(12-04-2019 12:18 PM)Nugget49er Wrote:  I am not that familiar with the details of your situation, but I think it all starts with the question "if we fire our coach, who can we get to replace him?" When Charlotte went through this a year ago we felt like we needed to increase our budget for a HC by about a third to be competitive in the market for a coach that would make us competitive in the conference. If Southerm Miss comes to a similar conclusion then I think you either spend more to get more, or if that is not in the cards you keep what you've got for now. No point changing unless you can get the coach you need.

Good luck. I think we all want, or should want, each school to be the best they can be.

Rice finally did this to lure Bloomgren and a really qualified staff. He makes over a million, some of us speculate almost $1.5 million, but no one really knows. Rice never releases this information.

It's going to be very, very hard to attract a great coaching candidate for only $500k. Ouch. That's really low.

(12-04-2019 01:12 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 11:41 AM)everyone Wrote:  We have had so many low points it is hard to keep up. The fans that are still around are definitely lifers. If you have made it this far you will see it through to the "end" or "new beginning".

Where do we go from here? If you are the AD (and I think we have a good one) do you cut ties with our head coach if/when we lose the bowl or do you give him one or even two more years b/c of the contract? Wouldn't it be something to fire Hopson and hire Art Briles as head coach? Our recruiting is sooooo very bad. We just throw out offers left and right...more than any other D1 school and see who sticks. We need a shake up and someone saying finishing 3rd in CUSA West is unacceptable going forward.

According to some of your fans, the Sun Belt...

Hey Destin isn't really all that better than Orange Beach, if you know what I mean.

I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

(12-04-2019 01:17 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  As far as Art Briles goes he should be OC, now. If the president of USM wouldnt let the head coach hire him as OC he sure as hell wouldnt hire Art Briles as head coach.

USM was basically getting one of the best offensive coaches in college football for PEANUTS. That would have freed up the head coach, who's really a DC...to do what he does best. Not only would have Art Briles fixed the problem on offense. His eyes on the type of players it takes to run his system...adds as much value as his coaching.

If you are going to depend on defense winning you game. The number one thing you need on offense...A line that can knock people off the ball so you can ground and pound. In the past 5 years in CUSA UAB is the only defensive team to win the conference...

they had a ground and pound offense that ate clock

Other than that you need a offense that can put up mid 30s up in points and a defense that can hold schools in the mid to high 20s. That has been the combination that wins CUSA. Art Briles as OC would have gave that combination to USM...

that train is long gone and in my opinion USM will ride with Hop through next year. Then they need to go out and find the brightest offensive coach they can get..for the money they can afford to pay. Unless something has changed that type of money you either go with someone needing redemption or at a lower level, like UNCC

Or he could upgrade upgrade to somewhere like Maine or Central Arkansas

(12-04-2019 01:46 PM)Ninerfaithfull Wrote:  I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

Southern Miss didn't used to have such poor finances comparatively. But with TV money, etc they just haven't kept up. Yeah, they had less money in comparison to a lot of FBS schools, but it was only by a few million dollars, instead of tens of millions. Now every new FBS program and their mother has a larger budget than Southern Miss.

2005:

Memphis - 24.3 million
Houston: 22.6 million
UCF: 22 million
Cincy: 21.1 million
ECU: 21.1 million
UAB: 18.8 million
Southern Miss: 18.2 million
Boise State: 16.9 million
Marshall: 16.3 million
FAU: 14.4 million
Troy: 12 million
Georgia Southern: 8.8 million
ULL: 7.6 million
App State: 7 million


2018:

UCF: 62 million
Cincy: 61.8 million
Memphis: 55.4 million
Houston: 55.1 million
Boise State: 48.1 million
ECU: 46.9 million
App State: 36.9 million
FAU: 35.3 million
UAB: 34.7 million
ULL: 32.5 million
Georgia Southern: 31.7 million
Marshall: 30.6 million
Troy: 30.3 million
Southern Miss: 24.2 million

(12-04-2019 01:17 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  As far as Art Briles goes he should be OC, now. If the president of USM wouldnt let the head coach hire him as OC he sure as hell wouldnt hire Art Briles as head coach.

USM was basically getting one of the best offensive coaches in college football for PEANUTS. That would have freed up the head coach, who's really a DC...to do what he does best. Not only would have Art Briles fixed the problem on offense. His eyes on the type of players it takes to run his system...adds as much value as his coaching.

