MSU hires new defensive coordinator
Scottie Hazelton (former Kansas State defensive coordinator) has been hired for the same position at MSU quoting their offer as "unmatchable".
Hazelton was the DC/LB's coach at Wyoming (2017/18) before becoming the DC at KSU. Wyoming was 116th in overall defense in 2016 according to S&P+. In 2017 they climbed to 36th and 41st in 2018.
KSU went from 61st to 44th upon Hazelton's arrival while also coming 2nd in the Big12 in scoring defense behind Baylor. They also finished 8th in the Big12 in run defense this past season.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:42 PM ^
That's surprising. I thought the leading candidate was Chip McShoulderton.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:46 PM ^
Lional N. DeWeeds was also interviewed.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:02 PM ^
....as did Ware S. Zthreat.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:34 PM ^
I was shocked that "Little" Brother Spartino didn't get interviewed for the position.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:57 PM ^
Not completely sure you get the bit.
February 27th, 2020 at 4:13 PM ^
I like to assume he typed:
Lee T. LeBrother
February 27th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
I'm not completely sure you got my contribution to it.
Hint: the joke is in the last name, not the nickname.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:47 PM ^
They were also going to hire the first female coordinator, Ana Bolic-Pridefall.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:50 PM ^
Red Locke backed out at the last minute.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:24 PM ^
The BoT hired an outside search firm, headed by C. R. Supervisor.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:59 PM ^
Ken “Pleat” D. Serkle was unavailable
February 27th, 2020 at 4:19 PM ^
Graham, Pro. Wynne declined to interview for the job
February 27th, 2020 at 5:03 PM ^
I heard that Rather Hall was planning to interview but had to leave because he had a fight err... flight to catch.
February 27th, 2020 at 6:14 PM ^
Will Rapeagirl was interested...he pushed hard for the job, they hard a hard time telling him no.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:48 PM ^
Having lived outside Manhattan, KS, one would understand why he would want to leave. However, leaving Manhattan, KS for East Lansing, MI, could be the biggest step backwards in a long time.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
To be fair, who would want to be a DC in the Big 12?
February 28th, 2020 at 9:37 AM ^
You can give up 50+ points a game and no one bats an eye.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:57 PM ^
Agreed about Manhattan, I spent 4 years at Fort Riley one summer.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:21 PM ^
My wife was stationed at Ft. Riley for 4 years, we lived in Manhattan the whole time. I didn't hate it, but it's not exactly a place you miss once you're gone.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
I was stationed at Riley from 2010 to 2013. (albeit one year in Iraq) Lived on post the whole time in officer housing. I never will understand why I subjected myself to that.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:32 PM ^
4 years in one summer, life really does suck there.
February 27th, 2020 at 4:54 PM ^
What a great sentence. Superb composition. Fort Riley does that to people.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:51 PM ^
I love how MSU finally opened up their checkbooks and still wasn't able to hire their first or second choice assistants. They now are made up of Colorado assistants and other middling assistant coaches despite spending more than before.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:54 PM ^
Agreed. Sure seems like they're willing to overpay for a bunch of decent hires.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:56 PM ^
Seems dumb. Agree. Apparently they don't look at return for the $
February 28th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
Considering what they paid for Dantonio, they have a lot more to show for it than what we've gotten from Rodriguez, Hoke and Harbaugh.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:56 PM ^
Seems dumb. Agree. Apparently they don't look at return for the $
February 27th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
Clearly none of the attended the Ross School of Business
February 27th, 2020 at 3:14 PM ^
This feels eerily similar to Michigan's hiring of assistants under Dave Brandon, and this idea that throwing a lot of money at a coach will make him better at his job.
February 27th, 2020 at 5:04 PM ^
Greg Robinson and Doug Nussmeier
February 27th, 2020 at 3:17 PM ^
The only thing about how they are overpaying is that it makes it almost impossible to move on from a bad assistant early-(see Pep Hamilton). When you pay a $250K assistant $700K he better work out for you because he's not leaving for another $250K job and nobody is going to offer him $701K to bail you out.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:22 PM ^
Burning cash doesn't seem to be any more of an issue in EL than burning couches.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:19 PM ^
I've been told repeatedly it shouldn't matter how much coaches get paid. Was that not accurate?
February 27th, 2020 at 3:38 PM ^
The big concern was that having a big pile of money could have resulted in MSU hiring great assistants, reducing the time it would take them to crawl out of their current dumpster fire status. Instead, they hired mediocre assistants and paid them like big-time assistants, leaving less money to try and bring in the big guns going forward.
I know you are just trolling, but I don't care how much Harbaugh makes because there isn't someone else that you could get that would have a high likelihood of greater success. Our program prints money, so his salary matters little.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
There are plenty of people who could lose at least three games every year coaching UM.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:53 PM ^
The point is not moral outrage about the amount spent..The point is that spending over market value for something means that you are stuck with it. The best case for MSU is that these guys are home run hires and they were just ahead of the curve identifying their skills- the worst case is that they are mediocre coaches who won't leave until fired because nobody else will offer them half as much as they now make. If they were offering that type of money in January to top assistants around the nation I think they could have gotten some better established talent but now they won't have much of an option but to wait until 2022 when these current contracts free up.
February 27th, 2020 at 5:21 PM ^
Have we forgotten already where this program was in 2008-14?
February 27th, 2020 at 5:45 PM ^
We lost at least 3 games a year in that era too. Well except for one of them.
February 27th, 2020 at 6:27 PM ^
Ok Sparty, crawl back from RCMB when you win over 5 games in a season again, see you in 2035!
February 27th, 2020 at 7:13 PM ^
Ohh, aren't you clever but yes, since you don't have the intellectual ability to craft a counter argument I must be a sparty. Quite the long con I have going here though.
February 27th, 2020 at 7:01 PM ^
Or more.
February 27th, 2020 at 4:13 PM ^
I'll admit I overestimated their ability to hire quality assistants by throwing cash at them. But it ultimately makes sense. Tucker doubled his salary, if he crashes and burns what does he care? But top tier assistants aren't going to East Lansing for a 10-20% pay increase and put their asses on the line when that team wins less than 5 games the next two seasons.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:59 PM ^
No whomever told you that was correct. The only salary one should be concerned with is their own.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:52 PM ^
Seems decent. I don't know. Who cares.
They're going to be bad until they recruit better, and even then they still might not be good. That's my MSU analysis.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:16 PM ^
Exactly. Recruiting "better" could still be 5th or 6th in the Big Ten. Tucker isn't the kind of coach who will get 5th or 6th best talent anywhere near the top.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:28 PM ^
Exactly. They're 31st in the talent composite right now. Even if they got up to 25th - which would be a significant improvement - if all other Big Ten teams stayed the same, Michigan State would still only be 5th in the conference and 4th in the division. They'd pass Maryland (27th), and remain ahead of Wisconsin (33rd), who we know is better than MSU right now.
It's a tough, uncertain road for Tucker.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
Is that for 2019 or 2020? I'm shocked they're even that high.
February 27th, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
2019, yeah. I'm waiting on that to update, they could absolutely go down. I guess it probably doesn't update until at least spring ball is under way, maybe summer.
February 27th, 2020 at 4:10 PM ^
Their last three recruiting classes were ranked 31, 33 and 43. The class before those (2017) was decimated by attrition.
February 27th, 2020 at 2:59 PM ^
Wow they really couldn’t get anyone lol.