The Golden Boy is being shown the door

[Coach34]

[BankerDog]

Several posters on this site stated we should pursue Hall when our HC job came open. Its laughable we have some of the fans we do.

[Coach34]

Several posters on this site stated we should pursue Hall when our HC job came open.

Yes they did

[parabrave]

Heard that from a couple of boosters at the beginning of the month. Told one of them Greg Knox was available. This guy, also a huge state fan, said that wouldn't be a bad idea since he was very familiar with south LA.

[Goldendawg]

OM can hire him as another Analyst.

[Todd4State]

OM can hire him as another Analyst.

That's probably going to happen by Friday at the latest.

[Todd4State]

Several posters on this site stated we should pursue Hall when our HC job came open. Its laughable we have some of the fans we do.

We would have been the laughing stock of the SEC after the introductory press conference. Would have been awkward seeing him after games talking to his Dad who would be wearing Ole Miss gear I'm sure too. Our fans would have loved that.

He's a decent OC and that's his ceiling. I wouldn't be surprised if Willie Fritz tries to hire him at Houston in the offseason. He has saved his ass from a bad OC before.

[SPMT]

Heard that from a couple of boosters at the beginning of the month. Told one of them Greg Knox was available. This guy, also a huge state fan, said that wouldn't be a bad idea since he was very familiar with south LA.

Good gosh our fans are dumb. Makes you wonder how they were ever successful.

[Todd4State]

Good gosh our fans are dumb. Makes you wonder how they were ever successful.

Well we haven't been that successful in football historically. Arnett's staff was at least half boosters friends so exhibit A on our fans hiring coaches.

[Johnson85]

Well we haven't been that successful in football historically. Arnett's staff was at least half boosters friends so exhibit A on our fans hiring coaches.

I'd be interested to know the booster involvement when Mullen was hired. That seemed to be the most buttoned up coaching search I can ever remember paying attention to. Don't now if we just moved too quickly once we targeted Mullen for leaks to happen but there wasn't anything that search like there was in subsequent searches and it doesn't seem like other schools do any better.

Of course booster involvement might would have helped when Cohen was doing the hiring. Moorhead and then offering Judge was a hell of a lack of accountability.

[Coach34]

it leaked about us talking to and offering Chris Peterson before Mullen

[StarkVegasSteve]

I'd be interested to know the booster involvement when Mullen was hired. That seemed to be the most buttoned up coaching search I can ever remember paying attention to. Don't now if we just moved too quickly once we targeted Mullen for leaks to happen but there wasn't anything that search like there was in subsequent searches and it doesn't seem like other schools do any better.

Of course booster involvement might would have helped when Cohen was doing the hiring. Moorhead and then offering Judge was a hell of a lack of accountability.

It was buttoned up tight until it got through the cracks that we were meeting with Chris Peterson. Once that happened, Byrne shut everything down and everyone out.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Back to the USM front, I find it laughable some of their fans think they're going to get Brendan Marrion, OC at UNLV, to come be their HC. That's right up there with folks thinking Bob Stoops was going to come be our HC. They're going to have to get lucky or find a MS guy who wants to see a MS team succeed. They have no money and very little fan support. Their only hope is that the Duff brothers decide they want to help out USM. I would call Matt Luke if I was them. He's from Gulfport. He recruited at a decent level at OM and wasn't bad as a HC. Hell he was 15-21 with ZERO defense and very little outside of AJ and DK on offense. The other thing about Matt is that he can put together a staff because he's done it before. I really believe their only hope is someone like that. I mean MAYBE Joe Judge would do it. I doubt it though. Will Hall was kind of the perfect storm for them. A MS kid who always wanted to lead a MS program.

[Johnson85]

it leaked about us talking to and offering Chris Peterson before Mullen

It leaked but depending on who you believe, it leaked when they thought it was a done deal. Mullen leaked too when it was a done deal I think but it was happening so fast at that point that I think he was basically headed to the airport before it leaked.

I'm not saying it was perfect, but wayyyy better than any recent search I've paid attention to. It may be that agents are less trustworthy now because a lot of leaks and fake leaks seem to come from agents trying to leverage an offer into more money with their current school. Not sure what you can do about that. Maybe if SEC ADs had an agreement to name and shame agents that leaked it would help. But at the end of the day, no AD is going to claim that they are skipping on what might be the best candidate because they can't trust the agent.

[Johnson85]

Back to the USM front, I find it laughable some of their fans think they're going to get Brendan Marrion, OC at UNLV, to come be their HC. That's right up there with folks thinking Bob Stoops was going to come be our HC. They're going to have to get lucky or find a MS guy who wants to see a MS team succeed. They have no money and very little fan support. Their only hope is that the Duff brothers decide they want to help out USM. I would call Matt Luke if I was them. He's from Gulfport. He recruited at a decent level at OM and wasn't bad as a HC. Hell he was 15-21 with ZERO defense and very little outside of AJ and DK on offense. The other thing about Matt is that he can put together a staff because he's done it before. I really believe their only hope is someone like that. I mean MAYBE Joe Judge would do it. I doubt it though. Will Hall was kind of the perfect storm for them. A MS kid who always wanted to lead a MS program.

