Gotta say I'm a bit surprised by lack of interest in the job

[Irondawg]

Granted the overall pool wasn't great this year b/c I don't think what ARK and Mizzou hired are really any better than the current candidate pool, but I thought there would be some slightly bigger names/coordinators pushing to get in the SEC.

I know MSU has some hurdles that scare some coaches and the small town thing isn't for all families, but we've proven that we don't normally have crazy expectation and will stick with a coach we trust through some rebuild seasons. Also proven that we can be a platform job and can win big without having to cheat at absurd levels. Plus we do reside in fertile recruiting grounds and pay really well.

But there isn't a single sitting P5 coach being rumored strongly and the only P5 coordinators mentioned at all have been Grantham and Sarkisian. That just seems really, really odd unless we're doing a much better job of keeping some talks under wraps.

[Rex54]

Maybe they know it's already wrapped up and don't want to signal to their current employers anything at this time.

[ShotgunDawg]

I don't think we know

[DogsofAnarchy]

There is and has been a hell of a lot of interest in this job.

[PMDawg]

Yeah, kind of hard to come to that conclusion when it's most likely we don't even know the whole pool. And if Bert's right, we had our guy all along.

[Irondawg]

If it's Napier it's all moot.

And yeah there has been a lot of interest but all the name we're hearing are G5 guys and it's safe to say that 90% of those guys would always be interested. Last time all our main targets seemed to be high P5 coordinators.

[basedog]

It’s always a gamble. Always will be.

[DLGDawg]

Yeah, kind of hard to come to that conclusion when it's most likely we don't even know the whole pool. And if Bert's right, we had our guy all along.

I go back to what C34 said early on. You don't fire your coach this time of year without someone lined up(paraphrasing). That has made the most sense to me the whole time.

[Cowbell]

I go back to what C34 said early on. You don't fire your coach this time of year without someone lined up(paraphrasing). That has made the most sense to me the whole time.

This

[TrapGame]

If Bert is right we've had Napier wrapped up since the day Moorhead was fired. The other interviews were just courtesy and keeping the smoke screen billowing.

[Chinchilla]

but we've proven that we don't normally have crazy expectation and will stick with a coach we trust through some rebuild seasons.

We don't get to claim this anymore. "Average 7 wins and always go to a bowl, and we'll build a statue of you," is something we've always said when talking about why our job is underrated. That is now out the door.

[Liverpooldawg]

we've proven that we don't normally have crazy expectation

That's out the window now.

[confucius say]

We don't get to claim this anymore. "Average 7 wins and always go to a bowl, and we'll build a statue of you," is something we've always said when talking about why our job is underrated. That is now out the door.

Nah. You just forgot to include the part about don?t have the program embarrassed under your watch by academic scandal and lb pitching out qb and players openly not showing up for practice etc...

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

We don't get to claim this anymore. "Average 7 wins and always go to a bowl, and we'll build a statue of you," is something we've always said when talking about why our job is underrated. That is now out the door.

Oh my gosh, you simply cant compare what Joe did to a decent coach that has a rebuilding year. 2016 was a rebuilding year with a bad DC hire, still stuck with Mullen and would have even if he lost to OM and went 4-8.

Joe took a preseason #12 team that returned 18 starters off the #17 team the year before, and somehow went 8-5. Then he went 6-6 with a fluky win over OM. The entire time we looked like shit in all aspects aside from defensive coaching, cultural issues abounded, the team didnt play hard, and the team somehow regressed throughout the year.

"Rebuilding year" = we have young guys and wont win many games. State fans are A-ok with that if you can win 9 just as often. Having "rebuilding year" results because you cant install a decent offense and cant manage a locker room is completely different

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

That's out the window now.

Yeah, we expect to be as well coached at the G5 teams we play, not have Tutorgate, not have player breaking each others face, not have Srs skipping practice, not have the offense be god awful, and not need the "Piss and Miss" to beat a 4-7 OM team on our homefield.

Truly ridiculous expectations we have now

[Chinchilla]

Oh my gosh, you simply cant compare what Joe did to a decent coach that has a rebuilding year. 2016 was a rebuilding year with a bad DC hire, still stuck with Mullen and would have even if he lost to OM and went 4-8.

Joe took a preseason #12 team that returned 18 starters off the #17 team the year before, and somehow went 8-5. Then he went 6-6 with a fluky win over OM. The entire time we looked like shit in all aspects aside from defensive coaching, cultural issues abounded, the team didnt play hard, and the team somehow regressed throughout the year.

"Rebuilding year" = we have young guys and wont win many games. State fans are A-ok with that if you can win 9 just as often. Having "rebuilding year" results because you cant install a decent offense and cant manage a locker room is completely different

I don't really disagree with you, but firing Moorhead was an indication we've raised expectations. We don't get to raise expectations yet still claim modest expectations.

