If You Believe in Meritocracies, Hendo Probably Needs to be Named Head Coach

[Cooterpoot]

I hope Gary Henderson 17s up our coaching search like a soup sandwich.

[Dawgcap]

I hope Gary Henderson 17s up our coaching search like a soup sandwich.

Why? I hope we have coaches sell their skills and dreams for our program and I hope Henderson does the same! Who has a long term view and the ability to achieve it?? Love where we are in this coaching search!! And yes I got your sarcasm but I guarantee we will have major coaches selling themselves for this job.

[preachermatt83]

I don?t think henderson will be great long term but here is my honest opinion on it... if you can hire a big time legit guy like mcdonnell, schloss, Tadlock, casey, or O?Connor then you have to hire them. If not hire henderson. If we win the whole thing then I(one of his biggest detractors) won?t fuss much regardless. My only thing is, if we hire henderson we have to hold on to GoTro even if we have to pay him double what he?s making and we have to hire a legit pitching coach. If Henderson won?t go along with that then tell him to kick rocks. I still don?t won?t henderson but with every win I?m becoming less adamant about it.

[Todd4State]

no Way we make this run with a hire in place at the beginning of regionals. That?s why I love Cohen and his cares about the program. I think the big boys still want this job but Henderson can stake his claim. I think there are a couple coaches that will elevate there coaching and salesmanship to get this job. If Henderson wants the job he?s gonna have to sell his vision and it better be great cause we will have a couple coaches that will fight for this job.

What's happening now is a big reason why I said we shouldn't make a hire until our season is over. I think had we made a hire before the regionals and then we go on this run- THAT would have been a bigger PR disaster than anything.

And what you said about Henderson selling his vision is spot on. If I'm running the interview I have a LOT of questions.

1. You tried to retire two years ago and talked about how demanding being a SEC head baseball coach is. If we offer you the job and you accept, how long do you envision being the head coach here?

2. At Kentucky you were also the pitching coach. How open are you to hiring someone else to being the pitching coach which will allow you to focus on being the head coach?

3. What is your recruiting philosophy? How will you identify and get players through the draft?

[Dawgcap]

What's happening now is a big reason why I said we shouldn't make a hire until our season is over. I think had we made a hire before the regionals and then we go on this run- THAT would have been a bigger PR disaster than anything.

And what you said about Henderson selling his vision is spot on. If I'm running the interview I have a LOT of questions.

1. You tried to retire two years ago and talked about how demanding being a SEC head baseball coach is. If we offer you the job and you accept, how long do you envision being the head coach here?

2. At Kentucky you were also the pitching coach. How open are you to hiring someone else to being the pitching coach which will allow you to focus on being the head coach?

3. What is your recruiting philosophy? How will you identify and get players through the draft?

I never disagreed with any of this. Again I love what he has done. Questionable decisions at times ? Yes but he has coached well and delegated to Gautreau. Lot of positive decisions. But again as much as I admire what he has done I want and expect a great finish but like many we know that we can’t make a hire based on 1 year. The difference in us is I don’t nitpick every decision because as a coach you still must have players make play but as you know in baseball most decisions are not always gonna turn out right. Love your thoughts but to say he hasn’t done a great job under these circumstances is ridiculous.

[Dawgcap]

I don?t think henderson will be great long term but here is my honest opinion on it... if you can hire a big time legit guy like mcdonnell, schloss, Tadlock, casey, or O?Connor then you have to hire them. If not hire henderson. If we win the whole thing then I(one of his biggest detractors) won?t fuss much regardless. My only thing is, if we hire henderson we have to hold on to GoTro even if we have to pay him double what he?s making and we have to hire a legit pitching coach. If Henderson won?t go along with that then tell him to kick rocks. I still don?t won?t henderson but with every win I?m becoming less adamant about it.

As someone who hasn’t been one of his biggest detractors I agree. But I will say at this point he has earned the right to sell his vision for this program to Cohen. I think he will be in the battle of his life for this job if he wants it and as much as some hate it his success may cost him!! But if he can’t sell it I don’t want him because there is no man bigger than this program! I love all of halls thoughts because you are all fans but we need to step aside and trust the process and appreciate what he has done.

[Dawgcap]

Dang typing on this phone but I hope you see what my point is

[Todd4State]

I never disagreed with any of this. Again I love what he has done. Questionable decisions at times ? Yes but he has coached well and delegated to Gautreau. Lot of positive decisions. But again as much as I admire what he has done I want and expect a great finish but like many we know that we can’t make a hire based on 1 year. The difference in us is I don’t nitpick every decision because as a coach you still must have players make play but as you know in baseball most decisions are not always gonna turn out right. Love your thoughts but to say he hasn’t done a great job under these circumstances is ridiculous.

I think he has done a good job of keeping the ship afloat.

I agree that players make plays- which is why I have given them a lot more credit than I have Henderson. That's also why I'm big on our coach being able to recruit well.

I don't know that I would say that most baseball decisions are not going to turn out right though. There is enough information out there to make informed decisions that will give you the best chance to win.

We're hot right now and playing with a lot of confidence at the absolute right time. Which is what we want. But I do think we underachieved somewhat during the regular season- I think our players are really good. That's why I predicted that we would make it to Omaha in the offseason even though the path didn't happen like I thought it would or could. And I think our coaching decisions were a lot of the reason for that underachievement plus we have 20 come from behind wins this year. That's about half of our wins on the year and that's just not sustainable over a long period of years.


If we win the National Championship I won't complain and will enjoy the hell out of it. But the years where we don't have things fall our way like this I won't enjoy as much.

[Todd4State]

As someone who hasn’t been one of his biggest detractors I agree. But I will say at this point he has earned the right to sell his vision for this program to Cohen. I think he will be in the battle of his life for this job if he wants it and as much as some hate it his success may cost him!! But if he can’t sell it I don’t want him because there is no man bigger than this program! I love all of halls thoughts because you are all fans but we need to step aside and trust the process and appreciate what he has done.

If he wins the National Championship there is no question he will get an interview. He will probably get an interview even if he doesn't.


I don't understand the comment about his success may cost him though? His success is the only reason he has any shot at all.

[Cooterpoot]

Why? I hope we have coaches sell their skills and dreams for our program and I hope Henderson does the same! Who has a long term view and the ability to achieve it?? Love where we are in this coaching search!! And yes I got your sarcasm but I guarantee we will have major coaches selling themselves for this job.

I think you’re going to be disappointed. We aren’t getting Schloss, McDonnell, Corbin, or Tadlock.