HSVDawg
11-04-2016, 09:53 PM
What an eventful 24 hours it has been. There really is a lot to process with the AD / baseball musical chairs, and I don't think we've really even scratched the surface yet. I know I've gone from liking it to hating it to being not really sure how I feel about it since the rumors first surfaced about a week ago. I think the uniqueness of this particular coaching transition has a lot of our fanbase confused on how they should feel. For the majority of our fanhood we have grown accustomed to just standard hirings, firings, retirements, and lateral departures of coaches and AD's over the years. The coach in his prime who steps down and hand picks his immediate replacement is certainly a new one.
Starting with Cohen, I think Todd4State brought up a lot of good points yesterday about how it is hard to reach your potential and continue moving yourself and your organization forward when you are somewhat burned out and find yourself drawn towards different challenges and opportunities. I think Cohen obviously was at that point to even consider a move like this. Many would agree that Mullen may be in that same boat as well, but I'll save that post for another time. In MSU's recent history, the one thing that has befallen us more than any other is when coaches stick around too long and end up destroying everything they built. We saw it with Sherrill. We saw it with Stansbury. We saw it with Polk II. We may or may not be seeing it with Mullen right now. Having Cohen recognize the unrest in his coaching position developing within himself and making this transition now shows a lot of fortitude on his part. Him being able to pass a very healthy baseball program over to a young and hungry guy like Cannizaro could potentially pay huge dividends to our program for years to come. On the other hand, it should be obvious to everyone that Cohen wasn't the most qualified AD on paper that we could have hired. That does not mean he will fail, but it does mean there may be some growing pains. But as far as how Cohen's departure from the baseball program could have unfolded, we certainly could have done worse. I know he will do his damnedest to put his fingerprint as a hard-nosed, determined winner onto all of our athletic teams and make sure all our coaches do the same.
Moving on to Cannizaro, I think that he is without question the best replacement hire we could have made for Cohen....in November. After seeing how many years he spent scouting for MLB and seeing his work with LSU's hitters (particularly the improvement from the beginning to end of last season), there is no question that he knows the game. But as a head coach there are certainly a lot of questions about him in a number of areas. What is his offensive philosophy? How well does he delegate to assistants? Does he want to build our team around hitting or around pitching / defense? Can he balance the scholarship money for a school that is at a disadvantage in terms of state lottery and other auxillary funding that schools like LSU and Vanderbilt can utilize? Will he bunt in the 1st inning? Just a blank slate here on all these items along with several others. The one thing that provides optimism more than anything else is that Cohen has more or less gambled all the goodwill he has in his new role on this move working out. And given his penchant for finding top quality assistants like Thompson, Mingione, Johnson, etc., I feel like he has the eye to find the right guy. I still wish Cohen would have considered delaying his start date until after the upcoming baseball season (while coaching that one last season) just so we could have had time to engage in a proper national search for his replacement. I don't think Cannizaro would have gone anywhere during that time. If he was still the man after we talked to some folks who were available after the 2017 season, then we can still go ahead and make that move. Anyway, Cohen decided that a bird in hand was better than two in the bush, so here we are. Time will tell if it was the right move.
Starting with Cohen, I think Todd4State brought up a lot of good points yesterday about how it is hard to reach your potential and continue moving yourself and your organization forward when you are somewhat burned out and find yourself drawn towards different challenges and opportunities. I think Cohen obviously was at that point to even consider a move like this. Many would agree that Mullen may be in that same boat as well, but I'll save that post for another time. In MSU's recent history, the one thing that has befallen us more than any other is when coaches stick around too long and end up destroying everything they built. We saw it with Sherrill. We saw it with Stansbury. We saw it with Polk II. We may or may not be seeing it with Mullen right now. Having Cohen recognize the unrest in his coaching position developing within himself and making this transition now shows a lot of fortitude on his part. Him being able to pass a very healthy baseball program over to a young and hungry guy like Cannizaro could potentially pay huge dividends to our program for years to come. On the other hand, it should be obvious to everyone that Cohen wasn't the most qualified AD on paper that we could have hired. That does not mean he will fail, but it does mean there may be some growing pains. But as far as how Cohen's departure from the baseball program could have unfolded, we certainly could have done worse. I know he will do his damnedest to put his fingerprint as a hard-nosed, determined winner onto all of our athletic teams and make sure all our coaches do the same.
Moving on to Cannizaro, I think that he is without question the best replacement hire we could have made for Cohen....in November. After seeing how many years he spent scouting for MLB and seeing his work with LSU's hitters (particularly the improvement from the beginning to end of last season), there is no question that he knows the game. But as a head coach there are certainly a lot of questions about him in a number of areas. What is his offensive philosophy? How well does he delegate to assistants? Does he want to build our team around hitting or around pitching / defense? Can he balance the scholarship money for a school that is at a disadvantage in terms of state lottery and other auxillary funding that schools like LSU and Vanderbilt can utilize? Will he bunt in the 1st inning? Just a blank slate here on all these items along with several others. The one thing that provides optimism more than anything else is that Cohen has more or less gambled all the goodwill he has in his new role on this move working out. And given his penchant for finding top quality assistants like Thompson, Mingione, Johnson, etc., I feel like he has the eye to find the right guy. I still wish Cohen would have considered delaying his start date until after the upcoming baseball season (while coaching that one last season) just so we could have had time to engage in a proper national search for his replacement. I don't think Cannizaro would have gone anywhere during that time. If he was still the man after we talked to some folks who were available after the 2017 season, then we can still go ahead and make that move. Anyway, Cohen decided that a bird in hand was better than two in the bush, so here we are. Time will tell if it was the right move.