How desirable is our DC job?

[CadaverDawg]

I was thinking about possible replacements, and I feel like our job is probably a pretty desirable job.

We are stocked with NFL talent on that side of the ball.

We have a history of producing well respected and desired Defensive Coordinators.

We run a modern offense, but not such a fast paced offense that it puts the defense at a disadvantage.

We are in the SEC West, so it is a big stage.

We are 10-2 and were #1 for a long time this season, so it's a premier DC job at a premier program right now.

It's early enough to where you could still be a part of the recruiting process possibly, and plenty of time to get to know the players and staff before next season.

While we aren't paying Muschamp type assistant salaries, we are definitely paying assistants far above average, and it's getting better by the year.


I just really feel like we have the potential to make a really good hire here. If we were ever going to lose Collins, this is the best position to be in, except for him making the move shortly after signing day. If we can get a good coach in here fairly quickly, we should be able to hang on to recruits, and hopefully improve on defense next season. Mullen needs to get out of the damn way though, and let our DC coach the way he coached to make him an attractive candidate once he gets here.

[Eric Nies Grind Time]

I would say top 20 or so. It shouldn't be that hard to find a good replacement.

[HoopsDawg]

Extremely desirable. Collins should have waited until tomorrow night. Pretty classless move. Hope it doesn't cost us Swain.

[MetEdDawg]

I'm with you. We don't have to go searching for diamonds in the rough. We can go find someone that has plenty of experience. We are retooling a bit on defense this offseason but I still think we've got a great set of players on defense and hopefully coming in with this recruiting class.

I will be disappointed if we start combing through the DC ranks of the Sun Belt or C USA. We can get someone that is proven in a power 5 conference or someone like a Bill Clark. I don't want any retreads like Diaz. If we are able to bring the salary to that 800K-1 million range, I think we could get a very solid DC hire that would make a splash for our recruits and for our team moving forward.

[AROB44]

I was thinking about possible replacements, and I feel like our job is probably a pretty desirable job.

We are stocked with NFL talent on that side of the ball.

We have a history of producing well respected and desired Defensive Coordinators.

We run a modern offense, but not such a fast paced offense that it puts the defense at a disadvantage.

We are in the SEC West, so it is a big stage.

We are 10-2 and were #1 for a long time this season, so it's a premier DC job at a premier program right now.

It's early enough to where you could still be a part of the recruiting process possibly, and plenty of time to get to know the players and staff before next season.

While we aren't paying Muschamp type assistant salaries, we are definitely paying assistants far above average, and it's getting better by the year.


I just really feel like we have the potential to make a really good hire here. If we were ever going to lose Collins, this is the best position to be in, except for him making the move shortly after signing day. If we can get a good coach in here fairly quickly, we should be able to hang on to recruits, and hopefully improve on defense next season. Mullen needs to get out of the damn way though, and let our DC coach the way he coached to make him an attractive candidate once he gets here.

I just don't understand this continuous speculation on Mullen being the reason Collins' defense was so bad later in the year. Seems to me people have take this "Dan is hard headed and micromanages everything" a little too far. Name me a head coach that is worth his salt that doesn't have an ego or in not "hard headed". Sherrill was hard headed but is still my favorite coach at MSU (Dan is moving up though).

[CadaverDawg]

I just don't understand this continuous speculation on Mullen being the reason Collins' defense was so bad later in the year. Seems to me people have take this "Dan is hard headed and micromanages everything" a little too far. Name me a head coach that is worth his salt that doesn't have an ego or in not "hard headed". Sherrill was hard headed but is still my favorite coach at MSU (Dan is moving up though).

Because right around the time we started getting conservative on offense, we got conservative on defense. If you have ever seen Geoff "Minister of Mayhem" Collins speak, there is nothing conservative about that man or his scheme. Therefore, one can only assume either they both tightened up and choked when we had a shot at the playoffs...OR, the head coach told him not to be risky and to play a bunch of zone. Not to mention, Mullen straight buried him under the bus after the Egg Bowl, while his offense was equally as shitty. Either way, Mullen needs to step away from the defense. Hell, based on our Special Teams....he has plenty to worry about with offense and ST, to where he should let the DC handle the D. Just my opinion.

[CadaverDawg]

I don't really want to make this a "How hard headed is Mullen" thread. I'd rather talk about the job itself, unless people feel like Mullen hurts the DC hire...which is possible.

[msstate7]

Extremely desirable. Collins should have waited until tomorrow night. Pretty classless move. Hope it doesn't cost us Swain.

