wonder if we can actually do a unbiased retrospective on his career here?

Although his tenure ended with a proverbial "wimper", not a "bang", was any HC doomed at USM due to NCAA sanctions and a lost ham?

Victories over OP & MSUcks were frequent....there was THAT win at Bryant-Denny Stadium (the GATA--Get After Their AZZ--Bowl!)...and some kid from the Kiln was recruited who helped the next HC look simply brilliant!

Now, there were also inconceivable losses---NW Louisiana & NE Louisiana come quickly to mind---but the roster was severely handicapped at the time.

We all know Nasty was his own man, and looked like he would kick your azz if you looked at him the wrong way...but he also had (has!) a great sense of humor, a former Ms. Louisiana as his wife, and raised some great boys (some on here might disagree on the latter!).

So, was Jim a one-trick poney as a HC? (getting USM up for the big boys only)...Should he have simply stayed a DC, where he had the most knowledge and was one of the best in the country?...Was it the scholarship numbers that got him or his own horse's arse demeanor?....Lastly, did his tenure at USM unjustly stifle his career and make him basically a Mississippi university-only football assistant corch for life?

Sorry for this long message, but dayem, "Big Nasty" IS the poster boy for the saying, "he is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma!"