If the Grantham thing is even being negotiated...

[1bigdawg]

I believe this is on Cohen. I can see Strickland saying, "Coach, this is your budget for assistants." I can see Cohen saying, "What do you need to bring championships to MSU."

Even if we don't get Graham, I believe we this indicates a different attitude in the Athletic Department.

[preachermatt83]

I agree 100%

[smootness]

What on earth about Stricklin leads you to believe he was tight with the budget? And what about Mullen leads you to believe he would ever stay at a place with an AD who did that?

I don't understand why people continue to believe Stricklin was some kind of penny pincher or someone who was more about the bottom line than anything else. He may not have been a perfect AD across the board, but the guy spent more money to improve our athletic department than anyone else. He was constantly spending to improve facilities and bring in/keep coaches.

[KB21]

What on earth about Stricklin leads you to believe he was tight with the budget? And what about Mullen leads you to believe he would ever stay at a place with an AD who did that?

I don't understand why people continue to believe Stricklin was some kind of penny pincher or someone who was more about the bottom line than anything else. He may not have been a perfect AD across the board, but the guy spent more money to improve our athletic department than anyone else. He was constantly spending to improve facilities and bring in/keep coaches.

Stricklin definitely was not a penny pincher at all. In fact, I've had a pretty significant donor that I have seen in my clinic who told me that Stricklin knew how to spend the money.

[coastdoglover]

Stricklin definitely was not a penny pincher at all. In fact, I've had a pretty significant donor that I have seen in my clinic who told me that Stricklin knew how to spend the money.

And we wasted several million on Rick Ray.

[SaintDawg]

And we wasted several million on Rick Ray.

Mistakes were made.

[Boodawg]

And we wasted several million on Rick Ray.

I still can't believe we spent 1M/year on a no name coach like Rick. I said that when we first hired him. I figure we could've gotten him here for half of that.

[mstatefan91]

What it is is a signal of an AD with balls (no shock) telling a head coach to pick a proven commodity and that the athletic department would pay.

[TrapGame]

What it is is a signal of an AD with balls (no shock) telling a head coach to pick a proven commodity and that the athletic department would pay.

Exactly!

Cohen: "Who you want as your DC?"

Mullen: "I'm sticking with the 3-4 so I'd really like to have Todd Grantham."

Cohen: "Ok, let's make this happen. Call his agent."

[Eric Nies Grind Time]

So is this a thread based on made up conversations?

[TrapGame]

So is this a thread based on made up conversations?

I prefer to call it speculative fiction.**

[maroonmania]

What on earth about Stricklin leads you to believe he was tight with the budget? And what about Mullen leads you to believe he would ever stay at a place with an AD who did that?

I don't understand why people continue to believe Stricklin was some kind of penny pincher or someone who was more about the bottom line than anything else. He may not have been a perfect AD across the board, but the guy spent more money to improve our athletic department than anyone else. He was constantly spending to improve facilities and bring in/keep coaches.

Well Mullen has NEVER tried to hire a sitting Power 5 DC from another school who is in good standing. SOMETHING has changed for sure. Even if it somehow falls through we are actually trying to get a proven commodity in here for DC and that is a FIRST for Mullen. Up until now we have just been a DC big boy training ground for so called 'up and comers'. Hope the Grantham thing happens but it won't take a lot to upgrade from Sirmon.

[1bigdawg]

Whatever was said, I tend to believe Cohen is aiming for championships. A lot of ADs lose the thread after a while and are more focused on keeping the contributions coming in. Of course, money follows championships.

[BrunswickDawg]

Whatever was said, I tend to believe Cohen is aiming for championships. A lot of ADs lose the thread after a while and are more focused on keeping the contributions coming in. Of course, money follows championships.

And I think that may be one of the big differences in Cohen and Scott. Scott wasn't an athlete or a coach, so I don't know if he understood the difference in being competitive and being a championship level team. To non athlete/coaches, sometimes they just take a "you'll get 'em next time" approach instead of saying "what do you need to get over the top?"

[smootness]

So is this a thread based on made up conversations?

Yes

[smootness]

And I think that may be one of the big differences in Cohen and Scott. Scott wasn't an athlete or a coach, so I don't know if he understood the difference in being competitive and being a championship level team. To non athlete/coaches, sometimes they just take a "you'll get 'em next time" approach instead of saying "what do you need to get over the top?"

All indications that Mullen has ever given is that his relationship with Stricklin was exactly that...Stricklin would ask what he needed, and Stricklin would do everything he could to allow for that to be possible.

[Jarius]

I think we got about a 20 million dollar increase in our athletic budget from last year to this
Year and we can afford bigger name assistants now.

[Todd4State]

The difference between Stricklin and Cohen is Cohen has coaching experience and Stricklin is a very good marketing guy. Both are/were good in their own ways. I think Cohen by nature is more competitive than Stricklin- and no I'm not saying Scott didn't want to or cared about winning. Just that Cohen is more intense about it. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if some of our good marketing ideas take a dip. I can probably live with that if it means winning more- no offense to Scott.

I don't think Cohen would tell Dan "who to hire". But one thing about Cohen as I have mentioned is I think he can maybe give Dan better "sports advice" than Scott because he has been a coach. One thing I do know about Cohen is he always had good assistant coaches for the most part- Lane, Butch, Mingione all from his first staff went on to become head coaches, two in the SEC. Wes is considered one of the best pitching coaches in the game as is Henderson. Jake Wells is now the hitting coach at Alabama and is moving through the ranks and the same could be said for Will Coggin.

