Where does Selmon rank in your Mississippi State AD rankings?
- Thread starter dawgstudent
- Start date
Until football improves he is right below Templeton.
it’s a pretty short list of ones who didn’t completely suck
Byrne - easily the best
Stricklin
Selmon
Cohen
The rest suck
Byrne - easily the best
Stricklin
Selmon
Cohen
The rest suck
He was the worst until he really wowed me with the O'Connor hire. Now I just don't know. Maybe I was wrong? It sure would seem that way if Lebby overperforms this fall.
This order is probably correct. LT is not even a distant 5th
Carl Maddox deserves consideration.
He might be the most consequential AD in MSU history.
I’d argue that MSU didn’t have a professionally run athletics department until he came over from LSU…
All the previous ADs at MSU had coached or also served as coaches at MSU…
He might be the most consequential AD in MSU history.
I’d argue that MSU didn’t have a professionally run athletics department until he came over from LSU…
All the previous ADs at MSU had coached or also served as coaches at MSU…
It’s an incomplete grade until we have more information on where football is headed. He walked into a tough spot with football so I’ll give him a little bit of grace on that. Arnett wasn’t his hire and he did pull the trigger quickly. Risky decision to fire an unproven HC and replace him with an equally unproven HC. I was banging the drum hard for Cignetti at the time but I’m just a fan and it went the way it went.
Lebby is at best an unknown still and at worst already showing signs that’s it’s not going to work. Football is just so hugely important and for Selmon to get a passing grade on the biggest sport, either Lebby has to get it going or Zac has to stick around long enough to make a strong second FB hire.
Otherwise though…. Seems to be a strong fundraiser. An improvement over Cohen with PR/marketing though not what Byrne and Stricklin were. O’Connor is, on paper, the most impressive hire we’ve ever made in any sport. We’ve done a better job of promoting men’s hoops under him than we did under Cohen.
In my lifetime we’ve had 5 AD’s and I think for now you’ve gotta put Selmon firmly at 3. He’s safely behind Byrne and Stricklin, but I believe safely ahead of Cohen and LT.
But so much of his legacy will hinge on the next few years of our football program:
Lebby is at best an unknown still and at worst already showing signs that’s it’s not going to work. Football is just so hugely important and for Selmon to get a passing grade on the biggest sport, either Lebby has to get it going or Zac has to stick around long enough to make a strong second FB hire.
Otherwise though…. Seems to be a strong fundraiser. An improvement over Cohen with PR/marketing though not what Byrne and Stricklin were. O’Connor is, on paper, the most impressive hire we’ve ever made in any sport. We’ve done a better job of promoting men’s hoops under him than we did under Cohen.
In my lifetime we’ve had 5 AD’s and I think for now you’ve gotta put Selmon firmly at 3. He’s safely behind Byrne and Stricklin, but I believe safely ahead of Cohen and LT.
But so much of his legacy will hinge on the next few years of our football program:
So far he has made plenty of good moves: going on quickly from Arnett, fund raising in record fashion, hiring O’Connor. I disagree with the Huntzler contract vehemently. Lebby is a good hire, eventually, I believe. Wait and see, unfortunately, his success will bring bigger schools to hire him away from us. That’s the pattern we deal with at MSU.
Man, all of you hated Selmon a few months ago. What changed?
Byrne and Templeton brought us our only two periods of real football relevance. Plus Templeton has the 96 final four on his resume. Cohen has the 21 baseball natty.
Stricklin maintained Byrne’s success to a degree.
What has Selmon done to be mentioned with those? Hired a baseball coach? Cool.****
Stricklin maintained Byrne’s success to a degree.
What has Selmon done to be mentioned with those? Hired a baseball coach? Cool.****
Is this a serious question? He made the greatest hire in college baseball history.
In the 1-2 discussion if he can fix football. In the get lost discussion if we bust again and continue that course.
But why did you hate him before?
I’ve asked this question a lot on this board from the people that have strong opinions that he was awful…. And the answer I always get is something along the lines of “trust me… he’s the worst”. No one ever points to anything concrete. I could understand the Lebby hire being a knock against him but I can’t really figure out what else had people so worked up about him.
Mob mentality. It has been a REALLY bad few years. Someone has to take the blame. Kind of like when the economy isn’t doing great and the president takes the blame whether it’s fault or not. I have been very guilty of this too with Selmon. Ultimately your success as an AD in the SEC is determined by football. As long as we are god awful, people aren’t going to like the AD, fair or not.
Football is what matters. If football fails and he keeps wandering around in the weeds with Lebby, he'll be considered a failure. If he makes decisions that turns football around, he'll be up there probably second after Byrne. Some of the football game day decisions he's made, though, are head scratching. And the inattention to detail is concerning, too.
Too early to comment. I've seen some positives and I like his weekly updates he recently started. Just like a coach it takes a few years to see results. If football, baseball and basketball do well and we see women's sports improve he will challenge Burn for the top spot.
1. He didn’t take care of the Lemonis situation when we all knew it would be a waste of everyone’s time to retain him after ‘23
2. His first major hire has been an abject failure up to this point
3. We had zero idea as to what he was doing surrounding master plans or even fundraising for nearly 2.5 years
4. The tone deaf fan survey incident
5. Our one good coach at the time(Jans) went job hunting after two seasons
My opinion of Selmon has improved drastically in the last few months, and it’s impossible to listen to him these days and come away thinking that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. However, there were plenty of reasons to not be impressed with his first two years here
I have similar thoughts regarding Maddox. I assume that Maddox hired Bellard and Boyd, both experienced and well respected coaches nationally. Maddox probably goes above Templeton also and maybe Cohen also, but a mannequin might rank ahead of LT.
I think he had a slow first two years without many noticeable things going on. But has had a very eventful and to this point positive 2025.
