My one and only thought on our current coaching situation.

[MetEdDawg]

Unless someone truly wants my thoughts on this after I post, I'm just going to throw this out there and be done with it.

There are so many things out there that people hammer Mullen on. Bell and special teams, QB situation, play calling, personnel issues, defense, coaching hirings, recruiting, salary, relationship with donors. Has anyone ever thought that maybe we are getting to the point where Mullen needs more than what he's getting from the university in terms of resources?

How many of you actually think Saban deals with all of that crap on a day in day out basis? There is no way. If Mullen is really in charge of all of these things, don't you think that's a bit much for someone in his position to deal with? You think Saban or other SEC coaches talk to donors all the time and get them to do the things necessary to bring in recruits or donate their money? Or manages salaries of other coaches? Or manages personnel on a play by play basis? Hell no people.

Mullen is stretched too thin and it's our own damn fault. We need more money, more bodies, and more competent people in positions to make this engine go. Mullen has improved and increased us far and beyond where we were when he got here, but for the most part everything else has stayed the same. We still operate small but we aren't small anymore. We are a big entity now. Compared to the rest of the conference we are a low funded, low enrolled, low private donation, small stadium in the middle of nowhere. But if you look at where we are now compared to where we were 5-7 years ago, all of those factors are considerably larger than they were.

I think our problem is much larger than Mullen and Company on game day. I think the athletic department and the fan base as a whole has failed this football team because we've failed to mobilize ourselves in full support. We sit around and bitch all day about Mullen and all the things he's done wrong. But what the hell have we as a university done to support this transition into us trying to play with the big boys? We aren't keeping up with our own growth and Mullen is bearing the brunt of that.

I look at Mullen on the field and I see someone that is still extremely young and is still learning the ropes, but someone that is trying to carry the university by himself but he doesn't have any help. We should all quit bitching about Mullen and actually do things to figure out what the hell is wrong. Why aren't we paying assistants competitive salaries? Why are we losing recruits that we should get? Why is Mullen having to deal with some of the mundane bullshit that other coaches don't have to put up with. Why do some of the people that represent our university seem to continually get in our own way?

Long post, but point being I honestly don't think Mullen is the problem. It's the entire system we currently have at MSU that needs to be fixed. Blast me, praise me, I don't really care. As a young Bulldog (I'm 25), I really don't like what's going on with the fan base right now. I could be way off on this, but that's ok. Just my two cents.

[TheRef]

tl;dr but yes on the basic concept.

[Coach34]

pretty good post for a yonker

[Tbonewannabe]

What is this extra stuff Mullen has to do compared to everyone else?

We have been as united a fanbase as we ever have. Even during Jackies good years it wasn't as good as Mullen has had support.

[FlabLoser]

I concur with Met.

We all know why our recruiting isn't better. The head coach isn't our biggest issue. Focus on the problem.

Someone inside the AD contacted me and told me Bracky does a good job. I don't believe that for a second and the reasons have been thoroughly discussed here.

We need a sea of change in our administration.

[Dawgowar]

You point is well taken. No arguments from me.

[AROB44]

And deep down inside, I really don't think anything will change. Do you?

[Op4isabitch]

I agree to a point, however it's Mullen that keeps trotting Bell out onto the field, passing on opening drives of the second half, when running has killed the opposition, not using our RB's properly....etc...etc...etc

[gravedigger]

A state of the art facility for weights, and a stadium expansion within, what, 10 years of the last. Expansion to basketball and now baseball.

I'm sorry. That is not only an irrelevant argument to why we are struggling, it's invalid as well.

We do need to be more unified as a fan base though.

[maroonmania]

A state of the art facility for weights, and a stadium expansion within, what, 10 years of the last. Expansion to basketball and now baseball.

I'm sorry. That is not only an irrelevant argument to why we are struggling, it's invalid as well.

We do need to be more unified as a fan base though.

