Topic: What is the most likely reason for all of this

[rileylives]

We've all seen many different rumors surrounding the Huff drama.

Which of the following is the most likely take of the current situation.

A) Christian Spears and Charles Huff do not get along. So even if we offered more than anyone else that real friction is enough to drive a wedge.

B) Jessica Huff truly does not like it here, happy wife happy life and all of that.

C) All of these reports of flights coming in and out are all just speculation, there have always been flights in and out of the tri-state area. So nothing is happening.

D) Big boosters have already locked in a replacement and Huff saw the writing on the wall.

[DJdaHERDfan]

This started last year.
Huff knew this was going to be his last season.

Marshall has been informally sending out feelers to certain desired candidates.

Huff has been focused on going out a winner and searching g for his next landing spot.

[svherd]

I don't know how any of this is going down but the more I hear, the more I question our AD.  A bad AD can wreck an entire department quickly. Frankly, Brad Smith and the BOG should be the ones to make this type of call - major decision. The AD obviously should be in the loop but not the sole source for hiring and firing. His/Her job should be to manage the department and keep it running smoothly. If egos collide, be a professional and step away from the situation. jmho.

[rileylives]

This started last year.
Huff knew this was going to be his last season.

Marshall has been informally sending out feelers to certain desired candidates.

Huff has been focused on going out a winner and searching g for his next landing spot.

My question is that leaning towards A or D?

[Johnnyherd]

Huff?s goal is to secure a job at a solid P5 school and he?s simply weighing his options.
He will not be committing until all the cards are on the table.  I?m sure he?s been upfront with Brad and Christian as he has to do, anytime he speaks with another school or be in bad faith to his contract.   I?m sure Brad has made an offer as well. 

If he gets a big offer, he?ll leave.  If he doesn?t he?ll probably re-sign a short term contract with us. I would bet he gets a offer, though.

I don?t buy any of these goofy message board conspiracies or the southern miss trolling.

[MIA]

The AD offered an extension that was unacceptable to Huff/Agent - mainly the buyout clause was one sided towards MU and not the ?standard? buyout that everyone uses.  Also he was pushing for more money for assistants as we are near the bottom.  Huff bet on himself, he won. Has nothing to do with wife. Ever been to Hattiesburg? Hint it?s not NYC. 

It is petty and shows our AD and President are in over their head when it comes to running an athletic dept.  (see basketball coach hire for example 1). Now our AD is dying to make a hire as most AD?s want to do in one of the ?big sports? since he didn?t get to hire the bball coach, in order to pad his resume so he can move on. To loose a coach to an inferior funded program is embarrassing and MU fans should be mad as hell as how this was handled. One more thing, think about next years team and what we would have possibly coming back we would be preseason choice in the SB and one to watch for playoff bid. That will be gone and you are looking at a total rebuild. Has a school ever not signed a coach who just won 9 games, division championship? Don?t you think agents and possible coaches looking at this situation and saying why would I go there, they just ran off a guy who won 9 games. 

The arrogance and incompetence from the leadership at MU is beyond belief. And fans will be the ones asked to pony up for tickets, NIL etc. Have fun looking at 3-9 next year when it had possibilities to have been a great year.

Ask yourself this ?do you trust them to make a good hire?? 



Bottom line

[MUsince96]

If he's taking the Southern Miss job then it looks like we moved on from him. It's hard to imagine someone takes a complete rebuild at a school with a budget of $11M less than the school he's at who just made the championship; if it's their choice.

[Flat Tire 2]

The AD offered an extension that was unacceptable to Huff/Agent - mainly the buyout clause was one sided towards MU and not the ?standard? buyout that everyone uses.  Also he was pushing for more money for assistants as we are near the bottom.  Huff bet on himself, he won. Has nothing to do with wife. Ever been to Hattiesburg? Hint it?s not NYC. 

It is petty and shows our AD and President are in over their head when it comes to running an athletic dept.  (see basketball coach hire for example 1). Now our AD is dying to make a hire as most AD?s want to do in one of the ?big sports? since he didn?t get to hire the bball coach, in order to pad his resume so he can move on. To loose a coach to an inferior funded program is embarrassing and MU fans should be mad as hell as how this was handled. One more thing, think about next years team and what we would have possibly coming back we would be preseason choice in the SB and one to watch for playoff bid. That will be gone and you are looking at a total rebuild. Has a school ever not signed a coach who just won 9 games, division championship? Don?t you think agents and possible coaches looking at this situation and saying why would I go there, they just ran off a guy who won 9 games. 

