2025 Transfer Portal Thread

[Pancho]

I think we chose Sawyer Robertson over him if I remember correctly?

Given our circumstances I would love to have him but I'm sure that's not going to happen.

Luke can't stand Bielema but has chosen to stay for his last year at Illinois.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Luke can't stand Bielema but has chosen to stay for his last year at Illinois.

They are probably paying him a sizable NIL deal, he is a guaranteed starter, and their schedule is pretty manageable next year. They do have to go to Indiana, but no clue how they will look. They miss Oregon, Penn St, and Michigan. And they get Ohio St at home. They could easily go 9-3 or 10-2.

[CaptainObvious]

They are probably paying him a sizable NIL deal, he is a guaranteed starter, and their schedule is pretty manageable next year. They do have to go to Indiana, but no clue how they will look. They miss Oregon, Penn St, and Michigan. And they get Ohio St at home. They could easily go 9-3 or 10-2.

Was he a miss on our part or did he just not want to play at State?

[chef dixon]

We didn't "miss" on Altmeyer. It's taken 4 years for him to be good. That ain't happening at one school anymore

[StarkVegasSteve]

Was he a miss on our part or did he just not want to play at State?

Neither. We picked Sawyer over him. Then and now that was the correct decision.

[RezDog7]

Because it’s clear to anyone that has looked at programs outside of MSU that this is a total train wreck. The only ones that argue differently are mouthpieces for the good ol boy boosters and administration that have perpetuated this problem for years now.

The problem with firing this staff next year is the same people that hired them will get to do it again. Guess we'll be hiring the next bright OC as our coach next year. At this point, who cares.

[DownwardDawg]

The problem with firing this staff next year is the same people that hired them will get to do it again. Guess we'll be hiring the next bright OC as our coach next year. At this point, who cares.

This is the absolute biggest issue. We need new money players to make aggressive decisions but it'll be the same people so they will screw it up again.

[Todd4State]

The problem with firing this staff next year is the same people that hired them will get to do it again. Guess we'll be hiring the next bright OC as our coach next year. At this point, who cares.

Nah. MSU has more of a history of over correcting. My guess is whoever we hire will have G5 head coaching experience. Or a retread. Either way it will be someone with head coaching experience.

That's the good thing about hiring a guy like Leach. You kind of know what to expect and that's pretty much what we got.

[KB21]

Nah. MSU has more of a history of over correcting. My guess is whoever we hire will have G5 head coaching experience. Or a retread. Either way it will be someone with head coaching experience.

That's the good thing about hiring a guy like Leach. You kind of know what to expect and that's pretty much what we got.

As I have said before, the problem with going the experienced head coach route is that we do not typically get a guy like Mike Leach when we do that. We get a coach who is either at the end of their career or a coach that no one wants. I maintain my stance that an established head coach is not the way we need to go if we want to raise the ceiling on the program.

[Todd4State]

As I have said before, the problem with going the experienced head coach route is that we do not typically get a guy like Mike Leach when we do that. We get a coach who is either at the end of their career or a coach that no one wants. I maintain my stance that an established head coach is not the way we need to go if we want to raise the ceiling on the program.

Felker, Croom, Moorhead, and Arnett were all failures. Dan worked. Lebby is TBD but not looking too promising at the moment.

Bellard, Jackie, and Leach all had experience. All worked out well for us and all won at least 9 games. Bellard was the worst of the three but he was better than the others without experience minus Dan.

I mean would you take Ben Arbuckle as a head coach over GJ Kinne right now?

[Todd4State]

This is the absolute biggest issue. We need new money players to make aggressive decisions but it'll be the same people so they will screw it up again.

I also want to add that if we allow Lebby to come back for a year three after another bad year I'm 99% sure they're going to force him to get a new defensive staff. It's ridiculous that no changes have been made as of yet.

[CaptainObvious]

As I have said before, the problem with going the experienced head coach route is that we do not typically get a guy like Mike Leach when we do that. We get a coach who is either at the end of their career or a coach that no one wants. I maintain my stance that an established head coach is not the way we need to go if we want to raise the ceiling on the program.

If we keep the same AD and President, you are correct in the best "they" can do is "re-tread", twilight guy, or an inexperienced guy like an OC, DC, or Running Back Coach like we have historically to run the program. It's why we need and aggressive (willing to put his job on the line and not just a fund raiser) AD and New Blood in the top of the leadership who will tell the cigar boys to crap or get off the pot!

