Is Cohens seat starting to get warm?

[Drugdog]

Probably not. But this is unexceptable.
1 more year and it may be a full on flame.

[starkvegasdawg]

Be nice if we could score more than the fat computer nerd momma's boy in high school.

[Homedawg]

Probably not. But this is unexceptable.
1 more year and it may be a full on flame.

This teams performance at this point is unexceptable. His performance as a whole body of work as head coach has been. Do I expect more? Sure. But I agree it will take another sub par year to make his seat even lit.

[Pollodawg]

No. It will take worse than mediocre to bad for Cohen's seat to heat up too much after the man had us playing for a natty in '12. He's still a good coach.

[JohnnyQuid]

Another year like this and it should get warm at least idc how ****ing stubborn a bastard he is
And after this year should be forced to remove himself from offensive philosophy and hire a true hitting/swing coach

[Homedawg]

No. It will take worse than mediocre to bad for Cohen's seat to heat up too much after the man has us playing for a natty in '12. Don't forget he's still a good coach.

Agreed. Hell good thing for duke basketball they didn't use our fans as a barometer to fire coach k. Otherwise they would have fired the greatest hoops coach in the era. And fyi, I hate duke, but coach k is legit.

[JohnnyQuid]

Agreed. Hell good thing for duke basketball they didn't use our fans as a barometer to fire coach k. Otherwise they would have fired the greatest hoops coach in the era. And fyi, I hate duke, but coach k is legit.

I in no way think Cohen should be fired. I think he needs to take a step back from his micromanaging and turn the reigns of hitting coach to someone more qualified. If he's to stubborn to see his current flaws that the rest of bulldog nation can see then.

Idk

[HereComesTheSpiral]

Well we did lose the first 3 series in 13 on our way to Omaha, but I believe that is where the similarities between these teams end.

[HancockCountyDog]

In 7 years at MSU, he will have hosted one regional, assuming we don't rebound this year.

[BossDawg]

It should be at least just a little warm. Fielding a team THIS bad when we were playing for a NC just 3 years ago needs some sort of explanation. I'm fully aware that teams rebuild here and there, etc...but this is ridiculous. Every team of his since he's been here accomplished what they accomplished by getting hot at just the right time. In other words, he hasn't trotted a team out yet that I was completely confident in. There's always something that makes me uncomfortable about them, to the point where I can't shake that nagging "they're about to blow it" feeling. And 3 years after a deep run in Omaha that feeling is as bad as it's ever been. Yes, it should be heating up.

[Pollodawg]

It is important to avoid knee jerk reactions.....

[shoeless joe]

We played in the championship series in '13. So it was 2 years ago.

[JohnnyQuid]

In 7 years at MSU, he will have hosted one regional, assuming we don't rebound this year.

This is my biggest issue. We should host every 2-3 yrs if we are who we claim to be.

[Irondawg]

I don't follow the baseball recruiting and stuff that closely, but I think it's starting to be a fair question of how good a coach he really is. We have a big body of work to look at now and while we got hot in '13 and rode that to a national championship game that doesn't mean it's not fair to evaluate him.

Sure, throw out the first 2 years as those weren't many of his guys, but since then some serious trends are starting to emerge that are at least somewhat concerning.

1) I keep hearing year after year about what great classes we are signing so either the talent simply isn't developing, they aren't be coaches properly or they simply weren't as good as advertised. You guys that follow recruiting, what do you think? I just know that we don't have a lot of players that would be considered amont the elite at their position in the conference.

2) While we generate a lot of HBP and BB that leads to a decent OB%, we simply haven't been a very good offensive club. I'm fine with small ball but we don't really play that way at a high level outside the OB%. We strike out way too much, bunt too much and aren't even really good at it and we don't run that much compared to other teams.

3) His almost total inability to know who he trust in the lineup. There are usually 2-4 guys you can pencil in but then eeryone else is a game of Yahtzee and so is the lineup. I'm fine with tinkering here and there and if guys aren't producing then give some other guys a shot and I'm all about riding a hot hand, but every game is a mystery. Use the fall ball and early spring practices to take your best guess and roll with those guys. For instance cohen thought enough of M. Smith to start him early in the season. Tweaks something first game and isn't hear of again basicaly and has 8 AB on the year. You spent a few months evaluating and come the conclusion he was one of your 3 best and then you abandoned that almost immediately.

4) SP has basically been a train wreck. It's better this year but somehow we passed the train wreck to the bullpen instead. But outside the one year of Stratton we haven't had a SP that was dominate.

