Mississippi State Football is more than one person and cannot afford to wait. The search for a new AD and HC starts now and should be relentless. MSU cannot make the same dismal mistake that Arkansas made after Petrino?s downfall and hire a placeholder. Look at how that turned out. No, we must recruit the best available coach on the market. Mississippi State is a top 25 national program and has standards.

If we make a mistake now: our football program will become the basketball team. Such is why I support skipping the bowl game and immediately starting an aggressive hiring process. We will not beat Illinois in these circumstances. Not only was Leach the offensive coordinator, but we are losing key players on both sides of the ball. Playing the bowl game now puts the team in an impossible situation and serves no purpose. We have little to gain but much to lose. Psychology matters in these situations; a blowout in Tampa would set the team back.

As for candidates, Zach Arnett is not qualified to become the head coach. This topic is not even up for rational debate. Arnett is not an SEC head coach at this point in his career. How we feel about him is entirely irrelevant. Mississippi State is not an entry-level position; we need a proven coach with previous head coaching experience, offensive expertise, and Mississippi ties.

The only coaches who fit those above criteria are Dan Mullen and Todd Monken. There are reasons to suspect that neither would take the job. However, Mullen has sent some signals on Twitter over the past month, such as defending Mike Leach from Dillon Johnson stupid comment and giving State favorable attention.

Make Dan Mullen turn us down with $6 million over four years. Rumors are that he wants an NFL job ? but they do not want him. We have a real shot there.

Let's not Napier this thing up!