(09-04-2014 12:50 AM)Adler Wrote: Just my take on the situation:
The SEC didn't destroy Southern Miss football. Southern Miss was always regarded as a scrappy independent that would always bring a fight to the traditional SEC powers that surrounded it. There were always outstanding recruits that were either overlooked by the SEC schools or simply chose Southern Miss because of it's consistent winning tradition.
Then, over a few decades, so many Division 1 move-ups happened in the regions once heavily recruited by USM. Suddenly UAB, UCF, FAU, FIU, Troy, ULM, La Tech, USA, GSUs (both of 'em), and MTSU were all competing for those same level athletes. USM still held an advantage in recruiting as long as Jeff Bower was coach because his legacy of winning continued to elevate the stature of the whole program. USM might not have won every recruiting battle against these schools but they won their share.
Then USM fired Bower. The school wanted someone that could take them to another level, and they found that. Unfortunately that level wasn't up.
Suddenly USM was relegated to being another regional school boxed in by a plethora of AAC, CUSA, and Sun Belt schools, and they all exist in the shadow of the SEC.
Is there another Jeff Bower out there, someone that will elevate the program through winning and still remain at USM? Time will tell.
I mean I guess you can keep believing that firing Bower was the problem. But it just makes you look like you can't let that be what it was. A needed move. We could have kept Bower and attendance would have continued to fall (it fell pretty hard his last few years) or we could make a move and just try. Try to make ourselves better. Try to improve recruiting. Try to excite a fanbase. Try to bring us to a higher level.
Fedora did all of those. He made us a better program. He brought in much stronger recruits and higher ranked recruiting classes. He excited a bored fanbase. And he brought us within one win of a Sugar Bowl berth.
Our talent was still at a high level when Fedora left. Many of the players that were on our Championship team were still on the team in 2012. Many of the players we saw as "stars" or "playmakers" were still there. Johnson ruined their talent. Then the other talent we had left quit or transferred. No one wanted to be part of that catastrophe. Monken is trying to fix problems he caused.
But I guess Bower getting fired did inevitably lead to that if you wanna ignore Fedora's success.
And I really want to address the last thing you said. There's a giant issue with wanting to find a guy who's going to stay at Southern Miss for a long time and be successful. It's not going to happen. It's a different college football world. We are a stepping stone program. Period. Accept it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just the case. And the sooner we embrace that mindset, the sooner we'll understand that if a coach leaves our program for somewhere else, then we should feel confident that they left us better than when they came, setting up the next coach.
The mindset of "get someone to stay a long time" is the exact mindset that hired Johnson. An offended group who didn't like Fedora because he left us decided to get someone who wouldn't leave us. Complacency. And it leads to destruction of a program. We aren't Alabama. We aren't Ohio State. If we get someone who will stay for 20 years, we probably don't want them. Why do you think so many people are so scared of the Doc Sadler hire? It seems like the exact thing they did with Johnson. Hire someone who will stay a while.
Just seems super flawed. I guess I get where you're coming from. I just don't see how it's relevant today. But I guess you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is.
/
How the SEC destroyed Southern Miss Football
