After last week, how much do you trust Cohen

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

With respect to basketball if we fall flat (i.e. miss the post-season)?

I wouldn't put anything past him now. The only problem is that he tends to 17 up the first hire for any given sport.

 

[missouridawg]

Napier was never really interested.
We got beat out by the New York Football Giants for Judge.
We got Leach.

All the other noise was message board fodder. If you think that sequence of stuff, with about 12 other interviews in the middle of it, proves Cohen isn’t capable... that’s a YOU problem and it’s likely not fixable.

The majority of sitting head coaches tell us to eat **** when we call. Napier is one of them, no matter how many times Bert Stare told you differently. The timing on Leach was perfect and Cohen nabbed him.

This search was not the cluster17 everyone made it out to be.

 

[Avelso]

U nailed it. It doesn’t matter one bit how long it took and it looks like we were serious with 3 guys that most people would have been happy with. Cohen has made a lot of good hires and sometimes they just don’t work out. Cannizzaro is the best example. Guy was a beast. Kids loved the guy. However he got taken down the the one thing that remains undefeated. Is that JC’s fault. Heck no but JC acted quickly and then hired another proven HC. One this to remember on Cann hire. It was freaking Nov. Baseball head coaches don’t move often. They sure aren’t moving in November. Cann was the best available. Butch would have been the guy had it been a year earlier.

JM was lauded as a good hire. It didn’t work. Cohen moved on.

What’s he gonna do in basketball? If we miss the tourney he’ll make the move IMHO. Ole Miss struggles take some heat off Moorhead whether we like it or not since Kermit one of ours.

Lastly what JC can control is the entrance to the stadium and he better get that fixed before next year.

 

[ronpolk]

I don’t believe we make a move in basketball, just for solely missing the tournament. Howland has done a good job here and I feel he will be the coach as long as we aren’t embarrassing ourselves. I feel like the best thing for everyone would be to allow Howland to retire, which I think probably won’t be far off.

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

I don’t believe we make a move in basketball, just for solely missing the tournament. Howland has done a good job here and I feel he will be the coach as long as we aren’t embarrassing ourselves. I feel like the best thing for everyone would be to allow Howland to retire, which I think probably won’t be far off.

I agree, if we get rid of howland it won't be this year. There are not too many deep pocketed boosters that give too much of a **** any more about the basketball team to be in Cohens ear telling him to make a move if we don't make the tournament this year, as sad as that is. If they did, there would definitely be more heat on Howland's seat.

 

[MeridianDog]

Napier was never really interested.
We got beat out by the New York Football Giants for Judge.
We got Leach.

All the other noise was message board fodder. If you think that sequence of stuff, with about 12 other interviews in the middle of it, proves Cohen isn’t capable... that’s a YOU problem and it’s likely not fixable.

The majority of sitting head coaches tell us to eat **** when we call. Napier is one of them, no matter how many times Bert Stare told you differently. The timing on Leach was perfect and Cohen nabbed him.

This search was not the cluster17 everyone made it out to be.

!!!!!!!But rumors must stand for something!!!!!!!!!

 

[MeridianDog]

Stinky cups?

Sorry concessions?

Bad parking?

If not him, then who?

 

[RockKickinSandPoundinSOB]

I trust him 7/10. It was about 3/10 until I saw who the hire was. If he would have hired Todd Grantham I was done with him.

 

[hailstate19]

It’s been said countless times, but Howland has got to get better effort on the consistent bases. He’s got to prove he can do that or else’s he will be on the hot seat real soon. The first thing he needs to do is find a good assistant coach that can help teach these guys much better.

 

[Shamoan]

He helped himself big time with this hire. Even if leach fails, he was right to cut Moorhead loose and he hired a great coach. Only thing you can criticize is the timing With Moorhead, and had we hired a judge or Napier, and they failed, it would have been lights out for Cohen.

Got extremely fortunate getting leach. Let’s hope he learned it’s ok to cut an obvious loser loose and to his credit, he didn’t wait for Moorhead to completely gut the program before he made the switch, which is the most important element to this whole thing.

