What MSU target would you be most concerned about?
Have been keeping tabs on the targets for MSU. Many of the names are kind of blah or the hot name du jour. Wondering who we would be the most concerning reasonable option that they might actually get to rebuild their program?
Out of the names I've heard Lance Leipold would actually give me pause. He's won literally everywhere, taken downtrodden programs to the top in a few years and maintained a high level.
I'd prefer they take Hartline for obvious reasons...
September 29th, 2023 at 6:20 PM ^
Nick Saban. I mean, he's out there.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:14 PM ^
Gotta make him say no.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:34 PM ^
LOL. Bama vs MSU. I don't think you have to make him say "no."
He'll have his assistant deliver the message
September 29th, 2023 at 8:36 PM ^
He tried that already and failed
September 29th, 2023 at 10:20 PM ^
Boomerang hire. I mean, msu has nowhere to go but up from their current situation.
September 30th, 2023 at 1:54 AM ^
Dead cat bounce or the OSU technique where coaching scandal=upgrade
Im in complete belief our rivals signed an NIL deal with the devil. Al Pacino form any given sunday merged with Al Pacino from The Devils Advocate.
October 1st, 2023 at 9:38 AM ^
Urban. Would be a chance to pound that sleazebag and his already-sorry rep into fine powder once and for all.
Not that he would take it. He's only ever going to grab a situation where he can be experience football rebirth on third, like Day. Have it handed.
Would love to hand him his behind instead! Jim might even be willing to stick around for that!
And my hunch is that his spread option insights are outdated.
Anyway, who wouldn't want to see two successive coaches drummed out for egregious sexual indiscretion at MSU? Could be bonus material with Meyer.
I say this, btw, as the holder of a PhD from Florida. Where, in more thoughtful quarters, the man is despised.
#yupIreallydislikeurbanmeyer
September 29th, 2023 at 6:20 PM ^
None. By the time current players transfer and the 2024 class starts to de-commit this is going to set MSU back 10 years. That’s especially bad seeing how their program was already in the shitter.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:37 PM ^
With the transfer portal how could any good coach be set back 10 years at any program? If MSU hired a young Mark Dantonio today he would have an even easier time building the program than he did before. I’m not saying MSU will hire a good coach, certainly not a given. If they do, they can turn it around reasonably fast.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:34 AM ^
This is all true except for the fact MSU sucks balls so it doesn’t apply.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:50 AM ^
If MSU hired a young Mark Dantonio today he would have an even easier time building the program than he did before
Not if we don't implode like we did in 2008.
September 30th, 2023 at 1:07 AM ^
Dantonio would not because Michigan is way up instead of way down. I don't agree that they're set back 10 years... even that doesn't guarantee the wins for Michigan.
I'm still not going to be "concerned" about any coach walking into that situation until very clearly presented on the field evidence otherwise.
October 1st, 2023 at 6:55 PM ^
If the people who hired the last coach are hiring this one, what makes anyone think he will be good?
September 29th, 2023 at 9:46 PM ^
not true anymore. Transfer portal makes for quick turnarounds.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:25 PM ^
Leipold is old-ish and he'd be walking into a total rebuild. It would take the majority of the rest of his career to get them to a place that would threaten us imo.
He's a great coach but I think if they were smart they'd go with someone younger
September 29th, 2023 at 8:15 PM ^
He also has Kansas in a place to have a legitimate shot at the big 12 for years to come. MSU will crater while the big ten gets even harder. I’m not sure it’s that appealing.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:22 PM ^
Leipold has another year or two, maybe three, to jump ship for a better program, if he wants to, before he’s in that range where he might be considered “too old” to start over.
He’s going to be sixty very soon. That’s not OLD old for college football, but it’s still old. Same age, roughly, as Harbaugh. You figure wherever he goes next it’ll take several years to build that program up and by then he’s in his mid-late sixties, so assuming he pans out you’ve got maybe 5-7 years, MAYBE, before he hangs it up.
Leipold is a great coach, but if I’m interested in him, I don’t wait any longer. I pull the trigger now because he may not coach more than another ten years before retiring anyway.
September 29th, 2023 at 11:28 PM ^
It's not old for college football, but it is old for a hire in the Power 5 for a rebuild. There are only a handful of coaches in the Power 5 older than Leipold, and most of them have been established at their program for a while. The list: Mack Brown, Saban, Ferentz, Kyle Whittingham, Brian Kelly, Sam Pittman, Chip Kelly, and Jim Harbaugh.
The NFL is the same way outside of Pete Carroll, Bill Belichick, and Andy Reid. The trend is moving toward younger head coaches not older.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:25 PM ^
What kind of defeatist crap is this? Why would I worry who's coaching Little Brother? Sparty is an invasive species -- anyone who shows up to coach will be transformed into Sparty anyway.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:26 PM ^
Prime. The two things already annoy me, so adding them together would be heckin' awful.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:29 PM ^
Upvoted because I agree with the sentiment; downvoted for allowing him to self-assign a nickname. So it's a wash. :)
Anyway, given how little concern he has for his team or their fans, compared to the media coverage he craves, I think we should call him Big 10 AM Kickoff.
