This is purely Doc resigning. The fact of the matter is he doesn't care about Mississippi State. He wanted to come here and play in his band, fly his bi-plane, spout off a bunch of military one-liners, and have a bunch of ignorant alumni worship his macho persona.
Now that he has faced the least bit of resistance from the IHL, he's going to say: Screw you ignorant bastards. I'm too good for you, and I'm going to show you. He's hoping there will be a public outcry in support of him to heal his ego. There will be those here and there who blame the faculty or the IHL, but at the end of the day those are parts of the job that Doc simply didn't have the ability to handle. He experienced a little bit of failure, and now he's cutting and running like a coward with an 'I'll show them' attitude. His ego was his biggest attribute and his biggest fault. He's never experienced adversity, and it hit him square in the face.
I agree with our posters that this is a major setback for our University and renders the past couple of years a colossal waste of time. That's why hiring the right person the first time was so critical, and why we have to get it right this time. There's no place for this type of selfishness at a university that prides itself on humility, service, and selflessness.