Thoughts on Lemonis hire

[CadaverDawg]

First off, Cohen's mouth is the reason people are melting over this hire. If he doesn't run his mouth, everybody is cool with the hire. Lemonis will do good here, and everyone melting will be excited when we're rolling the next few years.

Truth is, I had almost conceded that we were hiring Henderson....so all I was thinking was, "please keep Gautreau and hire a bad ass pitching coach/recruiter." Well, now we have a really good recruiter as head coach, we kept Gautreau, and I still think we need a really bad ass pitching coach. So in other words, we already upgraded over what many of us thought would be Henderson...but I think Lemonis will be a great hire long term.

One thing that helps a coach do well is fan buy in. It's crucial that we as a fan base buy in and support it until he gives us a reason not to. So I encourage people to get their bitching out tonight and then get on board tomorrow and start pulling that rope. I'm looking forward to the Lemonis era...Cohen knows baseball, and his goal is to win MSU a Natty...so if he thinks this is the guy that can do it, I'm on board.

[Commercecomet24]

Another great post! Rep given!

[runwildjerious]

Excellent post. Rep given.

[CoachT14]

All things I've seen are he is an elite recruiter and a pretty good hitting guy. Average game management and player development. McDonnell coaching tree. Fairly successful at Indiana. Been to CWS as player and assistant coach.

Overall I'm pretty underwhelmed. Thought there were some better non tier 1 guys (Schloss, McDonnell, etc.) that I would've personally taken before I got to him. He was on my radar. But down the totem pole needless to say.

[BeardoMSU]

First off, Cohen's mouth is the reason people are melting over this hire. If he doesn't run his mouth, everybody is cool with the hire. Lemonis will do good here, and everyone melting will be excited when we're rolling the next few years.

Truth is, I had almost conceded that we were hiring Henderson....so all I was thinking was, "please keep Gautreau and hire a bad ass pitching coach/recruiter." Well, now we have a really good recruiter as head coach, we kept Gautreau, and I still think we need a really bad ass pitching coach. So in other words, we already upgraded over what many of us thought would be Henderson...but I think Lemonis will be a great hire long term.

One thing that helps a coach do well is fan buy in. It's crucial that we as a fan base buy in and support it until he gives us a reason not to. So I encourage people to get their bitching out tonight and then get on board tomorrow and start pulling that rope. I'm looking forward to the Lemonis era...Cohen knows baseball, and his goal is to win MSU a Natty...so if he thinks this is the guy that can do it, I'm on board.

https://media.giphy.com/media/GQnsaAWZ8ty00/giphy.gif

[ChillOutDog]

He will be considered in the same breath as “Tadlock, Schloss, Heefner” soon

[Tbonewannabe]

Looks like a pretty good hire. I honestly like him a lot better than Godwin who people were talking about getting at one point. Other than the big 4 that was mentioned, he seems like a great pick. A lot of baseball guys are saying it is a great hire and I trust Cohen especially with a baseball hire.

[CadaverDawg]

All things I've seen are he is an elite recruiter and a pretty good hitting guy. Average game management and player development. McDonnell coaching tree. Fairly successful at Indiana. Been to CWS as player and assistant coach.

Overall I'm pretty underwhelmed. Thought there were some better non tier 1 guys (Schloss, McDonnell, etc.) that I would've personally taken before I got to him. He was on my radar. But down the totem pole needless to say.

You may be right, but Was Moorhead or Canny on your radar? Not saying Lemonis will win us a Natty, but if Cohen is anything, he's thorough...so I just can't help but think we may have found our Schloss/McDonnell/Augie/etc. Could he be a bust? Sure anything's possible...but if you have ever heard a word Cohen's said, you know he wants a Title at MSU so bad he can taste it. And if he wanted to take the easy way out, he could have hired Henderson...he didn't. He hired Lemonis, so I think he feels confident that Lemonis and Gautreau can bring home the hardware. Otherwise, you buy yourself a few more years with Hendo, and say "I didn't miss on Schloss, Hendo earned it and the fans wanted it"....he didn't take the easy path, so I'm all in on Lemonis.

[MarketingBully]

I personally like the hire and think he will win big here. Not sure why you guys are saying average game day coach and talent developer. We’ve had three different coaches take us to three different Supers the last three years. Stability is what this program needs and this guy will get it done.

[preachermatt83]

I think this guy will win big here.

[CoachT14]

You may be right, but Was Moorhead or Canny on your radar? Not saying Lemonis will win us a Natty, but if Cohen is anything, he's thorough...so I just can't help but think we may have found our Schloss/McDonnell/Augie/etc. Could he be a bust? Sure anything's possible...but if you have ever heard a word Cohen's said, you know he wants a Title at MSU so bad he can taste it. And if he wanted to take the easy way out, he could have hired Henderson...he didn't. He hired Lemonis, so I think he feels confident that Lemonis and Gautreau can bring home the hardware. Otherwise, you buy yourself a few more years with Hendo, and say "I didn't miss on Schloss, Hendo earned it and the fans wanted it"....he didn't take the easy path, so I'm all in on Lemonis.

