Postby Deltamud77 » Fri May 04, 2007 1:07 pm
Mississippi State has one major plus going for it. It is in the SEC, which admittedly can be a minus too as it makes it tough to win. Most coaches are egomaniacs and like trying their hand against the "best." That can lure a good coach.
The way I see it State really has two options to turn the program around via a coach. They can go after someone like Rick Neuheisel who, like JS, has a less than stellar reputation, but is a great coach. Gary Barnett is another coach in this fold. The second option is to go after an up and comer with a lot of energy and intelligence. Those coaches are out there.
I think, because of geography, MSU will always have a hard time recruiting with the LSU, Florida and Auburns of the world. Therefore, whoever the coach is that they pursue has to be a developer of talent as well as have a keen eye for underrated talent. Frank Beamer at VaTech is a prime example of all of this. He developes talent, always plays great defense and has the best special teams in the nation. If you do that, you will win way more than you lose.
This next sentence is not meant to be a slap in the face of State or Ole Miss fans, but when either of these schools land an up and comer that is a winner (Tuberville is the last one that comes to mind for the schools), the real problem will be keeping them around because of lack of resources and money. Of course, the plus side of this is that if your coach is good enough to move on to "greener" pastures, chances are you have had some good seasons in the mean time.
That is why, although I have lost some respect for Saban, I will always feel grateful to him in a way. He left us with a MNC.