Yea, and that doesn't even mention the umpteen sellouts we've had from our fanbase since Mullen's been here. Fans and donors have done just about everything possible to allow Mullen to be successful. Now whether the administration (which includes compliance) has supported as they should I can't say.

[MetEdDawg]

I'm not talking about the tangible things that we all can physically see with our eyes. I'm talking about the procedural support Mullen and the football program gets. Facilities are better, but that isn't the only thing that builds a program from the gutter that we were left in after Jackie left and that Croom never fixed. Money for assistants, more athletic department personnel to deal with our growing athletics (most specifically football), beat writers and recruiting people that only have an agenda for MSU and nothing else, a fan base that donates as much money as possible and puts pressure on others who don't to do the same, a complete 100% effort by everyone involved to do everything they physically can for the betterment of MSU. We don't have that.

We tell ourselves that we should be able to compete at an elite level, but why do we think that??? What do we have or do that even comes close to comparing to what elite schools have? There is a fundamental problem with MSU, and it's that everyone isn't on the same page and doesn't have the same agenda. Too many me me me and not enough we we we. Too many unanswered questions to things that are vitality important to our growth in the SEC. Like why can we have a new 70 million dollar facility and not be able to add 500K to 1 million in coaches salaries per year to be more competitive? Why do our beat writers constantly put themselves in situations that have the potential to do MSU harm? So many other questions out there that we just don't have the answer to.

Anyone that thinks our biggest problem is on the field play doesn't see the big picture and is afraid to look inward at themselves and the fan base and say we have a bigger problem. We've got bigger problems that a new coach won't fix. We have a broken network and a busted foundation that money and flashy new toys can't always cover up.

[maroonmania]

I'm starting to get a little tired of the assistants' pay argument. First, as has been pointed out on this board the ONLY area we are well behind is coordinator's pay. Has Mullen ASKED for more money to pay coordinators' from Stricklin and been refused? I haven't heard that. Also, if Mullen was really all that worried about it he could take 400K out of his own salary and pay the OC and DC 200K more each and STILL be making 2.3 million himself which would still have him overpaid for his current production.

[MetEdDawg]

It's up to the athletic department to set the standards of pay, not Mullen to just dismiss money from his contract to pay assistants. And to blame him for that is bullshit and is just another reason why we are fragmented. We blame Mullen for shit that isn't his fault because we just want change.

Blaming Mullen for not donating part of his salary to pay coordinators? Why don't you donate some of your salary to make whatever company you work for better so they can increase the salary of the people below you and hire better people? This is how far we've fallen. Mullen doesn't give part of his money from his contract to coordinators, so it's not a fair argument for why we aren't on par with better teams. If only Mullen would step up and donate his salary and call a better game then everything would be better. That's laughable.

[The Croom Diaries]

Mullen has done a great job to get us to where we are today, but that doesn't mean he can continue to move the program forward. He has to give us at least a glimmer of hope and belief that we should continue on with him. I agree with a lot of what you said, but it doesn't excuse the shortcomings we've seen. He has enough resources to be competitive. It may not be enough to get to 9-10 wins, but it's enough to play four quarters of football, fully motivated, without a bunch or errors and lack of focus.

Not to excuse fans for lack of financial support, but if he can prove he has what it takes to bring this team up to the point where we are playing a full game against a good team then more $ will come in.

[maroonmania]

It's up to the athletic department to set the standards of pay, not Mullen to just dismiss money from his contract to pay assistants. And to blame him for that is bullshit and is just another reason why we are fragmented. We blame Mullen for shit that isn't his fault because we just want change.

Blaming Mullen for not donating part of his salary to pay coordinators? Why don't you donate some of your salary to make whatever company you work for better so they can increase the salary of the people below you and hire better people? This is how far we've fallen. Mullen doesn't give part of his money from his contract to coordinators, so it's not a fair argument for why we aren't on par with better teams. If only Mullen would step up and donate his salary and call a better game then everything would be better. That's laughable.