The arrogance and incompetence from the leadership at MU is beyond belief. And fans will be the ones asked to pony up for tickets, NIL etc. Have fun looking at 3-9 next year when it had possibilities to have been a great year.

Ask yourself this ?do you trust them to make a good hire?? 



Bottom line

I am concerned about the next hire. A friend reminded me yesterday of what Brad Smith said regarding the basketball hire. Brad said we didn't need to do a national search since we had the best candidate on campus or something similar. Plus they did the hire on the cheap.

I wouldn't be surprised if Smith and Spear gave Huff an unacceptable extension. I am starting to think that Smith is not interested athletics based on the basketball hire. My suspicion may be proven with the football hire. Time will tell.

[miltonherdfan]

BS showed me all i needed to know regarding his interest level in athletics when, during Kim Caldwell's intro presser at the Cam, he referred to her success at the "I-AA" level of WBB

[herdorbust2]

The AD offered an extension that was unacceptable to Huff/Agent - mainly the buyout clause was one sided towards MU and not the ?standard? buyout that everyone uses.  Also he was pushing for more money for assistants as we are near the bottom.  Huff bet on himself, he won. Has nothing to do with wife. Ever been to Hattiesburg? Hint it?s not NYC. 

It is petty and shows our AD and President are in over their head when it comes to running an athletic dept.  (see basketball coach hire for example 1). Now our AD is dying to make a hire as most AD?s want to do in one of the ?big sports? since he didn?t get to hire the bball coach, in order to pad his resume so he can move on. To loose a coach to an inferior funded program is embarrassing and MU fans should be mad as hell as how this was handled. One more thing, think about next years team and what we would have possibly coming back we would be preseason choice in the SB and one to watch for playoff bid. That will be gone and you are looking at a total rebuild. Has a school ever not signed a coach who just won 9 games, division championship? Don?t you think agents and possible coaches looking at this situation and saying why would I go there, they just ran off a guy who won 9 games. 

The arrogance and incompetence from the leadership at MU is beyond belief. And fans will be the ones asked to pony up for tickets, NIL etc. Have fun looking at 3-9 next year when it had possibilities to have been a great year.

Ask yourself this ?do you trust them to make a good hire?? 



Bottom line

Smith doesn't care about the athletic side and Spears is incompetent. Everyone thinks Smith walks on water.

[MIA]

Our leadership thinks they are the smartest guys in the room in regards to athletics. They are not.
Like I said MU fans should be mad as hell for a coach to leave for an inferior funded program. Who does that?
Someone who doesn?t have an offer from their employer.  Yes they want him to move on. Frankly if I was Huff and disrespected this way why would I want to stay?

Just plain arrogance.  Say bye to our starters as they will follow him. Better hope whoever comes in brings a ton of players with him like Cignetti did at Indiana.

[MarshallFan64]

Whatever the reason, it cannot be a good look to potential candidates

[LUVTHATHERD]

Here is a crazy theory...was Doege brought in to be OC and coach in waiting?  Since it has been said plans were in place last year, is this a possibility?  Thoughts?

[svherd]

I am concerned about the next hire. A friend reminded me yesterday of what Brad Smith said regarding the basketball hire. Brad said we didn't need to do a national search since we had the best candidate on campus or something similar. Plus they did the hire on the cheap.

I wouldn't be surprised if Smith and Spear gave Huff an unacceptable extension. I am starting to think that Smith is not interested athletics based on the basketball hire. My suspicion may be proven with the football hire. Time will tell.

It was pretty well known that Brad liked DD, a lot. Thus, to get DD to step down, I am sure Marshall agreed to have Corny be the next HC. Herdmeister always said that Corny would be DD's choice to take over once he stepped down. He was dead on. Corny was the feel good, not to insult the Dantoni family choice. In 3 years, we'll be looking for a new b'ball coach. jmho.

[MidlandKnight]

It was pretty well known that Brad liked DD, a lot. Thus, to get DD to step down, I am sure Marshall agreed to have Corny be the next HC. Herdmeister always said that Corny would be DD's choice to take over once he stepped down. He was dead on. Corny was the feel good, not to insult the Dantoni family choice. In 3 years, we'll be looking for a new b'ball coach. jmho.

Corny was made HC in waiting right after the 22-23 season, the year we went 24-8. NC State HC Kevin Keats had offered Corny the job as Assist HC and DD did not want to lose him. He went to Spears about making Corny the HC in waiting. Spears did not agree to it, so DD went over his head to Brad Smith. Smith agreed to it.