Even the 2 times before Leach that we hired a "Former Head Coach", Bellard was coaching a Texas High School Team and Jackie was selling cars in Houston. Leach is the only coach who was actually a HC at a Division 1 program in the 71 years I've been on this earth. So don't say it is our "best" way. It has only worked once and that guy and his wife wanted out of Starkville 3 years after getting here but couldn't parlay a better job out of it until he was Striklin's 4th or 5th choice.

[KB21]

Felker, Croom, Moorhead, and Arnett were all failures. Dan worked. Lebby is TBD but not looking too promising at the moment.

Bellard, Jackie, and Leach all had experience. All worked out well for us and all won at least 9 games. Bellard was the worst of the three but he was better than the others without experience minus Dan.

I mean would you take Ben Arbuckle as a head coach over GJ Kinne right now?

GJ Kinne is a rising young coach. Of course, I would take him but rising young coaches like him are not very interested in our job. Jamey Chadwell had absolutely no interest in our job last year.

Zach Arnett should not be considered in the same breath as Dan Mullen and Jeff Lebby, because he was nowhere near as good as a coordinator as Dan and Jeff were. Arnett was an average to below average coordinator. It was just a terrible decision to make him the head coach.

Moorhead had the experience as a head coach at Fordham. He wasn't just a coordinator who was on his first head coaching job. He was actually a successful head coach at Fordham. So, really, the only legitimate coordinators we have hired in the past 25 years are Dan Mullen and Jeff Lebby, both of whom were at the top of the profession as coordinators.

[KB21]

If we keep the same AD and President, you are correct in the best "they" can do is "re-tread", twilight guy, or an inexperienced guy like an OC, DC, or Running Back Coach like we have historically to run the program. It's why we need and aggressive (willing to put his job on the line and not just a fund raiser) AD and New Blood in the top of the leadership who will tell the cigar boys to crap or get off the pot!

Even the 2 times before Leach that we hired a "Former Head Coach", Bellard was coaching a Texas High School Team and Jackie was selling cars in Houston. Leach is the only coach who was actually a HC at a Division 1 program in the 71 years I've been on this earth. So don't say it is our "best" way. It has only worked once and that guy and his wife wanted out of Starkville 3 years after getting here but couldn't parlay a better job out of it until he was Striklin's 4th or 5th choice.

So, why exactly is Selmon getting crapped on? He's been here for two years. He isn't the one that decided to hire Zach Arnett. He did decide to hire Jeff Lebby, and I see that as a plus. It's very similar to when Greg Byrne hired Dan Mullen. Greg knew he needed a guy who could raise the ceiling on the program, and he knew he likely couldn't convince a sitting head coach who could actually raise the ceiling of the program. I mean, think about this. What if Greg had hired Derek Dooley instead of Dan Mullen because Dooley was an "experienced" head coach at Louisiana Tech at the time? I mention him, because he was a name that got mentioned for our job back then.

[CaptainObvious]

So, why exactly is Selmon getting crapped on? He's been here for two years. He isn't the one that decided to hire Zach Arnett. He did decide to hire Jeff Lebby, and I see that as a plus. It's very similar to when Greg Byrne hired Dan Mullen. Greg knew he needed a guy who could raise the ceiling on the program, and he knew he likely couldn't convince a sitting head coach who could actually raise the ceiling of the program. I mean, think about this. What if Greg had hired Derek Dooley instead of Dan Mullen because Dooley was an "experienced" head coach at Louisiana Tech at the time? I mention him, because he was a name that got mentioned for our job back then.

Not my intention to "crap" on Selmon. He is a fine young man, dedicated family man and apparently a solid fund raiser. He was very inexperienced though. Like Cohen, learning very important things on the fly, is not what State needed. He is very much in the background type of guy, staying out of focus and doesn't seem to be an approachable guy to the average donor. As much as Tenpleton was out front, he could walk right by you and never acknowledge you, so I will give Selmon that if he is in the vicinity, he will speak. How big of a search did he conduct before hiring Lebby? It is the most important hire an AD can make and it just looks like a hire or convenience.