Dudy Noble hired Jack Cristil, the most consequential Athletics Department hire in our history and I don’t see him on any list here.
Selmon seems fine.
Moved on from Lemonis in appropriate fashion, and made a great hire. Has retained Jans. Has raised money.
Football-wise, I don’t know how much you can really put on the AD at a school like MSU in today’s climate. The Lebby hire wasn’t great, but nobody else really wanted it, and we’ll probably be in a similar scenario again in a year or two.
Moved on from Lemonis in appropriate fashion, and made a great hire. Has retained Jans. Has raised money.
Football-wise, I don’t know how much you can really put on the AD at a school like MSU in today’s climate. The Lebby hire wasn’t great, but nobody else really wanted it, and we’ll probably be in a similar scenario again in a year or two.
We aren't talking about your mom. *
Selmon is pushing Byrne at this point. Win some football games and get some stadium upgrades and he's GOAT.
The jury is still out for me. He's done a great job fundraising, but it's hard to know how much he is driving that, and how much is actual new investment vs us just having a press conference every time we get a donation now. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that. He gets credit for navigating the NIL/revenue share stuff, but so is everybody else.
On coaching - he gets credit for the O'Connor hire - he hit it out of the park. But any competent AD would have - it was perfect timing with Oak wanting to leave Virginia. A year earlier and he wouldn't have been able to get him. On the flip side, he kept Lemonis around and punted on baseball for too long. The Lebby hire, to me, was a lazy one and he didn't step in and force Lebby to make changes to his coaching staff when everyone knew he needed to. Overall, the big 3 sports have underachieved with Selmon at the helm and that's ultimately going tell the story. He needs the football program to turn around quickly. He needs to get the basketball program off the bubble and get some tourney wins. He needs Dudy Noble packed for regional weekends.
On logos/uniforms...all that is nonsense. He knows what the fans want and instead of giving it to them, he gives them gimmicks for a game at a time. It's literally the easiest/cheapest thing he could do.
We've had a run of crappy ADs since Byrne left and I would say Selmon hasn't done much to distinguish himself for me. He's squarely in the Stricklin territory. And like Stricklin, he's going to be gone the first chance he gets.
On coaching - he gets credit for the O'Connor hire - he hit it out of the park. But any competent AD would have - it was perfect timing with Oak wanting to leave Virginia. A year earlier and he wouldn't have been able to get him. On the flip side, he kept Lemonis around and punted on baseball for too long. The Lebby hire, to me, was a lazy one and he didn't step in and force Lebby to make changes to his coaching staff when everyone knew he needed to. Overall, the big 3 sports have underachieved with Selmon at the helm and that's ultimately going tell the story. He needs the football program to turn around quickly. He needs to get the basketball program off the bubble and get some tourney wins. He needs Dudy Noble packed for regional weekends.
On logos/uniforms...all that is nonsense. He knows what the fans want and instead of giving it to them, he gives them gimmicks for a game at a time. It's literally the easiest/cheapest thing he could do.
We've had a run of crappy ADs since Byrne left and I would say Selmon hasn't done much to distinguish himself for me. He's squarely in the Stricklin territory. And like Stricklin, he's going to be gone the first chance he gets.
I do not disagree with this, however, as many internal issues we had, the external issues in athletics overall were even worse affecting planning, etc.
Ah, our precious, precious baseball program that loses money every year.
I’ve said a million times, what happens with baseball will not affect how long Selmon has a job. Everything starts with football. If Lebby fails, and Selmon gets another shot at a football hire and it fails again, Selmon will be gone.
He walked into a tough situation in football. But almost 2 years in he hasn’t made it any better. If we don’t surprise some people this fall, he needs to make some tough decisions. Really, they should be easy decisions.
If Salmon claims the 40 and 41 nattys, he’s the best.
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This season will tell us a lot. Either Lebby is a solid coach that walked into a mess and is showing signs of life or he just plain sucks. Those are the two schools of thought and we will know the answer likely by the end of this season.
Byrne - Clear number one by a long way
Stricklin - Would rival Byrne had he not killed basketball
Selmon - He didn't hire Arnett and the jury is still out on Lebby, despite what you read here. Home run baseball hire. Olympic sports are solid. Seems to listen to fans
Cohen - Just not a forward thinker. Excuse maker. Never really believed in MSU. Should have stayed a baseball coach, but then again we might not have the natty had he done so.
Templeton - Sold an SEC home game to Florida. That's all you need to know.
Charley Scott and Charlie Carr - I'm not old enough to remember them, but the on field and on court results in the mid to late 80's are horrific.
Stricklin - Would rival Byrne had he not killed basketball
Selmon - He didn't hire Arnett and the jury is still out on Lebby, despite what you read here. Home run baseball hire. Olympic sports are solid. Seems to listen to fans
Cohen - Just not a forward thinker. Excuse maker. Never really believed in MSU. Should have stayed a baseball coach, but then again we might not have the natty had he done so.
Templeton - Sold an SEC home game to Florida. That's all you need to know.
Charley Scott and Charlie Carr - I'm not old enough to remember them, but the on field and on court results in the mid to late 80's are horrific.
Baseball matters at Mississippi State. Like it or not, you need to learn to love it.
I think that’s fair, and it’s honestly very reasonable to assume that he inherited a bigger mess internally than any of us realize.
Don't start that **** again. Nobody cares about that. Nobody.
Selmon still coming in at NR this week. He gets a few votes for the new skipper hire but still yet to put ANY points on the board.
Who was the last state AD to never win a bowl, regional, OR an NCAAT game?
Cohen is almost Templeton level bad. What he did to us in the NIL era was criminal and set us back tremendously. He hired Leach, and that was the only good thing he did here.
