At least Jackson State got this hire right


Mark

Mark

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Kellenberger: At least Jackson St. got this hire right
Hugh Kellenberger, The Clarion-Ledger 5:11 p.m. CST December 14, 2015


What are you going to do when Alcorn State has passed you on the field, and lapped you in recruiting? If you’re Jackson State, you go and get some of what those guys have.

Which is why Jackson State’s hire of Tony Hughes as its new football coach is so impressive. Unlike Harold Jackson, the first and only notable line on the resume is not, “Played at Jackson State.” Hughes has family that went to JSU and said he’s attended plenty of Jackson State-Alcorn State games in the past, but make no mistake about it: he’s not a SWAC man. He is, however, a good football coach and a hell of a recruiter, and shouldn’t that be the only two things that really truly matter?

Just look at what Alcorn did hiring Jay Hopson after two decades spent in major college football, or Grambling and Broderick Fobbs. They were hires made outside of SWAC circles, and both have paid off with SWAC Championship Game appearances this season.

“Those guys didn’t have any HBCU experience when they took over their programs and they’ve taken the conference by storm,” Jackson State athletic director Wheeler Brown said.

Hughes has been an assistant coach for 31 years now, and for the past seven he’s been the right-hand man to Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen on the recruiting trail. All those guys that MSU touts as being found and developed by MSU? Hughes is responsible for a lot of them (including Benardrick McKinney), and he did the same thing at Southern Miss and Ole Miss before that.

There’s always risk involved with first-time head coaches, but Hughes strikes me as smart enough to hire the best assistants he can and let them do their jobs. If he does, there’s enough upperclassmen talent already on the roster to suggest there can be immediate results in 2016, and you know Hughes is going to recruit well enough to make the roster better after that.

“As soon as this press conference is over with and I get through doing some things, I’m going to be on the phone calling recruits to get us some football players in here,” Hughes said.


http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...rger-jackson-state-hire-tony-hughes/77300808/
 
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Seemed to me he was right on with a lot of comments. Maybe he is just tired of seeing a University who has such potential in building an athletic powerhouse squander it away. JSU has some big advantages they did nothing to earn on their own. Location being one of the main ones. Props to them for their alumni and fan base which they did earn They should be great, and now maybe they will be,
 
I like this journalist/sports writer. He's good!!!! Someone by the name of Kendrick Marshall can take notes from his guy. Maybe even steal his notepad.
 
Mark said:
Kellenberger: At least Jackson St. got this hire right
Hugh Kellenberger, The Clarion-Ledger 5:11 p.m. CST December 14, 2015


I remain on the fence about Brown as AD, wondering if he was truly the best available candidate or just the one that was most likely to fall in-line with Fuller and university president Carolyn Meyers (a woman Brown takes ample time to commend whenever there’s a microphone in front of him, for what it is worth). But hiring Hughes is a great first act by Brown, who also said he would give Hughes free rein on assistant coaches (including what to do with Derrick McCall, a longtime staff member who served as interim coach.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...rger-jackson-state-hire-tony-hughes/77300808/
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Ouch!
 



STC_60 said:
What does it say about this conference when most of the successful coaching comes from outside of the swac?
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Not the first time this is happened. Pete came from outside the SWAC and won big and often. Broadway came from outside the SWAC and won. Jones wasn't a SWAC guy when he got to Bama A&M. Comegy came from outside the SWAC. Odums came from outside the SWAC and we know Hopson did. Certainly not a new trend.

I don't consider Fobbs an outsider because he played in the SWAC.
 
JR said:
Not the first time this is happened. Pete came from outside the SWAC and won big and often. Broadway came from outside the SWAC and won. Jones wasn't a SWAC guy when he got to Bama A&M. Comegy came from outside the SWAC. Odums came from outside the SWAC and we know Hopson did. Certainly not a new trend.

I don't consider Fobbs an outsider because he played in the SWAC.
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Fobbs never coached in the swac. Is there a certain way of doing things that outsiders bring into the conference that is working???
 
STC_60 said:
Fobbs never coached in the swac. Is there a certain way of doing things that outsiders bring into the conference that is working???
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I think it's just a fresh approach and they have seen other ways of doing things. If your only training has been in one conference that could play against you if that's the conference you have stayed your whole career in.

You need some other perspectives I believe.
 
HJ wasn't a SWAC coach either, but he got sent packing by these "SWAC" coaches.
What this guy is saying about the admin is just popular sentiment. And I would find it hard to believe that he would criticize JSU for hiring any SEC coach(es).
 
STC_60 said:
What does it say about this conference when most of the successful coaching comes from outside of the swac?
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That they understand the importance of recruiting/targeting gifted student-athletes and are not afraid to go into predominant areas where other D-I universities go in order to compete head-to-head in recruiting/marketing the program.

Cannot speak for others but coach Simmons and staff are working overtime recruiting talented and gifted young men to bolster PVAMU's future success.
 
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