The Brian O’Connor reminds me very much of the Mike Leach hire. We went out there and got the biggest name with the best resume out there! Exciting days ahead in Starkvegas! #HailState
Brian O’Connor hire/Mike Leach hire
- Thread starter JWSDawgs
- Start date
The O’Connor hire is better than the Scholss hire that Cohen whiffed on in 2018
Not even close. Leach never won a national championship and we were about the only school willing to hire him back then.
Very similar, when compared to program potential and what the coach could actually accomplish at MSU. Again, comparatively speaking.
ETA: It does come with a risk. We are banking on him being able to recruit based on name cache, similar as Leach. But we have to hope that meshes with our program status, and we can convince the best of the best to come. We have not been able to do that in a long time. We wanted that same thing with Lemonis, he just couldn’t pull it off, even after a natty.
Similarly to Leach, except we were just wanting 8-4 consistently, so we were hoping his name and the Air Raid would be that cache. It appeared to be working, but we will never know long term.
The biggest risk is whether these guys have the fire, or if it’s just about money. We know we will be competent. But will they maximize?
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Leach was a great hire because he proved to consistently punch above his program's weight. And he's Leach and loved by most anyone without a stick up their ***.
BOC is a significantly better hire bc his resume his objectively elite, did it at an have-not program that historically did not produce, and he's not even close to sniffing retread territory. We are catching an elite coach still in his prime and I'm not sure that has ever happened at Mississippi State. 12/10 hire.
BOC is a significantly better hire bc his resume his objectively elite, did it at an have-not program that historically did not produce, and he's not even close to sniffing retread territory. We are catching an elite coach still in his prime and I'm not sure that has ever happened at Mississippi State. 12/10 hire.
Although there is no direct comparison, I compare it more to the Howland hire. People may take a pessimistic view of that, but facts are that Howland did a fairly quick rebuild of a really bad situation, rapidly upgraded our recruiting, and that 2018 team that was a 5-seed is still the best team we’ve put on the court in the past 20 years.
Unfortunately, Howland was also aging, not keeping up very well with the latest trends and analytics in basketball, and did not experience the same recruiting advantages at MSU as he had at UCLA. I don’t know if any of those 3 things will affect O’Conner like they did Howland, but one or two of them might at some point.
It’s still an outstanding hire.
Unfortunately, Howland was also aging, not keeping up very well with the latest trends and analytics in basketball, and did not experience the same recruiting advantages at MSU as he had at UCLA. I don’t know if any of those 3 things will affect O’Conner like they did Howland, but one or two of them might at some point.
It’s still an outstanding hire.
He did build Virginia from nothing. However the restraints in football are much harder to mitigate. It can happen, but it takes many years. Bobby Bowden and Frank Beamer maybe?
If Leach had ever just gotten a mid-range SEC job to mitigate those restraints.....like a Tennessee or Auburn....he'd have elite results as well.
The Mike Leach hire/era needs to be studied at Mississippi State. It’s the biggest disconnect from reality I’ve ever experienced as a fan. Were you guys alive during 2020-2022?
It was actually a great time. Dealing with COVID and the introduction of NIL and the portal, we had 2 winning seasons in a row after Moorhead tanked us. Obviously 2020 wasn't great but when you're in year one installing an offense that needs to be repped, COVID kinda messed us up. Even then, you saw improvement throughout the year.
Death sucks, but the big mistakes were made after that. I enjoyed those winning seasons immensely, curious when we'll have another one.
At least we've got baseball, right?
Yea it’s where liars and morons told us 9-4 was bad because the coach wouldn’t give boosters access
The air raid brigade! I was wondering what took you guys so long. 6 minutes felt like an eternity
Another 2-10 warrior here to tell us how bad 9-4 was
It has a different feeling on the front end mainly because I think most of us were fully expecting Leach to retire in 5 or so years when he was hired.
O’Connor has a good while left in him as a baseball skipper.
This is a ridiculous comparison. Howland got fired at UCLA, and their fans tried to warn us when we hired him. O'Connor could have had as much salary at UVA as he'll be getting here. He's leaving for Starkville because he wants to win and thinks he can win more here than he can at UVA. I don't think we're going to be seeing another lazy coach like Howland or Lemonis.
I think, for him, this is a hard reset with an embrace of NIL and the portal. And evolution, so to speak, rather than sitting around bltching about it forever.
Why do you not blame Arnett and Lebby, each, for dismantling the scheme and culture, and running off all the assistant coaches and players?
For some reason some of you though Mike Wright and Rylan Goede were good ideas. Not to mention the peaches brigade of high school coaches brought in.
Arnett could have let Will Rogers coach the offense and he'd have won 7 or 8 games with that team.
Not only that, but we knew we were in for a substantial rebuild no matter how/when Leach left. And, as only we could do, we compounded that by making the single worst hire in our school’s history.
Oak is a grand slam hire by any measure. You can’t guarantee success, but there’s no reason to believe he won’t exceed his performance at UVA here. We have 10 times the program UVA does.
THIS IS A HUUUUUGEDAMN HIRE!
Still don't believe we got him.
Hope his A$$is hungry for championships! We are in desperate need of legit success in at least one of our big three programs. Good luck, BOC.
Still don't believe we got him.
Hope his A$$is hungry for championships! We are in desperate need of legit success in at least one of our big three programs. Good luck, BOC.
And…..this is a prime example of why every MSU new coaching hire ever is hated by the masses after 3-5 years, max. Totally unrealistic expectations.
I’m excited as hell about having him, but I’m not expecting 8 CWS’s and/or 2 national titles from a 55 year old coach….especially considering that the competition level just got cranked way up.
Because anyone we hired was going to "dismantle the culture". NOBODY runs what Leach did now. Why do you not blame Leach for going against what we can recruit to MSU? He destroyed what Mullen had built up, and he did it intentionally. He left us with very little talent at all.
Moorhead destroyed what Mullen built, that's fact. And furthermore, Mullen himself sorta helped, since he stacked so many JUCOs in the 2017 class in order to win immediately when the heat got put on him in 2016.
Leach's recruiting classes were ranked in the mid-20s just like Mullen's. He also did well with the portal.
And AGAIN, it was Arnett and Lebby who cut loose all of Leach's players. Perhaps it was going to happen anyway with the portal, but alas, it's still what happened.
You're just wrong here, but no need to keep going. We all know it.
Mullen's last three years were uninspiring. He quit grinding when OM went all in on Freezus Christ, buying hookers and blow for recruits.
Leach left a collection of players that could only run Leach stuff as a group. It was just going to happen when he left, whenever and however. Some of us pointed that out when he was hired and it happened exactly like we said it would. Leach was a terrible hire and we will be paying for it for a long time.