[Really Clark?]

Man I don?t get the lack of interest idea. I think we have kept the number of possible coordinators who would be interested down on purpose since we are looking at actual more HC this time around. That limited our numbers some but was done consciously. But we?ve had a good number of coaches interested.

[Jack Lambert]

Why are everyone worried. Hell a week ago most were saying before we fired Moorhead I would take anyone over Moorhead. If they meant what they said then it doesn't matter.

[Irondawg]

Yeah anybody saying "that's all out the window" isn't getting the point. If we looked like we were coached decently and didn't have rampant locker room issues Joe would be here with no questions asked even if the records were the same. We'd still have some lamenting that we blew some games but if we just competed as well as OM did year on the field he'd probably still be here.

Our expectations really haven't changed from when we hired Joe. Keep the bowl streak alive and give us faith that we can have the magic season here and there.

[Irondawg]

Why are everyone worried. Hell a week ago most were saying before we fired Moorhead I would take anyone over Moorhead. If they meant what they said then it doesn't matter.

I'm not worried just surprised we haven't had agents of P5 OC/DC pushing their clients. Sitting head coaches being silent I kind of get but surprised nobody is even trying to leverage us for a raise

[confucius say]

I don't really disagree with you, but firing Moorhead was an indication we've raised expectations. We don't get to raise expectations yet still claim modest expectations.

Moorhead was not fired because he went 8-4 and then 6-6. If we were going to fire him for that it would have been done the Friday after ole miss.

He was fired for things that were going in the program outside of W/L. Our expectations did not change on those things, he was just failing to meet them.

[DLGDawg]

Yeah, we expect to be as well coached at the G5 teams we play, not have Tutorgate, not have player breaking each others face, not have Srs skipping practice, not have the offense be god awful, and not need the "Piss and Miss" to beat a 4-7 OM team on our homefield.

Truly ridiculous expectations we have now

Preach it man. Scotty's on fire.

[Maroonthirteen]

All I got to say is...... we shall see who takes the job. Until then...... we can revisit this thread.

[Doggie_Style]

Why are everyone worried. Hell a week ago most were saying before we fired Moorhead I would take anyone over Moorhead. If they meant what they said then it doesn't matter.

Missing Joe already?**

[msugolf]

How do you know who is and isn't interested? And who do you think should be interested in it?

We aren't going to get another sitting power 5 coach with the exception of maybe Clawson, so then we either have to look at G5 HCs, OC/DC coordinators or retreads.

IMO I think at MState you have to be willing to take more of a risk than other P5 schools. Yes we pay well but we have a gauntlet of a schedule so that scares some people off. That's why I'm ok with rolling the dice on Judge. If it works out then we are sitting in a really good spot for the future. If it doesn't, then we'll revisit the similar situation in a few years. There isn't one candidate that screams "can't miss, will elevate us to another level." It's all a crapshoot.

[Really Clark?]

I'm not worried just surprised we haven't had agents of P5 OC/DC pushing their clients. Sitting head coaches being silent I kind of get but surprised nobody is even trying to leverage us for a raise

Like I said above, we have kept our search mainly to HC this time. So I?m sure agents have pushed coordinators but We do not seem interested in going that route, other than Judge and Grantham mentions.

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

That's out the window now.

Exactly

[Bothrops]

One thing about our program, there is always coaching interest.

[Tbonewannabe]

That's out the window now.

I think we have raised our expectations but they aren't crazy expectations.

Expectation 1. The head coach should run his program, not the players.
Expectation 2. Look like you actually gameplanned prior to the day of the game.
Expectation 3. If what you do doesn't work, adapt. If you take over a top 40 offense and due to coaching deficiencies turn it into a 65 and 75 ranked offense, you aren't doing your job unless there are injuries that caused it.
Expectation 4. Get Relentless Effort on and off the field.

Expectation 5. Get to a bowl game
Expectation 6. Win the Egg Bowl.

Moorhead failed at more expectations than he met. If we had lost on some fluke last second FG in most of those losses in 2018 then he would have gotten a lot more slack. Instead, it looked like we had never practiced offense in those 4 SEC losses. The entire team just looked flat in the Outback Bowl.

[Chinchilla]

Moorhead was not fired because he went 8-4 and then 6-6. If we were going to fire him for that it would have been done the Friday after ole miss.

He was fired for things that were going in the program outside of W/L. Our expectations did not change on those things, he was just failing to meet them.
Go find any fanbase that you consider to have unrealistic expectations, and I bet they can give you non-W/L reasons why they fired a coach you thought deserved more time, too.