September 29th, 2023 at 10:49 PM ^
He would not want to be called a Spartan. He loves his name Coach Prime. I dunno if that will sit well with Sparty bunch.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:13 AM ^
At least he wouldn't be coach Prime Suspect.
October 1st, 2023 at 7:00 PM ^
Maybe they can get Amazon to sponsor his a**. He can be the Michigan State University Jeff and Money Bezos Family HC, etc. And now that they are charging for returns, he can help them smooth that over with the angry but gullible masses.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:28 PM ^
Such a middling program...any good coach not name D'antoninogiornio will use it as a stepping stone.
That guy also lucked into UM wandering in the wilderness and PSU coming off the Joe Pa pedophile scandal violations / sanctions. Like most of its history, MSU is a regional program like Mississippi State, North Carolina State, Washington State, Oregon State, etc, etc that in their best years should average 7 wins a year. They were never truly nationally relevant outside an era of blue blood programs in the conference stepping on their own dongs.
They'll always be a thorn in the side of UM, just because rivalry/big brother, but unless Urban or Sean Payton walk through that door, they will remain middling at best.
A better question is...
"Who can OSU target (shall Day lose his 3rd in a row to Harbaugh and miss the playoff) that would concern me?" - Mike Vrabel. With their talent, facilities, etc and his coaching chops, toughness and style of coaching...very, very concerning.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:52 PM ^
…a stepping stone to the head job at like Morgan State
September 29th, 2023 at 6:54 PM ^
Sean Payton? Have you seen the Broncos this year?
September 29th, 2023 at 8:37 PM ^
The last thing we want is a guy who pays bounties for injuring the other team’s star players
September 29th, 2023 at 7:19 PM ^
Yeah, I want no part of Vrabel returning to Columbus. I hope they hang onto Ryan Day and his fake tan / shoe polish beard.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
Vrabel is interesting...they would certainly resemble more of an old school team, but Vrabel isn't great in the NFL the last few years, you could definitely make a case for them underachieving, and he has no interest in college or at least 10 years ago, he didn't. Something really drastic would have to force him back to college, and he would stay long enough to get an NFL job. He doesn't care for many aspects of college coaching.
September 29th, 2023 at 9:29 PM ^
If OSU loses to Michigan and Penn State (both of which are very conceivable), I suppose enough heads would explode in Columbus that Day is ushered out. And I have to say that I would miss him. But it's hard to believe given their overall record under his regime.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:28 PM ^
Mel’s computer monitor?
September 29th, 2023 at 6:57 PM ^
It could probably win at Penn State. It's been through some "white outs" before.
September 29th, 2023 at 9:01 PM ^
Yeah, but it’s seen a lot of sacks
September 29th, 2023 at 6:35 PM ^
Hartline would boost their recruiting but I am not convinced on his coaching ability. The OSU WR group has actually underwhelmed quite a bit this season. The offense as a whole struggled to get 17 points on a leaky ND defense.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:17 PM ^
I agree that the jury on Hartline as a game planner is out, he’s a fantastic recruiter and ID/developer of wide receivers. I think the slower offense is more on McCord/OL and the guy calling plays (thankfully).
September 30th, 2023 at 12:33 AM ^
For all the talk about OSU’s defense in their losses to Michigan, they’ve put up Brian Ferentz offensive numbers in those games. They can clearly assemble insane individual talent at WR - it’s less clear they can assemble that into an offense that can keep up production against top ten defenses.
September 30th, 2023 at 12:54 AM ^
OSU had 458 and 492 yards of offense in those two games. That is not Brian Ferentz level. They moved the ball, but we came up big in the red zone.
September 30th, 2023 at 2:01 AM ^
Great point Snarling. They moved between the 20s pretty well but then we used the shortened field to suffocate them. Some people were actually praising CJ Stroud for having good games against us. As if the point is to get passing yards and not to get a lot closer to your 45 point per game average than 23.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:35 PM ^
I think it would be great if it was someone with no historical connection to the antagonism between the schools, who quietly carried them back to mid rank status. What they need more than wins is to earn back some dignity.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:40 PM ^
more than wins is to earn back some dignity.
So you're calling for them to be Defeated with Dignity then? I could get on board...
September 29th, 2023 at 9:59 PM ^
Yeah, I'm sure their third chance will bring back dignity.
There's no meth dirty enough to make someone think there's even a 0.00001% chance MSU's next choice will choose dignity as a program goal.
Edit: Apologies to meth and meth users.
September 30th, 2023 at 2:03 AM ^
Either insult MSU fans or apologize to them. Choose one or the other.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:45 PM ^
The MSU targets I worry about most are the bullseyes Dantonio places on Michigan players and their associated bounties.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:45 PM ^
Him Jarbaugh
September 29th, 2023 at 6:57 PM ^
Hartline is waiting for Day to lose to Michigan again. MSU is a stepping stone job. Going there under current circumstances could seriously crater a young coach's future prospects. They'll settle for a guy who is looking for a paycheck and doesn't mind being a bridge to the next coach.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:49 PM ^
Call waiting.
September 29th, 2023 at 7:03 PM ^
Leipold already said no thanks.
September 29th, 2023 at 8:02 PM ^
September 29th, 2023 at 7:08 PM ^
Micheal Barrett - hopefully he'll be too busy solving world hunger or curing cancer to take the gig,