If you are going to depend on defense winning you game. The number one thing you need on offense...A line that can knock people off the ball so you can ground and pound. In the past 5 years in CUSA UAB is the only defensive team to win the conference...

they had a ground and pound offense that ate clock

Other than that you need a offense that can put up mid 30s up in points and a defense that can hold schools in the mid to high 20s. That has been the combination that wins CUSA. Art Briles as OC would have gave that combination to USM...

that train is long gone and in my opinion USM will ride with Hop through next year. Then they need to go out and find the brightest offensive coach they can get..for the money they can afford to pay. Unless something has changed that type of money you either go with someone needing redemption or at a lower level, like UNCC

Will be interesting to see if the president blocks the AD from extending Hop's contract after this season plays out after the Briles interview fiasco. Granted if an extension isn't announced I doubt it will ever come out as the president blocked it. But considering just about every head coach here has received a contract extension after a winning season (and a 7 win season at that) I'm interested to see if that happens. If not I feel like next season will be his last unless he gets a championship or championship appearance.

https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/stor...098286002/

Hopson's contract details of his most recent contract extension that was signed in August 2018 and runs through the 2021 season ending Jan, 31, 2022.

Hopson's contract has a buyout clause requiring that he pay 50 percent of the base salary in the remaining contract period were he to terminate his contract before it has run its course. The university has an equal clause were it to terminate Hopson without cause with time left on the contract. Both of these clauses are contingent upon Hopson finding employment elsewhere in football

(12-04-2019 01:48 PM)Tintin Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 01:17 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  As far as Art Briles goes he should be OC, now. If the president of USM wouldnt let the head coach hire him as OC he sure as hell wouldnt hire Art Briles as head coach.

USM was basically getting one of the best offensive coaches in college football for PEANUTS. That would have freed up the head coach, who's really a DC...to do what he does best. Not only would have Art Briles fixed the problem on offense. His eyes on the type of players it takes to run his system...adds as much value as his coaching.

If you are going to depend on defense winning you game. The number one thing you need on offense...A line that can knock people off the ball so you can ground and pound. In the past 5 years in CUSA UAB is the only defensive team to win the conference...

they had a ground and pound offense that ate clock

Other than that you need a offense that can put up mid 30s up in points and a defense that can hold schools in the mid to high 20s. That has been the combination that wins CUSA. Art Briles as OC would have gave that combination to USM...

that train is long gone and in my opinion USM will ride with Hop through next year. Then they need to go out and find the brightest offensive coach they can get..for the money they can afford to pay. Unless something has changed that type of money you either go with someone needing redemption or at a lower level, like UNCC

Or he could upgrade upgrade to somewhere like Maine or Central Arkansas

Let me guess you thought I was taking a shot at UNCC? I meant go out and get a lower level head coach that is considered a great offensive mind. Like UNCC, got.

But I understand why your mind would go there first...the fanbase had many of those shots taken at them over the past 3 seasons. I wasnt one of those and I'm still not.

(12-04-2019 11:41 AM)everyone Wrote:  We have had so many low points it is hard to keep up. The fans that are still around are definitely lifers. If you have made it this far you will see it through to the "end" or "new beginning".

Where do we go from here? If you are the AD (and I think we have a good one) do you cut ties with our head coach if/when we lose the bowl or do you give him one or even two more years b/c of the contract? Wouldn't it be something to fire Hopson and hire Art Briles as head coach? Our recruiting is sooooo very bad. We just throw out offers left and right...more than any other D1 school and see who sticks. We need a shake up and someone saying finishing 3rd in CUSA West is unacceptable going forward.

Briles got in trouble again this year for using ineligible players. I would stay away from that guy, but I won't deny he is a great coach.

(12-04-2019 01:26 PM)everyone Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 01:12 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 11:41 AM)everyone Wrote:  We have had so many low points it is hard to keep up. The fans that are still around are definitely lifers. If you have made it this far you will see it through to the "end" or "new beginning".

Where do we go from here? If you are the AD (and I think we have a good one) do you cut ties with our head coach if/when we lose the bowl or do you give him one or even two more years b/c of the contract? Wouldn't it be something to fire Hopson and hire Art Briles as head coach? Our recruiting is sooooo very bad. We just throw out offers left and right...more than any other D1 school and see who sticks. We need a shake up and someone saying finishing 3rd in CUSA West is unacceptable going forward.

