DD Bowie leaning away from UM

[Todd4State]

Not wanting to start an argument... As I am relatively new to being somewhat active on the board. But what was your opinion on Cohen then? He never won an NC and outside of last year (where IMO we underachieved) and a freak year where we went to UF and almost pulled off the upset he still only made it to the World Series once. And our baseball program is set up much better due to our history than football is..

I know I know two different sports but the fact remains he had several top 10 classes and couldn't pull of a championship...

I guess my question is what is your realistic expectation for our football program?
By coaching standards both Cohen and Mullen have taken us to places we have never been. Albeit, Cohen had the easiest male sports job on campus/whereas Mullen arguably has the toughest historically.

And, as for your earlier comment about Mullen saying recruiting is the most stressful part of his job, I would guess the majority of coaches would say that. As there are so many variables when it comes to recruiting and do's and dont's. If my profession relied on 18-22 year olds making a decision and sticking with it, I would find that pretty stressful too.

Could more effort be put out I am not sure I think once OM goes on probation we will get to see what Dan and Co can really do recruiting in state. And for the most part I think outside of last years class he has done as good as any other coach we have ever had recruiting wise and winning. I think he has built the program on a pretty solid foundation but things take time to change perception.

Here’s the big difference between Dan and Cohen- Cohen inherited a much worse situation when he took over. His first two years were rebuilding years- much like Howland’s was last year. The rest of his tenure he went to a SR, won the SEC Tournament, went to Omaha, went to a regional as a two seed, had a losing season, and then won the SEC and went to a SR. Just like with Dan- I’m not happy with how the 2013 season and last season ended. I can tolerate how those ended a little bit better because unlike Dan we didn’t do anything overtly nonsensical like 1A/1B that kind of makes you wonder “What if”.

The other big difference is you were talking about Dan “taking us to places we have never been”. Dan hasn’t done that. Yes we were ranked number one for a few weeks but that isn’t where we FINISHED. The bowl streak is nice but some of that is because of the fact that it is easier to make a bowl now- especially this year for us. As far as what Dan did AT THE END OF THE YEAR- Jackie Sherrill’s 1999 season was better than Dan’s 2014 season. He went to a what is now New Year’s Six bowl and won it. He also won the SEC West in 1998 and went to the Cotton Bowl another New Year’s six bowl, a season that is also close to equal what 2014 was for Dan. The end result is all that matters to me. Other than the bowl streak and being ranked number one for a short time, Dan hasn’t really done anything that hasn’t been done before here at MSU.

Cohen is a much better coach than Dan. After we had a losing season in 2015 he made changes to the coaching staff and brought in Will Coggin a much better hitting coach. He also brought in more power hitters to adapt to the changing climate in baseball. He also stepped down when being the baseball coach became boring to him and he felt like he wasn’t putting as much into it as he was. Dan has made some changes- but why do we still have the same offensive line coach? He has made some changes to recruiting- but why our are best recruiters not put into a position where they can go out and make home visits and would be presumably even more effective? We went 6-7- what changes is Dan going to make? And sure, he may indeed make some but other than Peterson for Sallach I haven’t heard of any rumors and I expect Sirmon and Hevesy to be back. If Cohen saw that a senior hitter was struggling would he keep trotting him out there or would he try a freshman to see what he could do? Happened multiple times I’m sure. Dan tried to force Holloway out there and not use him properly.

And as far as expectations, I have floors and ceilings. I believe the floor for the football team should be 8 wins a year at this point. The ceiling is 12. If you can make it to number one there is a possibility that you can win 12. The floor for the baseball team is a two seed in a regional and the ceiling is a NC. If a team fails to make the floor that is occasionally acceptable. If that happens we should look at the program and make changes if necessary and look at why we didn’t meet the minimum expectation. Regardless, we should always strive for a championship.

You mention that Cohen had the “easiest job” historically but the reality is I would say he has the most difficult in terms of fan expectations. We have people that go crazy if he has someone hitting where they don’t think he should be in the lineup. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the Ron Polk loyalists despised him for years because he wasn’t Tommy Raffo.

