John Cohen's Hires

[PMDawg]

Joe Moorhead - D+
Ben Howland - C
Chris Lemonis - A+
Nikki MP - F
Mike Leach - Jury is still out, but I give him a B- to this point


Am I missing any? Are my grades off? Is this a guy we want hiring any more coaches outside of baseball? This does not look like a good track record to me. How long is his leash?

[KentuckyDawg13]

Moorhead beat our rival and bowl game, won 8 games in his first season. 2nd season, 10 players cheated...limited our depth/caused issues. C+
Ben Howland. Has improved the status of MSU basketball from where it was pre-RR, as we consistently have 20+ wins every year. Have won 6 of the last 8 games this season. Lame ass fans not supporting him is the reason the HUMP is no longer feared by other teams. B-
Lemonis. Yeah, he won it all...A
Nikki McRay-Pinson. On paper, it as an A+ hire. Reality is there was more drama than expected within the program already. Her cancer returning in the middle of a pandemic does not justify an F rating. Or her political stance. C-
Mike Leach. Hasn't beat our rival yet, or a bowl game. Checks out mentally in mid Nov. Too inconsistent. C

Joe Moorhead - D+
Ben Howland - C
Chris Lemonis - A+
Nikki MP - F
Mike Leach - Jury is still out, but I give him a B- to this point


Am I missing any? Are my grades off? Is this a guy we want hiring any more coaches outside of baseball? This does not look like a good track record to me. How long is his leash?

[thf24]

Mike Leach. Hasn't beat our rival yet, or a bowl game. Checks out mentally in mid Nov. Too inconsistent. C

Leach won the Armed Forces Bowl, as much as it doesn't seem like it.

Grading Cohen on his coaches is a flawed exercise in that some of these tenures already have the benefit of hindsight while others are ongoing. I think he's done a relatively fine job with hires. Some seem to fault him for looking too hard outside the box, but I don't know why they think we'd have any more success with "safe" hires. Just look what would have happened if we'd hired Jeremy Pruitt. The reality is that hiring a great coach for your particular job is largely a complete crapshoot anywhere, and Cohen has done about the same or better than many in a similar time frame that have a whole lot more influence and resources than we do.

That being said, his performance in other areas of running the athletic department are absolutely up for criticism.

[Matt3467]

Moorhead beat our rival and bowl game, won 8 games in his first season. 2nd season, 10 players cheated...limited our depth/caused issues. C+
Ben Howland. Has improved the status of MSU basketball from where it was pre-RR, as we consistently have 20+ wins every year. Have won 6 of the last 8 games this season. Lame ass fans not supporting him is the reason the HUMP is no longer feared by other teams. B-
Lemonis. Yeah, he won it all...A
Nikki McRay-Pinson. On paper, it as an A+ hire. Reality is there was more drama than expected within the program already. Her cancer returning in the middle of a pandemic does not justify an F rating. Or her political stance. C-
Mike Leach. Hasn't beat our rival yet, or a bowl game. Checks out mentally in mid Nov. Too inconsistent. C

Moorhead didn't win a bowl game at State. He went 0-2. Yes he won 8 games his first year but taken into context he had arguably the best team State has ever fielded and I don't think anyone else on this board will argue that winning 8 games with the #1 defense in the nation is vastly underperforming. TBH I think the first grade was too high. Likeable guy but not a good HC. D-

Leach has won a bowl game here. He's 1-1. It sucks being 0-2 vs OM but they did have one of their better teams and play in the Sugar Bowl this year. Leach has had some head scratchers but he's also won some big games here. Not sure where you get that he checks out mentally from but I give him a B so far. I think he will continue to improve.

Howland is in his 7th year and while the jury is still out on this one he has won more than 20 games 3 times so definitely doesn't do that every year. Howland is personally my most frustrating coaching hire. On paper he has talent to play in the tournament every year yet I believe has only gone once and then lost in the first round. Recruiting would be an A- but overall for me it's a C.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Mike Leach beat Tulsa in a bowl.

[Hot Rock]

Nikki being an F is off. I would give an incomplete. You can't help someone's health. She got sick did she not.

[PMDawg]

Nikki being an F is off. I would give an incomplete. You can't help someone's health. She got sick did she not.

I'm rating her based on her one full season as HC. It was a disaster of a season. It looked like she was turning it around, but she never got the chance to see it through. I can see an incomplete, but her one season was really, really bad.

[Quaoarsking]

I'm rating her based on her one full season as HC. It was a disaster of a season. It looked like she was turning it around, but she never got the chance to see it through. I can see an incomplete, but her one season was really, really bad.

It was bad because we had the talent to make the NCAAT and be a single digit seed, and we didn't. But it wasn't "really really bad." We just barely missed the tournament and had 0 bad losses. Only 2 of Howland's seasons have been as good NMP's 1 season (hopefully this is #3), and all of Rick Ray's were far worse.

[TheLostDawg]

It was bad because we had the talent to make the NCAAT and be a single digit seed, and we didn't. But it wasn't "really really bad." We just barely missed the tournament and had 0 bad losses. Only 2 of Howland's seasons have been as good NMP's 1 season (hopefully this is #3), and all of Rick Ray's were far worse.

Yes but give Howland a roster with recruiting rankings all in the top ten and then you can compare.

[Cooterpoot]

He didn't hire Howland

[PMDawg]

He didn't hire Howland

That's right. I missed there.

[Quaoarsking]

Cannizaro: C+. We were better than expected his one year here, but his personal conduct embarrassed the program. he did recruit Tanner Allen though.