 

[tenureplan]

Stinky cups have existed since Templeton

 

[Leeshouldveflanked]

He still has to prove he can run a football game day...I am going to withhold my judgement on the Leach hiring until I see the product on the field...There is some risk in hiring a 58 year old Mike Leach(see Howland)... will Leach still have “Fire in Belly” 2-3 years from now?

 

[olblue.sixpack]

He still has to prove he can run a football game day...I am going to withhold my judgement on the Leach hiring until I see the product on the field...There is some risk in hiring a 58 year old Mike Leach(see Howland)... will Leach still have “Fire in Belly” 2-3 years from now?

That’s what gets lost in the coaching discussion. As disorganized as the football team looked, it was nothing compared to some of the issues outside the lines. You can point the finger at your contractor all you want, but that is clearly on the administrative staff.

 

[Shmuley]

I trust him to always work his *** off for state. MFer is intense, no doubt about it. Will he always make the right decision? 17 no. Will he always try to do the right thing in the best interest of MSU athletics? Highly likely. Will he do what he does at 100 mph, right or wrong? Most assuredly.

 

[maroonmania]

Napier was never really interested.
We got beat out by the New York Football Giants for Judge.
We got Leach.

All the other noise was message board fodder. If you think that sequence of stuff, with about 12 other interviews in the middle of it, proves Cohen isn’t capable... that’s a YOU problem and it’s likely not fixable.

The majority of sitting head coaches tell us to eat **** when we call. Napier is one of them, no matter how many times Bert Stare told you differently. The timing on Leach was perfect and Cohen nabbed him.

This search was not the cluster17 everyone made it out to be.

Napier is an idiot. May all work out for him but a huge roll of the dice to turn down a 3+ million dollar raise. But if he didn't want to be here then I'm glad he didn't come because I don't want a guy to have a little bit of success and then go to actively job shopping every year like Mullen did.

 

[CochiseCowbell]

I trust him more with the Athletic Department than I do with a pitching rotation (ie changing pitchers mid count).


LSU STATE GIF from Lsu GIFs

 

[T-TownDawgg]

Never understood all the Cohen doubt. Shmuley nailed it, he's decisive, and is 100% Bulldog. I thought the JoMo and the Cann hires were very good hires at the time. But his latest covert operation to hire Leach was exceptionally lethal in it's execution.

 

[MedDawg]

Napier was never really interested.
We got beat out by the New York Football Giants for Judge.
We got Leach.

All the other noise was message board fodder. If you think that sequence of stuff, with about 12 other interviews in the middle of it, proves Cohen isn’t capable... that’s a YOU problem and it’s likely not fixable.

The majority of sitting head coaches tell us to eat **** when we call. Napier is one of them, no matter how many times Bert Stare told you differently. The timing on Leach was perfect and Cohen nabbed him.

This search was not the cluster17 everyone made it out to be.

Getting Leach HAS to give Cohen some confidence for any upcoming hires. Now he knows he and MSU can do it, and it may elevate his future coaching searches up a level.

 

[maroonmania]

U nailed it. It doesn’t matter one bit how long it took and it looks like we were serious with 3 guys that most people would have been happy with. Cohen has made a lot of good hires and sometimes they just don’t work out. Cannizzaro is the best example. Guy was a beast. Kids loved the guy. However he got taken down the the one thing that remains undefeated. Is that JC’s fault. Heck no but JC acted quickly and then hired another proven HC. One this to remember on Cann hire. It was freaking Nov. Baseball head coaches don’t move often. They sure aren’t moving in November. Cann was the best available. Butch would have been the guy had it been a year earlier.

JM was lauded as a good hire. It didn’t work. Cohen moved on.

What’s he gonna do in basketball? If we miss the tourney he’ll make the move IMHO. Ole Miss struggles take some heat off Moorhead whether we like it or not since Kermit one of ours.

Lastly what JC can control is the entrance to the stadium and he better get that fixed before next year.

The only really bad coaching hire JC has made IMO is Moorhead. Just bad that hire was in the most important, high profile sport. If the same poor hire had been made in a lot of other sports it would have been way more forgivable. Cannizzaro was a good hire from a coaching standpoint. Whether or not Cohen should have known something about the personal character flaws he had, I can't really speak to that because I don't know anything about AC's personal history in that area.