According to some of your fans, the Sun Belt...

Hey Destin isn't really all that better than Orange Beach, if you know what I mean.

Hey now

(12-04-2019 01:46 PM)Ninerfaithfull Wrote:  I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

Honestly, this was our downfall. The more I think about it, we were destined to be where we're at now. The problem is not that we're poor per se...it's just that we didn't grow financially as well/fast as our peers did (TCU, Louisville, Cincy, Houston, Memphis etc.). On the field we were competitive with them...on the books we were getting passed by each year...and we never really capitalized on our success in the 90s/early 00's. We just kinda took it for granted. Our inability to capitalize on our successes in the form of financial growth COUPLED with the fact that so many of our peers WERE growing and at a much faster rate than us and them eventually bolting FINALLY has taken it's toll on us Our FB/BB programs always just took it for granted that we'd always have said schools that we could compete with on a yearly basis, and even on our "down" years we could hang our hat on them and the conference. Clearly it's not the case anymore. Everything has finally caught up with us.

I think these are the 5 reasons why Southern Miss is where it's at:

1. Being located in one of the smallest/poorest states in the nation doesn't help
2. The creation/addition of more D1/FBS football programs in the south (South Alabama, Troy, UAB, MTSU etc.) didn't help
3. The creation of the BCS didn't help
4. SEC's dominance starting in the early-mid 00's (and the subsequent SEC-welfare check that Ole Miss and Mississippi State started receiving in the late 90s/early 00's thanks to the Florida's, Alabama's, Tennessee, and Auburn's)
5. The ESPN/TV-driven politics around college football and realignment

Shaking Magic 8 Ball: Outlook not so good.

(12-04-2019 02:53 PM)TTT Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 01:46 PM)Ninerfaithfull Wrote:  I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

Honestly, this was our downfall. The more I think about it, we were destined to be where we're at now. The problem is not that we're poor per se...it's just that we didn't grow financially as well/fast as our peers did (TCU, Louisville, Cincy, Houston, Memphis etc.). On the field we were competitive with them...on the books we were getting passed by each year...and we never really capitalized on our success in the 90s/early 00's. We just kinda took it for granted. Our inability to capitalize on our successes in the form of financial growth COUPLED with the fact that so many of our peers WERE growing and at a much faster rate than us and them eventually bolting FINALLY has taken it's toll on us Our FB/BB programs always just took it for granted that we'd always have said schools that we could compete with on a yearly basis, and even on our "down" years we could hang our hat on them and the conference. Clearly it's not the case anymore. Everything has finally caught up with us.

I think these are the 5 reasons why Southern Miss is where it's at:

1. Being located in one of the smallest/poorest states in the nation doesn't help
2. The creation/addition of more D1/FBS football programs in the south (South Alabama, Troy, UAB, MTSU etc.) didn't help
3. The creation of the BCS didn't help
4. SEC's dominance starting in the early-mid 00's (and the subsequent SEC-welfare check that Ole Miss and Mississippi State started receiving in the late 90s/early 00's thanks to the Florida's, Alabama's, Tennessee, and Auburn's)
5. The ESPN/TV-driven politics around college football and realignment

One thing that's probably hurt USM the most....

those recruits that couldnt get into a SEC school now have many other choices. The schools you listed as peers, TCU, Louisville, Cincy, Houston, Memphis etc.. They were never peers even when USM was beating them. They all had something USM never could compete with over the long haul...

money
city
basketball for UofL, Cincy, Memphis, Houston

Even while USM was beating them on the FB field...each and everyone of those schools was giving USM something needed. EXPOSURE, MONEY, TV and USM gained from that through the great basketball played in CUSA. Each of those schools were able to build up their football programs because of the things USM would never have

Money
City
Basketball

That is why you were not peers. Once football became important for those schools to move on..they had the resources to make their FB programs better.