[PGHBulldogBG]

Stricklin hired Howland not Cohen. I never thought I would say this several years ago but I hope Howland doesn?t retire and comes back for a few more years if he keeps us competitive because I know Cohen will hire Rick Ray part 2

[BrunswickDawg]

Joe Moorhead - D+
Ben Howland - C
Chris Lemonis - A+
Nikki MP - F
Mike Leach - Jury is still out, but I give him a B- to this point


Am I missing any? Are my grades off? Is this a guy we want hiring any more coaches outside of baseball? This does not look like a good track record to me. How long is his leash?

You are missing a ton in the sports no one pays attention to:
Dusty Smith - Men's Golf - 3 NCAA Appearances in 6 years - B
Chris Woods - T&F - B - has kept us making NCAA appearances
Charlie Ewing - Women' Golf - A - Made SEC Tourney Finals in first year
James Armstrong - Soccer - A - got us in the SEC Tourney for the first time in 15 years
Julie Darty - Volleyball - A++ - took us from the worst program on campus and in the SEC to #2 in the SEC last season and an NCAA appearance

Outside of Football and WBB - his hires have been pretty successful to date.

[PMDawg]

You are missing a ton in the sports no one pays attention to:
Dusty Smith - Men's Golf - 3 NCAA Appearances in 6 years - B
Chris Woods - T&F - B - has kept us making NCAA appearances
Charlie Ewing - Women' Golf - A - Made SEC Tourney Finals in first year
James Armstrong - Soccer - A - got us in the SEC Tourney for the first time in 15 years
Julie Darty - Volleyball - A++ - took us from the worst program on campus and in the SEC to #2 in the SEC last season and an NCAA appearance

Outside of Football and WBB - his hires have been pretty successful to date.

Fair enough. But I was strictly thinking along the lines of the ones that do get the most attention. Big 3 in mens, WBB, and Softball I guess. However, I did not specify.

I agree with PGH though, I get nervous thinking about who he'll hire to replace Howland (assuming he retires after the season like some of the informed have said).

[BrunswickDawg]

Fair enough. But I was strictly thinking along the lines of the ones that do get the most attention. Big 3 in mens, WBB, and Softball I guess. However, I did not specify.

I agree with PGH though, I get nervous thinking about who he'll hire to replace Howland (assuming he retires after the season like some of the informed have said).

I forgot he also promoted Samantha Ricketts in Softball - which I'd grade a B+ - we were better in the SEC last season instead of bottom 2-3 and its the toughest league in the country.

I think it is important to understand the whole health of our athletic program. Yes, the Big 3 are critical for $, but the other sports to me show more about a)quality of hires; and b) apathy within the dept.
Those smaller sports are driven by the coach even more than the Big 3, so if you are sitting on a coach for multiple years who has non-competitive teams your AD is lazy - because there is no-reason not to gamble on new blood.

[TheLostDawg]

Fair enough. But I was strictly thinking along the lines of the ones that do get the most attention. Big 3 in mens, WBB, and Softball I guess. However, I did not specify.

I agree with PGH though, I get nervous thinking about who he'll hire to replace Howland (assuming he retires after the season like some of the informed have said).

1 isn't it going to be Brooks, hasn't he been grooming him to take over?
2 if not, doesn't Adidas help us out from what y'all have said in the past?

[Hambone]

You are missing a ton in the sports no one pays attention to:
Dusty Smith - Men's Golf - 3 NCAA Appearances in 6 years - B
Chris Woods - T&F - B - has kept us making NCAA appearances
Charlie Ewing - Women' Golf - A - Made SEC Tourney Finals in first year
James Armstrong - Soccer - A - got us in the SEC Tourney for the first time in 15 years
Julie Darty - Volleyball - A++ - took us from the worst program on campus and in the SEC to #2 in the SEC last season and an NCAA appearance

Outside of Football and WBB - his hires have been pretty successful to date.

But you can?t bring this up because it?s hurts the Fire Cohen mob.

[speedy1972]

[QUOTE=BrunswickDawg;1405394]You are missing a ton in the sports no one pays attention to:
Dusty Smith - Men's Golf - 3 NCAA Appearances in 6 years - B
Chris Woods - T&F - B - has kept us making NCAA appearances
Charlie Ewing - Women' Golf - A - Made SEC Tourney Finals in first year
James Armstrong - Soccer - A - got us in the SEC Tourney for the first time in 15 years
Julie Darty - Volleyball - A++ - took us from the worst program on campus and in the SEC to #2 in the SEC last season and an NCAA appearance

Cohen's philosophy other than Leach has been to hire up and coming assistants from proven programs. That is especially true in the non revenue generating, or Olympic sports. Yeah, he screwed up the Moorhead hire and some could say that Lemonis fell in his lap after some proven head coaches told him "NO". But none the less he got the right guy in here. I think he can be criticized for his performance in lack of marketing and some lack of planning as it relates to Davis Wade game day more than anything. And some just don't like him due to his political bias which is their right.

[Coach34]

Cohen is much more qualified to hire a coach than the cheerleader was. He will get input from the money guys and Keenum on the hire as well. It's not like he acts alone. The Cheerleader was told to hire Howland- he didnt lead a search and make the hire. It was set up for him.

Cann was a good hire. He was successful in his 1 year. Him going nuts over a co-worker couldnt have been predicted. Ask Petrino, Wimp Sanderson, and many other coaches across this great nation. Hell, Mullen was lucky his antics got cover.

JoMo seemed like a decent hire but the guy wasnt ready for the South. Some of that should have been picked during interviews up in my opinion. Jury still out on Leach but it was an outside the box hire. We will at least compete for bowls under Leach without the drama and lack of discipline of JoMo

If we dont make the Tourney- might want to watch for a retirement by Howland.