 

[maroonmania]

It’s been said countless times, but Howland has got to get better effort on the consistent bases. He’s got to prove he can do that or else’s he will be on the hot seat real soon. The first thing he needs to do is find a good assistant coach that can help teach these guys much better.

Just seems like in basketball that our team, whether its in an individual game or in the season, doesn't really put out real effort until their back is against the wall. Seem to have that laid back attitude that Howland does until we are in real trouble. Nice to see that we beat the crap out of Missouri but it apparently took an 0-3 SEC start to motivate them. We start a lot of games out like we are just going through the motions and then try to turn it on later when we are in trouble. Heck, Bama with a brand new coach just beat the mess out of Auburn in Tuscaloosa last night. Way more than we could get done.

 

[The Peeper]

My first indicator will be what happens the rest of basketball season and after it.

Then, I reserve judgement until Sept 5. If the lines at DWS are no better, then he hasn't learned or fixed anything.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

I think Leach on paper is a great hire as a football coach. He is a proven winner. I do worry about the fit and us going air raid with the talent we have. He seems determined to make state a more passing team. If leach can't do it, nobody will be able to. A leach system coach is a bit of a gamble but it's a more sure of a gamble than Moorhead was in a lot of ways. Moorheads offense was supposed to be more similar to what we we ran but with RPOs. He just was really unproven. Leach has proven he can be a successful head coach in two different conferences. He hasn't been a head coach in the sec and we haven't ever been much a successful passing team so it's still experimenting like the last hire. Cohen seems to like to do that with football. But as far as experimenting goes he went at got the expert for this experiment. Moorhead was supposed to be a genius and expert but he really wasn't. I do worry that if leach can't get his system to work how willing he is to adapt.

All that being said. I will see how this second football hire pans out to see if i still trust him. He still needs to fix game day ops and alcohol sales. They have been improving in the marketing department with the leach hire. It's like they decided to have a fresh start and go all out with it.

 

[johnson86-1]

Napier was never really interested.
We got beat out by the New York Football Giants for Judge.
We got Leach.

All the other noise was message board fodder. If you think that sequence of stuff, with about 12 other interviews in the middle of it, proves Cohen isn’t capable... that’s a YOU problem and it’s likely not fixable.

The majority of sitting head coaches tell us to eat **** when we call. Napier is one of them, no matter how many times Bert Stare told you differently. The timing on Leach was perfect and Cohen nabbed him.

This search was not the cluster17 everyone made it out to be.

Getting Leach doesn't mean this search wasn't a cluster17. Getting Moorhead didn't mean the first search was a bad one. Lots of uncertainty on these things and all you can do is have a good process.

It's hard to judge without inside knowledge, but us being willing to roll the dice on Judge was ludicrous and was a massive, unnecessary gamble at a time we couldn't afford to be wrong. I'm a big Judge fan, but past performance matters and having zero coordinator or head coaching experience and virtually zero recruiting experience matters. That's the only thing I think that is pretty well known to be true that I think shows Cohen's process was ****. The guy that just hired Moorhead doesn't get to be wowed by an interview to the point that he gives someone with zero head coaching or coordinator experience the head coaching gig. I don't care how impressive he is in the interview, the most recent hire proved you can be completely bamboozled by an interview; you have to have some past results to judge a coaching hire by.

Other than that, I don't see any obvious problem with the search, provided he knew he could get Hudspeth and thought that was a good option. If he didn't think Hudspeth was a good option and he fired Moorhead without a good replacement option lined up, that is a massive WTF decision to me. If we hadn't gotten Leach, and he didn't think Hudspeth was a good option, I'd have to know what the backup option that he was certain we could get would have been. Sarkisian I think would have been ok if Cohen knew Sarkisian would jump at the job. If Chizik was a fall back option, I'd be ready to fire Cohen now.

 

[missouridawg]

It's hard to judge without inside knowledge

Yep. Which is why I didn’t judge it until I had me some of that inside knowledge. Leach may suck *** here, but Cohen was only turned down once (Napier). Judge was coming until the Giants made him much wealthier than we ever could’ve. Leach was his 3rd choice.