I didn't say that was something Mullen should do, I said that was something he COULD do if he was worried about it and thinks he can't get the job done without paying his coordinators more assuming we are truly maxed out with the coaches' pay pool. We absolutely screwed up when we vaulted Mullen's pay to where it is now WITHOUT a part of the pay being incentive based. We should have made his base pay around 2 mil and the rest of it be based on winning SEC games, bowl games, etc. Just to get a flat 2.7 million with nothing based on performance was not in our best interest. Heck, OM made a lot of what Freeze makes based on performance and right now they are getting good performance. There is a reason salesmen are asked to work a lot off of commision.

[hacker]

you really think that 700k is the difference in our performance?

[Bully13]

Unless someone truly wants my thoughts on this after I post, I'm just going to throw this out there and be done with it.

There are so many things out there that people hammer Mullen on. Bell and special teams, QB situation, play calling, personnel issues, defense, coaching hirings, recruiting, salary, relationship with donors. Has anyone ever thought that maybe we are getting to the point where Mullen needs more than what he's getting from the university in terms of resources?

How many of you actually think Saban deals with all of that crap on a day in day out basis? There is no way. If Mullen is really in charge of all of these things, don't you think that's a bit much for someone in his position to deal with? You think Saban or other SEC coaches talk to donors all the time and get them to do the things necessary to bring in recruits or donate their money? Or manages salaries of other coaches? Or manages personnel on a play by play basis? Hell no people.

Mullen is stretched too thin and it's our own damn fault. We need more money, more bodies, and more competent people in positions to make this engine go. Mullen has improved and increased us far and beyond where we were when he got here, but for the most part everything else has stayed the same. We still operate small but we aren't small anymore. We are a big entity now. Compared to the rest of the conference we are a low funded, low enrolled, low private donation, small stadium in the middle of nowhere. But if you look at where we are now compared to where we were 5-7 years ago, all of those factors are considerably larger than they were.

I think our problem is much larger than Mullen and Company on game day. I think the athletic department and the fan base as a whole has failed this football team because we've failed to mobilize ourselves in full support. We sit around and bitch all day about Mullen and all the things he's done wrong. But what the hell have we as a university done to support this transition into us trying to play with the big boys? We aren't keeping up with our own growth and Mullen is bearing the brunt of that.

I look at Mullen on the field and I see someone that is still extremely young and is still learning the ropes, but someone that is trying to carry the university by himself but he doesn't have any help. We should all quit bitching about Mullen and actually do things to figure out what the hell is wrong. Why aren't we paying assistants competitive salaries? Why are we losing recruits that we should get? Why is Mullen having to deal with some of the mundane bullshit that other coaches don't have to put up with. Why do some of the people that represent our university seem to continually get in our own way?

Long post, but point being I honestly don't think Mullen is the problem. It's the entire system we currently have at MSU that needs to be fixed. Blast me, praise me, I don't really care. As a young Bulldog (I'm 25), I really don't like what's going on with the fan base right now. I could be way off on this, but that's ok. Just my two cents.

all successful coaches have the "heppin'" machine in place....ours is pitiful

nuff said...look at the crootin' going on at VU, UPIG, KY and TSUN...quite obvious

[maroonmania]

you really think that 700k is the difference in our performance?

I don't know but its 700K we could put toward hiring better assistants when we are sucking ass on the field.

[FlabLoser]

Met mentioned having beat writers with an MSU agenda. Many of us whine that Ole Miss has a journalism school and we don't. I say our AD needs to grow a pair and pressure writers that are out of line.

Just this year, Spurrier twisted some balls and had an uncooperative writer fired.

Our AD needs to limit access and marginalize the Matt Stevens of the world who write things that hurt us. We don't have to demand sunshine pumpers. But writers who are overly negative, unfair, and all but lie to hurt us (Redmon'd mustang) need to be marginalized. They need to be denied access, given poor seating, never have questions answered, not get interviews, etc. Their employer will get the message that their coverage and their content is going to suck if they keep up the bullshit.

