As frustrating as yesterday was could you imagine having message boards in the 80’s on. The melts would be epic. As disappointing as yesterday was we are still living in the glory years of Mississippi State sports!!! Never be satisfied but remember things are pretty awesome in all our sports! Proud to wear MAROON AND WHITE!!!
State of State
- Thread starter Dawgcap
- Start date
I am extremely dissatisfied with Cohen! Remember what our sports was like before Byrne and what it was like after he left? Cohen hired a terrible baseball coach. People say that wasn’t Cohen’s fault. B.S. Maybe didn’t know before what Cann was truly like. But he for sure should’ve known what he was doing once he got here and Cann’s actions just didn’t happen in a brief period. Now look at our football coach that has a team playing undisciplined and not progressing thru a football season.
Given the way everything turned out, I'd say Cohen did fine with the baseball stuff. We went to a Super Regional and Omaha in 2 years. Obviously both Cannizaro and Henderson were good coaches. Lemonis is respected throughout the whole country as well, and he just secured a 1st rounder.
Cohen did not hire a "terrible baseball coach" (the Cann hire, that is). He hired an immature, flawed horndog and gave him enough rope to hang himself.
Now, I'll grant you that the manner in which he went about making his second baseball hire should raise major concerns.
Now, I'll grant you that the manner in which he went about making his second baseball hire should raise major concerns.
So, basically because he said he was going to hire a great coach (i.e. your sig), you now have major concerns? That's pretty dumb considering the fundamentals of our coaching search went down like pretty much every other major program's search. Get shot down by McDonnell and Schlossnagle, then hire a good guy. Rinse, repeat. It's all about what Cohen said with some of you, he got your expectations up and you got your feelings hurt. So sad.
He's made some real good hires in the minor sports. Jury is still very much out in the major ones. Cannizaro was a bust, but I'm not sure you can blame Cohen for that too much, although he should have done enough background checking to know that might be an issue. The way he want about the Lemonis hire was nothing short of bizarre, and he definitely struck out with more than one of his initial targets after bragging about the big-name hire he was going to make. I think most of us would be happier with the hire he eventually did make if not for all that. This could be a great hire or it could be a disaster. He hasn't coached a game yet. The Moorhead hire looked great at the time, but the first season has been pretty mediocre given the talent. He's got a lot to prove next year.
He's a new AD. I guess if you're concerned with appearances you could have this worry I suppose. If you're concerned with results, he did a great job.
I can see the same JoMo type situation playing out in the spring. People will say we have a loaded team and expect to finish in the CWS Finals or bust, and when we don't, the pitchforks will be out yet again.
I suspect the dividends of both coaches will pay off in the long term. If I end up being wrong, I'll eat crow then. I'm getting too old to not drink the koolaid of hope at this point.
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I will take Cohen over Stricklin any day. Stricklin is probably one of the most overrated ADs we've ever had.
Stricklin was good at getting us new facilities and did a good job of promoting the university (albeit with a few WTH marketing attempts), and the hiring of Vic Schaefer is probably his crowning achievement. But he ruined our men’s basketball program and I can’t forgive him for that.
Can we really fault Cohen for the Moorhead hire? It was considered by all of the college football "experts" to be a slam dunk.
The loafer wearing cheerleader did indeed destroy the men's basketball program as the son in law of our all time greatest men's basketball player. That's just hard to fathom. He also flipped off his alma mater by going after and poaching Dam Merlin. He's dead to many State people.
My wife and i ate at Salsaritas a few weeks after Cann was hired. He was eating there and on his phone texting the whole time. I told my wife to notice the facial expressions on his face as he received the texts. I told her something wasn’t right about that and that he was either really really (like first week of dating) close to his wife or he was talking to someone he wasn’t supposed to be talking to. When the story broke i wasn’t surprised at all and my wife now thinks I’m a genius for spotting that early on.
What’s he spending money on? We are last in SEC in football coaching Salaries (both HC And Assistants)...
I guess you could say The New Dude, but A&M rebuilt their whole football stadium in one offseason we are almost 2 years into construction and Cohen has trimmed some corners on it as well...most other schools in the SEC will have stadiums just as nice or better in the next few years...
Just this last week we missed two days Bowl prep in Tampa because he cut corners on a chartered flight and tried to “go cheap”... we had some players in Tampa for a day and a half with no coaches present... trip was a bigger fiasco off the field than on the field.... one senior football player joked “ I thought we were in SEC not Tougaloo”
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Cohen is paid a lot of money to know more than the "experts," who rally don't know much more than the average serious fan does. If they knew so much, they'd be working in the football industry instead of going on TV and commenting on it. That said, it's a little too early to say if Moorhead was a good hire or a bad one. We'll find out next year how much of the offensive problems were Moorhead and how much were a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.
