Stewart Mandel Is An Idiot

[ShotgunDawg]

Goodness what an awful take.

Where do these narratives about Leach being a response to Kiffin even start? Did any MSU fan actually think about that when we hired Leach or were you just looking for the next coach to be the right guy? I can't remember a single MSU fan talking about Kiffin during our search. In fact, I don't think he really scares anyone here.

All I can remember anyone talking about is for us to just get the right guy. Again, how do these narratives start & where?

https://i.imgur.com/5u0KvLc.jpg

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[RocketDawg]

If the message board posts are indicative, I remember Kiffin being mentioned mostly in a joking manner. But I don't remember anybody mentioning Leach as a response to Kiffin being hired.

I seriously doubt trying to outdo the Kiffen hire ever entered Cohen's mind when he was searching.

[defiantdog]

Another former SI journalist trying to get click bait

[AlSwearengen]

In my opinion, Leach was one of the safest hires we could make. Cohen didn’t want to risk another co-ordinator hire and we had to have a disciplinarian. Leach checks those two boxes. Also, there just wasn’t that many candidates out there that we could hire. Under the circumstances, I think we did pretty well. Cohen’s job depends on results more than ever, so headlines aren’t what he is looking for.

As to the part about the talent discrepancy, he is right, but that is a given pretty much every year.

[Pennywise]

I would have been for the Leach hire even before Kiffin was hired OR if OM had hired Napier or Norvell (good hires, but not splashy).

[Political Hack]

Whether it works in the long term or not it's still hard to argue that this isn't a great hire for State. People forget he's already had success in the SEC running his system against more talented teams. It's different now, but he's also had success in two P5 conferences doing it. It's really hard to doubt his overall track record.

[Captain Falcon]

Anyone who thinks we hired Leach solely as a response to Ole Miss is dead wrong. We were all set to hire Judge until Matt Rhule picked the Panthers over the Giants.

[Todd4State]

I believe Cohen and Keenum fully intended to give Moorhead another year if we performed well in the Music City Bowl. No question about it.

We fired Moorhead because his team embarrassed MSU off the field and looked completely unprepared and undisciplined repeatedly throughout his tenure. After the Egg Bowl I thought he was going to be back until the Gay/Shrader incident. That's Stansbury/Hawaii incident and Cannizaro class type of incident- and all of those resulted in firings. Really bad look for MSU after the school begged fans to buy bowl tickets and our fans responded well- only for the QB to get beat up and knocked out of the game and those of us that went didn't find out about the multiple other suspensions until we got in our seats. And then the game itself- and who knows if Moorhead really did say that Louisville was soft like they claimed? Really the biggest shitshow of a bowl performance by MSU I have ever seen and yes, I remember the Jackie Sherrill era bowls. I remember sitting in the stands and our fans were just sitting there almost too pissed off to even boo the product on the field. Just angry. I've never really seen MSU fans like that at a sporting event. And the anger was certainly not misplaced at all.

Cohen simply had no choice other than keep Moorhead and further erode the program while fans became apathetic and watch ticket sales and support plummet. Really easy choice when you think about it.

That's really all their is to it.

But IF we did hire Leach as a response to Ole Miss hiring Kiffin- we did very well. But that's not the case.

[DownwardDawg]

That’s gotta be the dumbest shit a reporter has ever wrote.

[Todd4State]

In my opinion, Leach was one of the safest hires we could make. Cohen didn’t want to risk another co-ordinator hire and we had to have a disciplinarian. Leach checks those two boxes. Also, there just wasn’t that many candidates out there that we could hire. Under the circumstances, I think we did pretty well. Cohen’s job depends on results more than ever, so headlines aren’t what he is looking for.

As to the part about the talent discrepancy, he is right, but that is a given pretty much every year.

I agree 100%. Although I will say if Napier was a candidate before the Egg Bowl and he was after I'm honestly not sure our search turns out much differently. I think it was a blessing that our search was later on because if we hired Joe Judge I think it is a riskier hire than Leach. And who knows if the Giants hire Judge just a few weeks after we hired him?

