Realistic Candidates for HC

Getting back onto topic a bit here, it seems like people are firmly entrenched in two caps at the moment.

1. If we do not get Brian O’Conner then the search is a failure and we are going to suck.

2. If we do not get Dan Heefner then the search is a failure and we do not want to win.


I would say it is better than 50/50 we do not get either. It is like 95/5 we do not get Heefner. He is just not going to budge on stuff, and that should be applauded that he has convictions that strong. Unfortunately, just like A&M and a few other jobs, his convictions will cost him this job. On O’Conner, he still has to be interested in OUR JOB. He may interested in getting out but is he interested in walking into the pressure cooker that is Mississippi State baseball. There are only about 3-5 other jobs in the country with as much pressure as ours.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Getting back onto topic a bit here, it seems like people are firmly entrenched in two caps at the moment.

1. If we do not get Brian O’Conner then the search is a failure and we are going to suck.

2. If we do not get Dan Heefner then the search is a failure and we do not want to win.


I would say it is better than 50/50 we do not get either. It is like 95/5 we do not get Heefner. He is just not going to budge on stuff, and that should be applauded that he has convictions that strong. Unfortunately, just like A&M and a few other jobs, his convictions will cost him this job. On O’Conner, he still has to be interested in OUR JOB. He may interested in getting out but is he interested in walking into the pressure cooker that is Mississippi State baseball. There are only about 3-5 other jobs in the country with as much pressure as ours.

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I'm in neither category. I think you take the swings at Heefner and O'Connor. If you can't pull them in, it's not a big deal. I didn't expect it when this process started.

I'm in the camp that isn't quite sure the established coaches that will be willing to move on from their current jobs would be better than going the SEC assistant route. Guys like Chris Pollard and Mark Wasikowski are good coaches, but are they the coaches that will elevate this program and compete head-to-head year after year against Tony Vitello, Dave Van Horn, Jim Schlossnagle, Jay Johnson, and Tim Corbin?

Brian O'Connor would be the top guy, but he's also 53. How much longer will the competitive fire be burning for him?

I guess you could consider me in the camp that fears an established coach will be another Lemonis and believes that the next Tony Vitello is an assistant somewhere. Maybe Coggin at Georgia. Maybe Cain at Texas.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Getting back onto topic a bit here, it seems like people are firmly entrenched in two caps at the moment.

1. If we do not get Brian O?Conner then the search is a failure and we are going to suck.

2. If we do not get Dan Heefner then the search is a failure and we do not want to win.


I would say it is better than 50/50 we do not get either. It is like 95/5 we do not get Heefner. He is just not going to budge on stuff, and that should be applauded that he has convictions that strong. Unfortunately, just like A&M and a few other jobs, his convictions will cost him this job. On O?Conner, he still has to be interested in OUR JOB. He may interested in getting out but is he interested in walking into the pressure cooker that is Mississippi State baseball. There are only about 3-5 other jobs in the country with as much pressure as ours.

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I read the different boards and confused on this. Where are you seeing people would call it a failure if not those two? I really have not seen the reference of failure being mentioned.
I have seen about 5 names, and also the seemingly orchestrated online boost for Coggin by those supporters.

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Originally Posted by Santiago

I read the different boards and confused on this. Where are you seeing people would call it a failure if not those two? I really have not seen the reference of failure being mentioned.
I have seen about 5 names, and also the seemingly orchestrated online boost for Coggin by those supporters.

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I am not saying that is what they were saying. But I have followed coaching searches long enough, people get so damn fixated on a candidate that any other candidate is seen as a failure in their eyes. And unfortunately, those people tend to post about it on Twitter.

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Originally Posted by KB21

Cannizzaro didn't fail because he was an assistant with no head coaching experience. He also didn't resort to what he was doing because the pressure of the job got to him. If anything, Cannizzaro shows that an assistant coach can be successful here, because the one season he was the head coach may have been the best coached season we have seen in a long time. He took a team that had 5 healthy pitchers to a Super Regional.

I'm trying to think of the last SEC head coach who was a first-time head coach who was promoted from being a SEC assistant coach who truly failed based on results, and I'm having a hard time finding one. Maybe Dave Perno is the last one.