As to the 3 years looking for a new HC, I disagree. Corny has done a lot of good things in a short time. Thanks to DD, our NIL is crap. In fact, what little that was there went primarily to two players.  Corny has already got a commitment from 10 of basketball's biggest donors to drastically increase this for next year. Hiring Rob Fulford was a great move, Fulford has tons of AAU contacts. As to this team, there is clearly more athleticism at the guard position than last year, plus the defense has improved. The only real issue I see is lack of shooters and that is hard to fix when most your key players are in their last year. 

[jdonaccbus]

I look at today and look back. With that said, I respect the job Lee Moon did here. Of course, he was allowed to do his job which is the way it should be.

[FilmJunky]

Our Atheltic Dept Leadership has been suspect for a while and is in worse hands now than ever before.

[BuckHerd]

Here is a crazy theory...was Doege brought in to be OC and coach in waiting?  Since it has been said plans were in place last year, is this a possibility?  Thoughts?

I have thought that very same thing!! It's all very covenient. I don't think its crazy at all.

[Garbanjo]

Corny was made HC in waiting right after the 22-23 season, the year we went 24-8. NC State HC Kevin Keats had offered Corny the job as Assist HC and DD did not want to lose him. He went to Spears about making Corny the HC in waiting. Spears did not agree to it, so DD went over his head to Brad Smith. Smith agreed to it.

That's what I heard as well.

Also, hiring Corny meant we didn't have to buy out DD, as I understand it.

Smith is a fantastic president, so we might just have to take some lumps on the athletics (hopefully not), as he guides Marshall and Huntington on an upward trajectory.

I'm happy with soccer. Bball hire was very poor (no other D-1 school would have hired Corny) but I'm hopeful Corny can grown on the job as I love the guy and he's a Son of Marshall.

Football?

Clearly Huff didn't want to stay last year and broke the relationship with the administration. I had hoped we would offer an extension this week, but it's not looking likely, imo.

So it goes. Huff is basically Doc, so it's no big loss, imo.

It's on Spears, Smith and the BoG to hire us a great coach.

A proven FCS head coach, or an ambitious, proven P4 coordinator.

[bighat]

Brad Smith was a home run.  He has actually grown the attendees at Marshall when most schools are losing them.  We are getting national attention on some of our programs.  The number one job of a president is to grow academics and President Smith has done that.

[Flat Tire 2]

Here is a crazy theory...was Doege brought in to be OC and coach in waiting?  Since it has been said plans were in place last year, is this a possibility?  Thoughts?

I don't think you bring in a person to be a coach in waiting with only three years experience as a position coach. But this is Marshall and we have a history of bad hires. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up hiring Doege since they could get him cheap like Corny. I can hear Brad now, he will repeat his line that we don't need to do a national search since we have the best candidate on campus. I hope I am wrong.

[Flat Tire 2]

The mysterious Miss private jet is at HTS today with a departure time off 11:40AM and an arrival back to Mississippi today. Supposedly it is the private jet of a Southern booster, per a post from a Southern Miss fan on the CUSA board. It may be nothing, who knows?

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N1599Z

[MidlandKnight]

I don't think you bring in a person to be a coach in waiting with only three years experience as a position coach. But this is Marshall and we have a history of bad hires. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up hiring Doege since they could get him cheap like Corny. I can hear Brad now, he will repeat his line that we don't need to do a national search since we have the best candidate on campus. I hope I am wrong.

My understanding is they have a short list as this has been expected for at least a year. plus subtle feelers of interest have been sent out.

[BuckHerd]

I don't think you bring in a person to be a coach in waiting with only three years experience as a position coach. But this is Marshall and we have a history of bad hires. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up hiring Doege since they could get him cheap like Corny. I can hear Brad now, he will repeat his line that we don't need to do a national search since we have the best candidate on campus. I hope I am wrong.

Doege has had a complete year to prove his competence, at least as OC. IF he were to become HC, he would have the confidence of the players. They already know him and respect him and his decisions(play making). Maybe, some players would be less apt to leave in the NIL where the next team would be unknown. A bird in the hand is worth....You know the rest.

[herdorbust2]

Doege has had a complete year to prove his competence, at least as OC. IF he were to become HC, he would have the confidence of the players. They already know him and respect him and his decisions(play making). Maybe, some players would be less apt to leave in the NIL where the next team would be unknown. A bird in the hand is worth....You know the rest.

Is there any proof he can do more than be a coordinator? Can he run an entire program? Does he have experience picking coaches? Just calling plays has nothing to do with being a HC especially as young as he is and not having much experience. But maybe he would be a home run. If we are willing to take that big of a gamble that he may be the guy.