Simple question: Are your casual fans afraid to fire Dan for the same reason they were afraid to fire Stansbury when it was obvious he needed to go?
My take? Yupp.
Simple question: Are your casual fans afraid to fire Dan for the same reason they were afraid to fire Stansbury when it was obvious he needed to go?
My take? Yupp.
I think that is definitely the case and it is a legitimate concern. Of course the same was said about Croom also. He had just taken us to a bowl and won SEC Coach of the Year. He seemed to recruit ok but was too hard headed to change until it was too late.
I'd have to say yeah
The truth is we can whine and complain forever on here, and it means nothing until 2 kinds of people want to change this 1) wealthy alums that give 2) the President of the U
Or maybe it's the Cohen example?
Cohen's best year in '13, good year in '14, and abysmal season in '15 (dead last in sec).
Mullen's best year in '14, good year in '15, and shaping up to be abysmal year in '16.
Maybe fitz makes a Dakota Hudson like jump. Maybe sweat, champion, pope, autry, etc are our Lowe, Kruger, smith, and rigby. Maybe hill or Thompson are our magnum next season.
Mullen could do the complete opposite of Cohen and bomb next season, but I want to give him a shot
I don't think there will be a divide over firing Mullen like there was Stansbury. It is evident that both lost the locker room and that will be their downfall, but at least the locker room Bury lost had a lot of talent in it. Mullen hasnt been able to keep control over a bunch of SWAC level players.
He is 21-10 the last 3 years at MSU in the SEC West. If Fitz & Staley weren't misses we wouldn't be thinking twice about firing him. I think he is allowed one year of bad QB play.
The biggest thing I want out of Mullen is some sort of indication that he gives a care, and even wants to be considered for the job next year.
What you're not understanding, is the Stansbury thing is a legit reason. We made a mistake firing Stansbury after 2012 and it would be a mistake to fire Mullen after 2016. Timing is a big deal. We should have either fired Stans after 2011 after all the Hawaii bullsh*t or after 2013 when he would have tanked.
The only way you can fire Mullen this year is if we lose out ie tank. 3-9 probably does not get that done. 4-8 and he for sure stays.
Cohen also has a history of Jucos being successful for him day one and he got a new pitching coach and hitting coach.
We bunted less and changed our pitching philosophy. So if Dan let the DC get rid of the bend don't break and let the best players play then maybe he could have a turn around but his ego probably wouldn't allow it.
I think it comes down to fear of change more than anything. “We might screw it up!” We screwed Stansbury’s replacement up too- but now look where we are. We have one of the best basketball coaches in the country. If by chance we screw it up, it’s not the end of the world. It’s a job. We’re not bound to anybody.
Personally I think we have a good chance of getting it right. I think it’s ridiculous to keep a failing head coach because the next guy might not be as good. There’s also a chance the next guy could be the best we’ve ever had and could be Nick Saban 2.0. There’s no way to know. Keeping a failing coach often times leads to more failing.
I’ve also seen MSU fans mention “we can’t fire Dan because that would be like Ole Miss firing Cutcliffe”. My guess is maybe we have fans that are afraid it will turn out like Orgeron, that Ole Miss fans will make fun of us, and that Dan will go on and become a well-respected coach somewhere else. First of all, Cutcliffe never lost to a team like South Alabama that I can recall. Second of all we shouldn’t care what Ole Miss fans or the media say about us because they don’t have our best interests at heart. If Dan goes on to do well somewhere else, I say wish him well. He had his time here and then like all things that time ended and it was time for both of us to go in different directions. At least they can’t say that we’re a “coaches graveyard” if that happens and again who cares anyway? We need to do whatever is best for us and having 2-3 losing seasons in a row so Ole Miss fans and the media can’t play the Cutcliffe card IS NOT what’s best for us.
My biggest fear right now is that we won’t be taking advantage of Ole Miss’s probation because we’re being too patient Mississippi State making the same mistake by holding on to a coach too long while recruiting suffers for another year and then we have to rebuild ourselves.
This offseason would be a great time to change because Ole Miss won’t be on probation until the summer. That will give a potential new coach a year to get things established and then fully take advantage of their situation while they down. Personally, don’t think Dan would take advantage of their situation and certainly not to the fullest extent.
The biggest difference between Dan and Cohen is even during the 15 season, I never once questioned Cohen’s desire to be here. That and we had one of our best recruiting classes in 2015. I remember Cohen being PISSED after we lost to Arkansas Pine Bluff in 2015- and after that the beards were shaved off. We get “Well, 50% of the teams in America lost today” from Dan after we lost to South Alabama.
Cohen had also taken us to the finals of the NC round which no other coach in a major sport can say and had won SEC Championships at Kentucky and had won the SEC Tournament as well. Dan has done well- but his greatest accomplishment was winning the Gator Bowl in 2010. That pales in comparison to what Cohen had done before 2015 so yeah- Cohen should have gotten a longer leash. And yes, Dan did take us to number one in football, but he also didn’t finish the job that year. And if Cohen would have had a bad season last year, he would have been gone as well. Kudos to him and his team for nutting up and going beyond that and winning the SEC and getting a National Seed.
And as someone mentioned- Cohen brought in Will Coggin to help with the hitting. I won’t give him credit for Butch because Butch would have been here had Auburn’s job not come open.
Here’s the other difference. As soon as we were swept by Tennessee, Cohen went to Georgia himself and personally recruited Nate Lowe and told him that we needed him badly the next year and to not go pro. Dan goes to Europe and buys Yeezy’s.
I vote yes.