The last ten years have elevated our expectations. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's reality.

[PMDawg]

Exactly

That's a 180 from the truth. Moronic to even think it.

[HoopsDawg]

I'm not worried just surprised we haven't had agents of P5 OC/DC pushing their clients. Sitting head coaches being silent I kind of get but surprised nobody is even trying to leverage us for a raise

We might have had Power 5 HC interest if we had fired Moorhead after the Egg Bowl. No one is going to leave their school in a jam right now especially between signing days.

[Johnson85]

Yeah anybody saying "that's all out the window" isn't getting the point. If we looked like we were coached decently and didn't have rampant locker room issues Joe would be here with no questions asked even if the records were the same. We'd still have some lamenting that we blew some games but if we just competed as well as OM did year on the field he'd probably still be here.

Our expectations really haven't changed from when we hired Joe. Keep the bowl streak alive and give us faith that we can have the magic season here and there.

They haven't changed from when we hired Joe, but Joe wasn't any worse than Croom and Croom got to stick around for quite a while. Our expectations have certainly changed. I don't think anybody really knows what our expectations are now. Mullen has shown that we won't turn on a coach for one bad year, even one that has some lockeroom dysfunction. But we also won't tolerate a croom or Moorhead anymore like we used to would have. Quite a bit of gap between what we have shown. I think a coach can win between 6 and 8 regular season games and stay indefinitely, and survive the occasional 5 win season, as long as we look like a decent team and don't have embarrassing off field stuff, even without the peaks that Mullen had. But I can't prove that anymore.

[confucius say]

They haven't changed from when we hired Joe, but Joe wasn't any worse than Croom and Croom got to stick around for quite a while. Our expectations have certainly changed. I don't think anybody really knows what our expectations are now. Mullen has shown that we won't turn on a coach for one bad year, even one that has some lockeroom dysfunction. But we also won't tolerate a croom or Moorhead anymore like we used to would have. Quite a bit of gap between what we have shown. I think a coach can win between 6 and 8 regular season games and stay indefinitely, and survive the occasional 5 win season, as long as we look like a decent team and don't have embarrassing off field stuff, even without the peaks that Mullen had. But I can't prove that anymore.

Yea my point, prob not made clearly, was that our win loss expectation has not changed since Mullen. It def has changed since Croom.

[Nutriaitch]

Oh my gosh, you simply cant compare what Joe did to a decent coach that has a rebuilding year. 2016 was a rebuilding year with a bad DC hire, still stuck with Mullen and would have even if he lost to OM and went 4-8.

Joe took a preseason #12 team that returned 18 starters off the #17 team the year before, and somehow went 8-5. Then he went 6-6 with a fluky win over OM. The entire time we looked like shit in all aspects aside from defensive coaching, cultural issues abounded, the team didnt play hard, and the team somehow regressed throughout the year.

"Rebuilding year" = we have young guys and wont win many games. State fans are A-ok with that if you can win 9 just as often. Having "rebuilding year" results because you cant install a decent offense and cant manage a locker room is completely different


Moorhead was not fired because he went 8-4 and then 6-6. If we were going to fire him for that it would have been done the Friday after ole miss.

He was fired for things that were going in the program outside of W/L. Our expectations did not change on those things, he was just failing to meet them.


you have to take off the fan glasses and forget a lot of the things you know about your program.

vast majority of general public (which includes all the potential coaching candidates) don?t see/know about these ?behind the scenes? reasons for Moorhead being gone.
they just see a guy getting canned for back to back bowls, but not as good as Mullen did.

so they view it as expectations changing.
doesn?t matter if they really changed or not, it what?s it looks like to the outsiders.

That will turn off a lot of potential candidates immediately who won?t take the time to dig any deeper than the surface.
High expectations, having to share talent with another school is a small state, in the SEC West, etc.
not an easy gig to get people to jump at.

[Johnson85]

you have to take off the fan glasses and forget a lot of the things you know about your program.

vast majority of general public (which includes all the potential coaching candidates) don?t see/know about these ?behind the scenes? reasons for Moorhead being gone.
they just see a guy getting canned for back to back bowls, but not as good as Mullen did.

so they view it as expectations changing.
doesn?t matter if they really changed or not, it what?s it looks like to the outsiders.

That will turn off a lot of potential candidates immediately who won?t take the time to dig any deeper than the surface.
High expectations, having to share talent with another school is a small state, in the SEC West, etc.
not an easy gig to get people to jump at.

You think coaches turn down the opportunity to make millions without doing a little more due diligence than scrolling through box scores? That's ludicrous.

We are a very desirable coaching spot in the grand scheme of things. But we are wanting very, very desirable head coaching candidates.