USM is just in a bad place. They really aren't that much worse off than a lot of Sunbelt members, but they are worse off than ULL and USA and both of those schools are better positioned to take advantage of areas that have historically been their recruiting grounds. And there's not a sunbelt member that is just in a clearly inferior position compared to USM. Maybe Old Dominion? I guess App St and James Madison are relatively (and very) new FBS entrants but seem to generally be ok.

A retread with Mississippi ties probably isn't a bad option for them. Or somebody running a gimmick offense. Going to be hard to find somebody with real upside as a coach looking to use them as a stepping stone in the current environment.

[Todd4State]

Back to the USM front, I find it laughable some of their fans think they're going to get Brendan Marrion, OC at UNLV, to come be their HC. That's right up there with folks thinking Bob Stoops was going to come be our HC. They're going to have to get lucky or find a MS guy who wants to see a MS team succeed. They have no money and very little fan support. Their only hope is that the Duff brothers decide they want to help out USM. I would call Matt Luke if I was them. He's from Gulfport. He recruited at a decent level at OM and wasn't bad as a HC. Hell he was 15-21 with ZERO defense and very little outside of AJ and DK on offense. The other thing about Matt is that he can put together a staff because he's done it before. I really believe their only hope is someone like that. I mean MAYBE Joe Judge would do it. I doubt it though. Will Hall was kind of the perfect storm for them. A MS kid who always wanted to lead a MS program.

Unfortunately for them Hall just wasn't a good head coach. I could see them getting Luke but he was burned out a couple of years ago so no idea if he would want it or not.

Best case scenario for them would be Bama firing Kane Womack as a scapegoat for this year and having him fall in their lap.

[Coach34]

It leaked but depending on who you believe, it leaked when they thought it was a done deal. Mullen leaked too when it was a done deal I think but it was happening so fast at that point that I think he was basically headed to the airport before it leaked.

I'm not saying it was perfect, but wayyyy better than any recent search I've paid attention to. It may be that agents are less trustworthy now because a lot of leaks and fake leaks seem to come from agents trying to leverage an offer into more money with their current school. Not sure what you can do about that. Maybe if SEC ADs had an agreement to name and shame agents that leaked it would help. But at the end of the day, no AD is going to claim that they are skipping on what might be the best candidate because they can't trust the agent.

No doubt Byrne did a great job with the search and as SVS said- he was pissed that it leaked (and sent to me to put out there). Only a very small few knew about Mullen until he had agreed to be the guy. Byrne crawled some ass after Peterson. It wasnt an agent but our own guys telling boosters what was going on. It actually probably worked out better for us that Peterson didnt take it. I dont think he would have done as well as Mullen did. Mullen focusing on making us a developmental program really was the way for us to progress as a program. That strategy is no longer available in today's college football world. It's bad enough on us- but damn near death for the Nasty Bunch's of the world

[StarkVegasSteve]

Unfortunately for them Hall just wasn't a good head coach. I could see them getting Luke but he was burned out a couple of years ago so no idea if he would want it or not.

Best case scenario for them would be Bama firing Kane Womack as a scapegoat for this year and having him fall in their lap.

Kane is obviously best case scenario but I don't think Kane is their problem. Now they may fire him to save face on DeBoer for another year. DeBoer is the problem and it's nothing that he's doing bad unfortunately. I think Saban ran as tight of a ship as you can run and now DeBoer has come in and tried to change the culture and the players just aren't as disciplined. I think DeBoer was just a complete 180 from Saban, and any coach would have been, but I think DeBoer is a little like Bobby Collins when he took over at SMU, oddly enough coming from USM. I think DeBoer got on a train that he thought was going 90 mph and it was going 900 mph.

They are going to have be patient with him to be able to get his type of QB into the program and I don't think they will be. I mean this is a program that went through 2 coaches to replace Bryant and 4 coaches(3 that actually coached a game) to replace Stallings. Saban won more than both of them. I said the day he was hired that DeBoer would last 2 seasons, and it's not because I think he's a bad coach. It takes a special kind of person to be in that pressure cooker 24-7/365. I think they'll go back to the NFL to get the next HC. My money would be on DeMeco Ryans, Dan Campbell, or going to get someone like a Mike Vrabel.

[memsu06]

USM used to have a pretty decent football team back in the Jeff Bower days. It was a very stupid decision on their part to fire him. He'd taken them to something like 10 straight bowl games.

I remember back in the BCS days they played #4 Cal so close it cost Cal from getting placed in the championship game.

Wasn't their motto "Anybody, Anywhere, Anytime" something like that.

Not sure how they handle the new world of college football though.

[Mjoelner34]

It was buttoned up tight until it got through the cracks that we were meeting with Chris Peterson. Once that happened, Byrne shut everything down and everyone out.

There was another name during that search too and if I remember correctly, he was above Mullen. I think in order it was Peterson (word leaked then shut down) then Kevin Wilson (OC at Oklahoma who turned his nose up at us) and finally Mullen.