I've seen a lot of "established head coaches" fail though. Mark Kingston. John Pawlawski. Sunny Galloway. Scott Stricklin. Dave Serrano. Todd Raleigh. Andy Lopez.

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I'm not even sure you could call Perno a failure.
He won 2 SEC titles, was 2x SEC COY, was '04 National COY, went to the post season 6 times in 12 years, had 3 CWS appearances and was runner-up in '08. He has half of UGA's all time CWS appearances. At a school that didn't give shit about baseball until 2 years ago.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

I am not saying that is what they were saying. But I have followed coaching searches long enough, people get so damn fixated on a candidate that any other candidate is seen as a failure in their eyes. And unfortunately, those people tend to post about it on Twitter.

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yeah those on twitter try to act like "influencers" .

I have a feeling there are 1 or 2 candidates no one knows. But we seem to be in a much better spot than Cohen's search.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Getting back onto topic a bit here, it seems like people are firmly entrenched in two caps at the moment.

1. If we do not get Brian O’Conner then the search is a failure and we are going to suck.

2. If we do not get Dan Heefner then the search is a failure and we do not want to win.


I would say it is better than 50/50 we do not get either. It is like 95/5 we do not get Heefner. He is just not going to budge on stuff, and that should be applauded that he has convictions that strong. Unfortunately, just like A&M and a few other jobs, his convictions will cost him this job. On O’Conner, he still has to be interested in OUR JOB. He may interested in getting out but is he interested in walking into the pressure cooker that is Mississippi State baseball. There are only about 3-5 other jobs in the country with as much pressure as ours.

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You've also got some folks spamming the boards with Coggin, so don't forget about that

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Getting back onto topic a bit here, it seems like people are firmly entrenched in two caps at the moment.

1. If we do not get Brian O’Conner then the search is a failure and we are going to suck.

2. If we do not get Dan Heefner then the search is a failure and we do not want to win.


I would say it is better than 50/50 we do not get either. It is like 95/5 we do not get Heefner. He is just not going to budge on stuff, and that should be applauded that he has convictions that strong. Unfortunately, just like A&M and a few other jobs, his convictions will cost him this job. On O’Conner, he still has to be interested in OUR JOB. He may interested in getting out but is he interested in walking into the pressure cooker that is Mississippi State baseball. There are only about 3-5 other jobs in the country with as much pressure as ours.

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While I would say Heefner is my numero 1 guy, if it?s not him, I wouldn?t think it?s a failure - he?s the unicorn that has yet to move anywhere

But you always miss 100 percent of the shots you don?t take.

Hey if my wife hadn?t introduced herself to me 22 years ago?.oh wait we?re talking baseball (no pics)

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

You've also got some folks spamming the boards with Coggin, so don't forget about that

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Coggin or a mid major coach would be the only failures in my book.

I would reach out to O'Conner, Heefner, and Pollard first.

Then I would choose between Elander and Dan Fitzgerald. I'm pretty confident we could pull either.

My next coach would be 1 of those 5.

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Originally Posted by HoopsDawg

Coggin or a mid major coach would be the only failures in my book.

I would reach out to O'Conner, Heefner, and Pollard first.

Then I would choose between Elander and Dan Fitzgerald. I'm pretty confident we could pull either.

My next coach would be 1 of those 5.

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Well we have put out that we are looking to hire a current HC- so hiring an Asst would be a failure as far as our objective is concerned

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Originally Posted by Coach34

Well we have put out that we are looking to hire a current HC- so hiring an Asst would be a failure as far as our objective is concerned

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Selmon said that?

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Originally Posted by Coach34

Well we have put out that we are looking to hire a current HC- so hiring an Asst would be a failure as far as our objective is concerned

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Say what?

It seems like every time I read names and go do deep research on who I like, I get my hopes up and feelings hurt when we end up with some JV coach from the North Jackson Youth Baseball.

With that being said, why is everyone big on Pollard? His winning percentage at Duke is worse than Lemonis had here. Sure, Duke is a decent program but he hasn?t done THAT much to make him elite.