I'm not saying can him, but it's fair to start asking the question of whether he's a upper tier coach or a good coach that rode one hot streak.

[War Machine Dawg]

In 7 years at MSU, he will have hosted one regional, assuming we don't rebound this year.

This is as damning a fact about Cohen as there is. Granted, I'd be willing to say his first 2 seasons don't count because of the steaming pile left to him by Polk II. But still, 1 regional host in 5 years and not even sniffing a national seed is unacceptable for MSU baseball. We may not host every year, but a 20% (1/5) rate is NOT good enough. We should at least be in the discussion to host every season and in the hunt for a national seed every 3 years or so. Instead, we're more likely to miss both Tournaments instead of making them.

Bottom line, Cohen shouldn't be fired yet. But I have no problem in warming up his seat and telling him to get this shit fixed or be gone. He also needs to be told to get the hell out of the way on offense.

[War Machine Dawg]

I don't follow the baseball recruiting and stuff that closely, but I think it's starting to be a fair question of how good a coach he really is. We have a big body of work to look at now and while we got hot in '13 and rode that to a national championship game that doesn't mean it's not fair to evaluate him.

Sure, throw out the first 2 years as those weren't many of his guys, but since then some serious trends are starting to emerge that are at least somewhat concerning.

1) I keep hearing year after year about what great classes we are signing so either the talent simply isn't developing, they aren't being coached properly or they simply weren't as good as advertised. You guys that follow recruiting, what do you think? I just know that we don't have a lot of players that would be considered amont the elite at their position in the conference.

2) While we generate a lot of HBP and BB that leads to a decent OB%, we simply haven't been a very good offensive club. I'm fine with small ball but we don't really play that way at a high level outside the OB%. We strike out way too much, bunt too much and aren't even really good at it and we don't run that much compared to other teams.

3) His almost total inability to know who he trust in the lineup. There are usually 2-4 guys you can pencil in but then eeryone else is a game of Yahtzee and so is the lineup. I'm fine with tinkering here and there and if guys aren't producing then give some other guys a shot and I'm all about riding a hot hand, but every game is a mystery. Use the fall ball and early spring practices to take your best guess and roll with those guys. For instance cohen thought enough of M. Smith to start him early in the season. Tweaks something first game and isn't hear of again basicaly and has 8 AB on the year. You spent a few months evaluating and come the conclusion he was one of your 3 best and then you abandoned that almost immediately.

4) SP has basically been a train wreck. It's better this year but somehow we passed the train wreck to the bullpen instead. But outside the one year of Stratton we haven't had a SP that was dominate.

I'm not saying can him, but it's fair to start asking the question of whether he's a upper tier coach or a good coach that rode one hot streak.

As fair an assessment of Cohen's tenure as I've seen. Hit pretty much every area of concern. Point #1 should be especially concerning, because it is basically the root cause of everything else.

[mstatefan91]

This is what I was afraid of going into this season. Cohen has not adjusted to the new ball. It is burning us

[blacklistedbully]

Y'alls spelling of unacceptable is unacceptable.

[Todd4State]

I don't follow the baseball recruiting and stuff that closely, but I think it's starting to be a fair question of how good a coach he really is. We have a big body of work to look at now and while we got hot in '13 and rode that to a national championship game that doesn't mean it's not fair to evaluate him.

Sure, throw out the first 2 years as those weren't many of his guys, but since then some serious trends are starting to emerge that are at least somewhat concerning.

1) I keep hearing year after year about what great classes we are signing so either the talent simply isn't developing, they aren't be coaches properly or they simply weren't as good as advertised. You guys that follow recruiting, what do you think? I just know that we don't have a lot of players that would be considered amont the elite at their position in the conference.

2) While we generate a lot of HBP and BB that leads to a decent OB%, we simply haven't been a very good offensive club. I'm fine with small ball but we don't really play that way at a high level outside the OB%. We strike out way too much, bunt too much and aren't even really good at it and we don't run that much compared to other teams.

3) His almost total inability to know who he trust in the lineup. There are usually 2-4 guys you can pencil in but then eeryone else is a game of Yahtzee and so is the lineup. I'm fine with tinkering here and there and if guys aren't producing then give some other guys a shot and I'm all about riding a hot hand, but every game is a mystery. Use the fall ball and early spring practices to take your best guess and roll with those guys. For instance cohen thought enough of M. Smith to start him early in the season. Tweaks something first game and isn't hear of again basicaly and has 8 AB on the year. You spent a few months evaluating and come the conclusion he was one of your 3 best and then you abandoned that almost immediately.