While I definitely agree with most of what you said here lets not even compare to A&M. They have stupid money plus I thought it took two offseasons to rebuild their stadium-one side done in one offseason and the other another offseason. But your'e right that its a travesty on how we spend.
Mediocre? Or average by MSU standards?
There has been no consistency in recruiting or developing in the area of QB/WR combos ever! We didn’t gave the QB or WR’s this year to do what Moorhead wants to do. We just didn’t. And as good as our defense was, they still gave up 27 points (3 TDS) Tuesday, to an offense more similar to ours. Our outstanding defensive line would gave had to get to the QB in every single play to win. 75 yard pass play because an All-America defensive back wants to focus 90% on the run??? Please!
The defense held them to 199 yards, yes. But they didn’t keep them out of the end zone just one more time than Iowa’s defense kept us out of it.
8-5 is actually above average by MSU standards since 1991.
You better get used to it as long as MSU plays in the SEC West or go be a sidewalk fan for Bama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, or Georgia. There “standards” historically are well above “average”.
There has been no consistency in recruiting or developing in the area of QB/WR combos ever! We didn’t gave the QB or WR’s this year to do what Moorhead wants to do. We just didn’t. And as good as our defense was, they still gave up 27 points (3 TDS) Tuesday, to an offense more similar to ours. Our outstanding defensive line would gave had to get to the QB in every single play to win. 75 yard pass play because an All-America defensive back wants to focus 90% on the run??? Please!
The defense held them to 199 yards, yes. But they didn’t keep them out of the end zone just one more time than Iowa’s defense kept us out of it.
8-5 is actually above average by MSU standards since 1991.
You better get used to it as long as MSU plays in the SEC West or go be a sidewalk fan for Bama, LSU, Auburn, Florida, or Georgia. There “standards” historically are well above “average”.
kind of hard to keep someone out of the endzone when your back is against the wall all game. the penalty touchdown they brought on themselves for stupid crap. They really only gave up one long touchdown. Abram wasn't paying attention and let his man get downfield behind him.
How much credit does Stricklin deserve for facility upgrades? Mullen's success is what brought football facility upgrades. And I give Cohen more credit for the baseball rebuild (both as coach and AD). Byrne hired Mullen and Cohen. Scott's biggest impact on athletics was basketball. It's taken six years to recover from the crater he created with men's basketball. He got lucky with the Howland hire. Howland waited for better offers the year before we hired him, and they never came. He didn't want to make that mistake again. Shortly after we hired him, Tennessee and others came open. I guess he deserves credit for getting that done quickly. I also give him credit for hiring Schaefer. But as far as SEC hires go, that was a pretty low pressure hire. I don't even remember coverage of the coaching search. Who were the other candidates? What other schools wanted Schaefer? I honestly don't know.
I didn't understand the disappointment when Stricklin left. I can't think of anything he did that I don't trust Cohen to do as well if not better. It's been 2 years, where's the drop off?
I didn't understand the disappointment when Stricklin left. I can't think of anything he did that I don't trust Cohen to do as well if not better. It's been 2 years, where's the drop off?
I do not like how Stricklin left us (alma mater and all), but I don't think a top 10 athletic program will be coming for Cohen any time soon. Stricklin had years of experience in AD depts. and new how to market these days on social media and how to market in general. That is a big time skill set in these days. He was not Byrne though.
If we begin to have numerous assistant coaches leave that will be the sign that they believe the ship is sinking unless of course they’re leaving for better jobs. Moorehead better get the offense and on field discipline problems fixed.
Honest question: Have our marketing efforts declined in the past two years? Specifics, please.
And I'm not sure I understand your top-10 athletic program comment. Does a top 10 program not coming for Cohen mean he's not a good fit for us? Do top 10 programs not make good and bad hires? I don't think top programs being interested in hiring people away from us is a bad thing, but if they're not (and how would we know?), that's not necessarily a bad thing either.
Despite being a State grad, I never felt like Stricklin was a good fit here. That's why I wasn't surprised or disappointed when he left for another SEC school. Cohen seems to be a really good fit for us.
And I'm not sure I understand your top-10 athletic program comment. Does a top 10 program not coming for Cohen mean he's not a good fit for us? Do top 10 programs not make good and bad hires? I don't think top programs being interested in hiring people away from us is a bad thing, but if they're not (and how would we know?), that's not necessarily a bad thing either.
Despite being a State grad, I never felt like Stricklin was a good fit here. That's why I wasn't surprised or disappointed when he left for another SEC school. Cohen seems to be a really good fit for us.
Can we stop with the "Stricklin poached Mullen" tripe? Mullen was going to TN until Stricklin stepped in at the last second. Mullen was leaving either way. Technically Stricklin stole Mullen from TN not us.
I think Cohen would have been able to keep Danny had Flarrda not come calling. He would have taken our deal. Stricklin absolutely screwed over MSU because he was desperate. Either way, I'm glad it happened last year instead of this year, we recovered nicely recruiting wise.
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