Coach search

[CadaverDawg]

I have not read all of the million threads about "what I'm hearing", because we suddenly have 1,478 posters "hearing" stuff. If you're reading it on 247 or twitter, you aren't "hearing" anything Btw. But one thing that I have been trying to do is put myself in Cohen's position. He has to look at 2 things....1) Can't screw this hire up, 2) Optics.
John Cohen had a somewhat similar situation the last time he hired a young, inexperienced, first big D1 job coach in Cannizzaro, when Canny was out early and John was faced with getting it right to avoid making himself look incompetent. When faced with that task, he interviewed a ton of guys with experience as Head Coaches, and he went with a guy that was a head coach and had a track record of success in recruiting and leading a (non-powerhouse) program to highly winning seasons. Lemonis may not have been Schlossnagle, but he was experienced and had proven he could Recruit to and win at a place that wasn't a perennial power.

Why would John not follow that same exact path this time? Guys, he cannot screw this up. I repeat, He Can't Screw This Up. His job is on the line if he screws this up. We can probably all agree on that. So put rumors and "what I'm hearing" aside and think logically for a Second.....do you REALLY think Cohen is going to hire a first time head coach with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a guy with past alcohol issues with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a completely unconventional triple option guy with his ass on the line? Remember, he cannot screw this up.
No, he is going to try to interview as many people with experience as he possibly can to make every coach in America think all of their peers want to know more about our job, to draw interest. This not only helps with optics, but could help us down the road in future searches of HC, OC and DC vetting processes. And then he is going to hire the safest choice, but more importantly the guy that is the safest choice AND that he knows the fan base is in favor of because of what just happened with Joe. That gives him the best opportunity to accomplish both goals of not screwing the hire up And keeping his own ass safe.
So I totally think guys like Sark, Monken, Chizik, Judge, Grantham, etc are for optics and to show that people are interested. I do t think Cohen would hire any of those guys as a HC this go round. I think the only realistic candidates are guys like Napier, and you might see a Fritz or someone like that emerge for an interview. The rest are simply not going to logically make sense for John right now.

I fully expect John to do everything including overpay for a guy like Napier over going with a riskier choice, because he simply can't afford to at this juncture. So if we're looking at actual candidates, I think John knows the guy that checks all of his boxes is Napier, but so does Napier's agent, so John is going to have to end up overpaying for him...but that's ok. That's the price you pay when you're in our spot. Keep doing your "due diligence" interviews with as many people as possible to make our program look desired and to get people talking about us....and then do whatever it takes to get Your guy. Unless I see a name like Fritz pop up as interviewing, I can't help but think John is working on dollar terms with Napier's agent and he is still the only guy we truly want at this time.

I may be wrong. Cohen May be less concerned with his own job....but when I start putting myself in his shoes I simply can't come to any other conclusions that include protection for John.

I could be totally misreading it though. But if this is true, every bit of State fans demanding Napier could be driving that price up, because Napier's agent knows John can't blow this. Remember that.

[Rex54]

Iron Bill Napier is about to ink generational wealth. You can't NOT sign if the offer is made and it's the only offer right now (please take your sweet ass time NY Giants).

[RougeDawg]

Pretty damn spot on. Nice work.

And everyone be patient.

[DogsofAnarchy]

It’s going to be a person with Head Coaching experience. I’m sure JC has learned his lesson on the hits and misses of POTENTIALLY good coaches. We have to have someone who has led a program and had some success doing it.

[StateOfTheSip]

Well said and I agree totally. As much as I love John, this is his last chance.

[MedDawg]

I have not read all of the million threads about "what I'm hearing", because we suddenly have 1,478 posters "hearing" stuff. If you're reading it on 247 or twitter, you aren't "hearing" anything Btw. But one thing that I have been trying to do is put myself in Cohen's position. He has to look at 2 things....1) Can't screw this hire up, 2) Optics.
John Cohen had a somewhat similar situation the last time he hired a young, inexperienced, first big D1 job coach in Cannizzaro, when Canny was out early and John was faced with getting it right to avoid making himself look incompetent. When faced with that task, he interviewed a ton of guys with experience as Head Coaches, and he went with a guy that was a head coach and had a track record of success in recruiting and leading a (non-powerhouse) program to highly winning seasons. Lemonis may not have been Schlossnagle, but he was experienced and had proven he could Recruit to and win at a place that wasn't a perennial power.