Being in Mississippi and competing in the SEC West is a mixed bag for sure, but high expectations are not a problem for our job unless a coach is wanting the option to Croom it up and keep his job for 5 years, which is not going to happen anymore (although you'll get two years and make as much money as Croom did in his five year's coaching).

How high expectations have affected us is that With coaching turnover happening faster and faster, especially at big time schools, it has changed the calculations for top notch G5 coaches and P5 coordinators when considering job opportunities. There are going to openings each year for FLorida, Texas, FSU, USC, LSU type programs pretty much every year now. If a G5 coach feels good about his talent level for the next year, he can afford to wait and know that even if he doesn't get the call the next year for a blue blood job, there will always be a few opportunities from the next 20ish schools that are pretty close to interchangeable as far as money and opportunity to win.

[Nutriaitch]

You think coaches turn down the opportunity to make millions without doing a little more due diligence than scrolling through box scores? That's ludicrous.




You?d be surprised.

Nick Saban has publicly stated he almost didn?t even interview for the LSU job.
Said (paraphrasing) ?there?s a reason they?re not winning and keep firing coaches?.
his agent talked him into researching a little more, because my his own admission he wasn?t going to.
was just going to turn it down without even talking to us.


so yeah, if the public perception isn?t something that view positively, they may never even give it a second glance.

[Duggie35]

Granted the overall pool wasn't great this year b/c I don't think what ARK and Mizzou hired are really any better than the current candidate pool, but I thought there would be some slightly bigger names/coordinators pushing to get in the SEC.

We can be a platform job and can win big without having to cheat at absurd levels.


Now that is funny right there!!!!! LMAO!!!

[Johnson85]

You?d be surprised.

Nick Saban has publicly stated he almost didn?t even interview for the LSU job.
Said (paraphrasing) ?there?s a reason they?re not winning and keep firing coaches?.
his agent talked him into researching a little more, because my his own admission he wasn?t going to.
was just going to turn it down without even talking to us.


so yeah, if the public perception isn?t something that view positively, they may never even give it a second glance.

First, Saban claimed that; not sure that really means anything.
Second, Saban didn't go and do research himself; he had an agent. Anybody we are looking at will have an agent and the agent will damn sure listen.
Third, LSU wasn't LSU then and they were trying to poach another P5 coach (although the P5 thing wasn't exactly a thing then). Saban went from like $600k to $1.2M. In some ways, that's a lot more significant than going from $1.2M to $4M. But to the agent, that's a massive difference.

Long story short, if you are talking about G5 head coaches and P5 coordinators (which is where we will be hiring from absent something just falling into our lap), we are going to be heard out and if they turn us down, it will be based on something approximating reality.

[confucius say]

you have to take off the fan glasses and forget a lot of the things you know about your program.

vast majority of general public (which includes all the potential coaching candidates) don?t see/know about these ?behind the scenes? reasons for Moorhead being gone.
they just see a guy getting canned for back to back bowls, but not as good as Mullen did.

so they view it as expectations changing.
doesn?t matter if they really changed or not, it what?s it looks like to the outsiders.

That will turn off a lot of potential candidates immediately who won?t take the time to dig any deeper than the surface.
High expectations, having to share talent with another school is a small state, in the SEC West, etc.
not an easy gig to get people to jump at.

You think this day in age, with million dollar coaches and million dollar agents, these candidates and their agents dont do their homework for job openings? Come on now.

[IMissJack]

MSU is at a really tricky point in fb history right now. If they screw this one up, they are going to lose some fans for a long time.

[MedDawg]

Granted the overall pool wasn't great this year b/c I don't think what ARK and Mizzou hired are really any better than the current candidate pool, but I thought there would be some slightly bigger names/coordinators pushing to get in the SEC.

I know MSU has some hurdles that scare some coaches and the small town thing isn't for all families, but we've proven that we don't normally have crazy expectation and will stick with a coach we trust through some rebuild seasons. Also proven that we can be a platform job and can win big without having to cheat at absurd levels. Plus we do reside in fertile recruiting grounds and pay really well.

But there isn't a single sitting P5 coach being rumored strongly and the only P5 coordinators mentioned at all have been Grantham and Sarkisian. That just seems really, really odd unless we're doing a much better job of keeping some talks under wraps.

It's really pretty rare for a school to poach a sitting P5 head coach. Florida took Mullen, Penn State took Franklin, and Wisconsin took Paul Chryst, but many top programs get or promote assistants or hire sitting G5 coaches--LSU, Ohio State, Clemson, Oklahoma, Georgia, Oregon, Baylor, Auburn, Nebraska, Miami, Notre Dame, USC, etc. Even Saban came from the NFL and was not poached from a P5 school.