You think swain is likely? I thought auburn had him all but signed

[Thick]

Because right around the time we started getting conservative on offense, we got conservative on defense. If you have ever seen Geoff "Minister of Mayhem" Collins speak, there is nothing conservative about that man or his scheme. Therefore, one can only assume either they both tightened up and choked when we had a shot at the playoffs...OR, the head coach told him not to be risky and to play a bunch of zone. Not to mention, Mullen straight buried him under the bus after the Egg Bowl, while his offense was equally as shitty. Either way, Mullen needs to step away from the defense. Hell, based on our Special Teams....he has plenty to worry about with offense and ST, to where he should let the DC handle the D. Just my opinion.

Everybody is assuming that Mullen is the problem on the defensive side of the ball. It's complete speculation and bs until proven otherwise with sound facts. The offense is all Dan all of the time, but the other side of the line of scrimmage will remain a mystery.

[CadaverDawg]

Everybody is assuming that Mullen is the problem on the defensive side of the ball. It's complete speculation and bs until proven otherwise with sound facts. The offense is all Dan all of the time, but the other side of the line of scrimmage will remain a mystery.

You're right, everybody is speculating....but it's not like we'll ever know for sure if Mullen was pulling back the reigns on Collins and the defense. Nobody will ever make that public. So all we can do is speculate. There are a lot of things pointing in that direction, but you're right....it's speculation, and I haven't seen anybody act like it was a fact.

That being said, Mullen throwing Collins and the defensive staff under the bus after the Egg Bowl was Not speculation....and Mullen's offense was shitty in that game too. And it is pretty well documented that Mullen can be tough to work with at times.

None of this is to say Dan isn't a great coach...he is. But nothing wrong with looking at the negatives with the positives. I would imagine most of the all time great coaches are difficult to work with at times and have their flaws. I'm very happy with Mullen, I just hope he isn't trying to micromanage the defense now that he is winning at a higher level. And as you said, he may not be.

[1bigdawg]

We were 10th in scoring defense last year. Memphis, Temple and UCF were the only non-power 5 teams that did better. My first moves would be to check out those DCs and maybe Coach O. If the money were right, Clemson's DC would be another possibility. I like Manny, but his D was not in the top 50.

[Really Clark?]

N
Because right around the time we started getting conservative on offense, we got conservative on defense. If you have ever seen Geoff "Minister of Mayhem" Collins speak, there is nothing conservative about that man or his scheme. Therefore, one can only assume either they both tightened up and choked when we had a shot at the playoffs...OR, the head coach told him not to be risky and to play a bunch of zone. Not to mention, Mullen straight buried him under the bus after the Egg Bowl, while his offense was equally as shitty. Either way, Mullen needs to step away from the defense. Hell, based on our Special Teams....he has plenty to worry about with offense and ST, to where he should let the DC handle the D. Just my opinion.

Dan did throw himself under the bus to after the egg bowl. He talked about both sides of the ball but people never mention that part of the post game speech.

[GTHOM]

Collins deserved to be thrown under the bus after that garbage. Mullen should have thrown himself right under there with him, im fine with collins leaving. I think our DC job is as desirable as any right now, i hope to God we could get Pelini, Brett Venables, or Orgeron. If none of those get Bill Clark or Barry Odom

[C222]

We were 10th in scoring defense last year. Memphis, Temple and UCF were the only non-power 5 teams that did better. My first moves would be to check out those DCs and maybe Coach O. If the money were right, Clemson's DC would be another possibility. I like Manny, but his D was not in the top 50.

Tyson Summers - UCF

http://www.ucfknights.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/summers_tyson00.html

[FlabLoser]

We have recruited well on D. Plenty of talent to recruit from MS and around the area. Our last 2 DCs took steps up to 2 of the bigger programs in the country.

I'd say our DC job looks pretty damn good.

[Bothrops]

We recruit well on D because we are in very fertile recruiting ground for that side of the ball. Our job is good but from an outside perspective it's nothing outstanding. Need to up the ante some more.

[maroonmania]

I just don't understand this continuous speculation on Mullen being the reason Collins' defense was so bad later in the year. Seems to me people have take this "Dan is hard headed and micromanages everything" a little too far. Name me a head coach that is worth his salt that doesn't have an ego or in not "hard headed". Sherrill was hard headed but is still my favorite coach at MSU (Dan is moving up though).

Don't even compare the two. Sherrill had Bill Clay for 5 seasons and JLD for 7 seasons so obviously DCs had no issue coaching under Sherrill. Mullen hasn't kept one for more than 2 seasons so there is continual friction between he and his DCs, that much is obvious.

[Tbonewannabe]

You're right, everybody is speculating....but it's not like we'll ever know for sure if Mullen was pulling back the reigns on Collins and the defense. Nobody will ever make that public. So all we can do is speculate. There are a lot of things pointing in that direction, but you're right....it's speculation, and I haven't seen anybody act like it was a fact.

That being said, Mullen throwing Collins and the defensive staff under the bus after the Egg Bowl was Not speculation....and Mullen's offense was shitty in that game too. And it is pretty well documented that Mullen can be tough to work with at times.