Leach is about as safe a hire as we are going to find. He has won at places that have a lower profile than MSU's and he has been an OC at Kentucky so at least he has some SEC experience at a school with a similar profile as MSU's. He knows what the SEC is all about- and when Leach was at UK the East was the stronger division at that time and they also had to play Louisville.

The biggest questions about Leach are his defense and recruiting. It appears as if those two questions are more a product of where Leach was rather than Leach himself. At least I like what I am seeing so far with Arnett as the DC hire and I'm satisfied with our recruiting effort thus far as well.

And I like that Leach knows what he wants his program to look like. There should not be any learning curve like Dan and Joe had.

Also- it's a good fit for Leach too when you think about it. If he has the success at MSU that he had at Wazzu and Texas Tech he's probably a college football HOF coach and with our resources he has an opportunity to potentially reach his ceiling.

[Todd4State]

I would have been for the Leach hire even before Kiffin was hired OR if OM had hired Napier or Norvell (good hires, but not splashy).

Absolutely. But for me it's not about splash as much as it is getting the best coach.

[Tbonewannabe]

The splash hire for MSU was just a side benefit. We were set to hire Judge or maybe Napier if the deal gets done. We hired Leach because he is hands down the best and most proven coach that we could. Judge or Napier are both bigger risks and we just got bit in the ass by our last risk hire. Cohen couldn't afford to have the next hire shit the bed like Moorhead. We can still recover and keep our bowl streak alive but if the next guy set us back similar to Moorhead then it very well could have made the hire after that start from almost scratch.

[FISHDAWG]

my question is what makes him think Kiffen was worth countering ? ... other than being a pretty good OC at Bama what are his other accomplishments ... aside from bringing down the NCAA on Tennessee and getting in trouble at USC ???

[smootness]

The good news is, writers get this crap totally wrong all the time. The bad news is, so do fans.

As always, we won't really know how it's going to work until games are played.

[Coursesuper]

Well now we've found out one of the media who isn't a Leach fan. There are those that are close to coaches and agents and those that are not. This one isn't.

[basedog]

Doesn't mean squat, who cares really except maybe a few Msu fans what he says really? It's all about winning, on paper its as good as it has ever been for Msu hiring a proven Coach. Time is the answer.

[Johnson85]

...I think it was a blessing that our search was later on because if we hired Joe Judge I think it is a riskier hire than Leach. ...

I think there's no doubt we were saved from taking a huge gamble. Even though the results here look much better, I give Cohen a B+ or A- on the Moorhead hiring process and a D+ on this process.

I like Judge and obviously he has a lot of potential, but you can't take a risk like that after the risk we took with Moorhead didn't pan out. A bad hire would have been crippling to our program, and the same guy that thought Moorhead was the next great thing didn't have any business taking a gamble on a guy that had never called plays on the offensive or defensive side of the ball, that had never recruited, and that had never had to handle a dysfunctional locker room. Maybe there is a guy out there that could spot the next big thing in Joe, but Cohen doesn't have the track record to justify him reaching like that and we weren't in a position to take a gamble like that even if he did.

[MedDawg]

I think there's no doubt we were saved from taking a huge gamble. Even though the results here look much better, I give Cohen a B+ or A- on the Moorhead hiring process and a D+ on this process.

I like Judge and obviously he has a lot of potential, but you can't take a risk like that after the risk we took with Moorhead didn't pan out. A bad hire would have been crippling to our program, and the same guy that thought Moorhead was the next great thing didn't have any business taking a gamble on a guy that had never called plays on the offensive or defensive side of the ball, that had never recruited, and that had never had to handle a dysfunctional locker room. Maybe there is a guy out there that could spot the next big thing in Joe, but Cohen doesn't have the track record to justify him reaching like that and we weren't in a position to take a gamble like that even if he did.

