D1 Baseball podcast on State coaching change
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A really good question was asked: Why is State baseball so volatile? Our peaks are trips to Omaha, and our valleys are dead last in the SEC. This has been the case for decades under multiple coaches. Pat McMahon is the only coach in my lifetime who hasn't cratered, and he was only here for four years.
What other program is comparable in terms of having high highs and low lows?
What other program is comparable in terms of having high highs and low lows?
Auburn football comes to mind
They are acting like this volatility is some kind of unexplainable thing. Polk stopped real recruiting and just stuck with his camps, and the talent went down because you had Bianco and others out there getting after it. Cohen brought that aspect back, and voila, we get good again. And people act like 2015 is some historic low, that was an outlier due to injuries. Not making excuses but we lost like 10 games that year in the 8th inning alone. Remember the meme?
And now, Lemonis has let recruiting go yet again. It ain't that hard. This time, instead of lazy camp crootin, it's lazy showcase crootin. And there's obviously some culture issue there, same as what was going on with Polk because he didn't want to cut players.
Truth is, we are a top 15 program historically, and even today, still top 15 or so. Auburn football is a great example. They keep talking about national recruiting, but we don't really do that. Regional recruiting - absolutely. Every now and then we reach out and get someone from Texas or Florida or Georgia whatever, but we mainly can stay in MS, AL and TN and be just fine. And just like Auburn and Alabama do to us, we can generally go into their state and raid them.
All we have to do is get back to competency in coaching again, and we will be just fine.
And now, Lemonis has let recruiting go yet again. It ain't that hard. This time, instead of lazy camp crootin, it's lazy showcase crootin. And there's obviously some culture issue there, same as what was going on with Polk because he didn't want to cut players.
Truth is, we are a top 15 program historically, and even today, still top 15 or so. Auburn football is a great example. They keep talking about national recruiting, but we don't really do that. Regional recruiting - absolutely. Every now and then we reach out and get someone from Texas or Florida or Georgia whatever, but we mainly can stay in MS, AL and TN and be just fine. And just like Auburn and Alabama do to us, we can generally go into their state and raid them.
All we have to do is get back to competency in coaching again, and we will be just fine.
Polk was great at organization and fundamentals (except bunting), but other than that, he was pretty average overall. Later in his career, he would bring in a really good freshman class and then mostly shut it down until that group graduated. They would struggle as freshmen and then we would have good years their sophomore and junior years. If a player was signed and ended up sucking, oh well. They kept their scholarship and filled a roster spot until they graduated because Polk didn’t believe in processing. The game left him behind.
I don’t recall what caused Cohen to roller coaster, but overall we have had too much turnover. It looked like Cohen had things cooking and then decided he wanted to be an AD and that started the coaching carousel. The fact that Cohen can’t hire a coach to save his life compounded things.
Continuity has really helped USM. That’s why I would like to get a younger coach and not someone like the Virginia coach who is probably not going to coach much longer. Bakich is probably the perfect balance of talent, experience, and age, but I don’t see that happening.
I don’t recall what caused Cohen to roller coaster, but overall we have had too much turnover. It looked like Cohen had things cooking and then decided he wanted to be an AD and that started the coaching carousel. The fact that Cohen can’t hire a coach to save his life compounded things.
Continuity has really helped USM. That’s why I would like to get a younger coach and not someone like the Virginia coach who is probably not going to coach much longer. Bakich is probably the perfect balance of talent, experience, and age, but I don’t see that happening.
College baseball is such a niche sport. Kendall Rogers and Kyle Peterson are genuinely respected media in the field and the Mississippi State Baseball twitter account has more followers than both of those guys combined.
Thats a really interesting note that I would not have thought possible. It really tells you about the popularity of college baseball around the country being as low as it is.
It’s not surprising. We don’t really realize it so much since the few schools that care about college baseball are almost all in our conference. But nationally, it’s basically nothing.
He also had the benefit of a fanbase that was ready & able to embrace college baseball. Way back before even my time, the 8 regionals were held at permanent sites. One of the 8 was Starkville.