Moorhead was to an extent. I just had several guys I’d consider Tier 2 coaches ranked ahead of Lemonis when I look at coaches from other conferences/Non-power 5 schools. Namely, Dan Heefner, Greg Lovelady, Todd Whitting. But I think the guy could turn out to be top notch. Just not the direction I thought we’d go after Schloss and company.

[Commercecomet24]

Our recruits are already praising this hire. He's an energetic guy that kids and parents love, GoTro is staying and he's bringing a top notch pitching coach. Just sit back and give it time. You'll wind up very happy.

[BeardoMSU]

Our recruits are already praising this hire. He's an energetic guy that kids and parents love, GoTro is staying and he's bringing a top notch pitching coach. Just sit back and give it time. You'll wind up very happy.

Like^^^^

[CadaverDawg]

Our recruits are already praising this hire. He's an energetic guy that kids and parents love, GoTro is staying and he's bringing a top notch pitching coach. Just sit back and give it time. You'll wind up very happy.

Love hearing this

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

I personally like the hire and think he will win big here. Not sure why you guys are saying average game day coach and talent developer. We’ve had three different coaches take us to three different Supers the last three years. Stability is what this program needs and this guy will get it done.

People are saying it because that's what the IU and other Big 10 fans are saying about him on other sites.

In 13, they made the CWS and won the conference (1st). In '14, they made a regional (1st), then Lemonis took over: In '15, they made a regional (6th). '16 they missed it (t-3rd). '17 made a regional (6th). '18 made a regional (5th). I don't see how you can look at that and say he's a good overall coach... His predecessor is a TERRIBLE coach (go look at ASU), yet was able to win the conference at IU twice. It can be done, is the point. Lemonis comes in and never challenges for it, and also doesn't even improve the team. Let me say that again, YEAR 3 AND 4 WERE NO BETTER THAN YEAR 1 AND 2! I don't care if he's a great recruiter and a bad developer or the other way around, whatever he is it isn't making the program better. He's treading water at a lever below what his mediocre predecessor left him with.

I hope to hell his resume is just a fluke, that there was bad injuries, luck, etc, and that he's actually building a monster. I have no doubt that our extra resources will let him at the very least tread water at a higher level. But honestly, when I look at that resume, I see nothing that says we got a hidden gem. Hope to hell I'm wrong though

[MarketingBully]

People are saying it because that's what the IU and other Big 10 fans are saying about him on other sites.

In 13, they made the CWS and won the conference (1st). In '14, they made a regional (1st), then Lemonis took over: In '15, they made a regional (6th). '16 they missed it (t-3rd). '17 made a regional (6th). '18 made a regional (5th). I don't see how you can look at that and say he's a good overall coach... His predecessor is a TERRIBLE coach (go look at ASU), yet was able to win the conference at IU twice. It can be done, is the point. Lemonis comes in and never challenges for it, and also doesn't even improve the team. Let me say that again, YEAR 3 AND 4 WERE NO BETTER THAN YEAR 1 AND 2! I don't care if he's a great recruiter and a bad developer or the other way around, whatever he is it isn't making the program better. He's treading water at a lever below what his mediocre predecessor left him with.

I hope to hell his resume is just a fluke, that there was bad injuries, luck, etc, and that he's actually building a monster. I have no doubt that our extra resources will let him at the very least tread water at a higher level. But honestly, when I look at that resume, I see nothing that says we got a hidden gem. Hope to hell I'm wrong though

You will be wrong.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

You will be wrong.

Hope I am, though for the record I'm not making this my hill to die on or anything i just don't see anything in that resume that makes me confident. If you do, or see the flaws in my points, please let me know. Either way I'm going to support him come gameday, and reserve final judgement on him till at least after the first season

[Todd4State]

People are saying it because that's what the IU and other Big 10 fans are saying about him on other sites.

In 13, they made the CWS and won the conference (1st). In '14, they made a regional (1st), then Lemonis took over: In '15, they made a regional (6th). '16 they missed it (t-3rd). '17 made a regional (6th). '18 made a regional (5th). I don't see how you can look at that and say he's a good overall coach... His predecessor is a TERRIBLE coach (go look at ASU), yet was able to win the conference at IU twice. It can be done, is the point. Lemonis comes in and never challenges for it, and also doesn't even improve the team. Let me say that again, YEAR 3 AND 4 WERE NO BETTER THAN YEAR 1 AND 2! I don't care if he's a great recruiter and a bad developer or the other way around, whatever he is it isn't making the program better. He's treading water at a lever below what his mediocre predecessor left him with.

