Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt confirmed this just a minute ago.
“We had a good six years together, and I appreciate the work he’s done, but it was hard for him to turn down his alma mater,” Nutt said. “We wish Tracy and his family all the best.”
Rocker made $210,000 at Ole Miss last year and could be in line to make in the upper $300s at least with the offer from Auburn.
Former Auburn star Jimmy Brumbaugh, now at Louisiana Tech, and former Alabama head coach Mike Dubose, now at Millsaps, are names to watch as possible replacements for Rocker at Ole Miss.
— PA
djrebel.wordpress.com 
January 12, 2009 at 11:44 am |
I really wish he would be replaced with another African American.
January 12, 2009 at 11:47 am |
Ole Miss has a diverse football staff, and that is important. Rocker needs to be replaced with the most qualified football coach.
— PA
January 12, 2009 at 11:53 am |
Yeah, I guess they are. I really don’t want want Dubose though. What do you think about Steve Caldwell.
January 12, 2009 at 11:56 am |
bring back coach o lol…Thats ok, I think Ole Miss will be ok…How many players will back off theri commiment PA?
January 12, 2009 at 12:01 pm |
I heard Coach O was offered a chance to go back to USC, but declined due to friendship with Lane and credibility hit. We will now face two former coaches next year. Well, three with Frank Wilson at MSU. Anybody else?
January 12, 2009 at 12:07 pm |
Rebelt, don’t know much about Caldwell. They were pretty good at Tennessee last year.
David, I don’t think this will cause recruits to back off.
— PA
January 12, 2009 at 12:13 pm |
Hey PA, this is pretty random. But last time I saw you was after Egg Bowl 03 31-0. I asked you what headline of Sports page would say. What was it again?
January 12, 2009 at 12:20 pm |
Upper $300’s for a DL coach, now that’s crazy!
January 12, 2009 at 12:25 pm |
Chris Low on ESPN mentioned Caldwell as a replacement. Fortunately we weren’t recruiting many D-line guys this year, so I don’t think we have the risk of really losing anybody. Maybe Cameron Whigham, but I’m not sure how much other schools want him anyway.
PA, do you think this will affect Gred Hardy’s decision?
January 12, 2009 at 12:45 pm |
Having been around Dubose at Millsaps I would very much endorse hiring him. Long way from the SEC to D3 but he has done a great job. He really cares for his players. Just my 2 cents.
January 12, 2009 at 12:50 pm |
Charles, I don’t think this will affect Hardy’s decision. He’s a loner.
CR, I figure he transitions pretty easily since he’s been around the SEC block.
— PA
January 12, 2009 at 1:10 pm |
I saw on rivals, that whigham is picking a school not a coach, those were his words and he will visit Ole Miss this weekend.
January 12, 2009 at 3:51 pm |
Spoke with a Millsaps player just now and Dubose has yet to tell them anything. Still early obviously though.
TheOleMissNation.com
January 12, 2009 at 4:22 pm |
Huge loss for OM. HUGE! We should have gotten the wallet out to keep him. I guess we’ll recruits over this. We’ll see if Nutt is the real deal next season. Dubose is not the answer. Its gonna be hard to find someone with the same passion as Tracy.
January 12, 2009 at 4:24 pm |
I say we pull out the wallet and steal Muschamp from Texas.
January 12, 2009 at 4:25 pm |
We need NO COMPETE clauses in every contract that is written from now on. This coaching thing has gotten completely out of control. Its killing college football. Tix are already out the roof. Its got to stop and we might as well be the ones.
January 12, 2009 at 4:26 pm |
“Ole Miss has a diverse football staff, and that is important. Rocker needs to be replaced with the most qualified football coach.”
A BIG AMEN TO THAT!!! PA
January 12, 2009 at 4:51 pm |
Colorado, my attorney friends tell me they can usually work around a no compete clause.
Any attorneys on here with an opinion on that?
— PA
January 12, 2009 at 4:56 pm |
I’m here Pa. I agree with that.
January 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm |
If they want it, they’ll find a loophole somewhere.
January 12, 2009 at 6:19 pm |
big lose need to find a big time replacement
January 12, 2009 at 7:58 pm |
Hope we can pay $300G’s
January 12, 2009 at 8:02 pm |
Something has to be done to stop the madness. I think SEC fans should all get together and boycott one game. Just imagine what kind of message that will send. All SEC stadiums vacant on game day. The price of tickets have gone so far you need a bail out to buy them.
January 12, 2009 at 8:38 pm |
Colorado, I’m with you on the rising cost of ticket prices. I like your boycott idea, but I’m not sure you’ll get enough folks to participate.
— PA
January 12, 2009 at 8:53 pm |
Dubose may can coach but can he recruit? I like the idea of a young hungry coach.
January 12, 2009 at 9:33 pm |
As much as I hate to lose Rocker, this is the PERFECT opportunity to get an assistant coach that’s a dynamite recruiter.
Wilson went to State this year, but what about Hughes?
January 12, 2009 at 9:46 pm |
You can’t blame a man for taking a job at his alma mater and for more money, period. We’ll recover. We don’t have to break the bank to get someone either. Rocker was good, but Nutt has been around Rocker long enough now to take what he brought to the table and use what good he had with what someone else can bring to the table.