Why would John not follow that same exact path this time? Guys, he cannot screw this up. I repeat, He Can't Screw This Up. His job is on the line if he screws this up. We can probably all agree on that. So put rumors and "what I'm hearing" aside and think logically for a Second.....do you REALLY think Cohen is going to hire a first time head coach with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a guy with past alcohol issues with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a completely unconventional triple option guy with his ass on the line? Remember, he cannot screw this up.
No, he is going to try to interview as many people with experience as he possibly can to make every coach in America think all of their peers want to know more about our job, to draw interest. This not only helps with optics, but could help us down the road in future searches of HC, OC and DC vetting processes. And then he is going to hire the safest choice, but more importantly the guy that is the safest choice AND that he knows the fan base is in favor of because of what just happened with Joe. That gives him the best opportunity to accomplish both goals of not screwing the hire up And keeping his own ass safe.
So I totally think guys like Sark, Monken, Chizik, Judge, Grantham, etc are for optics and to show that people are interested. I do t think Cohen would hire any of those guys as a HC this go round. I think the only realistic candidates are guys like Napier, and you might see a Fritz or someone like that emerge for an interview. The rest are simply not going to logically make sense for John right now.

I fully expect John to do everything including overpay for a guy like Napier over going with a riskier choice, because he simply can't afford to at this juncture. So if we're looking at actual candidates, I think John knows the guy that checks all of his boxes is Napier, but so does Napier's agent, so John is going to have to end up overpaying for him...but that's ok. That's the price you pay when you're in our spot. Keep doing your "due diligence" interviews with as many people as possible to make our program look desired and to get people talking about us....and then do whatever it takes to get Your guy. Unless I see a name like Fritz pop up as interviewing, I can't help but think John is working on dollar terms with Napier's agent and he is still the only guy we truly want at this time.

I may be wrong. Cohen May be less concerned with his own job....but when I start putting myself in his shoes I simply can't come to any other conclusions that include protection for John.

I could be totally misreading it though. But if this is true, every bit of State fans demanding Napier could be driving that price up, because Napier's agent knows John can't blow this. Remember that.

That's what I heard.**

[Coach34]

Why do people think Cohen's job will be on the line? Cohen is entrenched because he is the Big Money's choice. They love him. Cohen is going to be the AD for a long time. He isnt making this decision alone.

[CadaverDawg]

Why do people think Cohen's job will be on the line? Cohen is entrenched because he is the Big Money's choice. They love him. Cohen is going to be the AD for a long time. He isnt making this decision alone.

If he makes another risky hire and it fails, he will/could easily be the scapegoat and be gone. I don't care how entrenched he is, someone will be responsible for back to back risky/failed hires, and it will be John in all likelihood

[msbulldog]

I have not read all of the million threads about "what I'm hearing", because we suddenly have 1,478 posters "hearing" stuff. If you're reading it on 247 or twitter, you aren't "hearing" anything Btw. But one thing that I have been trying to do is put myself in Cohen's position. He has to look at 2 things....1) Can't screw this hire up, 2) Optics.
John Cohen had a somewhat similar situation the last time he hired a young, inexperienced, first big D1 job coach in Cannizzaro, when Canny was out early and John was faced with getting it right to avoid making himself look incompetent. When faced with that task, he interviewed a ton of guys with experience as Head Coaches, and he went with a guy that was a head coach and had a track record of success in recruiting and leading a (non-powerhouse) program to highly winning seasons. Lemonis may not have been Schlossnagle, but he was experienced and had proven he could Recruit to and win at a place that wasn't a perennial power.

Why would John not follow that same exact path this time? Guys, he cannot screw this up. I repeat, He Can't Screw This Up. His job is on the line if he screws this up. We can probably all agree on that. So put rumors and "what I'm hearing" aside and think logically for a Second.....do you REALLY think Cohen is going to hire a first time head coach with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a guy with past alcohol issues with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a completely unconventional triple option guy with his ass on the line? Remember, he cannot screw this up.
No, he is going to try to interview as many people with experience as he possibly can to make every coach in America think all of their peers want to know more about our job, to draw interest. This not only helps with optics, but could help us down the road in future searches of HC, OC and DC vetting processes. And then he is going to hire the safest choice, but more importantly the guy that is the safest choice AND that he knows the fan base is in favor of because of what just happened with Joe. That gives him the best opportunity to accomplish both goals of not screwing the hire up And keeping his own ass safe.
So I totally think guys like Sark, Monken, Chizik, Judge, Grantham, etc are for optics and to show that people are interested. I do t think Cohen would hire any of those guys as a HC this go round. I think the only realistic candidates are guys like Napier, and you might see a Fritz or someone like that emerge for an interview. The rest are simply not going to logically make sense for John right now.

I fully expect John to do everything including overpay for a guy like Napier over going with a riskier choice, because he simply can't afford to at this juncture. So if we're looking at actual candidates, I think John knows the guy that checks all of his boxes is Napier, but so does Napier's agent, so John is going to have to end up overpaying for him...but that's ok. That's the price you pay when you're in our spot. Keep doing your "due diligence" interviews with as many people as possible to make our program look desired and to get people talking about us....and then do whatever it takes to get Your guy. Unless I see a name like Fritz pop up as interviewing, I can't help but think John is working on dollar terms with Napier's agent and he is still the only guy we truly want at this time.

