Not surpsied that he would be hired as an assistant coach, but would have expected that he would have gone to a higher level program than Fairleigh Dickinson.  Still, not a bad road map back to a head coaching position.

If i had to succinctly access his time at GW id say
-Good role model for kids and able to relate to them
-Average recruiter 
-Poor coach in preparedness and in game decision making

Best of luck at FDU, I'm sure he'll be able to add a lot of value

Best of luck to him at FDU. He was dealt a stacked deck at GW but did nothing wrong or disqualifying, just didn´t get the wins or in-arena excitement the school wanted.

Wish Mojo nothing but the best. Glad to see he is staying D1. Herenda is a good coach who has kept FDU at least .500 in the NEC the last four years (harder to do than you would think), and they made the tournament last year beating Prairie View A&M in the first four (before unfortunately having to face Gonzaga). I think he will be a good mentor to Mojo as he continues to learn how to coach in games and increase his playbook. That was an area after watching this past season that could be improved, but is also something that can be learned and developed over time.

Being a good recruiter is somewhat harder, as it requires being able to connect with recruits and having a winning history to boost credibility. I actually think Mojo was a pretty good recruiter during his head coaching years here, especially given the circumstances which he became coach. There was a dark cloud over the program, and the saga that played out previously was used against us when recruiting. Despite that, he got guys like Maceo, Justin, and Terry who are all solid A10 players, among others. Although the last freshman class didn't play to expectations last year, I did see potential in Marcus, and still do in Mezie (and maybe Shandon as well had he gotten the chance to play more and get comfortable). Hopefully his last recruits here Chase (we landed him despite recruiting him after he cut his list to five schools if I remember correctly - and none of those final five schools was us) and Jamison do well this upcoming season.

During his final year here, we made the final lists of a fair number of players who were our priority targets. From the top of my head, I can think of Tyler Bertram, Idan Tretout, Toumani Camara, Judah Brown (a California kid who took just two official visits, St. Mary's - where he committed, and us), and for 2020, Donovan Johnson (he came to GW for his first official visit, and is now a 4 star prospect likely to go high major) and Obinna Anochili-Killen (also came on an official, and has the skillset to be a solid mid-major player down the road with his length and shot-blocking ability, or bench high-major player). Compared to JC, Mojo went after guys who were more heavily recruited, and did a pretty good job landing guys with talent. Maybe the assistants had a role to play as well, but Mojo did a good job connecting with recruits, and one thing is for sure, the team always played hard on a nightly basis even if the results weren't there.

Also, one final thing - the alumni game every August that he scheduled was always a good time and a nice event. Hope that continues in some way under JC.

Last edited by dmvpiranha (8/07/2019 9:07 pm)

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

Not surpsied that he would be hired as an assistant coach, but would have expected that he would have gone to a higher level program than Fairleigh Dickinson.  Still, not a bad road map back to a head coaching position.

Agreed.  I figured between the head coaching experience and the Izzo connection he'd have gotten something higher up as an assistant.  Will Herenda be promoted soon?  is he hoping to take over the program in the near future?

porter71 wrote:

Ross-man! i- I think this was beat to death on the old board, but I think that shows that the Izzo connection was a little overblown.  However, Greg Paulus has a lot of connections from his time at major BCS programs (Duke (player), Ohio State & Louisville (ass't coach) and he is only at Niagara right now, so many connections don't mean much.

Hey Porter - I'll be honest I had to check out of the old board (RIP) because of how unreadable it got.  Paulus I understand a little more because he's from the western NY area.  I agree that ti seems the connection was overblown given this landing spot though.
 

Congrats to Mojo.  He was put in a tough position here.  Best of luck to him.  

I spoke too soon. I forgot the infamous dude is still with us.
Congrats to Mojo for landing another job. This job is more in line with his experience and skill set than his previous one.
Congrats also to ML. With the money he allegedly made from GW he probably doesn't need to or want to work again. 
Congrats to JC. Resurrect this sunken ship and you will get a BCS program you are craving for.

Sometimes not have a job is better than having a bad job.  While I'm happy that MoJo has a job and wish him nothing but the best, going from the head man at a top 100 program to an assistant at a low major school is a huge drop off.  Assuming the FDU job doesn't come open, I think this could a hard road for MoJo to become a head coach again.

​The ML situation is completely different.   He has proven success and two stops as a head coach and was a successful assistant at a high major program.  If he has the money to wait, but the time to stay around the game, it makes a lot of sense for him to wait and pick his spot.  I think as time passes after his firing, he'll be given an opportunity to head coach or coach at a high major.  I don't see any situation where we drops to a lower tier program as just an assistant.

Glad Mojo has a job BUT I DONT CARE! He is part of the ML PN Cesspool of topics. UNLESS bringing up any of this is actually germane to NOW STOP! Just stop! It literally doesn’t matter. I’d support the moderator flagging topics if this nonsense persists. I’m not admonishing anyone in particular but keep it current. We have a nice clean board let’s keep this way.