At the end of this year we will have 5 losing seasons in the last 10 years, that's not debatable. At what point are you in danger of not being an "elite" program? It's past time for some urgency around this program.
Printable View
At the end of this year we will have 5 losing seasons in the last 10 years, that's not debatable. At what point are you in danger of not being an "elite" program? It's past time for some urgency around this program.
I wouldn't say we are an elite program, and haven't been since before 2000. We could return to be an elite program, but it would take a steady climb to get to something sustainable.
If Cohen had stayed as a coach, we may be there now.
Now this all changes if we wouldn't have swung at every high fastball we saw against UCLA for two games.
I know this isn't popular, but we haven't been an elite program since about 1990. Should have let Polk leave when he tried to in '92 to run USA Baseball and his war with the NCAA began. His focus wasn't on program building and it put us behind while LSU built a powerhouse. We have never truly recovered to the late '70s to early '90s level since.
We're an elite fan base, not program. But, we're still a top 20 program. Probably top 15. Hire a legit coach and we're top 5-10. Our last three head coaches screwed us over a bit.
I wouldn't say Cohen screwed us over, but didn't build a solid enough program to able to be resilient. It was still something of a work in progress. I don't know that there are a lot of programs that could handle having what will end up being 4 coaches in 2 years and not suffer for it.
If it is true that we are in on either Tadlock or McDonnell, then that is elite company. Our drought has been painfully long though. That is a valid argument for the "we are no longer elite" crowd. hard to argue that point. The thing that makes us elite though is that once we are winning like we are capable of, we will once again have by far, the most awesome crowds (again) in college baseball and the atmosphere at DNF will be unmatched and it won't even be close. MSU baseball is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. That cannot be questioned.
I think this is accurate... depends on what you consider elite. Also, all coaches screw you over a bit. They either failed and had to be fired, they took a job somewhere else or just quit the sport. It would be an extremely rare situation where a coach would leave without any negative impact at all.
Polk 2.0 should've never even been a consideration. And really, I should've said the last 4 HCs because Mac took off and was stupid. Cohen really hurt us getting out when he did. He lost his focus and then stuck us with a HC with no experience and poon addiction.
We are like LSU football pre-Saban or maybe bama between stallings and Saban. Make the right hire and we could be a dominant program, perhaps THE dominant program. Much like bama commits more $$$ to football than anyone else, we have the fan support to commit financially to baseball in a way that literally no one else in the country would be willing to match (for the P5 programs capable of matching) or capable of matching (for the non-P5 programs that are good at baseball like cal st Fullerton and coastal Carolina types).
And yet some of y'all are worried about paying $1.5M+ for the right coach. If we think that coach can come in and turn the program around like Saban did at LSU and at bama, $1.5M+ is a bargain and would more than pay for itself.
We are the Tennessee football of college baseball, but without a natty
We have some of the same dynamics, issues, challenges, strengths, & weaknesses.
I say that as most times it's easier to see yourself from the outside-in vs the inside out.