I hope to hell his resume is just a fluke, that there was bad injuries, luck, etc, and that he's actually building a monster. I have no doubt that our extra resources will let him at the very least tread water at a higher level. But honestly, when I look at that resume, I see nothing that says we got a hidden gem. Hope to hell I'm wrong though

That's because his predecessor had Indiana's version on our 1985 team. Most Big 10 teams aren't able to win consistently like Lemonis has at Indiana because of the region they are in. They're very up and down in that league but Lemonis was able to keep them winning consistently.

[Todd4State]

First off, Cohen's mouth is the reason people are melting over this hire. If he doesn't run his mouth, everybody is cool with the hire. Lemonis will do good here, and everyone melting will be excited when we're rolling the next few years.

Truth is, I had almost conceded that we were hiring Henderson....so all I was thinking was, "please keep Gautreau and hire a bad ass pitching coach/recruiter." Well, now we have a really good recruiter as head coach, we kept Gautreau, and I still think we need a really bad ass pitching coach. So in other words, we already upgraded over what many of us thought would be Henderson...but I think Lemonis will be a great hire long term.

One thing that helps a coach do well is fan buy in. It's crucial that we as a fan base buy in and support it until he gives us a reason not to. So I encourage people to get their bitching out tonight and then get on board tomorrow and start pulling that rope. I'm looking forward to the Lemonis era...Cohen knows baseball, and his goal is to win MSU a Natty...so if he thinks this is the guy that can do it, I'm on board.

Well said!

[mparkerfd20]

Extremely disappointed. Don't see anything to say this is more than seeing eye single hire at best. Hope it works out.

[Tbonewannabe]

Hope I am, though for the record I'm not making this my hill to die on or anything i just don't see anything in that resume that makes me confident. If you do, or see the flaws in my points, please let me know. Either way I'm going to support him come gameday, and reserve final judgement on him till at least after the first season

Indiana had 1 regional ever and it was in 1996. Tracy Smith took over and slowly built it up. In 9 years he went to the postseason 3 times with one being the CWS. Lemonis went 3 out of 4 years to Regionals and was 2 runs away from a Super this year. Every college baseball analyst or reporter I have seen is saying it is a great hire.

[shoeless joe]

Don't know anything about the guy. I'll trust Cohen.

My prediction: there will still be a bunch of bitching about pitcher use, baserunning, bunting, clutch hitting, and the SS position

[Cooterpoot]

Couple things:

1. I don’t blindly trust Cohen like some because he doesn’t have a proven hire yet. Not from a wins and losses perspective. Moorhead looks promising. Canns was a failure.
2. The same media praising the hire praised Henderson and thought we should give him a shot.

I believe he’s an average coach that will continue us on a similar path to what we’ve seen. Because any average coach could. I don’t believe he’s a next level guy. Gotro will be gone in 2-3 years. Hope I’m wrong.

[Bdawg]

Right now I will just have to take the wait and see approach. I don't know enough about the man to comment either way. A lot of smoke with all those big name coaches probably left most of us a little underwhelmed and that not really fair to Lemonis. I, still, will certainly defer to Cohen on this hire and put my trust in him. I do like Lemonis spending ten years under McDonnell. He should be a McDonnell 2.0 with that amount of time under him. Just have to recruit the right studs and get them to campus and go out and nail down a good pitching coach. Hailstate.

[Bdawg]

Couple things:

1. I don?t blindly trust Cohen like some because he doesn?t have a proven hire yet. Not from a wins and losses perspective. Moorhead looks promising. Canns was a failure.
2. The same media praising the hire praised Henderson and thought we should give him a shot.

I believe he?s an average coach that will continue us on a similar path to what we?ve seen. Because any average coach could. I don?t believe he?s a next level guy. Gotro will be gone in 2-3 years. Hope I?m wrong.
I'm not blaming Cohen for Cann not keeping his d*** in his pants. I think Cann could have been a good hire but he just screwed it up himself( literally). Cann did give us GoTro, too.

[shoeless joe]

Couple things:

1. I don’t blindly trust Cohen like some because he doesn’t have a proven hire yet. Not from a wins and losses perspective. Moorhead looks promising. Canns was a failure.
2. The same media praising the hire praised Henderson and thought we should give him a shot.

I believe he’s an average coach that will continue us on a similar path to what we’ve seen. Because any average coach could. I don’t believe he’s a next level guy. Gotro will be gone in 2-3 years. Hope I’m wrong.

I trust Cohen because he's a baseball guy and he knows what we need to be successful. Agree with your second point tho. It's definitely and underwhelming name but all we can do is wait and see.