And as far as the last part I obviously disagree because there are a few more high end players that I think we should have gotten over the years. I do think that because of how Dan runs his program combined with the fact that we would hopefully have that balance I was talking about between talent and hard work would affect some of those high end players more positively than some of them turned out at Ole Miss. See Nick James as an example of someone turning out well. I think we will be able to say the same about Simmons and Leo as well. My guess is either we will dominate the state or we’ll see what has happened this cycle- where we are recruiting about the same but we are losing guys to out of state schools instead of Ole Miss. Every cycle is different and it sounds like flipping Bowie is a possibility at this point and that would change my opinion some if that does indeed play out. I think the Akers situation was one where it could have been avoided on our end if we had a little more awareness IMO plus that was a sticky coaching situation for us similar to Bobby Hall when he was at Madison Central. And honestly I would probably be a lot happier about our recruiting if our o-line recruiting was better- I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of our in state whiffs have come along at that position. People talk about how Mississippi doesn’t produce them, yet I see where Alabama has taken two OT prospects from here the past two years and LSU is taking one this year.

[gravedigger]

Mullen is not pleasant to deal with? You are way off on that. He may be hard on coaches (much better now than we he first started) but in general he is not like you think and has a great relationship with the vast majority of the players.

Believe what you will.

[Really Clark?]

Believe what you will.

Believe what I have seen personally and what many players and their families have said privately (to me and others) and publically.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

Believe what I have seen personally and what many players and their families have said privately (to me and others) and publically.

I'm sure Nick Saban is all peaches and cream...I remember Jackie Sherrill at a Bulldog Club meeting 20 something years ago saying "Somebody has to be the SOB"

[Reason2succeed]

1) There are players that come with price tags attached on them that Mullen just isn't going to touch. Get used to it.
2) Mullen is a straight shooter and some players and parents don't want the truth because they can't hand the truth.
3) Mullen is going to just flat out miss on some players...like EVERY OTHER SCHOOL!

[Todd4State]

1) There are players that come with price tags attached on them that Mullen just isn't going to touch. Get used to it.
2) Mullen is a straight shooter and some players and parents don't want the truth because they can't hand the truth. "Your kid was the best RB in high school but will get our QB killed."
3) Mullen is going to just flat out miss on some players...like EVERY OTHER SCHOOL!

I don't think there are as many kids with their hands out as some believe. Paul Jones even said as much yesterday. I think what happens a lot of times is a school like Ole Miss will offer money, parents jobs, cars, girlfriends who work at Hooter's first because they know that they can't the kid any other way and that's what starts the bidding as opposed to the kid just being give me ____. My guess is that's what likely happened with CJ Johnson ultimately. Where it becomes a problem for us unfortunately is the kid is willing to come here for less and we won't match it. The best way around it is to encourage the kid to take Ole Miss's money and then come to MSU anyway. Dan has done that a few times with success.

Dan needs to start missing less at a few position groups- mainly o-line and special teams. My problem is that it is has been a problem for awhile and nothing has been done to correct it.

[maroonmania]

Here’s the big difference between Dan and Cohen- Cohen inherited a much worse situation when he took over. His first two years were rebuilding years- much like Howland’s was last year. The rest of his tenure he went to a SR, won the SEC Tournament, went to Omaha, went to a regional as a two seed, had a losing season, and then won the SEC and went to a SR. Just like with Dan- I’m not happy with how the 2013 season and last season ended. I can tolerate how those ended a little bit better because unlike Dan we didn’t do anything overtly nonsensical like 1A/1B that kind of makes you wonder “What if”.

I'll add to that that one of the reasons that Cohen was highly successful before he got to MSU and while here was the emphasis he put on recruiting. Much moreso than Mullen does. While I understand that recruiting in college football and college baseball are not apples to apples, you didn't get an assistants job with Cohen if you weren't a relentless and productive recruiter. Mullen, on the other hand, is willing to keep "buddies" on his staff that are actually hindrances to our recruiting efforts.