Mississippi State Football: Should John Cohen be on the hot seat?
John Cohen made a questionable coaching hire in baseball and his hire for the Mississippi State football team looks like it might have been a bad one.
John Cohen has been on the job as Mississippi State Athletics Director since the end of 2016. He’s the one who has had the final say in what coaches get hired to lead the various teams. He’s hired two baseball coaches and one coach for the Mississippi State football team.
And so far, his track record for hiring those coaches looks rough.
John Cohen’s first hire as the AD was to hire baseball coach Andy Cannizarro. While Cannizarro had on field success in leading the Bulldogs to a Super Regional in 2017, he embarrassed the school with an extramarital affair that led to his ouster.
Cohen replaced Cannizarro this past summer with Chris Lemonis, the former head coach at Indiana University. While people who are familiar with Lemonis are confident he will be a good hire, choosing Lemonis was a serious let down to the fans who were led to believe they would be getting one of the biggest names in all of college baseball.
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That takes us to John Cohen’s hire for the Mississippi State football team. Joe Moorhead came in with a ton of confidence. He told the players who met him as he got off the plane they better find out what size ring they wear. He told Nick Fitzgerald to clear off a space for the Heisman Trophy. But two games later in SEC play, the Bulldogs are 0-2 and have managed just slightly over 200 yards of offense per game.
The AD of a program gets evaluated on a lot of different criteria. But make no mistake, the one where they are judged the steepest is who they hire as coaches. And so far, his baseball hires have been at best questionable, and his hire for the Mississippi State football team looks like it is trending towards an absolute bust.
It’s still early, so Joe Moorhead has time to correct things and salvage the season. But the most difficult part of the schedule is coming up for the Mississippi State football team. Figuring out where the program is going to get wins from here on out is not an easy task.
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If Joe Moorhead can’t figure it out, both he and John Cohen might be shown the door a lot earlier than any of us ever imagined.