Top Coaches in College Baseball - And How They Got There

[OneArmSteve]

I want to start by saying that I am of the opinion that Cohen should have kept his mouth shut regarding setting such high expectations without having this thing locked up. And I'll also note that the search is NOT over, so we have no idea who he will hire. He may still get a big name coach that we will all be happy with. Who knows? I don't.....and you reading this don't either at this point.

With that being said - disregarding Cohen's statements about the criteria of the next head coach, let's look at where the best coaches in college baseball came from before they got hired at their current program at which they have built national powerhouses.

Schlossnagle - UNLV head coach
McDonnell - Assistant at OM
Tadlock - Assistant at Texas Tech for a year (previously an assistant at OU)
Corbin - Assistant at Clemson
O'Sullivan - Assistant at Clemson
Pat Casey - George Fox University Head Coach

So, you can see that the best in the business were either top notch assistants or from "mid-major" universities as head coaches (who has even heard of George Fox). They were hired because of their potential talent and have built dominant college baseball programs. Will we get someone that fits this mold? Will we get someone that is close to fitting Cohen's aforementioned description? We will see, but I think we should all be a little more open minded and supportive and have faith that Cohen will get someone who he feels will take us to the next level that we as a school and fanbase deserve.

[Tbonewannabe]

I will say if Canny didn't have his issues then I think we had our coach locked up for the next 10-15 years if not more. Canny was an outstanding recruiter and hitting coach. What he did last year was worthy of National Coach of the Year with how decimated our pitching staff was. He did have Rooker and Mangum but lots of teams have 2 great hitters and don't make a Regional.

After saying that, I think Cohen will definitely want more of a track record of not being a 17 up than Canny had. I think he will probably vet whoever it is very thoroughly. Cohen knows what it takes to be successful so he is probably the best person we could have making this decision. Whether he strikes out with Schloss or McDonnell or whoever else, I don't think anyone else could do better.

[AlSwearengen]

I’m disappointed that we missed out on Schlossnagle and McDonnell. I was pretty skeptical up until about two weeks ago but when the rumors remained strong I started to believe.

That said, when an assistant coach is believed to be the next rising star by “baseball people”, they usually end up living up to expectations. They aren’t hard to identify. And with our facilities and support, if we find the next McDonnell or Schlossnagle, that coach could take us to where we want to go faster than either of those two did at their respective schools because they will have a better foundation and situation already in place than most of the current powers have now.

The only drawback is the unknown which will take at least three or four years to figure out if we are in good hands long term.

[yjnkdawg]

I will say if Canny didn't have his issues then I think we had our coach locked up for the next 10-15 years if not more. Canny was an outstanding recruiter and hitting coach. What he did last year was worthy of National Coach of the Year with how decimated our pitching staff was. He did have Rooker and Mangum but lots of teams have 2 great hitters and don't make a Regional.

After saying that, I think Cohen will definitely want more of a track record of not being a 17 up than Canny had. I think he will probably vet whoever it is very thoroughly. Cohen knows what it takes to be successful so he is probably the best person we could have making this decision. Whether he strikes out with Schloss or McDonnell or whoever else, I don't think anyone else could do better.

+1 You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Tbonewannabe again.

[MarketingBully]

Imo, we should have named Gautreau interim coach instead of Henderson. He had been an interim HC before at Tulane and Rick Jones thought so highly of him that he told Tulane to appoint him interim when he had health issues. In other words, I think when people are saying Gautreau deserves a lot of credit for our success this year they aren’t lieing. We could have the next McDonnell under our noses and don’t even know it. I’d name Gautreau. He’s ready now.

