Here is the question and Stricklin's response:
Q: Is Mississippi State ready to increase the salaries of its football coaching staff in order to provide stability if or when needed?
A: A similar question was asked about Mullen a few weeks ago. Stricklin said, in part, “It’s hard to speculate, because you don’t know where the market’s going. I want to value coaches who have success and coaches who are talented, but you also want to make smart decisions with your money.”
I'm a little perplexed at Stricklin's response. I realize you leave yourself some room to raise a guy's salary when he's never been a HC before and you leave the possiblity of significant incentive raises but we will have to do much better than 1.2 mil/yr to keep a good coach at the SEC level. And weren't we paying Croom like 1.7 mil or so after one 7 win season. That's nearly 50% more than what Mullen makes. I would say that Mullen is worth more right now than Croom ever was just based on the enthusiasm in the program and ticket sales. I really think if we go bowling this year that we need to get Mullen at least in line with the middle-tier SEC coach's salaries. Of course the one other thing to consider is how much is left after the HC to pay the assistants. Good OCs and DCs are not cheap these days either.
Q: Is Mississippi State ready to increase the salaries of its football coaching staff in order to provide stability if or when needed?
A: A similar question was asked about Mullen a few weeks ago. Stricklin said, in part, “It’s hard to speculate, because you don’t know where the market’s going. I want to value coaches who have success and coaches who are talented, but you also want to make smart decisions with your money.”
I'm a little perplexed at Stricklin's response. I realize you leave yourself some room to raise a guy's salary when he's never been a HC before and you leave the possiblity of significant incentive raises but we will have to do much better than 1.2 mil/yr to keep a good coach at the SEC level. And weren't we paying Croom like 1.7 mil or so after one 7 win season. That's nearly 50% more than what Mullen makes. I would say that Mullen is worth more right now than Croom ever was just based on the enthusiasm in the program and ticket sales. I really think if we go bowling this year that we need to get Mullen at least in line with the middle-tier SEC coach's salaries. Of course the one other thing to consider is how much is left after the HC to pay the assistants. Good OCs and DCs are not cheap these days either.