Thread for the Mullen complainers (including me)...

[Todd4State]

If I recall correctly, we added about 4 off field positions and bumped the entire coaching staff's pay that off season. So, outside of all the rumored "Mullen to XXX" (of which the only one I really believe maybe is Miami), maybe Mullen felt that the best investment was in more resources instead of another half mill a year for him.

Fact is no one knows beyond message board rumors. I still think the real tension between Dan and Stick was about investing in off field staff and coaches salaries. That is somewhere Dan knows we were getting our clock cleaned. Dan pried more money out of Scott after '15 and we start landing guys like T Buck. I think any looking Dan did was not about his salary, it was about finding a place that was all in for what it takes beyond the HC to win at this level - or using it as leverage to get what he wanted from Strick.

Ask yourself this - if the "come to Jesus meeting" took place, how in the hell would a coach negotiate a big raise coming of a 6-7 season and the addition of a million dollar DC? I sure wish my boss would have that type of a come to Jesus with me. You had a shitty year. Here, have a big raise. Here, have more money for your department so you can focus more on what you like about your job. Here, go hire a bad ass hot secretary to run the staff so you don't have to bother. Yeah, that's a come to jesus meeting.

Your theory about diverting money to recruiting specialists makes sense- except if that was the case we would have still given Dan an EXTENSION. By not giving Dan an extension we not only didn't give him a raise- we made his buyout cheaper.

Of course Dan was looking around to better himself- and honestly that's fine. Most people probably do that. I think that's good in a way because I think since that happened it showed Dan how good he has it here- and that has helped him commit to us even more. That said, if you are looking for a job it's probably not a great idea to publicize it no matter what business your in. Dan's agent didn't handle that very well- and Dan changed agents as he should have.

I explained how the negotiation went- Dan tells them he wants an extension. Keenum and Cohen say OK BUT here's what you have to do in order to get it. It probably wasn't even heated at all. Dan didn't get his extension until after he: Won the Egg Bowl, won our bowl game, improved his recruiting class, re-assigned Sallach and hired Looney, and hired Grantham. THEN he got the raise. He did what he was supposed to do and we followed up by keeping our word. It's as simple as that- and again we're all the better for it.

And to add- it would be pretty sorry of MSU to tell him to hire a real DC and not tell him that we would pay whatever. That would almost be setting him up for failure- which wouldn't have been right.