I think O?Conner would be a solid pick - at 53, we could get 10ish years out of him. O?Sullivan would be a disaster. He is a total troll. Wes Johnson already destroyed a few seasons for us, why would you want him back? Heefner and his convictions? this is us hiring him, not him hiring us. Play by what we want or don?t take our job.

And no, I?m not a big poster or baseball mind but just my opinion as a big fan.

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Originally Posted by Medic601

It seems like every time I read names and go do deep research on who I like, I get my hopes up and feelings hurt when we end up with some JV coach from the North Jackson Youth Baseball.

With that being said, why is everyone big on Pollard? His winning percentage at Duke is worse than Lemonis had here. Sure, Duke is a decent program but he hasn?t done THAT much to make him elite.

I think O?Conner would be a solid pick - at 53, we could get 10ish years out of him. O?Sullivan would be a disaster. He is a total troll. Wes Johnson already destroyed a few seasons for us, why would you want him back? Heefner and his convictions? this is us hiring him, not him hiring us. Play by what we want or don?t take our job.

And no, I?m not a big poster or baseball mind but just my opinion as a big fan.

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Duke hadn't been to the postseason since 1961 until he arrived. He is the one that has made them decent. It's a dead end program with zero resources and he made them respectable. Their stadium is like a nice high school stadium.

He also has a really good eye for talent and is great at development. I would consider him a home run if we hired him.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Getting back onto topic a bit here, it seems like people are firmly entrenched in two caps at the moment.

1. If we do not get Brian O’Conner then the search is a failure and we are going to suck.

2. If we do not get Dan Heefner then the search is a failure and we do not want to win.


I would say it is better than 50/50 we do not get either. It is like 95/5 we do not get Heefner. He is just not going to budge on stuff, and that should be applauded that he has convictions that strong. Unfortunately, just like A&M and a few other jobs, his convictions will cost him this job. On O’Conner, he still has to be interested in OUR JOB. He may interested in getting out but is he interested in walking into the pressure cooker that is Mississippi State baseball. There are only about 3-5 other jobs in the country with as much pressure as ours.

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There are about 5-6 guys I would be very interested excited to get. If it's not one of them I would still give the guy a chance.

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Originally Posted by Medic601

It seems like every time I read names and go do deep research on who I like, I get my hopes up and feelings hurt when we end up with some JV coach from the North Jackson Youth Baseball.

With that being said, why is everyone big on Pollard? His winning percentage at Duke is worse than Lemonis had here. Sure, Duke is a decent program but he hasn?t done THAT much to make him elite.

I think O?Conner would be a solid pick - at 53, we could get 10ish years out of him. O?Sullivan would be a disaster. He is a total troll. Wes Johnson already destroyed a few seasons for us, why would you want him back? Heefner and his convictions? this is us hiring him, not him hiring us. Play by what we want or don?t take our job.

And no, I?m not a big poster or baseball mind but just my opinion as a big fan.

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Great post.

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Originally Posted by HoopsDawg

Selmon said that?

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not publicly but multiple baseball reporters have said they were told that

0% chance Heefner would come here so I'll start my list with a 1% chance guy and go from there.
1. Jarrett
2. O'Connor
3. Bakich
4. Elander

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Originally Posted by Mjoelner34

0% chance Heefner would come here so I'll start my list with a 1% chance guy and go from there.
1. Jarrett
2. O'Connor
3. Bakich
4. Elander

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You can move Jarrett into the 0% category as well. 1A or 1B for me would be BOC and Bakich. Either one is an absolute grand slam hire.

I would be shocked if Heefner comes here. I believe we have the same chance if not better of getting Vitello (although I think that chance is 1% Heefner and 2% Vitello). Heefner has been there for almost 20 years and has never moved while consistently winning. I think the religion factor is keeping him in place. Jarrett would be my #1 choice, but why would he leave a storied baseball program that is his alma mater? O'Connor would be a bit more realistic but still a stretch as he has been comfy at UVA. I think we get Elander or Coggin if we go assistant route. Head coaching route probably Mingione or Pollard or Sabins.