I may be wrong. Cohen May be less concerned with his own job....but when I start putting myself in his shoes I simply can't come to any other conclusions that include protection for John.

I could be totally misreading it though. But if this is true, every bit of State fans demanding Napier could be driving that price up, because Napier's agent knows John can't blow this. Remember that.

Thank you CDawg, you bring sense to the matter as always.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to CadaverDawg again.

[Coach34]

If he makes another risky hire and it fails, he will/could easily be the scapegoat and be gone. I don't care how entrenched he is, someone will be responsible for back to back risky/failed hires, and it will be John in all likelihood

He's not the only one making this call. Cohen will be the AD until he decides he doesnt want the job anymore. The same people he is responsible to are some of the ones that didnt think we needed to fire JoVester because we won the Egg Bowl. His baseball hire got us to the CWS in Year 1 and is a top 10 preseason this year. Cohen's job is damn near as safe as Vic's right now

[CadaverDawg]

He's not the only one making this call. Cohen will be the AD until he decides he doesnt want the job anymore. The same people he is responsible to are some of the ones that didnt think we needed to fire JoVester because we won the Egg Bowl.

Where is JoVester today? Cohen is not untouchable. Plus, even if he was, he still doesn't want to lose the fan base and have everyone thinking he's a moron and trying to push for his firing.

[RougeDawg]

Where is JoVester today? Cohen is not untouchable. Plus, even if he was, he still doesn't want to lose the fan base and have everyone thinking he's a moron and trying to push for his firing.

Does this mean we now get to add a peepin Joe to peepin Crooms?

[bobcat91]

Cohen is untouchable and will be here until he retires. Cann was a good hire until he did what he did. No one had problems with Canns on the field job in results or recruiting. Moorhead was a very good hire. On paper. His recruiting was top 25. His on the field results got him fired. I think most everyone expects us to hire Napier, but Troy Calhoun is a very good coach. He was well thought of in the NFL at Denver and has won at Air Force big time. He is capable of running multiple offenses. That wasnt a bad coach to interview.

Having said that, its Napier until proven otherwise. And John will be here until he retires.

[Coach34]

Where is JoVester today? .

Had the fight not happened- Joe would still be our coach. The fight got Keenum on board

[Liverpooldawg]

He's not the only one making this call. Cohen will be the AD until he decides he doesnt want the job anymore. The same people he is responsible to are some of the ones that didnt think we needed to fire JoVester because we won the Egg Bowl. His baseball hire got us to the CWS in Year 1 and is a top 10 preseason this year. Cohen's job is damn near as safe as Vic's right now

If he botches this hire he will be thrown out of your entrenchment so fast it will make your head spin.

[OLJWales]

Had the fight not happened- Joe would still be our coach. The fight got Keenum on board

I find that concerning because if Joe had been a good HC, the fight wouldn't have gotten him fired. Too many folks still at the top of our admin who will allow optics over performance make big decisions for us. More concerned about having a David Cutcliffe type media shit storm had they fired him (wisely so) right after the egg bowl. It was kinda like "ok, we've known all along he's not the man, but here's our "out" "

[WinningIsRelentless]

If he makes another risky hire and it fails, he will/could easily be the scapegoat and be gone. I don't care how entrenched he is, someone will be responsible for back to back risky/failed hires, and it will be John in all likelihood

Risky hire? Every national media outlet was saying we made the best hire of that cycle with him. When you hire someone you are always going to be taking risk.

Hell look at Butch Jones and TN. That was a disaster and he was a hell of a coach coming in.

The things you need to look at with Cohen is his first choice was Ryan Day and we just couldn?t land him. His second coach is JoMo and honestly at the right school with what we know now JoMo will probably do well. He just wasn?t a fit at State.

Cohen knew he wasn?t a fit and was ready to make a change before the Egg Bowl, but his boss made him cancel the plans. They gave JoMo enough rope and JoMo went the wrong way with it.

Truth be told if some of you all?s boy wonder, HUD, had been here after the TN game he would have been the interim HC. That would have given himself the chance to prove that he deserved it.

People say it was Hud who came up with the Auburn game plan, but it?s well known within the athletic office it was Getsy who was the mastermind behind it.

[C222]

Cohen isn?t going anywhere.

And what sitting head coach would we get at this point if not Napier? I?d rather have Hall as an OC and Judge as HC than Fritz. Not Holtz, definitely not Calhoun or Monken. No one is out there. Maybe Healy? It will be Napier or an assistant.

