I contend that the grasshopper is now...

BigMotherTucker

Sophomore
Aug 20, 2006
6,779
155
63
The master.
DWS expansion success (assuming it'll be finished in time**)
The tennis/softball project
Football practice facilities
Now Dudy Noble

The guy is doing a great job. I love the social media stuff... I love the marketing, and I personally love the uniform ****. The guy is likeable and approachable. We're damn lucky to have this guy.

17 LT, 17 Byrne...
 

coach66

Junior
Mar 5, 2009
12,692
314
83
And he made Mullen pay his assistants*

His next assignment is to lock down Collins, it never ends.
 

karlchilders.sixpack

All-Conference
Jun 5, 2008
20,023
4,016
113
Unless I missed it,

Grasshopper is in search of $20Mill or so,

Should be easy pickings with this crowd.

Name space available on a brick!
 

Shamoan

Redshirt
Jun 27, 2013
12,466
0
0
in my analysis, minus the facility tour attire, he stomped a mudhole in byrne in the football expansion comparison even though it was a 5-4 decision...the reality is that was a landslide. i do want to point out an obvious problem this makes....if we dont fire stricklandz, who is going to take his place on the hot seat? we should go ahead and fire him anyway because the projects he has lead have been too good for lil ole msu and we are now balling with the big boys, and in some cases, making them look sophomoric in comparison. we have crossed a line here and im afraid our 5 foot nothin' boys cant cash that check. we are doomed.

seriously though, strick just popped a daniel-son on byrne.

 

AFDawg

Senior
Apr 28, 2010
3,278
524
113
The master.
DWS expansion success (assuming it'll be finished in time**)
The tennis/softball project
Football practice facilities
Now Dudy Noble

The guy is doing a great job. I love the social media stuff... I love the marketing, and I personally love the uniform ****. The guy is likeable and approachable. We're damn lucky to have this guy.

17 LT, 17 Byrne...

Count me a fan. I've always thought the criticisms of Stricklin were petty or short sighted.
 

esplanade91

Redshirt
Dec 9, 2010
5,656
0
0
to consider the source(s) of the criticisms.
While I admit that a lot of the stuff was nitpicky, a lot of the stuff criticized did in fact suck... But I'll go a step further and admit that he's been really great about listening to fans and what we want. I still think we go over the top with TSUN, "Our State," and beating off to the Egg Bowl, but it appears like a solid % of our fans love it, and I'm not going anywhere because of it... So who am I to say we shouldn't do that stuff I don't necessarily love?

Byrne is a better AD. Look no further than the salary he commands. But we're in a unique situation where we went from the bottom to above average to slightly worse but still above average. Of course people are going to nitpick. Now that we're past Byrne's tenure it's easy to look back and say how great he was but a lot of people wanted to strangle him at certain points too.

We're in a good spot, and I have a hard time believing it's inspite of him. I can't imagine us being in any better of shape. Except in basketball, where we would likely be in the same situation regardless.
 

johnson86-1

All-Conference
Aug 22, 2012
14,361
4,864
113
The master.
DWS expansion success (assuming it'll be finished in time**)
The tennis/softball project
Football practice facilities
Now Dudy Noble

The guy is doing a great job. I love the social media stuff... I love the marketing, and I personally love the uniform ****. The guy is likeable and approachable. We're damn lucky to have this guy.

17 LT, 17 Byrne...

Facilities expansions are nice, but not really that important. #1 job is to have winning programs in football, baseball, and basketball. Facilities investments are a way to help that goal, but are probably well behind picking the right coach (although again, your choice of picks gets a lot better with great facilities). I think most people would be happy to cheer for a top 10 program in a dump; it's just hard to maintain a top 10 program with dumpy facilities.

I would say right now Strickland is doing the right things. He inherited a good situation in football and baseball and he has done what was necessary to support and maintain those programs. He inherited a dumpster fire in basketball and we'll have a good idea after this year whether he made a decent hire there or not. He appears to be doing well upgrading the non-revenue sports which is nice, but almost irrelevant compared to the big 3. But there is certainly no doubt that while facilities are not his most important job, he seems to have picked some architects that have executed the designs extremely well.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
56,967
26,417
113
The facility expansion projects help us to have winning programs in a lot of ways. Recruiting & fan support being two. And Stricklin didn't "inherit" a good situation in football. He was instrumental in us hiring Dan Mullen in the first place.
 

BiscuitEater

Redshirt
Aug 29, 2009
4,178
0
36
Caveat ...

Byrne is a better AD. Look no further than the salary he commands. But we're in a unique situation where we went from the bottom to above average to slightly worse but still above average.

What good is being 'better' if Byrne is willing to head off to Arizona to make more $$.

Personally, think Strick being a 'bulldog' motivates him. He is 'one of us' and not looking for a $$ raise at a bigger program.

Hope he stays around for a long time.
 

esplanade91

Redshirt
Dec 9, 2010
5,656
0
0
What good is being 'better' if Byrne is willing to head off to Arizona to make more $$.

Personally, think Strick being a 'bulldog' motivates him. He is 'one of us' and not looking for a $$ raise at a bigger program.

Hope he stays around for a long time.
To be fair, Byrne is one of us. He got his grad degree from MSU and sent his kid to school here (right?).

If he was still around when the SEC Network became a thing, and I don't think we would have ever lost him... But I have no qualms with him leaving us for a name brand school with a lot more resources (at the time).

Again, not complaining one bit. It's just an interesting observation when looking at LT --> Greg --> loafers. One doesn't fit in there.

Slightly off topic: I prefer hiring from the outside as much as possible. MSU has been harmed by circular group think more than anyone, so any time we can bring in a guy with different thoughts and opinions on how to find success, I think that's fantastic. Whether that's professors, administrators, anyone. The core is always going to be MSU faithful, but if we can sprinkle a few like Jeff Davis in we'll be better for it. I love the "one of us" when we get guys like Keenum, but I don't think it should get him bonus points.
 

Original48

Redshirt
Aug 9, 2007
3,322
0
0
To be fair, Byrne is one of us. He got his grad degree from MSU and sent his kid to school here (right?).
And lets not forget he walked into the fire and hired Cohen instead of Raffo. As happy as I am for what Scott is doing, I'm just not sure he would have been able to do that at that point in his career. And what Scott is able to do now is because of Byrne's stones.
 

KurtRambis4

Redshirt
Aug 30, 2006
15,926
0
36
I believe part

of the reason Byrne left was because of family, so I'm not 100% certain money would have kept him here.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
56,967
26,417
113
I think that was more than part of the reason. It was the reason. Arizona was pretty close to a lateral move career-wise. But his wife's family is all from Arizona and he went to college at ASU.
 

jb1020

Freshman
Jun 7, 2009
1,866
87
48
I'm too lazy to pull the numbers

But I would assume that Strick is working with a much larger budget these days than Byrne ever had with the bigger SEC and the new Network.