State hiring Leach is a D+? What would hiring Saban be? B-? Just because the FANS didn't like the process or were confused by all the names doesn't mean squat. Cohen's job isn't to keep message board posters (or mods) informed and happy.

A negative is we almost hired Judge? The NY Football Giants don't agree. And we didn't hire him, so almost doesn't count (for or against).

We hired Mike Leach, and we didn't luck up and find Leach sitting on our doorstep. Cohen went and got him. The sixth winningest active coach in FBS. PROVEN P5 innovative offensive mind. Funny as hell. A+.

[Tbonewannabe]

I think there's no doubt we were saved from taking a huge gamble. Even though the results here look much better, I give Cohen a B+ or A- on the Moorhead hiring process and a D+ on this process.

I like Judge and obviously he has a lot of potential, but you can't take a risk like that after the risk we took with Moorhead didn't pan out. A bad hire would have been crippling to our program, and the same guy that thought Moorhead was the next great thing didn't have any business taking a gamble on a guy that had never called plays on the offensive or defensive side of the ball, that had never recruited, and that had never had to handle a dysfunctional locker room. Maybe there is a guy out there that could spot the next big thing in Joe, but Cohen doesn't have the track record to justify him reaching like that and we weren't in a position to take a gamble like that even if he did.

Knowing now that Cohen didn't even interview some very good coaches because he locked in on Moorhead, I would give it a C+ at best even if Moorhead kept us out of the ditches just by making a bowl game but was driving straight toward it next year. Moorhead might have been a homerun in the media at the time but Cohen screwed up big time not even interviewing Satterfield and if rumors are to be believed Whittingham. Both of those guys were proven winners where Moorhead didn't even have a track record in Division 1. Two years at Penn St and 2 at UConn where he got demoted. Now looking back, there were some red flags or at least something to be cautious about.

[Maroonthirteen]

State didn't hire Leach as a response to OM hiring Kiffin.

However regardless of why State hired Leach...... OM and Kiffin were all the buzz, across the sec with that hire. Until State hired Leach, now it's forgotten Who OM hired .....and its hilarious.

[Johnson85]

State hiring Leach is a D+? What would hiring Saban be? B-? Just because the FANS didn't like the process or were confused by all the names doesn't mean squat. Cohen's job isn't to keep message board posters (or mods) informed and happy.

A negative is we almost hired Judge? The NY Football Giants don't agree. And we didn't hire him, so almost doesn't count (for or against).

We hired Mike Leach, and we didn't luck up and find Leach sitting on our doorstep. Cohen went and got him. The sixth winningest active coach in FBS. PROVEN P5 innovative offensive mind. Funny as hell. A+.

Somebody didn't make a 25 on the reading comprehension part of the ACT.

[Johnson85]

Knowing now that Cohen didn't even interview some very good coaches because he locked in on Moorhead, I would give it a C+ at best even if Moorhead kept us out of the ditches just by making a bowl game but was driving straight toward it next year. Moorhead might have been a homerun in the media at the time but Cohen screwed up big time not even interviewing Satterfield and if rumors are to be believed Whittingham. Both of those guys were proven winners where Moorhead didn't even have a track record in Division 1. Two years at Penn St and 2 at UConn where he got demoted. Now looking back, there were some red flags or at least something to be cautious about.

Fair enough. I guess most people including me don't really know enough about how the process actually played out to accurately judge it. If Satterfield didn't come up on his radar at all or if he rejected him out of hand, and if he rejected Whittingham out of hand, then the process was obviously flawed. I was going more by the fact that he was proactive and ready for Mullen to bolt. Ensured that we were competitive enough on salary to know that Mullen was leaving regardless of what we offered financially. Had some good names set up. And ended up with a highly thought of coordinator at a successful P5 school. If it's true that Fordham was the only school offering scholarships in its conference, and we didn't find that out, then that obviously looks like a bad process. Same with the things you mentioned.