So it wouldn't surprise me at all if part of Cohen's sports advice at some point was to make sure you hire proven guys and try to hire top guys at the highest positions. Cohen may have also encouraged Dan to go out and make a huge splash at DC and told him that money is not an issue and to make it happen.

And like everyone else, who knows if those talks happened or not? But it is interesting if the Grantham hire goes down because it's a very different hire than the ones we are accustomed to seeing at MSU lately and in a good way. This will probably be the most qualified DC we have hired since we brought in Ellis Johnson in 2004.

[MetEdDawg]

The difference between Stricklin and Cohen is Cohen has coaching experience and Stricklin is a very good marketing guy. Both are/were good in their own ways. I think Cohen by nature is more competitive than Stricklin- and no I'm not saying Scott didn't want to or cared about winning. Just that Cohen is more intense about it. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if some of our good marketing ideas take a dip. I can probably live with that if it means winning more- no offense to Scott.

I don't think Cohen would tell Dan "who to hire". But one thing about Cohen as I have mentioned is I think he can maybe give Dan better "sports advice" than Scott because he has been a coach. One thing I do know about Cohen is he always had good assistant coaches for the most part- Lane, Butch, Mingione all from his first staff went on to become head coaches, two in the SEC. Wes is considered one of the best pitching coaches in the game as is Henderson. Jake Wells is now the hitting coach at Alabama and is moving through the ranks and the same could be said for Will Coggin.

So it wouldn't surprise me at all if part of Cohen's sports advice at some point was to make sure you hire proven guys and try to hire top guys at the highest positions. Cohen may have also encouraged Dan to go out and make a huge splash at DC and told him that money is not an issue and to make it happen.

And like everyone else, who knows if those talks happened or not? But it is interesting if the Grantham hire goes down because it's a very different hire than the ones we are accustomed to seeing at MSU lately and in a good way. This will probably be the most qualified DC we have hired since we brought in Ellis Johnson in 2004.

Stricklin was the positioning guy. Got us in position to have success. Marketing, branding, etc. Repositioned us substantially. Cohen is a cut throat, I want to be the best at everything guy. He's in my mind the perfect AD for where we are at. He's gonna get stuff done and he's a coach, so he knows the processes that need to be in place for success. He understands the foundation that needs to be in place for a coach to be successful.

If we get Grantham, I think not only do we give massive credit to Cohen, but he's setting the tone for how we will proceed forward.

[Jack Lambert]

I think it's a ploy made up by Ole Miss to hurt recruiting.

[lamont]

Proof is in the pudding. Before now- we have never hired a coordinator worthy of paying $1MM for. Now that Cohen is AD- it happens. in a year after we went 5-7. Thats not a coincidence

[basedog]

Say what y'all want, this is Mullen's decision, Cohen just approved it.

Looks like Mullen is going to change to be a better coach if The rumor is true about Grantham, a little older and more experience who knows the Sec.

Give Mullen the credit and be thankful Cohen is our AD.

[Bdawg]

If I'm not mistaken, Mullen said things are going to get harder and tougher on players this next season. I believe he saw the softness ,too, in our D. Maybe this new guy will eliminate all of that

[DancingRabbit]

So it wouldn't surprise me at all if part of Cohen's sports advice at some point was to make sure you hire proven guys.

Like Cannizaro? And Cohen as AD is a bit of a reach on the surface.

Ha, just bustin' your balls. In general agree with your post, and I have a good feeling about John and Andy.

[basedog]

Like Cannizaro? And Cohen as AD is a bit of a reach on the surface.

Ha, just bustin' your balls. In general agree with your post, and I have a good feeling about John and Andy.

Todd also was wanting or suggesting a non P5 DC, he as you know was somewhat skeptical of Cohen with no experience as AD. He lacks football knowledge as well as AD knowledge so busting his balls is ok. You are such a nice guy Rabbitt** LOL

[Reunion Dog]

Stricklin definitely was not a penny pincher at all. In fact, I've had a pretty significant donor that I have seen in my clinic who told me that Stricklin knew how to spend the money.

just because you can spend the money.. doesn't know you KNOW HOW to spend the money. The male cheerleader wasted Millions on the firm in Nashville. He was a damn joke!

[KB21]

Say what y'all want, this is Mullen's decision, Cohen just approved it.

Looks like Mullen is going to change to be a better coach if The rumor is true about Grantham, a little older and more experience who knows the Sec.

Give Mullen the credit and be thankful Cohen is our AD.

This is 100% Dan Mullen's decision.

[BB30]

Yes, this was and is Mullen's decision. He has realized that he has to win big here and he either wants to stay for the long haul and build something special or, he is setting us up to make a run in 18 and try and get a high profile job. Either of those two I am actually fine with if we bring home some hardware. Kind of off of the wall but if Grantham comes here and does well would he possibly be a HC in waiting? I think he is like 50 so not too old yet to give that dream up if he wants to be a HC.

I personally would hope if we do end up with a new coach in the next 3-5 years we get another offensive guy as I think for us to have a chance to win the west we will have to have somebody that knows what to do with a QB.