Colorado, if we had all that stipulating on ALL of our coaches, we wouldn’t attract anyone in the first place. All of this is a BUSINESS, not the Salvation Army. Money talks and poop walks, and no one is going to boycott an SEC game period. Most of us boycotted the NW State game 2 years ago and we got results, but the very next week, the Vaught was absoluetly packed when the Coonies from LSU showed up. I think the price of tickets is Economics 101…..Supply vs. Demand. Students didn’t have to pay for tickets when everybody and their brother started coming to the games, and we expanded the East side, then the South endzone. Those expansions show that the demand exceeds the supply enough to justify raising the ticket prices, and the admin knows they will recoop the costs for the construction of those spots. That doesn’t necessarily mean selling out everytime, but meeting the hurdle for paying for that piece of the pie, otherwise, I’d think we’d have a North Endzone expansion already in the works or on the ground. You can always do what Colin Cowheard says….watch it from your living room on a Vizio HD TV.
January 12, 2009 at 10:00 pm |
m4rebs i agree. i think we can attract a very good D-line coach without breaking the bank. this thing is getting way out of hand. there is no loyalty from anyone anymore. i like what boston college did when their head coach broke his contract and think other teams should follow suit. if a man signs a contract he should be a man of his word and abide by that contract.
January 12, 2009 at 10:33 pm |
Rocker can be replaced. Get ready for others to depart as we get more successful, hopefully we’re on that path next year. They can be replaced, too, if our AD & Head Coach are on the same page, but I’m not very confident of that.
January 12, 2009 at 11:08 pm |
Well, M4 I think you are totally wrong about the contracts. First of all, if the SEC made it a rule and other conferences followed, it would end. Second, you can’t see that the rules are not made OM but by the big money boys. Their influence has the game favored for them before the game starts. Go to LSU or Alabama, you’ll see why they call it home field advantage. I can blame a coach for leaving, when you sign a contract you give your word. When you back out of it, you and your word are worthless. Not that anybody cares about namesake anymore, but that’s why the world has gone to shit. There are no heros anymore, no one for kids to look up to. I can remember when a football Saturday was a time for a man and his boy to go see the Rebels and he could afford to do it. Just cause everybody’s doing it, damn sure don’t make it right. As for the lawyers, well there’s your answer “lawyer”.
January 13, 2009 at 12:34 am |
Rocker was a very good coach, but lacked in recruiting ability. Also, I don’t think money played a part in his decision to return. He is one of Auburn’s most famous football alumni (His picture is on the scoreboard), and his coach (Pat Dye) sounds like is pulling Chizik’s strings.
Steve Caldwell would be in my opinion the best replacement. He was a coach at Tennessee under Fulmer and was a prolific recruiter. He pulled in major talent there and still has connections with coaches around. Also Coach Nutt has already tried to hire him once when Nutt was at Arkansas, but Caldwell decided to stay at UT.
January 13, 2009 at 8:25 am |
I agree Toddy. I want to see Caldwell on the sideline. Someone on ESPN was saying that he was the best recruiter at UT for the past decade. That is impressive if true.
January 13, 2009 at 12:32 pm |
ColoradoReb:
You stated Dubose is not the answer without saying it was just your opinion or substantiating it as fact. Do you really know something or just arrogant?
January 13, 2009 at 1:19 pm |
Cr I know he hasn’t produced in the SEC or a major conference. I think he’s right where he needs to be. Caldwell would be, in my opinion, a better choice. That is to say if we are looking for the most qualified not the most connected. Milsaps is a great school, but its no Ole Miss, at least as far as sports goes. Academics is a whole different ball game. I like Dubois, I think he’s honest. I don’t think he is the same caliber coach as Caldwell or Rocker or even Orgeron. If he is, he sure hasn’t proven it anywhere. Thats not arrogant its a fact Jack.
January 13, 2009 at 4:16 pm |
ColoradoReb
Regarding Dubose’s production. He coached a DL at Bama that won a national championship, served on Ray Perkins staff at Tampa Bay, was SEC Coach of the Year in 1999 after guiding the Tide to the SEC Championship. These are the facts that as you so eloquently stated he hasn’t “proven”. Dubose’s problems have been well documented and I see his time at Millsaps as having overcome those issues.
Now I trust Coach Nutt’s decision and his opinion. Your opinion of Orgeron’s production and Caldwell’s production being greater than Dubose is a little hard to understand. Obviously you aren’t using facts as a basis for your input so I am left with nothing but your arrogance again.
So fire away – Jack.
January 13, 2009 at 4:43 pm |
How many Natl’ Titles did O have at USC? 1999 was a long time ago and lots of water has passed under the bridge since then.
January 13, 2009 at 8:04 pm |
My concern about Dubose is not his coaching ability. He has proven that he can be a very successful coach. It isn’t about his “other” stuff either. My concern is that he does not have the connections to schools that Caldwell does. We have several pretty good recruiters on our staff, but adding another well documented recruiter that has close ties in Arkansas, Tennessee, and other places never hurts.
January 13, 2009 at 8:41 pm |
I think I would prefer a young, high energy type whose strength is recruiting. Though Reed Stringer isn’t a defensive coach his name seems to come up the most in MSU recruiting this year and he is under 30. The average age of this staff doesn’t indicate a great need for experience. I don’t have a name that fits this profile but I’m not sure another 50 year old is what we need.