My one and only thought on our current coaching situation.

[Coach34]

We should have made his base pay around 2 mil and the rest of it be based on winning SEC games, bowl games, etc. Just to get a flat 2.7 million with nothing based on performance was not in our best interest. Heck, OM made a lot of what Freeze makes based on performance and right now they are getting good performance. There is a reason salesmen are asked to work a lot off of commision.

What about the 200K to sign Jason Croom and Josh Dobbs? Where we gonna get that? Because that's what it was going to take to get them to Sville

We are 14th in the SEC in getting that kind of shit done

[cheewgumm]

No more croom's in Starkville

[engie]

I'm not talking about the tangible things that we all can physically see with our eyes. I'm talking about the procedural support Mullen and the football program gets. Facilities are better, but that isn't the only thing that builds a program from the gutter that we were left in after Jackie left and that Croom never fixed. Money for assistants, more athletic department personnel to deal with our growing athletics (most specifically football), beat writers and recruiting people that only have an agenda for MSU and nothing else, a fan base that donates as much money as possible and puts pressure on others who don't to do the same, a complete 100% effort by everyone involved to do everything they physically can for the betterment of MSU. We don't have that.

We tell ourselves that we should be able to compete at an elite level, but why do we think that??? What do we have or do that even comes close to comparing to what elite schools have? There is a fundamental problem with MSU, and it's that everyone isn't on the same page and doesn't have the same agenda. Too many me me me and not enough we we we. Too many unanswered questions to things that are vitality important to our growth in the SEC. Like why can we have a new 70 million dollar facility and not be able to add 500K to 1 million in coaches salaries per year to be more competitive? Why do our beat writers constantly put themselves in situations that have the potential to do MSU harm? So many other questions out there that we just don't have the answer to.

Anyone that thinks our biggest problem is on the field play doesn't see the big picture and is afraid to look inward at themselves and the fan base and say we have a bigger problem. We've got bigger problems that a new coach won't fix. We have a broken network and a busted foundation that money and flashy new toys can't always cover up.

First of all, your posts make excellent points. And I agree with 95% of what you are saying.

But in response to the main point, I say we were as united as we could possibly be for the first 3 years under Mullen. We were scary -- because we were ALL pulling together at that point. HE, our compliance dept, and our athletics administration failed to capitalize on the momentum in multiple glaringly obvious ways given hindsight. There is NO excuse for our recruiting in 2010 and 2011. That's when we had it all going for us -- and should have used the excitement to "build the foundation." The "right" coach for us would have used all that power of success to put together a network to be successful in recruiting -- and force modernization in compliance in order to shield those interests. That's the problem. Mullen didn't do ANY of this when he had all the power -- and now, he's basically a lame duck, without the power to do anything. Without a strong relationship with a bunch of our money people, Mullen has made himself all that much more expendable.

A new coach absolutely has the ability to unite the fanbase, fix the "network", and fix the foundation IF they play their cards right at the VERY beginning and/or when the have maximum leverage. Hudspeth wields tremendous power over us right now. He knows that we're screwed if we fire Mullen and he backs out and we've got to have a national coaching search -- so I think he's going to play a little aloof and hard to get before demanding up front changes. Changes that he basically tells us he's getting -- or he's walking. That's my "hope" anyway. Ultimately, I think he KNOWS he can't reach his ceiling here without them and is willing to walk away without them. He already knows and understands our booster structure, culture, "bottlenecks" of limitations, etc...and he's had a long time to figure out exactly how he's going to attack "fixing" each of them. I see a ton of similarity between he and Cohen -- and surely no one thinks he'd be walking into a worse situation than Cohen did.

If I was him, my demands:
1) A person with an NCAA enforcement and law background runs compliance. I'd have my agent doing legwork on this preeminently -- with the name of the best candidate that wanted the job -- and would coordinate with boosters so that funding is pledged to cover their handsome salary(Bracky has to be cheap). Bracky retains his title for a year as a PR move until the end of probation, but is there a figurehead only without power, and will then be transferred to a different branch within the department.

2) My power on all football-related matters is equal to the AD(Saban doctrine basically). We work as peers, not as boss/employee. In the event that we disagree, a neutral third party, with no knowledge of which vote aligns with who will be the tiebreaker.
**I'd have to think about who this person should be. First thought is Keenum -- but he's worked with Stricklin for long enough that he'd know which vote was his -- and probably always ultimately take his side. It needs to be a neutral third party who is looking out for the longterm betterment of the program. Not a coach or administrator. Obviously, if I were Hud, I'd have it figured out and details ready to go with my agent.

3) All staff contracts are incentive based -- with a total pool of money $1 mil more than current per year(easy because SEC network money will be here in August before any incentives really kick in) -- with booster pledges to cover any amount that we "go over" in year 1(you'll see in specifics that it would be a possibility). Whatever is not achieved in a given year(make the performance bonuses specific) rolls over to next year in the case that you go beyond the "pool" the next year(so the booster(s) are only on the hook for 1-2 years). There are performance bonuses for all, both specific and general, and also recruiting and retention bonuses. The exact details of this would need to be worked out -- but basically I'm thinking something like:
$1.8 mil for HC -- $100k per SEC win -- $100k per top 25 win -- $100k recruiting bonus for top 25 class -- $50 k per minor bowl win -- $100k per major bowl win -- $250k for finishing top 25.
Structure similarly and creatively for all assistants. Pay coordinators $300k base with incentives to make up to $750k(make this number very difficult to achieve, naturally -- but we need eye-popping "ceilings"). Pay everyone else $200-250k with the ability to earn up to $500k with incentives. You can even build in retention bonuses for coaches that are performing at a predetermined high level.

