Time To Give Cohen A Little Credit....

Now that the dust has settled & the hire has been made, this hire will be critiqued at an extremely high level (as it should be), but I also think it is time to look at the positives of Cohen rather than just the negatives.

*Let's address the elephant in the room. Yes Cohen said what he said. It was not a misunderstanding by the fans. He said it, he probably wished he hadn't said, but it's time to move on. My guess is he will never say anything remotely close to that again. Consider in it lesson learned.

The Positives of John Cohen

1. John does not let personal relationships influence his decisions about what is best for MSU. If so, Hendo would be your new head coach.

2. Under Cohen, our athletic department has direction & purpose. Whether you agree with this hire or not, recruiting & player development are what is most important to John Cohen & it appears as though he'll attempt search the country for that formula for the rest of his time at MSU. What would Lonnie Tinkle have done?

3. John works quickly. Say what you want about the drama in this hiring process, but Cohen has hired a baseball coach & a football coach within 48 hours of both seasons ending.

4. John Cohen does not care about winning a press conference, he only cares about getting the right guy.

5. John Cohen BELIEVES in MSU. Sure, it ticks people off that he didn't deliver on what he said on the radio, but look at the positive. John Cohen believes MSU deserves & can get the best. Would you want it any other way? Sometimes you try to hit a HR & you strike out. Other times you just get a double. But would you rather have an AD that does not BELIEVE that MSU deserves & can get the best? I'll settle for being disappointed with really good hires. We just had a football coach leave that did not believe in MSU. I don't want those people around our athletic department any longer. John Cohen is a believer & I'll take that every time.

So there it is. We can debate these hires, but in the end they'll be judged by wins & losses. After seeing the Tennessee coaching search & others where the ADs & departments appear to lack direction or a plan, I think it's outstanding that our AD knows what he wants & is not afraid search out the entire country in an attempt to find it.

For so many years, MSU's athletic department lacked direction & a purpose, but John Cohen has that & believes in recruiting & player development. That should be welcome news to everyone.

I wanted Schloss as much as anyone and I think he was going to be the guy, till he had to be big dick larry and wanted to be announced while our kids were still playing.

I would have done the same thing Cohen had done

Introverted guys like Cohen often see the big picture better, know the importance of people, and make great leaders

Fundraising and all that stuff is important, but hiring the right people is even better, and will create more success for us

He can always hire more guys to smooze the alumni anyway

Number 5 is huge to me. And I'll add this - he wants people who believe that they can win at MSU. He is looking for people who have a long term vision and see MSU as a place to make a career, not a stepping stone.
That carries over to seemingly finding people who are comfortable with Starkville for what it is. JoMoe is blue collar, small town kind of guy. Lemonis's dad is an MSU alum, which means he probably has knowledge of our culture.

Those things are big for us. For years I felt like we made hires trying to imitate someone - like all the Alabama coaches we hired. Cohen has chucked that out the window.

Cohen did well. He does not care about winning the press conference. He wants to win Games. Lemo will do that.

Come on man, anyone of us could have made that hire. He would have beat the doors down to become our coach. I'll support him and hope he does well but I'm not optimistic. Hope he proves me wrong.

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Originally Posted by tireddawg

Come on man, anyone of us could have made that hire. He would have beat the doors down to become our coach. I'll support him and hope he does well but I'm not optimistic. Hope he proves me wrong.

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Ok. How would you have known who to hire? What qualities would you have prioritized?

I chuckle at the group of people that believe coaching searches and recruiting is just about calling folks up and convincing them to come to your school while have absolutely no clue about how evaluation works or how difficult it is.

It's fascinating. I think the football star ratings has created a lazy perception that finding good players is like going to WalMart and shopping off of isles labeled 3*, 4*, & 5*.

I don't get the feeling that people fully appreciate how difficult it is to properly label those players and coaches on the correct isle.

If I were in Cohen's position, I would know. People talk, & he's got connection & those people have connections. I'm not gonna trash the guy, and will support him. Cohen should have kept his mouth shut being this is his hire. I'm a little underwhelmed, but will get behind it, & not whine about it. I give no credit at this time, I'll need results for that.

I'm going to support this hire but it's no way time to give Cohen credit for anything.

Great Post, Shotgun! Agree completely!

Cohen didn't do anything special. I'll wait on the results of the hire he's made. His last one, that a lot of you praised, didn't pan out. At least this one has some experience.

For all the reasons you've listed, Cohen has earned my trust until proven otherwise. Not that my trust matters one bit.

Don't get me wrong because I like Cohen but under LT we got to Atlanta in football, we got to the final four in basketball and made the CWS several times. Now was all that worth staying in the medieval period as far as sports goes I don't think so. Other schools ran off and left us in all three sports.