Not a good year for the smartest man in the room.
- Thread starter patdog
- Start date
Unlike us, they have the money to be good in a lot of sports. We've punched above our weight in most sports (minus football since the Pirate died) for a long time.
To an extent they do. But Auburn is in the lower half of the SEC in terms of how much money they have.
Auburn hiring John Cohen as AD is the best thing that's happened to our athletic department in years. It was shocking to me when it happened. Cohen should have remained a baseball coach, something he's actually good at.
Like everything else he does, his tenure as baseball coach had some really high highs and some really low lows. Inconsistent as hell. You simply cannot finish last in baseball at Mississippi State. And Cohen is directly or indirectly responsible for at least 4 last place finishes. We had never finished last before then.
I remember the Auburn fans being a bit confused when we were thanking them.
They have two billionaires who give freely (Rane and Harbert), they also have Tim Cook, but he probably isn't involved much in athletics. Ole Miss has one billionaire*, Barksdale (I don't think he's overly in athletics) and we have one, Bishop* (I don't think he's overly involved in athletics).
* - info comes from chatGPT.
Yuup, best thing to happen since Doc ran off Simpleton.
Oh they’ve got more money than us for sure. But do they have Texas, A&M, Oklahoma, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida or Tennessee revenue?
I'm guessing he still has some, but his 'partners' balls are bigger than his, just ask she/her.Well when you make decisions with no balls, this is what you get.
I’ll add another sobering thought I just had. As much money as they have they’re probably not in the top 25 nationally. Most of the Big 10 had more. Texas Tech. Two or three ACC schools. Notre Dame. BYU.
At least he locked up Steven pearl to a multi year agreement with a buyout of 50% of his remaining salary if he’s ever fired. I mean, I’m sure Arkansas state or somebody would have probably offered him a job if cohen hadn’t thrown millions at him.
Kind of makes what Kiffen did at OM even more impressive. They're likely well below the Barn in athletic money.
You would think. But by all accounts Mississippi has been outspending Auburn in football for several years. They’ve certainly been out recruiting them. Badly.
Auburn has substantially more football revenue than Ole Miss (2024 numbers - almost $50 mil more) and spent more on football (but only $3 mil more).
Most of the schools that have Texas/Texas A & M money are in the Ivy League
The softball performance surprised me. I would’ve assumed Nel put more emphasis on softball.
Cohen has transformed that program into something unrecognizable.
The IB might injure himself watching that Bryce Chance sacrifice bunt attempt that turned into a base hit?
I totally agree with you that Cohen, the AD, was abysmal
Cohen, the coach, I believe is a different animal. He inherited a clown show and turned it around. He took us further than we’ve ever been in 2013. Cohen was a hard nosed Coach and that 2018 CWS team that made the CWS that year reflected that. To this day I believe Cohen had his hands on that 2021 Championship run.
This is as silly as it was when you were trashing him during his tenure. He’s a great baseball coach.
He was better than we give him credit for HERE as AD. He knew we had to lean baseball and be creative in football. I mean it’s not like our AD has been successful since he left.
But is he a good overall AD with transferable skills? Not really. His effectiveness as a AD was always limited to MSU.
He’s made enough money now, so he really needs to find a way to get back into baseball somehow. Maybe not coaching at this point.
How can Cohen lead an athletic department when he can’t lead his family?
My post was clear. The lack of intellect here sometimes is astounding.
A differing opinion is one thing. But what you said? Good Lord man. Get it together.
Sorry, pat, there’s quite a bit of misinformation here:
1) “You simply cannot finish last in baseball at Mississippi State”. The last 3 MSU coaches who didn’t sext in the dugout, who have a combined 12 appearances in Omaha, a national title, and multiple SEC titles between them, all did it. Baseball is cyclical. Shít happens sometimes.
2) Cohen finished last place in the SEC in 2009 and 2015. That’s twice, not 4 times. And the 2009 team had absolutely nothing to do with his coaching. Zero.
3) Never finished last before he took over? We literally finished last in 2008, the year right before he started. Last year of Polk II, who had already set in motion the events of 2009 and 2010, unfortunately. No portal then, there was no quick fix for what Polk did to the program in his 2nd stint.
4) 2015 was an aberration largely caused by a slew of pitching injuries. Winning the league title and getting a national seed the very next season proved that.
@patdog hated Cohen. Trashed him right up until the 2012 SEC tournament run and then a little more even after that. And we see how it turned out.
Lonnie Tinkle would like a word!
Cohen the baseball coach was a weird experience but we also got him at a weird time in the context of where the sport was. His Kentucky teams could mash and then within a couple of years of him coming here, the dead bat era arrived. And then by 2015 it changed again with the tightened seams on the baseballs. Felt like it took him a year or two to adjust to some changes that were happening in the sport overall.
To be honest, I’m still not totally sure why he stepped away from baseball when he did. He was only 50 and just had his best team ever. And was clearly building toward more success, based on how good we continued to be for about 5 years after he stepped down.
I’ve been waiting for years for him to get sick of being AD (or get fired) and return to coaching somewhere.
I am 100% here for 2027 Missouri baseball coach John Cohen.
To be honest, I’m still not totally sure why he stepped away from baseball when he did. He was only 50 and just had his best team ever. And was clearly building toward more success, based on how good we continued to be for about 5 years after he stepped down.
I’ve been waiting for years for him to get sick of being AD (or get fired) and return to coaching somewhere.
I am 100% here for 2027 Missouri baseball coach John Cohen.
and JTL (Jones family from what was the Jones family, they sold out but are still filthy rich) and Murphy Oil, and the Waltons, and JB Hunt Trucking (Johnelle Hunt), and Warren Stephens, etc etc etc. The Walton's alone are estimated to be worth $450 BILLION
He's also responsible for 6 super regionals, 4 CWS appearances, 2 CWS finals, 1 natty.
Cohen was a good coach. The upper part of good. Not great but really good.
He did some good things as AD. He did some bad things as AD.