[Tbonewannabe]

Met mentioned having beat writers with an MSU agenda. Many of us whine that Ole Miss has a journalism school and we don't. I say our AD needs to grow a pair and pressure writers that are out of line.

Just this year, Spurrier twisted some balls and had an uncooperative writer fired.



Our AD needs to limit access and marginalize the Matt Stevens of the world who write things that hurt us. We don't have to demand sunshine pumpers. But writers who are overly negative, unfair, and all but lie to hurt us (Redmon'd mustang) need to be marginalized. They need to be denied access, given poor seating, never have questions answered, not get interviews, etc. Their employer will get the message that their coverage and their content is going to suck if they keep up the bullshit.

I 100% agree with this. There is no reason Matt Stevens still has a job.

[Coach34]

We should have made his base pay around 2 mil and the rest of it be based on winning SEC games, bowl games, etc. Just to get a flat 2.7 million with nothing based on performance was not in our best interest. Heck, OM made a lot of what Freeze makes based on performance and right now they are getting good performance. There is a reason salesmen are asked to work a lot off of commision.

What about the 200K to sign Jason Croom and Josh Dobbs? Where we gonna get that? Because that's what it was going to take to get them to Sville

We are 14th in the SEC in getting that kind of shit done

[cheewgumm]

No more croom's in Starkville

[engie]

I'm not talking about the tangible things that we all can physically see with our eyes. I'm talking about the procedural support Mullen and the football program gets. Facilities are better, but that isn't the only thing that builds a program from the gutter that we were left in after Jackie left and that Croom never fixed. Money for assistants, more athletic department personnel to deal with our growing athletics (most specifically football), beat writers and recruiting people that only have an agenda for MSU and nothing else, a fan base that donates as much money as possible and puts pressure on others who don't to do the same, a complete 100% effort by everyone involved to do everything they physically can for the betterment of MSU. We don't have that.

We tell ourselves that we should be able to compete at an elite level, but why do we think that??? What do we have or do that even comes close to comparing to what elite schools have? There is a fundamental problem with MSU, and it's that everyone isn't on the same page and doesn't have the same agenda. Too many me me me and not enough we we we. Too many unanswered questions to things that are vitality important to our growth in the SEC. Like why can we have a new 70 million dollar facility and not be able to add 500K to 1 million in coaches salaries per year to be more competitive? Why do our beat writers constantly put themselves in situations that have the potential to do MSU harm? So many other questions out there that we just don't have the answer to.

Anyone that thinks our biggest problem is on the field play doesn't see the big picture and is afraid to look inward at themselves and the fan base and say we have a bigger problem. We've got bigger problems that a new coach won't fix. We have a broken network and a busted foundation that money and flashy new toys can't always cover up.

First of all, your posts make excellent points. And I agree with 95% of what you are saying.

But in response to the main point, I say we were as united as we could possibly be for the first 3 years under Mullen. We were scary -- because we were ALL pulling together at that point. HE, our compliance dept, and our athletics administration failed to capitalize on the momentum in multiple glaringly obvious ways given hindsight. There is NO excuse for our recruiting in 2010 and 2011. That's when we had it all going for us -- and should have used the excitement to "build the foundation." The "right" coach for us would have used all that power of success to put together a network to be successful in recruiting -- and force modernization in compliance in order to shield those interests. That's the problem. Mullen didn't do ANY of this when he had all the power -- and now, he's basically a lame duck, without the power to do anything. Without a strong relationship with a bunch of our money people, Mullen has made himself all that much more expendable.