As far as so many talking about the "next level", hell all we've got left to achieve is a natty. McDonnell and shloss appeared to be "same level" guy's...get to Omaha without winning it and mix in a down year or two. The only proven "next level" guy's are your Corbin, O'Connor, sully, etc...that have won it all. There were a lot of hard ons for shloss and McDonnell that I thought may have been over the top on many levels.

This hire is on par with keeping Hendo IMO...I personally would have rather had butch

[NCDawg]

Obviously, it all depends on whether or not he can recruit top notch players. If he can do that, he can win. I think I could have coached Oregon State's team to the CWS with the athletes they had.

[BrunswickDawg]

Couple things:

1. I don?t blindly trust Cohen like some because he doesn?t have a proven hire yet. Not from a wins and losses perspective. Moorhead looks promising. Canns was a failure.
2. The same media praising the hire praised Henderson and thought we should give him a shot.

I believe he?s an average coach that will continue us on a similar path to what we?ve seen. Because any average coach could. I don?t believe he?s a next level guy. Gotro will be gone in 2-3 years. Hope I?m wrong.

First, Cann's hire was not a failure. Cann self-destructed - there is a major difference. Cann was successful on the field, successful in his 1 recruiting class (our current Freshman) and in building the next class. He had already shown when his head was in the game, we had what everyone agreed was the right guy.

Second, Cohen has already established a pattern of what he is looking for and no one should at-all be surprised with a hire like this. Younger. Recruiter. High Energy. Hires a strong staff. Fundamentally sound. Has won at every level and shows consistency. Ask yourselves why Cohen looks for these things - he wants MSU successful long term, and wants people who show traits of being willing to be at MSU for the long haul.

Look deeper at Lemonis than his W/L at Indiana - 1990 CWS team at The Citadel, All- SoCon for 3 years and team leader. 11 years at The Citadel with 5 Regional appearances & producing 7 All-Americans. 7 years at the right hand of McDonnell and 3 CWS and 7 Regionals and as a lead recruiter and hitting instructor producing 33 pro players. And at Indiana 3 regionals in 4 years at a program with only 4 regionals in its history prior to his 4 years there.

Looks like Cohen is thinking the guy is ready to make the next step, and is at the right stage in his career to be here for 12-15 years or more.

[Tbonewannabe]

First, Cann's hire was not a failure. Cann self-destructed - there is a major difference. Cann was successful on the field, successful in his 1 recruiting class (our current Freshman) and in building the next class. He had already shown when his head was in the game, we had what everyone agreed was the right guy.

Second, Cohen has already established a pattern of what he is looking for and no one should at-all be surprised with a hire like this. Younger. Recruiter. High Energy. Hires a strong staff. Fundamentally sound. Has won at every level and shows consistency. Ask yourselves why Cohen looks for these things - he wants MSU successful long term, and wants people who show traits of being willing to be at MSU for the long haul.

Look deeper at Lemonis than his W/L at Indiana - 1990 CWS team at The Citadel, All- SoCon for 3 years and team leader. 11 years at The Citadel with 5 Regional appearances & producing 7 All-Americans. 7 years at the right hand of McDonnell and 3 CWS and 7 Regionals and as a lead recruiter and hitting instructor producing 33 pro players. And at Indiana 3 regionals in 4 years at a program with only 4 regionals in its history prior to his 4 years there.

Looks like Cohen is thinking the guy is ready to make the next step, and is at the right stage in his career to be here for 12-15 years or more.

This guy is more impressive when you list it out like that. I don't know what went down with Schloss but this guy seems like a fantastic consolation prize. I will say that getting Schloss, McDonnell, Corbin, or Tadlock would have been an amazing job.

Schloss - built the TCU program himself. He is the person that their stadium will be named after in the future unless he does end up going somewhere. He also has always lived in a big city and has a kid in high school. He is also one of if not the highest paid coach in the country.

McDonnell - exact same scenario. He has kids in school and that is always an issue. Also, rumors that his wife didn't like living in MS doesn't help. He is also one of the highest paid in the country.

Corbin - Almost exact same scenario. He built Vandy baseball and has all those advantages. He already coaches in the SEC. The only thing I could see is the facilities being crap but not sure how much it really affects him. He is also older so unless he goes Mike Martin, you might get 10 years maybe.

Tadlock - is coaching at his alma mater. He seems like he is their Cohen. The only thing I thought might bring him to MSU was the money but baseball coaches are typically pretty loyal especially to their school.

Butch - is building Auburn and they just gave him a raise. I am not sure why his name wasn't thrown around as much. He seems to be similar to Lemonis so who knows if he turned the job down or was offered.

Henderson - did a great job this year but before our team went on a tear, he wouldn't have even been mentioned as a candidate. We had some luck and magic going this year and that isn't sustainable. Henderson already was brought out of retirement so you have to worry if the high of the CWS run would wear off and then you get UK Henderson. Left Ming with a great team but some people think his assistants were the recruiters there.