The Bobcat Nation

Without any fanfare, Riley tabbed to replace Weindell.Read the Full Article on BobcatNation

Strange hiring process. Weindel was fired more than 3 months ago.

Good luck to JJ Riley. Hopefully he's able to bring MSU back to where they were during the Dave Gant days.

Welcome aboard JJ! Sounds like a great hire.

I'm pretty disappointed the administration, though for how they conducted all of this. No public info, no real enthusiasm it seemed. Kind of a shame.

The following will, hopefully, shed some light on the volleyball search and any misconceptions in regards to timeline of the hire:

1) MSU was three weeks ahead of schedule from when Weindel was hired, and two weeks ahead from when Schaub was hired.

2) The hiring of Coach Riley was the exact same process used in the hiring of Coach Fish.

3) The NCAA Division I volleyball season ended on Dec. 20. MSU kept the position open until they knew they had given potential candidates enough time to apply once their team was out of the tournament. With the Christmas break, the evaluation process really didn’t begin in earnest until Jan. 6. Needless to say, the committee moved extremely fast to bring on three candidates last week and announce a hire today. A total of 15 days, which in higher ed years is a nano second.

4) The Big Hush – there were four Big Sky Conference head volleyball coaching jobs open. Numerous candidates applied for all four vacancies. To keep MSU’s hand from being dealt, it was imperative to have the utmost confidentiality. Weber State hired its top choice (a local candidate), Montana State got its top pick, Montana is interviewing candidates this week, and there is no news on when Southern Utah is going to name someone. One could surmise that the coaches UM and SUU will eventually choose, were most likely in the same pool as Weber State and MSU.

msusportsinfo wrote:The following will, hopefully, shed some light on the volleyball search and any misconceptions in regards to timeline of the hire:

1) MSU was three weeks ahead of schedule from when Weindel was hired, and two weeks ahead from when Schaub was hired.

2) The hiring of Coach Riley was the exact same process used in the hiring of Coach Fish.

3) The NCAA Division I volleyball season ended on Dec. 20. MSU kept the position open until they knew they had given potential candidates enough time to apply once their team was out of the tournament. With the Christmas break, the evaluation process really didn’t begin in earnest until Jan. 6. Needless to say, the committee moved extremely fast to bring on three candidates last week and announce a hire today. A total of 15 days, which in higher ed years is a nano second.

4) The Big Hush – there were four Big Sky Conference head volleyball coaching jobs open. Numerous candidates applied for all four vacancies. To keep MSU’s hand from being dealt, it was imperative to have the utmost confidentiality. Weber State hired its top choice (a local candidate), Montana State got its top pick, Montana is interviewing candidates this week, and there is no news on when Southern Utah is going to name someone. One could surmise that the coaches UM and SUU will eventually choose, were most likely in the same pool as Weber State and MSU.

NO NO NO..You can't just come on here and tell US that evrything is fine, and there is nothing going on behind the curtain. Bobcat Nation deserves some kind of conspiracy theories that we can run with. How DARE you act like everything is fine, THIS IS BOBCAT NATION...Drew would have NEVER let this happen.

Thanks for clarification. Apologies if my comment came across overly harsh. Sounds like a great hire and i hope msu vball goes back to being one of the top programs in the league.

I appreciate the comment. However, I do have to ask. The Fish hiring process was fun to watch but it didn't seem like MSU was "tipping any hand" to anyone else. If in the future, say MSU is searching for Ash's replacement as are a couple other schools in the league would MSU be as quiet? I'm genuinely curious as I have never seen a search process conducted in quite this fashion before.

All I know is he better be good, because if the men's and women's basketball teams keep losing Fields is just going to have to fire him

From the few people I know in Bend that have been involved with volleyball in the past, this is a really good hire for MSU. JJ has a good reputation and good connections to the club scene on the west coast. I'm hopeful that we are a year or two away from having great teams in Football, Basketball, and Volleyball!(PS - I think our FB team is pretty good right now )

I see UM just hired their volleyball coach. He is an assistant coach at University of Utah. How original.....