Mississippi State had as busy of a bye week as one could have with Athletics Director John Cohen resigning to take the same position at Auburn.
The news was a significant surprise when ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that they were in discussions on Saturday, and they agreed on the details Monday morning. In the wake of the news, Mississippi State Head Men's Basketball Coach Chris Jans and Head Football Coach Mike Leach gave their thoughts on the change in leadership.
Jans was hired by Cohen seven months ago and is preparing for his Mississippi State debut against Texas A&M Corpus Christi next week. The news broke about five minutes before his presser yesterday, and his reaction was genuine.
"I haven't really had a chance to digest it," Jans said. "I'm not going to speculate on any other man's professional decision they have to make. John and I have had a great relationship since I arrived. I'm very grateful he hired me and my family to be the coach at Mississippi State."
Jans understands that it's out of his control and doesn't know what the uncertainty will bring, but he's hopeful that things will work out the way they should.
"I've got no idea," Jans said when asked about what the uncertainty will bring. "It's never happened to me before, so I can't comment on something I've never experienced. It's out of my control. I learned a long time ago to control what you can control, and that's not something I can control, and it'll play out the way it does."
Mike Leach, on the other hand, has known Cohen for longer, with it being his third year leading the Bulldogs on the gridiron, and the news came as a surprise to him.
"I thought John was great, got along with John," Leach said. "I'm surprised this happened. I'm not surprised something happened. Something surprising happens every week. You just don't know how it's going to manifest itself. I always enjoyed working with John."
With the uncertainty around the Athletics Director position, Leach is just flushing it and is focused on football.
"I just ignore it," Leach said. "I just worry about the day-to-day. The next meeting. The next practice."
Leach even gave a pitch on why Mississippi State is a great place for an Athletics Director to be, and in typical Leach fashion, it wasn't without its jokes.
"I think it's a great job. This is a great place to live," Leach said. "The people you work with are great too. It's not perfect. You'd definitely have to purge a couple, but not many. Less here than most places. That immediately sticks it above other places. It's a fantastic place, a very down-to-earth place. It's a pragmatic place that tries to figure out solutions to problems rather than get wound up politically kissing too many rings. You want a guy who really wants to be here. And you want a guy who stays out of your way. The coaches are there for a reason, and the athletic director's role is to provide support, not coach. Those athletic directors are the best ones. I've been around some great athletic directors (C.M. Newton at Kentucky, Joe Castiglione at Oklahoma, and Bill Moos at Washington State). You need someone like those three."
Leach didn't have any stories to tell about his time with Cohen due to them typically having conflicting schedules, but he praised Cohen's ability to prioritize the right things.
"He’s a real smart guy, studies things," Leach said. "His hours are almost opposite of mine. Goes to bed about 8 o’clock and gets up about 4. Between the two of us, we have the store minded 24 hours a day. Sometimes, he’d get out over his skis a little bit. The key to being a good athletic director is knowing what needs to be addressed right now and knowing which ones you can wait out. You don’t want to run around picking up rat turds when there’s elephant turds flying all around. Let’s focus on the elephants. Prioritizing what you do. He always had the ability to get back on track quick. He was a fun guy to watch the process with. We’d get to talking and we’d end up talking for an hour."