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As stated earlier that Fedora got them to a 2 loss season so it cane be done.

Yes, followed by the bottom falling out. How could USM have even remotely believed that Fedora wouldn't use that school as a stepping stone vs a coach who was committed to stay?

Rebel10 wrote:As stated earlier that Fedora got them to a 2 loss season so it cane be done.

Fedora basically came in with a short term plan to get himself another job.

It involved heavily recruiting academic risks and selling out to get them qualified by any means necessary. He hired Frank Wilson after Ed Orgeron was put back in his straight jacket and run out of Oxford and Frank Wilson is a phenomenal recruiter in Louisiana and south Mississippi. Hiring him was never going to be a long term move and they were lucky that Houston Nutt was too stupid to keep him at Ole Miss (Wilson wanted to stay in Oxford). He also hired an "academic" guy that had been on Orgeron's staff at Ole Miss. I can't remember his name but his approach to "Academic Support" was to find doctors with low standards of ethics to diagnose potential non-qualifiers with severe learning disabilities so that they would be eligible to take classes over and to take the ACT untimed with a friendly teacher as the proctor.

If everything works out, that can produce results but you just can't count on that kind of approach every single year. At some point, he was going to get to a point where either the bigger programs started calling him on his tactics (by promising the same things) or he was going to have to go head to head with an SEC power based on the merits of the program.

RebStang wrote: Bower had all of his success in an era where Ole Miss and MSU basically weren't even trying (Ole Miss was on the 2nd worst probation the NCAA ever handed down from around 94-97 and MSU spent several years on probation during the late 90s, as well). Once Ole Miss and MSU started to get back on the recruiting trail, USM just never had a chance to compete - you aren't going to convince many in state players to come play in a 32,000 seat stadium in front of 23,000 people against Conference USA teams if the in state SEC teams are offering you better facilities, better schedules, and better bowls even without better records - win 8 games at USM and you play in the New Orleans Bowl... win 8 at Ole Miss and you play in the Cotton Bowl.

Then, to make matters worse, the NCAA eliminated partial qualifiers completely in 2005. It's not a coincidence that USM has lost 5 games or more every year but one since then. Since 2010, USM has not signed a single player from the top 10 in Mississippi and only 3 that were ranked in the top 20... in a state that only produces about 20-30 FBS level players a year, you can't get shut out of the top 20 players in your state almost every year and hope to field a competitive football team.

I absolutely believe that there are underlying factors as to why USM has lost the last 19 games - they were always going to be at a disadvantage competing not only with Ole Miss and MSU, but also LSU, Alabama, and every other major college football program coming in after their home state recruits. USM is in many ways the ultimate underdog.

But the Ellis Johnson hire was a disaster. Whether they were stupid to hire him in the first place or just unlucky, it was the wrong decision. And Fedora proved that even the right decision came with strings attached. Monken has to be questioning his decision to take the job right this very minute.

Bower had none of those issues. He won, did it at least in a relatively clean way, and he did it recruiting against the best - there was never any reason for a player to go to USM over an SEC school, none whatsoever. Not athletically, not academically, Hattiesburg is a bigger dump than Starkville, I could keep going. He found players - possibly the best 'diamond in the rough' recruiter - and they won. And he turned down jobs at bigger better programs to stay there.

Even if USM would have had two staight losing seasons, they would still be beating Memphis, FIU, and UNT under Bower. They would not have one of the worst offenses in the country. By firing a PROVEN, loyal winner they put themselves to the fates in a time when they despately need to be winning. If Monken does not work out, I genuinely believe they should consider approaching him, even with an apology.