Am I missing anything? It seems that those 3 demands basically cover "fixing" the football program... basically all simply by hiring a new coach. I thought about this for the hour that I was writing it. Hud will have been thinking about this for several years by now. Obviously, he would have it figured out to a greater extent than I do.

ETA:
4) Have preliminary negotiation and approval of the above 3 stipulations from the check-writing booster families. So, in the interest of transparency, IF for some reason the president and AD decline to meet these demands, the power-brokers will know exactly where to point the finger when I walk away from the table leaving MSU with a nightmare situation for a coaching search.

[Dawgfan77]

I don't know but its 700K we could put toward hiring better assistants when we are sucking ass on the field.

I agree with this 100% The issue is that we are running Mullen's offense if we hire Les or if we go out and hire another OC, this will be Mullen's Offense.

[Political Hack]

A state of the art facility for weights, and a stadium expansion within, what, 10 years of the last. Expansion to basketball and now baseball.

I'm sorry. That is not only an irrelevant argument to why we are struggling, it's invalid as well.

We do need to be more unified as a fan base though.

facilities are brick and mortor that donors dont mind financing. how about we go get about ten 6 figure lawyers for our compliance department? How about we bump up our assistant coaching salaries to $1M for coordinators and $500 or so for assistants. how about our recruiting coordinator making six figures? what if we sacrificed a little of the ad income to keep the stadium juiced?

there's plenty of areas for improvement and I generally agree that CDM needs more support.... from the administration, the sec schedule, the state of Mississippi, our fans, this board, etc...

[Dawg61]

Auburn has something like 20+ football coaches working for them all with different titles and responsibilities. There might be something to this.

[FlabLoser]

facilities are brick and mortor that donors dont mind financing. how about we go get about ten 6 figure lawyers for our compliance department? How about we bump up our assistant coaching salaries to $1M for coordinators and $500 or so for assistants. how about our recruiting coordinator making six figures? what if we sacrificed a little of the ad income to keep the stadium juiced?

there's plenty of areas for improvement and I generally agree that CDM needs more support.... from the administration, the sec schedule, the state of Mississippi, our fans, this board, etc...

Hack for AD.

[HailState39110]

Auburn has something like 20+ football coaches working for them all with different titles and responsibilities. There might be something to this.

Take a look at how many people work for Alabama football that are not on the field coaches

http://www.rolltide.com/staffdir/alab-staffdir.html

Not only do they pay assistants more than we do but they also have a alot more man power doing administrative work. College football is a money grab now boys and we can't compete with the top half of the conference in that regard

[MetEdDawg]

Take a look at how many people work for Alabama football that are not on the field coaches

http://www.rolltide.com/staffdir/alab-staffdir.html

Not only do they pay assistants more than we do but they also have a alot more man power doing administrative work. College football is a money grab now boys and we can't compete with the top half of the conference in that regard

This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Mullen and any other head coach will be required to do too much until we put the money where it needs to go, which is on the administrative side of things and football specifically. Alabama has 30 people listed only under football including coaches. You think we have 30 people that deal just with football? I would highly doubt it. This is where we are hurting. We are trying to build a big time football program but not putting the resources in the places where it needs to be. Bama has 8 football analysts. We don't have that and we need to if we want to play with the big boys. Time to find the money and step up on the football specific administrative side of things.

[HailState39110]

This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. Mullen and any other head coach will be required to do too much until we put the money where it needs to go, which is on the administrative side of things and football specifically. Alabama has 30 people listed only under football including coaches. You think we have 30 people that deal just with football? I would highly doubt it. This is where we are hurting. We are trying to build a big time football program but not putting the resources in the places where it needs to be. Bama has 8 football analysts. We don't have that and we need to if we want to play with the big boys. Time to find the money and step up on the football specific administrative side of things.

I checked and we have 11 positions for off the field coaches (including Rocky, Sleepy, etc) compared to 18 off the field positions for Alabama . Not earth shattering , but Alabama does have 7 more people working specifically in their day-to-day football operations than we do.

[MetEdDawg]

I checked and we have 11 positions for off the field coaches (including Rocky, Sleepy, etc) compared to 18 off the field positions for Alabama . Not earth shattering , but Alabama does have 7 more people working specifically in their day-to-day football operations than we do.

Think about it another way. Let's say everyone of those people works 50 hours a week for football (obviously it's more but I'm keeping it simple). If they have 7 more off the field people than we do, that means each week they are able to do 350 hours more football related work than we do. Over the course of a 14 week season, that's 4,900 hours more they are able to put into football during a season than we can. It's not facilities people, it's the man power on and off the field where we are lacking behind the big time schools. This is where we have to make the ground up.

[Dawg61]

Think about it another way. Let's say everyone of those people works 50 hours a week for football (obviously it's more but I'm keeping it simple). If they have 7 more off the field people than we do, that means each week they are able to do 350 hours more football related work than we do. Over the course of a 14 week season, that's 4,900 hours more they are able to put into football during a season than we can. It's not facilities people, it's the man power on and off the field where we are lacking behind the big time schools. This is where we have to make the ground up.

I could not agree more! Auburn has more than Alabama does. They have close to 30 and all of them have experience as a football coach in some form. Raise all the assistants pay and completely overhaul anyone that has anything to do with football for MSU. 10,000 extra seats will pay for that and then some.