SEC Baseball is different in 2025

[Coach34]

We are obviously disappointed in our start and there is good reason for that. We won a series today and that's a positive. But there is still alot of work left obviously and we have to win next weekend's series too vs Bama. We have no choice- back against the wall. That said:

Like SEC football- we are seeing lots of beatings to good teams. Lots of sweeps this season so far of good teams. A very volatile SEC. LSU swept Top 10 Oklahoma. Texas swept Top 5 Georgia. Florida has been a Top 5 program under Sully- they are 1-11 in the SEC. Florida/Sully is worse than Lemon. They were the last team in a Regional last season having arguably the best player in the country and now garbage in 2025. A&M was the preseason #1 team and they are 3-9 in the SEC- just like us. No preseason #1 has ever missed a Regional. It's crazy times as the SEC has expanded.

State vs Bama next weekend- got to win another series. This has potential to be a wild ride this season.

[sandjunky]

Bama bends state over like they have every year since 2007 (in football) next weekend

[Coach34]

I'll believe when I see it. They lost their series to Auburn who is not that good. Barely beat Samford midweek. Won a close one with N. Alabama and lost to Presbyterian.

We have to come to play and get timely hits

[StateDawg44]

Bama bends state over like they have every year since 2007 (in football) next weekend

This. We have a ridiculous series win streak against them I?m pretty sure too. May be wrong though.

I see that coming to an end next weekend as well.

[StateDawg44]

We have to come to play and get timely hits

Consistency. That?s a tall order for Lemon coached teams it seems.

[Tbonewannabe]

Bottom line is we are talented but have to come up with the big play when it matters. We seem to either win comfortably or lose. We have lost a lot of close games and if we had half those go our way then we are in the middle of the SEC and not talking about missing a Regional.

[cheewgumm]

I am no expert but have watched every game we have played.

We are as talented as any team we have played, imo.

Our problem is errors and stupid mistakes.

Play clean, win.

[confucius say]

Split auburn and bama on road
Split KY and Mississippi at home
Win 2 vs Florida at home
Sweep Mizzou

Comfortably in.

[sandjunky]

Split auburn and bama on road
Split KY and Mississippi at home
Win 2 vs Florida at home
Sweep Mizzou

Comfortably in.

3-9 to 14-16 ?!?

Even If that were to happen we would not be comfortably in with the terrible OOC and having played the 3 worst record teams in SEC

USC/UF/UM

[sandjunky]

3-9 to 14-16 ?!?

Even If that were to happen we would not be comfortably in with the terrible OOC and having played the 3 worst record teams in SEC

USC/UF/UM

Remaining OOC (RPI)
UAB 90
Memphis 207
Southern 248
North AL 200

[confucius say]

3-9 to 14-16 ?!?

Even If that were to happen we would not be comfortably in with the terrible OOC and having played the 3 worst record teams in SEC

USC/UF/UM

Yes we would. Comfortably. As long as we don't lose noncon games other than Mississippi. USC and UF are both top 40 rpi. We are already up to 51 in rpi. 13-17 would be bubble.

[Todd4State]

Yes we would. Comfortably. As long as we don't lose noncon games other than Mississippi. USC and UF are both top 40 rpi. We are already up to 51 in rpi. 13-17 would be bubble.

The issue we have is we don't have very many games with high RPI teams. Your scenario could very well play out and our RPI might get into the 30's and potentially left out.

And any loss in a midweek games besides the Governor's Cup basically kills us.

[sandjunky]

Remaining OOC (RPI)
UAB 90
Memphis 207
Southern 248
North AL 200

Updated
UAB - 103
Memphis - 204
Southern - 241
North AL - 226

On SEC front
UF - 37 (down from 19)
UK - 44
Mizzou - 151

USM - 46

[StarkVegasSteve]

Updated
UAB - 103
Memphis - 204
Southern - 241
North AL - 226

On SEC front
UF - 37 (down from 19)
UK - 44
Mizzou - 151

USM - 46

YIKES. Not many good opportunities left and a lot of bad ones. We may need to find a way to have the field flood before we play Southern. 241 RPI will be sub 250 by next week.

[sandjunky]

So Mizzou non conference:
SIUE - 224
MO State - 208
KU x2 - 14

[Coach34]

win and we will get in. Our fate is in our hands

[sandjunky]

win and we will get in. Our fate is in our hands

Agreed based on our overall schedule and what remains - I think you have to go 15-15 in SEC play to get in

[Tbonewannabe]

win and we will get in. Our fate is in our hands

At this point, we probably need to win almost every series but definitely need to sweep Mizzou with their RPI only going down.

[BHildreth3]

win and we will get in. Our fate is in our hands

Exactly as it should be with Lemon in the dugout. If we do not get in, he is OUT.

[Coach34]

Exactly as it should be with Lemon in the dugout. If we do not get in, he is OUT.

completely agree. Get the job done or pack up

[confucius say]

Updated
UAB - 103
Memphis - 204
Southern - 241
North AL - 226

On SEC front
UF - 37 (down from 19)
UK - 44
Mizzou - 151

USM - 46

We also have 10 of our final 23 against top 15 rpi teams. 7 of those are against top 10 rpi.

[BHildreth3]

completely agree. Get the job done or pack up

Also, for those that keep saying he won a National Title, blah blah blah. The dude didn't win with his players. He's an average coach and a borderline bad recruiter. I was worried when we hired him because I just looked at his record. It was medium. It was not great. I still feel that McDonnell pushed him on us because he is his best friend. We deserve better.