A new coach absolutely has the ability to unite the fanbase, fix the "network", and fix the foundation IF they play their cards right at the VERY beginning and/or when the have maximum leverage. Hudspeth wields tremendous power over us right now. He knows that we're screwed if we fire Mullen and he backs out and we've got to have a national coaching search -- so I think he's going to play a little aloof and hard to get before demanding up front changes. Changes that he basically tells us he's getting -- or he's walking. That's my "hope" anyway. Ultimately, I think he KNOWS he can't reach his ceiling here without them and is willing to walk away without them. He already knows and understands our booster structure, culture, "bottlenecks" of limitations, etc...and he's had a long time to figure out exactly how he's going to attack "fixing" each of them. I see a ton of similarity between he and Cohen -- and surely no one thinks he'd be walking into a worse situation than Cohen did.

If I was him, my demands:
1) A person with an NCAA enforcement and law background runs compliance. I'd have my agent doing legwork on this preeminently -- with the name of the best candidate that wanted the job -- and would coordinate with boosters so that funding is pledged to cover their handsome salary(Bracky has to be cheap). Bracky retains his title for a year as a PR move until the end of probation, but is there a figurehead only without power, and will then be transferred to a different branch within the department.

2) My power on all football-related matters is equal to the AD(Saban doctrine basically). We work as peers, not as boss/employee. In the event that we disagree, a neutral third party, with no knowledge of which vote aligns with who will be the tiebreaker.
**I'd have to think about who this person should be. First thought is Keenum -- but he's worked with Stricklin for long enough that he'd know which vote was his -- and probably always ultimately take his side. It needs to be a neutral third party who is looking out for the longterm betterment of the program. Not a coach or administrator. Obviously, if I were Hud, I'd have it figured out and details ready to go with my agent.

3) All staff contracts are incentive based -- with a total pool of money $1 mil more than current per year(easy because SEC network money will be here in August before any incentives really kick in) -- with booster pledges to cover any amount that we "go over" in year 1(you'll see in specifics that it would be a possibility). Whatever is not achieved in a given year(make the performance bonuses specific) rolls over to next year in the case that you go beyond the "pool" the next year(so the booster(s) are only on the hook for 1-2 years). There are performance bonuses for all, both specific and general, and also recruiting and retention bonuses. The exact details of this would need to be worked out -- but basically I'm thinking something like:
$1.8 mil for HC -- $100k per SEC win -- $100k per top 25 win -- $100k recruiting bonus for top 25 class -- $50 k per minor bowl win -- $100k per major bowl win -- $250k for finishing top 25.
Structure similarly and creatively for all assistants. Pay coordinators $300k base with incentives to make up to $750k(make this number very difficult to achieve, naturally -- but we need eye-popping "ceilings"). Pay everyone else $200-250k with the ability to earn up to $500k with incentives. You can even build in retention bonuses for coaches that are performing at a predetermined high level.

Am I missing anything? It seems that those 3 demands basically cover "fixing" the football program... basically all simply by hiring a new coach. I thought about this for the hour that I was writing it. Hud will have been thinking about this for several years by now. Obviously, he would have it figured out to a greater extent than I do.

ETA:
4) Have preliminary negotiation and approval of the above 3 stipulations from the check-writing booster families. So, in the interest of transparency, IF for some reason the president and AD decline to meet these demands, the power-brokers will know exactly where to point the finger when I walk away from the table leaving MSU with a nightmare situation for a coaching search.

[Dawgfan77]

I don't know but its 700K we could put toward hiring better assistants when we are sucking ass on the field.

I agree with this 100% The issue is that we are running Mullen's offense if we hire Les or if we go out and hire another OC, this will be Mullen's Offense.

[Political Hack]

A state of the art facility for weights, and a stadium expansion within, what, 10 years of the last. Expansion to basketball and now baseball.

I'm sorry. That is not only an irrelevant argument to why we are struggling, it's invalid as well.

We do need to be more unified as a fan base though.

facilities are brick and mortor that donors dont mind financing. how about we go get about ten 6 figure lawyers for our compliance department? How about we bump up our assistant coaching salaries to $1M for coordinators and $500 or so for assistants. how about our recruiting coordinator making six figures? what if we sacrificed a little of the ad income to keep the stadium juiced?

there's plenty of areas for improvement and I generally agree that CDM needs more support.... from the administration, the sec schedule, the state of Mississippi, our fans, this board, etc...