 

[johnson86-1]

Yep. Which is why I didn’t judge it until I had me some of that inside knowledge. Leach may suck *** here, but Cohen was only turned down once (Napier). Judge was coming until the Giants made him much wealthier than we ever could’ve. Leach was his 3rd choice.

Getting beat out by the Giants isn't a reflection on Cohen. Offering Judge the job is a reflection on Cohen. I didn't blame Cohen for the Moorhead hire. I don't give him a lot of credit for Leach. He took an understandable gamble on Moorhead. He was apparently willing to take a ridiculous gamble on Judge. The fact that he was willing to take that gamble on Judge after 17ing up so badly with Moorhead is concerning to me.

 

[jdbulldog]

John Cohen will do what John Cohen thinks is best for MSU. I trust him 100%.

With respect to basketball if we fall flat (i.e. miss the post-season)?

I wouldn't put anything past him now. The only problem is that he tends to 17 up the first hire for any given sport.

 

[thekimmer]

The thing I have to give JC credit for is that the leach hire is unprecedented in the history of our program. We just hired a successful incumbent P5 head coach. Not an up-and-coming assistant. (mullins crooms, felker, SloMo, etc) Not a redemption case (sherrill, bellard). I doubted I would ever see that happen in my lifetime. Time will tell whether or not it works out but for cohen's sake at least he doesn't have to deal with the crap shoot nature of hiring an assistant.

 

[85Bears]

Leach is a much better coach than Napier.

 

[maroonmania]

Getting Leach doesn't mean this search wasn't a cluster17. Getting Moorhead didn't mean the first search was a bad one. Lots of uncertainty on these things and all you can do is have a good process.

It's hard to judge without inside knowledge, but us being willing to roll the dice on Judge was ludicrous and was a massive, unnecessary gamble at a time we couldn't afford to be wrong. I'm a big Judge fan, but past performance matters and having zero coordinator or head coaching experience and virtually zero recruiting experience matters. That's the only thing I think that is pretty well known to be true that I think shows Cohen's process was ****. The guy that just hired Moorhead doesn't get to be wowed by an interview to the point that he gives someone with zero head coaching or coordinator experience the head coaching gig. I don't care how impressive he is in the interview, the most recent hire proved you can be completely bamboozled by an interview; you have to have some past results to judge a coaching hire by.

Other than that, I don't see any obvious problem with the search, provided he knew he could get Hudspeth and thought that was a good option. If he didn't think Hudspeth was a good option and he fired Moorhead without a good replacement option lined up, that is a massive WTF decision to me. If we hadn't gotten Leach, and he didn't think Hudspeth was a good option, I'd have to know what the backup option that he was certain we could get would have been. Sarkisian I think would have been ok if Cohen knew Sarkisian would jump at the job. If Chizik was a fall back option, I'd be ready to fire Cohen now.

I tend to agree with you. The NY Giants saved us from taking a HUGE gamble on a guy that hasn't even been around a college program in quite a number of years, much less having never been a HC or coordinator in college OR in the NFL. Doesn't mean that he would not have eventually been successful, but had we hired Judge we would have needed to be a very patient fanbase because he would have had a big learning curve. And running a D1 P5 football program and being HC in the NFL are apples and oranges. There are all kinds of things you have to do running a college program that don't even factor in to the on field coaching of a bunch of professionals

 

[MeridianDog]

Stinky cups have existed since Templeton

I know that, but Cohen inherited the sins of his parent. The day he drew his first paycheck, the problem became his, and my blame for the unacceptable problem shifted to him. Look at how long he has done nothing about it, other than to sign the order for more stinky cups.

Shame on you, John!

 

[maroonmania]

I agree, if we get rid of howland it won't be this year. There are not too many deep pocketed boosters that give too much of a **** any more about the basketball team to be in Cohens ear telling him to make a move if we don't make the tournament this year, as sad as that is. If they did, there would definitely be more heat on Howland's seat.

After this year, depending on roster attrition, basketball could be really bad next year. Tyson will be gone along with likely Perry and potentially even Woodard (if he is really given a first round draft grade). Have no clue whether Nick will be here for his SR year or not but if you take 3 or 4 of those guys off of next year's roster, there isn't a ton to build around. We REALLY need to make the NCAAs again this year because the next couple of seasons are looking to be on the decline.