The longer the USM search goes on....

[Parrott]

Another guy mentioned recently by the Hattiesburg newspaper is Tennessee-Martin coach Jason Simpson (45-34 in seven years). He's a 1994 grad of Southern Miss and is originally from Ellisville just outside Hattiesburg. He played football and baseball at Mississippi State and baseball at Southern Miss. UTM went 8-3 this season, including a win over Memphis. I dealt with Simpson while working in Tennessee, and he's a top-notch guy and a tremendous coach with success running a spread offensive attack.

[VObserver]

Seems like a smart move.

Just seems to me that that year will be his soonest, best chance to move up, unless we catch lightning in a bottle and run the table next year.

[Parrott]

Correct.
And one day in the not too distant future there will be a story exactly like this one:

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State receivers coach Mark Hudspeth will not interview for he recent job opening at Louisiana-Lafayette.


Hudspeth

“I am not a candidate and I’m full-speed ahead here,” Hudspeth told The Clarion-Ledger on Monday.

Rickey Bustle coached his final game at ULL on Saturday, and the school announced today that he would not return for the final year of his contract. Joshua Parrott of The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La., reported on his blog that, as of Sunday night, Hudspeth was one of three candidates expected to interview for the job, according to multiple sources.

“I’m where I want to be,” Hudspeth said Monday. “Not to say one day down the road a position somewhere wouldn’t interest me, but I’m happy where I’m at. Recruiting is going great.”

Hudspeth was the coach at North Alabama for seven years before joining Dan Mullen‘s staff last year.






Only difference will be you will need to replace Mississippi with UL in the story and replace UL with the new team he will be going to.

Agreed. I'm not concerned about USM. I'm more interested in whether Mullen is truly a candidate at Colorado, something that was reported last week. Still think Mississippi State is Hud's next stop.

[moorecajun]

Agreed. I'm not concerned about USM. I'm more interested in whether Mullen is truly a candidate at Colorado, something that was reported last week. Still think Mississippi State is Hud's next stop.

Agreed on Hud to Miss. State as his next stop. I just don't get the Colorado spin ... can you see this happening?

[Parrott]

Agreed on Hud to Miss. State as his next stop. I just don't get the Colorado spin ... can you see this happening?

The reports say Colorado is interested in him. He could easily milk that for a pay bump and/or extension if played right. I feel like moving up to Tennessee would be more likely.

[CajunRebel]

USM can't afford to pay Hud's buyout. There's no chance he'll move to a smaller conference school.

[Chop]

I hear that ever since Colorado had that scandal with Gary Barnett 6 or 7 years ago the athletic department of UC has put such ridiculous self inflected sanctions on themselves in the recruiting process that they are basically making it near 100% impossible for them to compete on the football field.

As you can see from there results the last 5 years, that would be a safe assumption.

UC may be the worst team in the country that is a member of one of the big BCS conferences.

UL would beat them 90 out of 100.

[cajun4life]

Look, IMO HUD will be here for another two years as long as the administration delivers what they promised him. So far they have not and they are making it very hard for him to trust the administration. But, that's just my opinion.

[CajunAmos]

Make HUD AD................................

[HoustonCajun]

I honestly think that barring catastrophe, Hud will be here until after Broadway's Senior campaign. That team will be mature and loaded on both sides of the ball, and will have a legitimate shot at being a top 25 team. He can talk about not wanting to be in this conference if it gets watered down; but if we win OOC, having an easy conference schedule will not hurt us. See LTU this year.

UL was caught with its pants down on realignment twice in one year, which is inexplicable. Conference realignment is not over. Things could again break later this week with more dominos to fall. Absolutely no excuses for UL to not be prepared knowing things are shifting daily. Farmer said in his interview with Buckley that the Master Plan would be released in 2 weeks. If it is not released and if UL does not make a statement that it is seeking a higher level conference and is again satisfied with the status quo, what then? If UL beats ECU, Hud will again be a hot commodity. If UL has no higher aspirations than the Sun Belt, would Hud stick around another year or make a move now to a higher profile conference if a really good offer were made? The NIU coach accepted an offer from NC State immediately after the championship game. Could something like that happen with Hud immediately after the bowl game? IMO, UL needs to make a more definitive statement about our aspirations than the generalities Farmer spoke. If schools like WKU and NMSU or even Ark State are invited and we are not, not only is the SBC thoroughly decimated, but so is UL. Perhaps all of that will be made more clear when/if the Master Plan is released in 2 weeks which also happens to be just before the bowl game. We'll see what kind of committment UL is making to Hud and to all supporters of UL athletics if opportunities arise in one or more conferences and UL is again passed over because UL failed to be more proactive in seeking a better future. I remain cautiously optimistic that will not happen to us a third, and possibly fatal, time.

[Parrott]

UL was caught with its pants down on realignment twice in one year, which is inexplicable. Conference realignment is not over. Things could again break later this week with more dominos to fall. Absolutely no excuses for UL to not be prepared knowing things are shifting daily. Farmer said in his interview with Buckley that the Master Plan would be released in 2 weeks. If it is not released and if UL does not make a statement that it is seeking a higher level conference and is again satisfied with the status quo, what then? If UL beats ECU, Hud will again be a hot commodity. If UL has no higher aspirations than the Sun Belt, would Hud stick around another year or make a move now to a higher profile conference if a really good offer were made? The NIU coach accepted an offer from NC State immediately after the championship game. Could something like that happen with Hud immediately after the bowl game? IMO, UL needs to make a more definitive statement about our aspirations than the generalities Farmer spoke. If schools like WKU and NMSU or even Ark State are invited and we are not, not only is the SBC thoroughly decimated, but so is UL. Perhaps all of that will be made more clear when/if the Master Plan is released in 2 weeks which also happens to be just before the bowl game. We'll see what kind of committment UL is making to Hud and to all supporters of UL athletics if opportunities arise in one or more conferences and UL is again passed over because UL failed to be more proactive in seeking a better future. I remain cautiously optimistic that will not happen to us a third, and possibly fatal, time.

That's funny. I'm hearing the next round of realignment will happen in the next two weeks before Christmas.

[CajunEXPRESS]

The reports say Colorado is interested in him. He could easily milk that for a pay bump and/or extension if played right. I feel like moving up to Tennessee would be more likely.

Lets think here moving from the West, to the East. Bama, LSU, TAMU,Auburn,Arkansas Ole Miss vs Mizzou, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, UGA, USC, and Florida. Much easier, and being the clear big cheese in the state. Problems though for Tennessee is fairly weak on high school talent, and it gets poached along a long narrow boarder by everyone.

Thinking Mullins is looking for better, somewhere in the Big Ten, or Big XII.