4) SP has basically been a train wreck. It's better this year but somehow we passed the train wreck to the bullpen instead. But outside the one year of Stratton we haven't had a SP that was dominate.

I'm not saying can him, but it's fair to start asking the question of whether he's a upper tier coach or a good coach that rode one hot streak.

1) The class that most of the recruiting experts have been talking about is the one that is about to come onto campus next year. The reason you and others have been hearing about it for so long is because that class has literally had some guys committed for three years or longer. It's a legit top five class unless MLB decimates it. Our last class lost the top two hitters in it- and it was a small class to start with. Gridley will be the best hitter out of it, and McCord will be the best pitcher out of it, although Cole Gordon and Andrew Mahoney will be quality players. I'll just straight up say it- getting rid of Mingione would potentially hurt us getting some of those better players. It will also be our first big class (high school prospects) since we went to Omaha and finally one that won't be JUCO dominated. A couple of the players in the next class would be starting right now and giving our offense a HUGE boost- Riley and Pickett. Not to mention pitchers that would be at worst filling in bullpen roles.

2) I've been keeping track of out bunting for this year and when we bunt sacrifices and drag bunts combined, we have been reaching base at a clip of almost 50% this year. Our BB/K ratio is very good as well. We notice as fans when we fail, but we don't look at what everyone else is doing to compare and therefore we "look worse" sometimes. That's not to say that you are totally off point here. As I have said many times, our offense is designed to have about 4-5 speed guys and 4-5 power guys. The problem is we have for the most part lacked the power guys for whatever reason- be it injuries like Collins this year, or underperformance like Rea last year. He needs to make Cole Gordon a hitter instead of a pitcher unless Gordon magically starts throwing 105 or something like that. I cringe when I see people like Gene say "the staff thinks he is a better pitcher". He fits the team better as a hitter. I agree with you that we should steal more- that's where we miss Smith this year because he is better than Brown as a base stealer.

3) This always puzzles me as far as a complaint from our fans. It's very uncommon to have the same lineup everyday at really any level of baseball above high school. Smith has still had issues with his hamstring from time to time, and Cody Brown and Vickerson have been played pretty well. Smith has a higher upside than either one of those two. Catcher has been Lovelady pretty consistently because of Collins being hurt. Rea, Heck, Robson, Humphreys, and Cody Brown have been pretty consistent as far as being in the lineup. Gridley should be in it more, Holland has been a disappointment and we still don't really have a clear cut third baseman- although I think Britton takes it back before the end of the year.

4) I'm not sure why a lot of our fans forget about Graveman even though he wasn't as dominant as Stratton. Graveman was still a legit ace. I think the issue is more about getting them to be dominant before their junior year in college. That's the weird thing to me- and you could say the same for many of our hitters like Renfroe- we've had some very good players and some guys even go in the first round, but it seems like most of them scuffle along until their junior year and then the light bulb goes off. We need to find some guys like Stephen Head that are impact guys as freshmen. Next year our rotation should be one of the best in the SEC. Especially if the junior year light bulb is any indicator for Sexton, Tatum, and Hudson. Plus, Preston Brown should be back as well and he's a solid pitcher with lots of SEC experience. We also have Paul Young who should be fully recovered and McCord will be better as well. Fitts is not 100% right now, and Ross has flaked out on us. That's disappointing. Like I said I think some of the freshmen coming in like Fenter, Small, Padgett, Ford, etc. can fill in some gaps for the bullpen. And heck, Levi Mintz has been pretty darn good and might turn out to be a really solid pitcher for us.

As far as Cohen, you don't win a SEC Championship at UK, and win with some of the talent that we had in 2011, and take a team to the CWS finals without being pretty good. I think he is still building his legacy and career to a degree and just hasn't totally had all the parts to really maximize things. Hopefully this next group of players is his 1982 Ron Polk class- but that remains to be seen. We have to avoid injuries and have guys that adjust more quickly going forward- and in baseball there is a saying that things even out at the end, so we'll see if that is true.

[Liverpooldawg]

I don't know much or care much about baseball but I don't think the seat of the only coach to ever have us in a national championship final in any team sport is in anything resembling a warm seat. At least not 2 years after the fact. I guess we can get rid of him and bring in a Rick Ray type hire because that would be what we would get if we did it this year or the next and probably even the next, barring some type if criminal behavior.