I just wanted to look at the possibility of what it would take to land one of these two simply because they are the two ?home run? hires that I?ve heard mentioned if Cohen is named the AD, so I thought I would look at it.
Honestly, it?s hard to exactly pinpoint what it would take because Vanderbilt doesn?t release their sports contract information and I?m not requesting a form 990 from them to post this on a fan message board. (Sorry) And even if I did get that I think I would still be making a guess unless it?s very obviously itemized out.
So, I?m just going to randomly guess that Vanderbilt is paying him around a million dollars which I could be way off on that based on the fact that he has won a National Championship there and he is their best coach on campus meaning that they probably want to keep him and based on some data that I found from 2013 which is the most recent I could find which would basically put him as the highest paid coach in SEC baseball or close to it total package with bonuses and etc.
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2..._coaching.html
And that?s just my guess as far as annual salary- I have no idea how long his contract runs or what the potential buy out would be, but I would imagine that it would be substantial. And again just guessing randomly, I would imagine that his contract runs through at least 2021 if not longer.
And again based on just random guesses without very much information to go off of- so this could be way off on the high or low end, but for MSU to land Tim Corbin it would probably cost us at least 1.5 million a year just in base salary plus whatever buyout as Vanderbilt is not going to give us the alumni discount that Kentucky gave us with Cohen?s buyout. And that doesn?t include bonuses and the extras from bat companies and things like that which would bring him up to 2 million total or so.
That guess is assuming that Vanderbilt is paying him on the high end. I don?t know very much about the AD and they could very well be low balling him big time and 1-1.5 million may be something that he would jump at immediately. It could be that he wants a difference challenge and some coaches are drawn to a place like MSU that has never won a NC and he wants to be the guy that does that. Winning a NC at Vanderbilt and then at MSU would easily make him a baseball coaching great. Just like Joe Maddon wants to be the guy that win the World Series for the Cubs- some coaches like that. And some don?t- he has it made at Vanderbilt already and he could very well be content there and that is understandable also. Assuming Cohen is the AD plus how much emphasis we put on baseball as a fan base and university that could be very positive for us because even though we don?t have the Vanderbilt scholarship situation we would have an AD that would help him out as much as he needed- and that could include helping get scholarship money for that pitcher from Massachusetts that?s going to be hard for MLB to sign and he has first round ability. That said, in conclusion I think he would most likely be a tough pull for us. I just can?t imagine Vanderbilt letting him go easily.
Much of the same applies for Brian O?Connor. Except I have very detailed information about his salary and contract which runs through 2021.
http://www.streakingthelawn.com/2015...t-salary-bonus
Unless it has changed since 2015, we could offer a very competitive offer of 1 million a year and he would probably at least listen. I did not see what his buyout would be or if he even has one. There are some very interesting dynamics with him that we would have to overcome. One is Paul Manieri as O?Connor and Manieri are very close and they do not like to coach against each other, and obviously LSU is a big rival of ours in baseball leading to several hilarious temper tantrums on the part of Manieri. The other interesting dynamic is John Grisham who is a very big booster at Virginia in baseball but is also a MSU alum and was very fond of MSU baseball at least at one time. Would Grisham hold a grudge and help prevent us from getting O?Connor or would he possibly be an ally? They already have a National Title at Virginia and it could be a way for Grisham to possibly have his hand in two NC?s at his two favorite college programs. And maybe he wouldn?t be a factor at all. Those are the two things we would have to possibly overcome in addition to the fact that like Corbin, O?Connor has it made at Virginia and he may be content there. But believe it or not IMO- and again operating with many unknowns on Corbin- I think we would actually have an easier time landing Corbin than we would O?Connor because of the intangibles involved even though Corbin may be more expensive.
And to touch briefly on Andy Cannizarro- I think that if Cohen believes that he is the next big coach in the future and he could very well be- I would like to see us bring him in like Polk I did with Pat McMahon and basically groom him to be our head coach. Obviously that means letting an assistant coach go who really doesn?t deserve it at this point and probably demoting Will Coggin back to volunteer assistant coach. The good news is he would be relatively inexpensive compared to a Corbin- probably commanding around 400K based on Chad Holbrooks who replaced Ray Tanner at South Carolina.
This is just food for thought because I think the best thing would be for Cohen to stay the baseball coach for now anyway. And some of the people that are in the Cohen for AD camp seem to think that we could just throw a bunch of money at a Corbin and it?s likely to work out and I just wanted to provide some reality to that situation as much as I could with the information availiable. And I?m not saying it wouldn?t happen but it would be unlikely.