[dawgs]

All those programs have a fraction of the support, facilities, and dedication to baseball that MSU has. It was an even smaller fraction when they hired unknown quantities as their HC. We should expect to take less of a gamble when hiring a HC because we can put 10K+ in the stadium multiple times a season if winning. We can put 15K in the stadium for a regional or super regional. We can damn near single handedly sell out the CWS by ourselves. How many fans did vandy have in Omaha for their natty? How many did tcu and Louisville take on ALL their CWS trips COMBINED? We should expect better and I can't help but feel like it's our fault somewhere along the way if we can't sell this stadium and program to an established HC at a non-traditional power. How do we sell the stadium to recruits if we can't even sell it to a HC? What is the point of the stadium if tcu and Louisville (who apparently didn't even charge for games until this season?!?) are still more desirable jobs?

[OneArmSteve]

Imo, we should have named Gautreau interim coach instead of Henderson. He had been an interim HC before at Tulane and Rick Jones thought so highly of him that he told Tulane to appoint him interim when he had health issues. In other words, I think when people are saying Gautreau deserves a lot of credit for our success this year they aren’t lieing. We could have the next McDonnell under our noses and don’t even know it. I’d name Gautreau. He’s ready now.

You could be on to something here. This wouldn't be the worst case scenario in my opinion. Just make sure you get a heck of a pitching coach to go with him.

[Johnson85]

All those programs have a fraction of the support, facilities, and dedication to baseball that MSU has. It was an even smaller fraction when they hired unknown quantities as their HC. We should expect to take less of a gamble when hiring a HC because we can put 10K+ in the stadium multiple times a season if winning. We can put 15K in the stadium for a regional or super regional. We can damn near single handedly sell out the CWS by ourselves. How many fans did vandy have in Omaha for their natty? How many did tcu and Louisville take on ALL their CWS trips COMBINED? We should expect better and I can't help but feel like it's our fault somewhere along the way if we can't sell this stadium and program to an established HC at a non-traditional power. How do we sell the stadium to recruits if we can't even sell it to a HC? What is the point of the stadium if tcu and Louisville (who apparently didn't even charge for games until this season?!?) are still more desirable jobs?

Do you really think if we were going up against Louisville and TCU to hire a head coach (and not trying to poach their current head coach), that we would typically not be seen as a more desirable job? Some of our fans have an unrealistic view of how high in the pecking order we are, but that is definitely way to the pessimistic side.

[MarketingBully]

All those programs have a fraction of the support, facilities, and dedication to baseball that MSU has. It was an even smaller fraction when they hired unknown quantities as their HC. We should expect to take less of a gamble when hiring a HC because we can put 10K+ in the stadium multiple times a season if winning. We can put 15K in the stadium for a regional or super regional. We can damn near single handedly sell out the CWS by ourselves. How many fans did vandy have in Omaha for their natty? How many did tcu and Louisville take on ALL their CWS trips COMBINED? We should expect better and I can't help but feel like it's our fault somewhere along the way if we can't sell this stadium and program to an established HC at a non-traditional power. How do we sell the stadium to recruits if we can't even sell it to a HC? What is the point of the stadium if tcu and Louisville (who apparently didn't even charge for games until this season?!?) are still more desirable jobs?

Those jobs are only desirable to those coaches because they built them from nothing and those are their babies. It’s obvious both McDonnell and Schlossnagle value their own legacies at those schools far more then any monetary, facility, support advantages at other schools. Schlossnagle stayed at TCU and they can’t even fix his biggest issue.

[dawgs]

Those jobs are only desirable to those coaches because they built them from nothing and those are their babies. It’s obvious both McDonnell and Schlossnagle value their own legacies at those schools far more then any monetary, facility, support advantages at other schools. Schlossnagle stayed at TCU and they can’t even fix his biggest issue.

We are prime for a HC to come in a make his own legacy here. We don't have a natty. Come in and win a natty here and you will be treated at MSU like Saban is treated at bama. There is no other baseball program that will love a baseball coach the way MSU will love their first natty winning baseball coach. None. We should be hammering that angle to anyone concerned over their legacy. Polk didn't win shit, he'd be shoved aside in MSU lore in no time for a natty winning coach.

[dawgs]

Also, why can shit programs like tcu and Louisville find a guy that's more concerned about his legacy than support and facilities, but we can't find one more concerned about his legacy than Mullen's sloppy seconds?