[Dawg61]

Auburn has something like 20+ football coaches working for them all with different titles and responsibilities. There might be something to this.

[FlabLoser]

facilities are brick and mortor that donors dont mind financing. how about we go get about ten 6 figure lawyers for our compliance department? How about we bump up our assistant coaching salaries to $1M for coordinators and $500 or so for assistants. how about our recruiting coordinator making six figures? what if we sacrificed a little of the ad income to keep the stadium juiced?

there's plenty of areas for improvement and I generally agree that CDM needs more support.... from the administration, the sec schedule, the state of Mississippi, our fans, this board, etc...


Hack for AD.

[HailState39110]

Auburn has something like 20+ football coaches working for them all with different titles and responsibilities. There might be something to this.

Take a look at how many people work for Alabama football that are not on the field coaches

http://www.rolltide.com/staffdir/alab-staffdir.html

Not only do they pay assistants more than we do but they also have a alot more man power doing administrative work. College football is a money grab now boys and we can't compete with the top half of the conference in that regard

[MetEdDawg]

Take a look at how many people work for Alabama football that are not on the field coaches

http://www.rolltide.com/staffdir/alab-staffdir.html

Not only do they pay assistants more than we do but they also have a alot more man power doing administrative work. College football is a money grab now boys and we can't compete with the top half of the conference in that regard

This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Mullen and any other head coach will be required to do too much until we put the money where it needs to go, which is on the administrative side of things and football specifically. Alabama has 30 people listed only under football including coaches. You think we have 30 people that deal just with football? I would highly doubt it. This is where we are hurting. We are trying to build a big time football program but not putting the resources in the places where it needs to be. Bama has 8 football analysts. We don't have that and we need to if we want to play with the big boys. Time to find the money and step up on the football specific administrative side of things.

[HailState39110]

This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Mullen and any other head coach will be required to do too much until we put the money where it needs to go, which is on the administrative side of things and football specifically. Alabama has 30 people listed only under football including coaches. You think we have 30 people that deal just with football? I would highly doubt it. This is where we are hurting. We are trying to build a big time football program but not putting the resources in the places where it needs to be. Bama has 8 football analysts. We don't have that and we need to if we want to play with the big boys. Time to find the money and step up on the football specific administrative side of things.

I checked and we have 11 positions for off the field coaches (including Rocky, Sleepy, etc) compared to 18 off the field positions for Alabama . Not earth shattering , but Alabama does have 7 more people working specifically in their day-to-day football operations than we do.

[MetEdDawg]

I checked and we have 11 positions for off the field coaches (including Rocky, Sleepy, etc) compared to 18 off the field positions for Alabama . Not earth shattering , but Alabama does have 7 more people working specifically in their day-to-day football operations than we do.

Think about it another way. Let's say everyone of those people works 50 hours a week for football (obviously it's more but I'm keeping it simple). If they have 7 more off the field people than we do, that means each week they are able to do 350 hours more football related work than we do. Over the course of a 14 week season, that's 4,900 hours more they are able to put into football during a season than we can. It's not facilities people, it's the man power on and off the field where we are lacking behind the big time schools. This is where we have to make the ground up.

[Dawg61]

Think about it another way. Let's say everyone of those people works 50 hours a week for football (obviously it's more but I'm keeping it simple). If they have 7 more off the field people than we do, that means each week they are able to do 350 hours more football related work than we do. Over the course of a 14 week season, that's 4,900 hours more they are able to put into football during a season than we can. It's not facilities people, it's the man power on and off the field where we are lacking behind the big time schools. This is where we have to make the ground up.

I could not agree more! Auburn has more than Alabama does. They have close to 30 and all of them have experience as a football coach in some form. Raise all the assistants pay and completely overhaul anyone that has anything to do with football for MSU. 10,000 extra seats will pay for that and then some.