We make that run this year. New Year's bowl, plus $2M when someone hires Hop.

I don't think we can recruit at a high enough level focussing on high school. This will likely be our best shot.

Also think we pretty much screwed Hop with this contract.

Hope I'm wrong on recruiting. He's good, but elite high schoolers stay away from here in droves. He talked about diamonds in the rough, which is perilously close to "who else ya got".

We had a niche that was working. I was excited, but I think we just hired Jeff Bower. Class, integrity, and 7 wins.

Just my initial feelings post-press conference.

Evidently, keeping most of the coaches that were on staff as we were told was not true. If Pollard and others are interviewing for other jobs, that means JH has already told them that their services are not needed and it probably explains the reason recruits are bailing on us. JH is probably bringing his Alcorn staff with him which I hope is not a big mistake. I hope the next four years is worth the low price tag for the coach that we got when we could have gotten better. After seeing his contract, if that is what we offered the others, no wonder they turned us down, I would have done the same. This is how we got EJ and got in the mess we got in except we paid a lot more . Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying JH is not a good coach, but we didn't get the best that we could have gotten and it could it up hurting up not only in wins and losses but mainly in recruiting. We were making so much progress I would hate to see us backslide now. I know what some of you are going to say, give the man a chance, but four years is that much time we didn't have to waste at this juncture of our program. We should have gone with and up and coming young coach in the mold of TM,and LF and kept the program on track. To listen to BM, talk about how Southern Miss has proud traditions and how he was going to do a national search and how people would want to come here and coach just makes me ill and what he offered.I know we aren't rich, but that is down right insulting and is why the schools up north make so much fun of us and never take us serious. Heck, Freeze, is making nine times more than JH and that is without any bonuses. I will support JH because he is our coach, he like EJ, has been left a full stock pantry, what he does with it, is up to him. I wish him all the success because I don't want another debacle like before because it would destroy Southern Miss to the core.

thanks as always for your support.

You mentioned the weight room in another thread. Have they restarted work on locker and weight rooms?
Did they find a problem that had to be addressed when they started tearing out portions of the other one?

Any info will be appreciated.
GWE

I have heard that keeping the current coaching staff was a condition of hiring Hopson. Is this a reality? To me, it is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" situation...but I know that most HC have guys they want to bring with them.

Positions open: Defensive Secondary Coach, Operations Coordinator, Offensive position like quarterbacks coach? Coach Woz seems to be a great special teams coach and I would like to see him continue in this position.....and continue as OC.

......Keon Howard will sign with us.

Hopson said we have 11 commitments he will honor. If you look at the commitment list, we have more than 11 anyway you add it up, accounting for those already in school, those not making grades. What gives?

Here's the most interesting comment that came out of the entire day.

Tanner Watson from B95 asked Bower if he would have taken the job back if asked.

Bower says, yes.

L Fed and Monken made...and of course Ellis made 800 k for all 4 years of his contract. If you throw in the 385,0000 we get from Tampa Bay for the Monken buy out we owe Jay Hop a balance of only 115,000 for 2016. That's doing it on the cheap. I am guessing we'll pay our staff a good deal more next year. I sure hope so.
I see the buyout is huge if he leaves us but I am not sure what it is if he gets fired....the face value of the contract remaining I suppose.
This sure looks like Bower 2.0....the Ellis Johnson hire was 'Bower approved" as well. I am personally okay with Jay, the way things were done, and I'll be there cheering in September. I heard Jeff Bower interviewed on the radio last week and he wanted a coach who would be happy to be here for a long time. I always thought we would do better with hungry young coaches who wanted to win big and move on to greener pastures. We'll see.

..if you are currently giving, make a serious effort to give a little more....if you know somebody that is currently not giving, kindly ask them to get on the bus....don't treat them like a Stooge, SELL THEM on the benefits...some people think that they cannot afford to have kids when they are young, but yet they almost typically do....do the math on 2,000 new EC members giving $100 to $250 annually...it would go a long way.....we need to widen our base...a Coaching Change is always a reason for optimism, regardless of the circumstances.....let's step up

"It truly is a special honor and privilege to be the head coach at Southern Miss," said Hopson. "This is a dream job for me, a destination job for me. I have spent six wonderful years here and hope to spend the rest of my coaching career here at Southern Miss and I am blessed as this is a University that I love from the bottom of my heart. I'm just ready to get to work."

twitter:

For the next 3yrs I will be furthering my EDUCATION and FOOTBALL CAREER at the University of Texas San Antonio

IS MARQUEZ A PRIMA DONNA? I'M JUST ASKING BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW?

Lindsey and Nuss. He might end up getting it right in the end but he turned it into a circus.

Just settled into the front row here at the Trent Lott Center for the Jay Hopson - Southern Miss media conference.

Cheerleaders, band members and alumni have began to gather as media have taken their places.

Seems like we only have 11? and we are going to honor those 11.

So I think we didn't make room for Simmons and that we are done if they stay locked down.

$500,000 per year with lots of incentives. $2 million buyout in the first three years and balance of the contract after that point.

Dude said he is not going to focus on juco and only recruit majority of players from Mississippi. I thought Monken used 1 of the coaches to recruit jucos. Not impress with this guy

Folks, if we come together...all factions...Bower guys, Fedora guys, Monken guys, Duggan guys....and unite behind this coach I believe he can lead us to the promised land of dominance in our conference, dominance in the Group of 5 and no telling where else. NOW is the time to come together, flush any negativism and get on this train!! SMTTT!!

this is now your athletic department, bill. Hope it works out for you. Not going to lie I'm not happy. Prove me wrong

will be much more detailed and hopefully revealing

Guys

Tune into 98.1 FM, wmxi.com or the WMXI App on your smartphone today at 5 PM as I talk about the Southern Miss coaching hire.

Love to hear your comments

601-261-0898 or #981 on CSpire

2 million dollars?!

VTO is holding a Combine at Petal HS later this month. This is a good camp and a good group. If you have kids that want to compete at the next level is a good starting point. It's not like that RivalsCampSeries where they are free events, $65 pre reg and $75 walk-up.



Register: Click Here