[defiantdog]

Had the fight not happened- Joe would still be our coach. The fight got Keenum on board

Yeah, it's pretty bad when you gotta put makeup on the starting qb because he got in a fight with his own team.

[Coach34]

Yeah, it's pretty bad when you gotta put makeup on the starting qb because he got in a fight with his own team.

haha yeah- the make-up thing is hilarious

[DownwardDawg]

I have not read all of the million threads about "what I'm hearing", because we suddenly have 1,478 posters "hearing" stuff. If you're reading it on 247 or twitter, you aren't "hearing" anything Btw. But one thing that I have been trying to do is put myself in Cohen's position. He has to look at 2 things....1) Can't screw this hire up, 2) Optics.
John Cohen had a somewhat similar situation the last time he hired a young, inexperienced, first big D1 job coach in Cannizzaro, when Canny was out early and John was faced with getting it right to avoid making himself look incompetent. When faced with that task, he interviewed a ton of guys with experience as Head Coaches, and he went with a guy that was a head coach and had a track record of success in recruiting and leading a (non-powerhouse) program to highly winning seasons. Lemonis may not have been Schlossnagle, but he was experienced and had proven he could Recruit to and win at a place that wasn't a perennial power.

Why would John not follow that same exact path this time? Guys, he cannot screw this up. I repeat, He Can't Screw This Up. His job is on the line if he screws this up. We can probably all agree on that. So put rumors and "what I'm hearing" aside and think logically for a Second.....do you REALLY think Cohen is going to hire a first time head coach with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a guy with past alcohol issues with his ass on the line? Do you really think he's going to hire a completely unconventional triple option guy with his ass on the line? Remember, he cannot screw this up.
No, he is going to try to interview as many people with experience as he possibly can to make every coach in America think all of their peers want to know more about our job, to draw interest. This not only helps with optics, but could help us down the road in future searches of HC, OC and DC vetting processes. And then he is going to hire the safest choice, but more importantly the guy that is the safest choice AND that he knows the fan base is in favor of because of what just happened with Joe. That gives him the best opportunity to accomplish both goals of not screwing the hire up And keeping his own ass safe.
So I totally think guys like Sark, Monken, Chizik, Judge, Grantham, etc are for optics and to show that people are interested. I do t think Cohen would hire any of those guys as a HC this go round. I think the only realistic candidates are guys like Napier, and you might see a Fritz or someone like that emerge for an interview. The rest are simply not going to logically make sense for John right now.

I fully expect John to do everything including overpay for a guy like Napier over going with a riskier choice, because he simply can't afford to at this juncture. So if we're looking at actual candidates, I think John knows the guy that checks all of his boxes is Napier, but so does Napier's agent, so John is going to have to end up overpaying for him...but that's ok. That's the price you pay when you're in our spot. Keep doing your "due diligence" interviews with as many people as possible to make our program look desired and to get people talking about us....and then do whatever it takes to get Your guy. Unless I see a name like Fritz pop up as interviewing, I can't help but think John is working on dollar terms with Napier's agent and he is still the only guy we truly want at this time.

I may be wrong. Cohen May be less concerned with his own job....but when I start putting myself in his shoes I simply can't come to any other conclusions that include protection for John.

I could be totally misreading it though. But if this is true, every bit of State fans demanding Napier could be driving that price up, because Napier's agent knows John can't blow this. Remember that.

Well said.

[Maverick]

I agree it'll be a Lemonis type hire and Napier fits that bill of a successful lower level head coach except he's not coming out of left field like Lemonis did. However, I don't think Cohen's job is on the line but that the only pressure he feels is to make the hire that fits State better this time around for the University and not solely his job security. I still expect him to make the right hire for State and wouldn't be surprised if it's from left field again. Although, if things hold true there appears to be signs pointing towards Napier with what Bert and C34 have said they've seen on the Louisiana side.

[OSCAR]

Why do people think Cohen's job will be on the line? Cohen is entrenched because he is the Big Money's choice. They love him. Cohen is going to be the AD for a long time. He isnt making this decision alone.

His hiring of Joe will likely be viewed as a better hire nationally than this one. I?m not sure Cohen made a bad hire, so much as the hire he made didn?t work out. It?s splitting hairs I know, but sometimes good moves in practice just don?t work out. I want him to keep making good moves and hopefully we hit on this one. I fear we will overcorrect it like a golf swing and go from a slice to a hook.

[CadaverDawg]

If the news about Napier not being the guy is true, then that could mean John had zero candidate that he was locked in on when he fired Joe. If that is the case, we have way bigger problems than no head coach. This is starting to look like amateur hour. If we end up with a clown like Chizik, I'm done. I can't take much more of this shit as it is, but waiting two months too late to fire Joe and STILL having nobody ready to go when you finally fire him....just mind boggling to me.