coming and didn't want to be around for it.

 

[FQDawg]

One more way to look at potentially hiring Cohen...

Take his resume exactly as it is right now... Is there any other SEC school, or even any other Power 5 school, that would hire him as their AD? Would he even get an interview at any other SEC school? If the answer, as I suspect, is no, then we shouldn't even be considering the guy.

 

[fishwater99]

I want what's best for Mississippi State and if Cohen is the guy and proves me wrong, I'll happily eat a giant plate of crow. I just don't see anything to be excited about with him.

It's no different than when we hired Stricklin, IMO.

 

[FQDawg]

It's night and day different...

Stricklin's entire career to that point was a How To guide to becoming an athletic director. He had a variety of positions with increasing responsibilities in several different athletic departments, two of which were in the SEC.

Cohen doesn't have that. Not remotely.

 

[Cary Hudson's little bro]

Cohen will be able to raise the rest of the money needed for the Left Field Lofts***

Seriously, we have good fundraisers, we have the marketing team of the year or whatever. All we need a intelligent redass that wants to win and will reassign Hevesy.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I'm just saying, he's an unknown to you and me, but he has been with Byrne and Stricklin going back to Kentucky and we have no idea what type of AD-related experience he may have been gaining along the way. Stricklin promoted him to associate AD, and that might have been more than just a title with a pay raise. Yeah, I would rather see the University hire someone with measurable experience but I don't write off Cohen as a bad hire just because he lacks administrative duties on his resume.

 

[dickiedawg]

Could you imagine Cohen sitting in that chair in Destin trying to explain to reporters why we only suspended a kid for 1 game after he beat a woman?

No. Cohen would say "I stand by the decision, and if you don't like it you can #@$% off."

 

[thekimmer]

If Cohen is NOT hired as the new AD, will he be willing to stay here as the baseball coach and work under the person that was hired for the job he wanted? Just throwin' that out there.

OK. Well your premise has Cohen vacating the BB HC position no matter what. So, the choices are: 1) Lose Cohen as BB coach and hire a very under qualified AD. 2) Lose Cohen as a BB coach and hire a very qualified AD. Granted Cohen should be able to make a good BB coach hire but there is sooooo much more to the job especially these days.

I'll take option 2 please.

 

[FQDawg]

As a potential AD, he's an unknown to everyone.

Stricklin is a big baseball fan. Everywhere he's been, he's been BFFs with the baseball coach. I'd bet good money that Cohen's Assoc. AD title is simply a title with a pay raise. I seriously doubt he's had any legit administrative work to do.

Stricklin promoted him to associate AD, and that might have been more than just a title with a pay raise.

 

[vandaldawg]

My thoughts exactly. We could lose two for one if we don't hire cohen as the ad. Another angle is will a good coach want to come in with the former baseball coach in the ad position looking over his shoulder?