[KB21]

Not my intention to "crap" on Selmon. He is a fine young man, dedicated family man and apparently a solid fund raiser. He was very inexperienced though. Like Cohen, learning very important things on the fly, is not what State needed. He is very much in the background type of guy, staying out of focus and doesn't seem to be an approachable guy to the average donor. As much as Tenpleton was out front, he could walk right by you and never acknowledge you, so I will give Selmon that if he is in the vicinity, he will speak. How big of a search did he conduct before hiring Lebby? It is the most important hire an AD can make and it just looks like a hire or convenience.

I get it, but what was Greg Byrne's experience before we hired him? Byrne and Selmon have very similar resumes when they took the job. So, again, this is a lot like 2009 when we had the inexperienced AD and the inexperienced head coach, and both are probably the best we have had at Mississippi State. Greg also did not have to deal with as many changes as Zac has had to deal with. Zac has done a hell of a lot to get us in the NIL game. Do we really think we would be better off if we had hired the guy at San Diego State who had ties to Mississippi State? Or Jared Benko? I think we absolutely made the correct hire.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I get it, but what was Greg Byrne's experience before we hired him? Byrne and Selmon have very similar resumes when they took the job. So, again, this is a lot like 2009 when we had the inexperienced AD and the inexperienced head coach, and both are probably the best we have had at Mississippi State. Greg also did not have to deal with as many changes as Zac has had to deal with. Zac has done a hell of a lot to get us in the NIL game. Do we really think we would be better off if we had hired the guy at San Diego State who had ties to Mississippi State? Or Jared Benko? I think we absolutely made the correct hire.

We are. I mean we swung and missed at Michael Alford. That was our big swing. We had some communication with John Currie but it never really went anywhere.

Zac has done a lot of good with all the shit he had to deal with. He came into an antiquated AD that had people on staff that did not know how to properly do their jobs, which is why he had to bring in his people. This pissed some donors off that were used to getting what they wanted from the old people in those jobs. He then had to deal with an NIL collective that was just getting off the ground being run by 1 person, and god bless Charlie for stepping up. I mean we were 18-30 months behind almost every SEC program when it came to NIL. Charlie and Zac have gotten us to only about 3-6 months behind everyone now.

[KB21]

We are. I mean we swung and missed at Michael Alford. That was our big swing. We had some communication with John Currie but it never really went anywhere.

Zac has done a lot of good with all the shit he had to deal with. He came into an antiquated AD that had people on staff that did not know how to properly do their jobs, which is why he had to bring in his people. This pissed some donors off that were used to getting what they wanted from the old people in those jobs. He then had to deal with an NIL collective that was just getting off the ground being run by 1 person, and god bless Charlie for stepping up. I mean we were 18-30 months behind almost every SEC program when it came to NIL. Charlie and Zac have gotten us to only about 3-6 months behind everyone now.

Agree, and no matter how hard Steve Robertson continues to stump for John Cohen as AD, John did not have the AD set up to go into the NIL era.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Agree, and no matter how hard Steve Robertson continues to stump for John Cohen as AD, John did not have the AD set up to go into the NIL era.

I mean I think that was obvious with The Legacy Group and signed baseballs. I mean that was typical Cohen though. He took care of baseball first instead of his two cash cows. And the baseballs were so successful that it caused the person running it to have a mental breakdown and we shuttered the thing within 5 months. So we were in the planning stages once again while everyone else was in the implementation stages. That was a year we lost right there. I mean The Bulldog Initiative was started because Charlie decided to do something. No one else was going to do anything so he, out of his devotion to Mississippi State, did something.

[Todd4State]

GJ Kinne is a rising young coach. Of course, I would take him but rising young coaches like him are not very interested in our job. Jamey Chadwell had absolutely no interest in our job last year.

Zach Arnett should not be considered in the same breath as Dan Mullen and Jeff Lebby, because he was nowhere near as good as a coordinator as Dan and Jeff were. Arnett was an average to below average coordinator. It was just a terrible decision to make him the head coach.

Moorhead had the experience as a head coach at Fordham. He wasn't just a coordinator who was on his first head coaching job. He was actually a successful head coach at Fordham. So, really, the only legitimate coordinators we have hired in the past 25 years are Dan Mullen and Jeff Lebby, both of whom were at the top of the profession as coordinators.

Just because one coach didn't want to come here doesn't mean you just stop looking for coaches with that profile. Could we get Jon Sumrall or Ryan Silverfield? Probably. We could have had Barry Odom last cycle.