None of this is to say Dan isn't a great coach...he is. But nothing wrong with looking at the negatives with the positives. I would imagine most of the all time great coaches are difficult to work with at times and have their flaws. I'm very happy with Mullen, I just hope he isn't trying to micromanage the defense now that he is winning at a higher level. And as you said, he may not be.

I don't think he threw them under the bus as much as laid out the facts. UM had something like a 28 yard per play average, how the hell do you defend that at all?

[Tbonewannabe]

Don't even compare the two. Sherrill had Bill Clay for 5 seasons and JLD for 7 seasons so obviously DCs had no issue coaching under Sherrill. Mullen hasn't kept one for more than 2 seasons so there is continual friction between he and his DCs, that much is obvious.

Everyone gotten promotions but Chris Wilson so would it have been better if he had kept Wilson? JLD also was fired after his defense was around 23rd in the country and Sherrill hired Ron "Grab ass" Cooper.

[Really Clark?]

Don't even compare the two. Sherrill had Bill Clay for 5 seasons and JLD for 7 seasons so obviously DCs had no issue coaching under Sherrill. Mullen hasn't kept one for more than 2 seasons so there is continual friction between he and his DCs, that much is obvious.

Well now to be fair Mullen did the correct thing in telling Torbush to find another job and how was he going to stop Diaz from leaving after one year? Not to mention no one was crying for him to keep Wilson (asked to find another positions as well).

[maroonmania]

Everyone gotten promotions but Chris Wilson so would it have been better if he had kept Wilson? JLD also was fired after his defense was around 23rd in the country and Sherrill hired Ron "Grab ass" Cooper.

Our guys are obviously out looking for something even a little better, that's the tell-tell sign. Nobody is going to leave even a job for something that isn't at least somewhat better even if they aren't wild about their current situation. Guys that truly enjoy what they are doing are more content to keep doing what they are doing until a true promotion job comes along. I was less alarmed by Diaz's move to Texas because there you are talking about the largest football budget in the country at a time when our program was still much less established under Mullen. The Collins move is more disturbing because the luster on the Florida job is not what it was under Meyer and our program has elevated itself quite a bit with on field and off field advancements the past couple of seasons. Yes, the FL job is technically "better" but its not night and day better like it used to be. Blountly, I really thought Collins' next move would be a HC job.

[HoopsDawg]

We were 10th in scoring defense last year. Memphis, Temple and UCF were the only non-power 5 teams that did better. My first moves would be to check out those DCs and maybe Coach O. If the money were right, Clemson's DC would be another possibility. I like Manny, but his D was not in the top 50.

Stats can be very misleading. You have to look at conference only stats.

We finished 12th in the SEC in Total Defense in-conference. Only South Carolina and A&M were worse and they both fired their D-coordinators. Hell, even Vandy and UK were better.

[LC Dawg]

I think our DC job is highly desirable. We have stud athletes on defense and we have even more on the way, our facilities are great and we pay very well. We are in the best division in the best conference in the nation and we are very competitive, we just were ranked #1 for a while. In my opinion, our offense makes our DC position even more attractive. We eat up yards and score a lot of points (most of the time) which puts less pressure on the defense. Also, I don't buy into it being a huge problem that Mullen is so hard to work for. I just don't think there are that many assistant coaches out there that love their job because the head coach is so fun to work for.

[CadaverDawg]

I think our DC job is highly desirable. We have stud athletes on defense and we have even more on the way, our facilities are great and we pay very well. We are in the best division in the best conference in the nation and we are very competitive, we just were ranked #1 for a while. In my opinion, our offense makes our DC position even more attractive. We eat up yards and score a lot of points (most of the time) which puts less pressure on the defense. Also, I don't buy into it being a huge problem that Mullen is so hard to work for. I just don't think there are that many assistant coaches out there that love their job because the head coach is so fun to work for.

Thank you for this response.

[bluelightstar]

I think our DC job is highly desirable. We have stud athletes on defense and we have even more on the way, our facilities are great and we pay very well. We are in the best division in the best conference in the nation and we are very competitive, we just were ranked #1 for a while. In my opinion, our offense makes our DC position even more attractive. We eat up yards and score a lot of points (most of the time) which puts less pressure on the defense. Also, I don't buy into it being a huge problem that Mullen is so hard to work for. I just don't think there are that many assistant coaches out there that love their job because the head coach is so fun to work for.

Yeah, pretty sure most head coaches are assholes.

[Percho]

If I were hiring a DC I would want some relative young coach to contact me with a defensive plan, even a new concept, something they had given a lot of thought to and show me why they want an opportunity at the job. Someone with new ideas especially concerning new offenses.

Then I would go from there.