(12-04-2019 03:23 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 02:53 PM)TTT Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 01:46 PM)Ninerfaithfull Wrote:  I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

Honestly, this was our downfall. The more I think about it, we were destined to be where we're at now. The problem is not that we're poor per se...it's just that we didn't grow financially as well/fast as our peers did (TCU, Louisville, Cincy, Houston, Memphis etc.). On the field we were competitive with them...on the books we were getting passed by each year...and we never really capitalized on our success in the 90s/early 00's. We just kinda took it for granted. Our inability to capitalize on our successes in the form of financial growth COUPLED with the fact that so many of our peers WERE growing and at a much faster rate than us and them eventually bolting FINALLY has taken it's toll on us Our FB/BB programs always just took it for granted that we'd always have said schools that we could compete with on a yearly basis, and even on our "down" years we could hang our hat on them and the conference. Clearly it's not the case anymore. Everything has finally caught up with us.

I think these are the 5 reasons why Southern Miss is where it's at:

1. Being located in one of the smallest/poorest states in the nation doesn't help
2. The creation/addition of more D1/FBS football programs in the south (South Alabama, Troy, UAB, MTSU etc.) didn't help
3. The creation of the BCS didn't help
4. SEC's dominance starting in the early-mid 00's (and the subsequent SEC-welfare check that Ole Miss and Mississippi State started receiving in the late 90s/early 00's thanks to the Florida's, Alabama's, Tennessee, and Auburn's)
5. The ESPN/TV-driven politics around college football and realignment

One thing that's probably hurt USM the most....

those recruits that couldnt get into a SEC school now have many other choices. The schools you listed as peers, TCU, Louisville, Cincy, Houston, Memphis etc.. They were never peers even when USM was beating them. They all had something USM never could compete with over the long haul...

money
city
basketball for UofL, Cincy, Memphis, Houston

Even while USM was beating them on the FB field...each and everyone of those schools was giving USM something needed. EXPOSURE, MONEY, TV and USM gained from that through the great basketball played in CUSA. Each of those schools were able to build up their football programs because of the things USM would never have

Money
City
Basketball

That is why you were not peers

#2 is huge. 20 years ago...if a kid didn't sign with Alabama, Auburn, LSU, or Tennessee in the south, there was a good chance he was signing with Southern Miss. Now there are even more options to choose from.

Also, when I say peer, I'm speaking about conference peer.

(12-04-2019 02:06 PM)ShrackUAB Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 01:46 PM)Ninerfaithfull Wrote:  I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

Southern Miss didn't used to have such poor finances comparatively. But with TV money, etc they just haven't kept up. Yeah, they had less money in comparison to a lot of FBS schools, but it was only by a few million dollars, instead of tens of millions. Now every new FBS program and their mother has a larger budget than Southern Miss.

2005:

Memphis - 24.3 million
Houston: 22.6 million
UCF: 22 million
Cincy: 21.1 million
ECU: 21.1 million
UAB: 18.8 million
Southern Miss: 18.2 million
Boise State: 16.9 million
Marshall: 16.3 million
FAU: 14.4 million
Troy: 12 million
Georgia Southern: 8.8 million
ULL: 7.6 million
App State: 7 million


2018:

UCF: 62 million
Cincy: 61.8 million
Memphis: 55.4 million
Houston: 55.1 million
Boise State: 48.1 million
ECU: 46.9 million
App State: 36.9 million
FAU: 35.3 million
UAB: 34.7 million
ULL: 32.5 million
Georgia Southern: 31.7 million
Marshall: 30.6 million
Troy: 30.3 million
Southern Miss: 24.2 million

These are very telling #'s.

(12-04-2019 02:16 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(12-04-2019 01:17 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Then they need to go out and find the brightest offensive coach they can get..for the money they can afford to pay. Unless something has changed that type of money you either go with someone needing redemption or at a lower level, like UNCC

I meant go out and get a lower level head coach that is considered a great offensive mind. Like UNCC, got.

You aren't wrong, but when we thought we had hired Mike Houston we were going to pay him $1.1 million plus performance bonuses. When he bolted to ECU we were able to hire Healy for around $750k, but I think he is about to get a raise, so we needed/need a $ million+ budget too. Cheap only lasts if you lose.

Funny side note. Houston stuck it to us and got the ECU job he clearly really wanted. ECU is 4-8 and Charlotte ended up 7-5 and is going to a bowl game. ECU will be a harder hole to climb out of to get into the top tier of the conference, so it will probably take him longer there than it would have here. Healy has already been contacted by Missouri and reportedly Ole Miss, while Houston is stuck in Pitt County, NC where--not kidding--the hogs outnumber the people.