[BrunswickDawg]

Fair enough. I guess most people including me don't really know enough about how the process actually played out to accurately judge it. If Satterfield didn't come up on his radar at all or if he rejected him out of hand, and if he rejected Whittingham out of hand, then the process was obviously flawed. I was going more by the fact that he was proactive and ready for Mullen to bolt. Ensured that we were competitive enough on salary to know that Mullen was leaving regardless of what we offered financially. Had some good names set up. And ended up with a highly thought of coordinator at a successful P5 school. If it's true that Fordham was the only school offering scholarships in its conference, and we didn't find that out, then that obviously looks like a bad process. Same with the things you mentioned.

I honestly don't think you can knock Cohen for the hiring process this time around. Our main candidate was hired as HC for the New York Football Giants. Number two was Leach - a proven winner. It took only 1 week. Most searches don't work like that. Don't fall for all the smoke and mirrors rumors where agents are using our process for their gain.

What you can knock Cohen for is the Firing Process - now that was a total shit show that he should get an F for.

[Johnson85]

I honestly don't think you can knock Cohen for the hiring process this time around. Our main candidate was hired as HC for the New York Football Giants. Number two was Leach - a proven winner. It took only 1 week. Most searches don't work like that. Don't fall for all the smoke and mirrors rumors where agents are using our process for their gain.

What you can knock Cohen for is the Firing Process - now that was a total shit show that he should get an F for.

I'm not knocking him for not getting judge. I'm knocking him for offering him. Just too big of a risk for us to take this time around and no justification for Cohen hiring somebody with zero experience calling plays or recruiting or fixing a culture issue. I like Judge and think he will probably end up being a good coach, but he just didn't have any relevant experience, even assuming we were going to break the bank to put experienced college coaches on his staff to help him learn on the job. Past performance is a much better predictor of future performance than an interview and has good recommendations. We just had a shit show performance from somebody that did great in the interview process and had strong recommendations from a great coach he worked with. Just no reason to go down that road again but for a candidate with even less relevant experience before we had exhausted options of people with relevant experience and him having an evaluation process that put so little value on relevant experience seems like a bad process to put in place.

All the other stuff I assume/hope were mostly rumors filling the vacuum from him actually running the process appropriately as far as limiting opportunities for leaks.

[MarketingBully]

Love how he said Washington aced their hire and Lake has never been a head coach on any level before. How is that an ace hire? Reminds me of their love for Moorhead only at least Moorhead had been a head coach at some level before. To me UDub made an extremely risky hire that more times then not won?t work out.

[LC Dawg]

The "Mississippi State hired Leach because Ole Miss hired Kiffin" narrative was being pumped by the Ole Miss media boys the second Leach was hired. McCready tweeted about it and Cross mentioned it a lot on his radio show and even tried to get Hadad to say it but Hadad didn't.
They knew the Leach hire would overshadow their hire and they were desperate to keep their name in the news so they pushed the narrative. The narrative didn't stick even though they probably had some internal alumni meetings to circle jerk to it. The national media loves the Leach hire for the most part. Mandel probably doesn't like Leach or doesn't like State so he's just being a dick.

[gravedigger]

The good news is, writers get this crap totally wrong all the time. The bad news is, so do fans.

As always, we won't really know how it's going to work until games are played.

Well I'll be damned.

[OLJWales]

Over the last 8 years at WSU, no coach in the country came close to Leach in terms of competing with and beating teams with higher rated talent. I don't have the stats on T.Tech but I bet it was dominant there as well. Leach now has great talent in his own backyard as opposed to having to circumnavigate 1/2 the country to croot. I don't think we coulda done any better for State.

Also, thank you shotgun for those WSU talent stats a while back.

[Shooter McGavin]

my question is what makes him think Kiffen was worth countering ? ... other than being a pretty good OC at Bama what are his other accomplishments ... aside from bringing down the NCAA on Tennessee and getting in trouble at USC ???

Exactly. Based on their careers so far, Leach is the far more accomplished coach.