[Coach34]

We took Lemon because he was our 7th or 8th choice. We got turned down plenty before we got to Lemon

[StarkVegasSteve]

We took Lemon because he was our 7th or 8th choice. We got turned down plenty before we got to Lemon

Yep. I mean just off the top of my head I remember Schloss, Tadlock, McDonnell, Corbin, and O'Sullivan. I know there were more but I'm pretty confident all of them got offered the job.

[EdwardDrayton]

Yep. I mean just off the top of my head I remember Schloss, Tadlock, McDonnell, Corbin, and O'Sullivan. I know there were more but I'm pretty confident all of them got offered the job.

Well there's some insight into where we find ourselves now. *****

[Coach34]

Well there's some insight into where we find ourselves now. *****

And that is going to happen again when we start with big names if we are doing this again in June. If we fire Lemon our next coach is going to be a Top Asst or a HC from a lower P4 or G5

[KB21]

And that is going to happen again when we start with big names if we are doing this again in June. If we fire Lemon our next coach is going to be a Top Asst or a HC from a lower P4 or G5

It also has nothing to do with our program, Starkville as a town, or anything else other than the fact that college baseball coaches do not have the tendency to job hop like coaches in other sports do. College baseball coaches tend to stay where they are building something. Jim Schlossnagle is the exception, and he was going to take our job in 2018 until he pushed for Cohen to go ahead and announce it.

[Coach34]

It also has nothing to do with our program, Starkville as a town, or anything else other than the fact that college baseball coaches do not have the tendency to job hop like coaches in other sports do. College baseball coaches tend to stay where they are building something. Jim Schlossnagle is the exception, and he was going to take our job in 2018 until he pushed for Cohen to go ahead and announce it.

It has to do with all of that actually.

Schloss used us in contract talks. If he had wanted to be our coach- he would have been. He removed himself from the equation

[KB21]

It has to do with all of that actually.

Schloss used us in contract talks. If he had wanted to be our coach- he would have been. He removed himself from the equation

It literally has nothing to do with any of that except that college baseball coaches are different. Teams have tried to get Dan McDonnell away from Louisville and Brian O'Connor away from Virginia for years, and they haven't left. McDonnell didn't turn us down because of Mississippi State or Starkville. He turned us down because he has zero desire to ever leave Louisville.

[sandjunky]

It literally has nothing to do with any of that except that college baseball coaches are different. Teams have tried to get Dan McDonnell away from Louisville and Brian O'Connor away from Virginia for years, and they haven't left. McDonnell didn't turn us down because of Mississippi State or Starkville. He turned us down because he has zero desire to ever leave Louisville.

I wouldn?t want to leave there either - Jeff Ruby?s Steakhouse

[Coach34]

It literally has nothing to do with any of that except that college baseball coaches are different. Teams have tried to get Dan McDonnell away from Louisville and Brian O'Connor away from Virginia for years, and they haven't left. McDonnell didn't turn us down because of Mississippi State or Starkville. He turned us down because he has zero desire to ever leave Louisville.

I'm well aware of how baseball coaches dont move often. But all of those things play a part- especially in this new NIL Era

[Todd4State]

It has to do with all of that actually.

Schloss used us in contract talks. If he had wanted to be our coach- he would have been. He removed himself from the equation

Cohen completely mishandled that coaching search. We may have gotten Schlossnagle if Cohen didn't run his mouth about who we were going to hire to everyone in baseball.

In fact I'll go so far as to say we're actually lucky we ended with Lemonis as bad as Cohen botched that situation.

[Todd4State]

It literally has nothing to do with any of that except that college baseball coaches are different. Teams have tried to get Dan McDonnell away from Louisville and Brian O'Connor away from Virginia for years, and they haven't left. McDonnell didn't turn us down because of Mississippi State or Starkville. He turned us down because he has zero desire to ever leave Louisville.

McDonnell also doesn't want to go up against Bianco. Similar to O'Conner not wanting to go up against Manieri. Baseball coaches are different like that. Back in the day Paul Gregory didn't want to play Delta State because he had Boo Ferriss were friends.

Baseball coaches are different in that many of them are OK being somewhere that they are comfortable even if it's somewhere that they can't win a championship.

[Santiago]

Cohen completely mishandled that coaching search. We may have gotten Schlossnagle if Cohen didn't run his mouth about who we were going to hire to everyone in baseball.

In fact I'll go so far as to say we're actually lucky we ended with Lemonis as bad as Cohen botched that situation.

Agree, and Cohen ran his mouth so much , it was funny reading our media try to say Lemonis fit Cohen's original description of "Multiple CWS appearances" when describing Lemonis being there as an assistant. Yeah, ok.

[Santiago]

We are obviously disappointed in our start and there is good reason for that. We won a series today and that's a positive. But there is still alot of work left obviously and we have to win next weekend's series too vs Bama. We have no choice- back against the wall. That said:

Like SEC football- we are seeing lots of beatings to good teams. Lots of sweeps this season so far of good teams. A very volatile SEC. LSU swept Top 10 Oklahoma. Texas swept Top 5 Georgia. Florida has been a Top 5 program under Sully- they are 1-11 in the SEC. Florida/Sully is worse than Lemon. They were the last team in a Regional last season having arguably the best player in the country and now garbage in 2025. A&M was the preseason #1 team and they are 3-9 in the SEC- just like us. No preseason #1 has ever missed a Regional. It's crazy times as the SEC has expanded.

State vs Bama next weekend- got to win another series. This has potential to be a wild ride this season.

For right now, just getting a winning record against Quad 1 through 3 rated teams would be plus.