Charlotte will need to hire a new coach again, probably sooner than we would like, so the more good coaches we have in C-USA, the easier it will be for us to get another one. Good luck with whatever your next step is.

I've been calling for Hop's firing since the beginning.. I was eating my words with the two $EC losses... I wasn't too mad about La Tech, Tech out played USM.

He redeemed himself with UAB..

But WKU and FAU, didn't watch but we possibly could've won one or both.. Someone said it wasn't Hop's fault one game our guys were outplayed and one they were outcoached.. Well to me that is his fault.

I'm not happy with him, haven't been for a couple of seasons.. We'll just have to ride it out and see what happens.

(12-04-2019 03:46 PM)gdunn Wrote:  I've been calling for Hop's firing since the beginning.. I was eating my words with the two $EC losses... I wasn't too mad about La Tech, Tech out played USM.

He redeemed himself with UAB..

But WKU and FAU, didn't watch but we possibly could've won one or both.. Someone said it wasn't Hop's fault one game our guys were outplayed and one they were outcoached.. Well to me that is his fault.

I'm not happy with him, haven't been for a couple of seasons.. We'll just have to ride it out and see what happens.

Redeemed?? The only reason we beat UAB was because their starting QB didn't play. We were lucky he was hurt. Had he started and had Jaylond Adams not return a kickoff for a TD against Troy then we could very well be looking at 5-7 right now and a 2nd consecutive year not playing in a bowl game.

I think USM can be a great program once again... they just need a new vision.

Getting AD Jeremy McClain in there will help that greatly. I think he's phenomenal at hiring coaches, and not settling.

Getting rid of Hopson and getting a young, detail-oriented coordinator or even a young FCS head coach with a stellar history would be the next thing to do. It would help USM a lot to find a HC that is willing to get out of his office, go around campus to meet and greet with students, show up at basketball games and other events, and be a notable presence around town.

Neal Brown did all of that, and he got the city of Troy and the students very much connected back into the football program in a BIG way. We've had huge student turnout ever since, and we went on a run of 25-straight home games where we never had less than 20K+ attendance (which set a Sun Belt record) until that ended last weekend against App State.

If you guys could just get Hopson out of there, and then let Jeremy McClain have his way... I think you may see a huge turnaround with football.

(12-04-2019 01:46 PM)Ninerfaithfull Wrote:  I actually feel bad for Southern Miss as a program, because y’all have done so much with so little for so long. I respect the football program they have as a G5.

But in the current age of college athletics, I’m not sure how much you can do when you’re such a poor (financially) athletic department. Hopson is one of the lowest paid coaches in the CUSA per my understanding. Buying cheap and expecting top tier success isn’t a sustainable model. Just not sure how you dig out of that hole.

This is a good post. There's very little money in G5 athletics departments. Hiring and firing is a crap shoot when coaching salaries are low as they are.

Hopson is probably a safe bet. He has a decent track record, and he strikes me as a guy good. He's the kind of guy you want coaching young men. But remember that a head coach is really only as good as his assistants. Maybe the staff needs to be shuffled a bit.

In the end, I hope for the best for USM. It's football program is one of only two or three flagships in CUSA. It's brand is strong. I'd be disappointed if we weren't to share a conference with them.

(12-04-2019 04:05 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  I think USM can be a great program once again... they just need a new vision.

Getting AD Jeremy McClain in there will help that greatly. I think he's phenomenal at hiring coaches, and not settling.

Getting rid of Hopson and getting a young, detail-oriented coordinator or even a young FCS head coach with a stellar history would be the next thing to do. It would help USM a lot to find a HC that is willing to get out of his office, go around campus to meet and greet with students, show up at basketball games and other events, and be a notable presence around town.

Neal Brown did all of that, and he got the city of Troy and the students very much connected back into the football program in a BIG way. We've had huge student turnout ever since, and we went on a run of 25-straight home games where we never had less than 20K+ attendance (which set a Sun Belt record) until that ended last weekend against App State.

If you guys could just get Hopson out of there, and then let Jeremy McClain have his way... I think you may see a huge turnaround with football.

Thanks...good thoughts and I couldn't have said it better myself. We may be priced out of a big name P5 OC but we can get a hungry up-and-comer FCS coach for $500-750K.