2 Candidates

[Bobcat Fan]

MSU Bobcat fan here. You can't go wrong with hiring Rob Ash. In my opinion he was the victim of his own success. The only thing preventing him from succeeding even further was luck and perhaps once in awhile inopportune and uncharacteristic player miscues. Coach Ash built upon a reviving, but ailing program and took it near the top. He just couldn't get it to the next level fast enough for some.

He can recruit talent in both players and coaches. In some cases his recruiting success turned into holes that unexpectedly needing to be filled. Case in point was a 300+ lb starting offensive lineman (after redshirting) that graduated in 3 years and left the school and team for graduate school. All of a sudden you go from a strength at a position to a big hole to fill. Another example of recruiting talent is last year's starting QB who is transferring up to Oregon after graduating in 3.5 years. There are more examples, but these two come to mind.

While fielding quality and winning football teams, Coach Ash produced quality student athlete/graduates that were prepared to be successful in life after football. If you are willing to have a coach that wins at all costs including keeping players on the team that have been arrested for breaking into houses, Coach Ash isn't your guy. If you want to win with players who are good students and will be even better citizens, in my opinion, the only way you can beat Coach Ash is find a coach that can do that and has a guaranteed lucky streak that will continue.

A good leader was once defined as someone who could generate the confidence of their subordinates in themselves as leader and a great leader defined as one who could generate the confidence of their subordinates in the subordinates themselves. The former is more visible and in my opinion, what some people wanted and expected from Coach Ash while he was actually a great leader generating players with self-confidence - which was often unnoticed unless you actually talked to players as I did. (Of course they had confidence in and appreciated Coach Ash as well).

[LocalYokelFan]

You really think Yelk or Blazek would be better choice, really?[/quote]

For this program at this point in time, yes. I'm not saying that Fisher or Ash don't have more credible resumes for a FCS head coaching job, but they certainly don't look appreciably better to what we had in house. Add to that the lost recruiting momentum in a very important recruiting year (coaches just establishing 'pipelines' to Macomb, playoff year), and my opinion is that these are disappointing search results. Again, I hope I'm wrong. Time will tell.

Another random question... does anyone know if Derek Leonard, coach of Rochester HS, has ever expressed collegiate coaching interest? Talk about a great football mind. Not saying he's head coach FCS material yet, but he's had some Rochester kids here at WIU and does come to some practices. Would love a new head coach to see what it would take to pry him away from the HS ranks to become an OC.

[sealhall74]

On another note... Seal... any way you can find out who applied (not just interviewed, but applied) for the internal AD search? That's not a question alluding to a bashing of Tanney, I just want to know if anyone else showed interest internally.

I dont have any insider knowledge of what goes on there. I would be surprised if Tanny had any internal competition, given his current interim position. I would think it would be posted somewhere on campus. Maybe ST can help.

[LocalYokelFan]

I'm sorry Seal, I did mean STLawson. Interested to see what you find ST!

[sealhall74]

Is there any chance that the open forum part of the interview process is going to be periscoped or broadcast in some way?

[catbob]

You can't just look at MSU's record against UM and say he won't be a good coach in the MVFC because he couldn't beat Montana. As much as it pains me to say it, UM just has MSU's number, and has for a couple decades now. Case in point, 2011, MSU is 9-1 headed into Cat/Griz, with the only loss on the season being a 10-27 loss to Utah, we had run through the Big Sky with ease. I think we were even ranked #1 in the country on TSN. We lose 36-10 at HOME to the Griz. Granted the Griz would make it to the semifinals that year, beating MVFC UNI 48-10 in Missoula before falling to SHSU 31-28. We ended up beating UNH at home before getting routed at SHSU 49-13.

In 2012 we only lost to EWU by 3 at home (EWU would make it to the semis), went undefeated the rest of the way, including a victory in Missoula, first round against Stony Brook, before being annihilated by SHSU again (we don't match up well with their speed).

Ash had some amazing teams, and those 2010-2012 teams played very good defense. 2013 was MchGee's senior year, very high expectations, and he got injured against SMU in the 2nd game of the season and never fully recovered (we should have won that game, SMU scored a TD with like 7 seconds left to win by 1). Had a total collapse at the end of the season, lost 3 straight including the Griz, and that was the start of the downfall of Ash. There were rumors of chemistry issues, coaching issues, locker room troubles, etc. 2014 was horrible even though we made the playoffs, our defense just flat out was terrible, and that continued into last year.

I don't know if Ash lost control of the team starting in 2013 and through last year, if the talent just wasn't as good as we thought, if the guys lost their edge and just assumed teams would roll over against us, I don't know. He was under fire for not firing the DC after 2014, the worst defense I've seen at MSU in 15+ years, although he did demote him for 2015. It was just a string of things and a pattern for the last few years that led Ash to be fired.

But the 2010-2012 teams were as good as I've seen at MSU in that same 15 year timespan, just couldn't show up on the big stage when it mattered in the playoffs. We only lost 3 conference games in those 3 years, 1 per year. Had a great offense and just short of a great defense, but certainly very good overall.

Ash is capable, but something went sideways at the end of the 2013 season and he, nor MSU, never recovered. Perhaps he just needs a fresh start.

[wiu51]

If anyone is attending either one please take notes and post them on here. Thanks

[ST_Lawson]

I don't know specifically about the AD position, but I know that with other similar situations, there's essentially just the one candidate. Gives everyone a chance at another once-over of the candidate in case there's something they hadn't seen or found out yet, but for the most part, they'd be a shoe-in for the position.

I can't make the HC open interview today, but I'm going to try to attend the one tomorrow if I can. I'll try to report back what I can if I can make it.
Haven't heard anything about anyone broadcasting the interview stuff, sorry.

[MSUBooster]

Leatherneck57 indicated earlier in this thread he planned on driving down and attending the forums; hopefully he will post a synopsis and his thoughts.

[meganeck]

Scott Holland - tweeted that Fisher was "very personable and owned and won over the room"