I haven't posted here since before the Egg Bowl(11/20/19), when I launched my "Hire Napier Campaign" through a resume style post that was titled "Let's not screw this up, we have to hire Billy Napier, regardless of EB result". I hoped it would get the ball rolling for Napier support throughout the fan base, because he is who I believed would be the "perfect hire" for our program going forward. No, my feelings have not changed towards Napier, I think he would be the perfect hire and bring our program back within a couple years to where we were towards the end of Mullen's tenure. However, remember I said this post was pre-Egg Bowl, and how could have anyone guessed how that whole shit show would play out? I trust my sources, and just as everyone else was hearing, I was told he is fired 100% after the Egg Bowl, and Napier would be at the top of our list and we would be at the top of his, perfect marriage. Unfortunately, the divorce papers never went through, there were a lot of factors that contributed to this, but primarily this was due to a post-Thanksgiving Night road block that was set up at the tip-top of the Mississippi State Mountain. Not gonna get into that because it has been playing on replay for almost a month and a half now. It was a bad day for sources, because they were right, but wrong due to unforeseen circumstances.
Fast Forward a month and there is an ass kicking on the practice field, followed by an ass kicking on the football field, which ultimately lead to an ass dragging out the football facility. When the dust finally settled, we had a job opening, and Napier made it through the earlier hiring cycle without being scooped up by another P5 school. It all makes sense, it's just too easy, Napier is there, he is the guy, just waiting on his bowl game to end. Everything up until yesterday night that suggested Napier wasn't interested was smoke and mirrors, he was interested, and gave his demands less than 24 hours ago. Somewhere along the way, the two ends didn't meet, it's frustrating but as a athletic department we do have to draw a line monetarily, it's just being responsible. I believe Napier wanted a hard number for himself and his staff that couldn't be justified by our athletic department as considerable. Maybe, just maybe, he was asking for simply more than his resume merits. It's not easy to say no when you want it, but there are plenty fish in the sea(FWIW, I think the door is closed, but not locked with Napier, but for the first time in a week, I don't expect him to be our next HC). So this leads us to the Hump Day Hot Take...
****HOT TAKE ALERT**** " Sark is the perfect hire no one saw coming... Maybe even better than Napier..."
Anyone who is saying Sark is an underwhelming hire needs to get their head out of their ass, and I'm here to assist you with that(from afar). Here are a few reasons why
1. Sark will bring in recruiting classes like we haven't seen since the ride or die GenesPager's were exchanging $$$$ for just a little taste of Gene's skuttle-butt.
His resume speaks for itself. Go back all the way, he learned how to recruit under Coach O at USC, it's a mentality and a certain amount of coach swag. Kid's are gonna love him. Sark was hired by Washington in early December of 2008, he had 2 months to get together a class of kids that wanted to sign with a new coach and a team that just went 0-12, he had it worse than Croom. In that first class(2009 signing class) he finished #75 nationally and dead last in the PAC-12, but still managed to find commit in January, and then eventually sign some guy named Desmond Trufant. The following season he goes from 0-12 to 5-7 and from the #75 recruiting class to the #19 recruiting class in the country, and Washington isn't a place that typically recruited anywhere near that level. The next 4 years go by, 4 bowls, 4 more top 25 signing classes. By year 5 his team went 9-4 and signed the #18 signing class, good for 3rd in the PAC12. What a 5 year turnaround, he created a solid foundation, and then continued to build on it, leaving full cupboards and a finished house for Peterson to build off of and eventually create a CFP program.
Back to 2014, when he accepted the USC Job. In Lane's last 2 years at USC he experienced regression on the field AND on the recruiting trail. In 2012 Lane signed the #11 recruiting class(247sports) in the country and his offense finished 40th in scoring(32.1 ppg), then in 2013 Lane signed the #16 recruiting class(247sports) in the country and his offense finished #60 in scoring(29.7 ppg). Sark was hired in early December of 2013, so he had 2 months to put together a class, off of what was a departing dumpster fire. He exceeded expectations and more, signing the #9 recruiting class(247sports) in the country. Then, on the field in his first year the offense saw improvement to from the #60 offense(29.7 ppg) under Lane in 2013, to the #24 scoring offense(35.8 ppg) nationally in just his first year. Then he parlayed the on field success in 2014 into
the #1 2015 recruiting class in the entire country(247sports). Once again, I believe he was building a monster at USC in short work, plus the results at Washington do nothing but verify this idea.
He is a big time recruiter, I think he could consistently recruit inside the top 20 nationally here, and maybe work towards the top 15, that is a level we have really never seen. Recruiting is a must, and he's got it.
2. We are finally sleeping with the perfectly sexy, but questionably skanky blonde, with no fear of contracting anything and both eyes on the prize.
Look, we have all been there. She's fine as hell, but she lives life on the wild side, and with that brings a certain reputation. You weigh the risk reward.
-Potential risk? a trip to the doctor, minor pains and then eventually the search to fill that void restarts.
-Potential reward? You get what you wanted, someone way out of your league who is experienced & down to do most anything, and maybe just maybe the rumors that she has settled down are true, and just being at the right place at the right time could lead to you being that guy who everyone asks, "how the 17 did he get her? He's gotta be packing weight."
Look, if Sark hadn't had his drinking problems, I think there is a good chance he is still at USC if not in the NFL as a head coach, and considered one of the elite football coaches in the country. He was on that track before he fell off the tracks. Learned how to coach, recruit, relate and carry yourself under one of the best in Pete Carroll. Sark was the QB coach at USC for 5 years, in which he coached 2 Heisman winning QB'S and 3 top 10 overall draft pick QB's. Carroll thought so much of him that he promoted him from QB Coach to Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach at just the age of 33. In his first year as USC's OC(2007), the USC offense finished with 32.6 ppg(#35 nationally), the next year(2008), they improved to 37.5 ppg(#14 in the nation), by this time Sark was pushing 35 and ready to go out on his own, and accepted the Washington Head coach job, taking over a 0-12 dumpster fire. Sark thrived, going 5-7 in his first year on the job, and beating #3 ranked USC and his mentor Pete Carroll in just his 3rd game as a head coach(remember they went 0-12 the year before). Sark went on to rattle off 4 bowl seasons in a row, accompanied by 4 top 25 recruiting classes. Kiffin is fired from USC, and Sark is handed the keys to a Lambo(maybe before he was ready, mentally not coaching wise). In his first year he wins 9 games, the most for a first time USC head coach in their history. He then parlays that into the #1 recruiting class in the country(247sports). PAUSE... think about what this guy has done to this point of the story in such a short time(without the help of Diddy like his counterfart Lane), he is so far out of MSU's league that it would take something like.... well we all know what happened, he fell off the wagon and the rest is history, I believe he was on his way to creating a powerhouse at USC, FWIW.
This guy is out of our league, if he is truly sober, we are about to get a 10. If she fine, don't think too much, just do it, and I cannot believe we are assuming this mentality, but I love it.
3. He went to rehab and pulled the Jesus of college football as his Therapist, and impressed him.
After sitting out the rest of the 2015 season upon his termination at USC, he went to actual rehab, and then went to outpatient rehab at the Saban School of Second Chances. Many thought Saban was jumping out on a limb here, dancing with the devil, but many were wrong. He stayed sober and continued to grow as a coach under the best ever. By the end of his first season back in the game, he was promoted to OC for the national championship game after Lane headed down to South Beach after graduating from SSSC(Saban's School of Second Chances). Just 1 year removed from complete self destruction, Sark found himself back in the big time, through the Graces of Saban himself, and he did well enough to win the National Championship if not for a 4th quarter collapse of the ages. Clearly, Saban thought a lot of him, because after leaving at the conclusion of the 2016 season for the Falcon's OC job, Saban once again hired him back on his staff, this time as the Offensive Coordinator for the 2019 season. In 2016, he worked with a freshman running QB in Jalen Hurts, who went on to have 900+ rush yards as a freshman. This time in 2019, he would be working with Tua, a running QB, with killer accuracy, and glass bones. This couldn't have been easy to manage, you wanna use his legs, but you don't wanna get him hurt, then State rolls along and does it, takes out Tua after going through 3/4 of the season calling plays while walking on egg shells. Tua finished the season with a RTG over 200, insert Mac Jones, more of a pro style passer, think prototypical Bama QB, but with no real experience. He goes on to finish the season with a 69% completion %, 1503 yards 14 TD, 3 INT and a RTG of 186.8. So at Bama, in 14 games as OC over 2 separate years, he had to use 3 different QB's, all completely different styles, one a State type running QB(Hurts), Tua(his style is his own, made harder to call as an OC by his beforementioned glass bones), and then a Pro-Style Passer in Mac Jones. All this considered, Bama finished the season with the #2 scoring offense in the country, averaging an absurd (47.2 ppg). He did all of this in just 2 short years in SSSC, and he is now ready to graduate. This is falling into our laps, and it couldn't be more perfect.
I also want to add, those that say Sark has a pro style offense and it's not gonna work like Moorehead's didn't, just look at what he has done at Bama, and then look at what he did at Washington in his first 2 years. His entire coaching career before Washington, he had as pro style as pro style gets QB's as USC. Then, in 2009, a time before the read/spread option was really a staple of football, he inherited a QB in Jake Locker that was a + runner. Well over the next 2 years before getting Locker drafted in the 1st round, he called plays to his strengths, allowing him to rack up just under 800 rushing yards and 13 rushing TD's, well before that was the norm across college football, he adjusted before he had to, and now has worked with all types of QB's always adjusting accordingly. ALSO, he will bring in a spread option OC, instead of being stubborn and shoving a square peg into a round hole, he will adjust, and mix what he knows already about the spread option, with what his OC knows. He has a brilliant mind, it will work, and thrive.
Point is, Sark was knocked down in the early stages of his prime, and then spent half a decade refining himself, and his offense, and learning how to run a program, on and off the field, from the best in Nick Saban. Then mix that with what he learned at USC under Pete Carroll for 7 years, then the lessons he learned and executed on how to build a program from the foundation up at Washington, and now will put it all together to finish what he had started at USC, create a monster of a program, at Mississippi State University.
It now makes perfect sense why we decided to not allow beer sales in the Stadium, Sark was the guy the whole time.
Come on down Sark, you perfectly sexy/skanky football genius.
