Deep Dive Into The Candidates

One candidate not to be named would be a grand slam hire as well

Been a State fan tooooo damn long to get excited for one of those four. I'll prepare myself to be disappointed... again.

I'm still in the camp of #1 and #2 wont be our next HC.

#3 would validate literally everything I've said about our program- yet still could be called a good hire

#4 would be a West Coast guy that would be a huge risk but is a good coach

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Originally Posted by Turfdawg67

Been a State fan tooooo damn long to get excited for one of those four. I'll prepare myself to be disappointed... again.

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Yep. It's gonna be Butch or an assistant like Coggin or Elander.
And those could all be great here.

If it's O'Connor maybe Grisham will come home ....

Apparently, State is close to making a hire but not quite there yet.

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Originally Posted by shoeless joe

to me bakich would be my number 1 despite, as you mentioned, he's bounced around a bit. that could be him moving up the ladder quickly or it could be that he gets ancy and wants something new a lot. sure we can compete with almost anyone money wise but sometimes a rambler wants to ramble no matter what.

i would not be disappointed with anyone on that list. fitz would be the most underwhelming but still a good hire IMO. being the most underwhelming from that list isn't a bad place to be.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

And look, maybe all that is true. It's why I said he is the hot name and deservedly so. It will send shockwaves through the college baseball world if we are able to pull a sitting P4 national champion winning HC.

And maybe he will be better in the portal here because the funding will be better. This is why I hate hiring coaches because the longer it goes the more you nitpick coaches. I just can't get the mismanagement of his pitching against us in 21 out of my head.

There is just so much Cannizarro in Bakich, but he's mature. That's why I want him over O'Conner and I think why there is a push for him. But at the end of the day, NO ONE is going to be mad about hiring Brian O'Conner

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

100%. O'Conner has one of the best resumes of anyone currently coaching in college baseball. I mean there's only 8 ACTIVE HCs who have won a national championship still coaching so to say you have one of those would be HUGE.

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I agree with all of these first three posts. O'Conner is a guy you can't turn down. But I personally feel like Bakich is the best fit for MSU and what our ultimate goals are. I wouldn't be unhappy with any of the four listed but Fitzgerald would be a bit underwhelming to me.

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Originally Posted by BigDawg81

Talking about Waz. It?s wild to me that Supertalk Mississippi with Hadad and quite frankly Faulk with On3 thinks the coach will either be O?Connor or Waz. However, Steve is saying that we haven?t talked to Waz. There is a disconnect between sources somewhere. Another mod said, the agents could be talking to Waz agents.

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Both clearly have different sources. That has been evident in other coaching searches as well. Steve's source is usually Selmon or whoever the AD is. He gives you what MSU wants you to know. Which is not a criticism- some things don't need to be put out in the best interests of Mississippi State University. I'm not sure who Robbie's source is but I suspect that in this case it's someone like Aaron Fitt or Kendall Rodgers who are getting fed info from agents because as it has been said on here multiple times that Faulk is not well liked at MSU. Which leads me to believe that Waz probably is interested in our job but is behind O'Conner and Bakich at this point. He might very well be behind Fitzgerald as well.

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Originally Posted by DownwardDawg

Yep. It's gonna be Butch or an assistant like Coggin or Elander.
And those could all be great here.

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To be frank that would be very disappointing. Butch would win but I don't think he would really contend for NC's. Coggin probably would work out but we would have to deal with some growing pains. Elander has never given me warm fuzzies. I just think our job is too big for him at this moment and it probably wouldn't end very well and then we're right back to where we started. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up at South Carolina or Texas A&M and I do think those jobs are going to come open this cycle. Maybe Alabama as well if A&M hires Vaughn.

My concern is that Selmon goes rogue like Stricklin did with Ray and hires Reggie Willits or something stupid like that.

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Originally Posted by BigDawg81

Apparently, State is close to making a hire but not quite there yet.

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Will not happen until after the regionals at the earliest. IMO the best thing for MSU would be to at least make a SR.

Then we can all evaluate all of our candidates and do so without feeling the pressure hire O'Conner immediately. Not that that is a bad thing. I just think if Bakich is a real option you have to consider it.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

I did this for football so figured I would bring it back with baseball and deep dive into, at least what I perceive to be, our Top 4 candidates:

1. Brian O'Conner-This is who all the buzz has been around and deservedly so. The guy has a national championship under his belt and has made it to Omaha 7 times, he's also a native of Omaha so I'm sure he loves getting back. He is a program builder at heart. He helped Paul Mainieri build that Notre Dame program in the late 90s-early 2000s. He also has completely built the UVA program to the level it is at today. Prior to O'Conner they had been to the NCAAT 3 times in their program history. He will come in Day 1 and the expectations will be Omaha. I have no doubt that will be relayed to him in any interview as well. UVA has had 13 First Round picks in O'Conner era so the player development and recruiting piece are definitely there. I would expect him to try and bring assistants with him since his have been with him so long. Kevin McMullan is the name everyone knows and they should. He's been with O'Conner the entire time and is a 2x national asst of the year. I would think he will also get a look at the UVA job if O'Conner elects to make the move, but would be a huge addition to our staff if he elected to move with O'Conner. Drew Dickinson is the pitching coach. I don't know that O'Conner would elect to bring him along. Their pitching has been iffy since he took over so I could see this as a spot where Justin Parker may have the opportunity to stay on as PC. Recruiting the portal is the one thing that worries me with O'Conner. He has not recruited the portal well at UVA, but some of that could be they just don't have the NIL to compete.

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The rumor have heard is that O'Conner would bring his entire staff including McMullen which would be awesome. O'Conner and Dickenson have a very close working relationship. I would be very surprised if he kept Parker unless Parker stays on as a lab analyst or something. Which I would have to believe is highly unlikely.

You and I are both Bakich fans. I think he would be here for the long haul personally. He's the type of coach that would do well at MSU because he is very driven. I suspect they might promote Nate Schnable one of their assistants if Bakich leaves because they have a very good reputation for producing elite assistants that turn into great head coaches. One thing I like about Bakich is I think at MSU he would be able to attract elite assistants.

The biggest thing I'm not wild about with Fitzgerald is how much he relies on JUCO. Maybe he won't do that here because quite frankly we're not Kansas and we don't have to but he does have a background as a JUCO coach and those tend to be partial to JUCO players sometimes. At least he has been at LSU so he knows about the SEC and being at a high level program. Having been at Dallas Baptist he is probably pretty religious and that is going to play up with some of our fans in Bible Belt Mississippi in a good way.

Don't forget that Waz was also at Purdue as their head coach. He has taken a good program at Oregon and taken them up a notch. Personally, I think he would do well here. I like him better than Fitzgerald.

Dan Fitzgerald intrigues me as a potential rising star type of candidate. He has nowhere near the resume that guys like Brian O'Connor, Erik Bakich, Mark Wasikowski, or Tom Walter have, but he has done exceptionally well in a short period of time at a program that doesn't have much baseball history at all. His background is intriguing. He was on the same staff as Wes Johnson at DBU before Cohen hired Wes away. He was with Heefner through 2021. He had one year at LSU as recruiting coordinator that produced the #1 overall high school recruiting class in the country.

DBU is a program who has leveled the playing field with their ability to evaluate talent and develop that talent. Wes Johnson is one of the more analytical head coaches in college, and I have a feeling that Dan Fitzgerald would be the same way.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

The rumor have heard is that O'Conner would bring his entire staff including McMullen which would be awesome. O'Conner and Dickenson have a very close working relationship. I would be very surprised if he kept Parker unless Parker stays on as a lab analyst or something. Which I would have to believe is highly unlikely.

You and I are both Bakich fans. I think he would be here for the long haul personally. He's the type of coach that would do well at MSU because he is very driven. I suspect they might promote Nate Schnable one of their assistants if Bakich leaves because they have a very good reputation for producing elite assistants that turn into great head coaches. One thing I like about Bakich is I think at MSU he would be able to attract elite assistants.

The biggest thing I'm not wild about with Fitzgerald is how much he relies on JUCO. Maybe he won't do that here because quite frankly we're not Kansas and we don't have to but he does have a background as a JUCO coach and those tend to be partial to JUCO players sometimes. At least he has been at LSU so he knows about the SEC and being at a high level program. Having been at Dallas Baptist he is probably pretty religious and that is going to play up with some of our fans in Bible Belt Mississippi in a good way.

Don't forget that Waz was also at Purdue as their head coach. He has taken a good program at Oregon and taken them up a notch. Personally, I think he would do well here. I like him better than Fitzgerald.

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What's fun about that is that Lemonis almost hired Dan Dickenson to be the pitching coach. Instead, he hired Justin Parker.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

The rumor have heard is that O'Conner would bring his entire staff including McMullen which would be awesome. O'Conner and Dickenson have a very close working relationship. I would be very surprised if he kept Parker unless Parker stays on as a lab analyst or something. Which I would have to believe is highly unlikely.

You and I are both Bakich fans. I think he would be here for the long haul personally. He's the type of coach that would do well at MSU because he is very driven. I suspect they might promote Nate Schnable one of their assistants if Bakich leaves because they have a very good reputation for producing elite assistants that turn into great head coaches. One thing I like about Bakich is I think at MSU he would be able to attract elite assistants.

The biggest thing I'm not wild about with Fitzgerald is how much he relies on JUCO. Maybe he won't do that here because quite frankly we're not Kansas and we don't have to but he does have a background as a JUCO coach and those tend to be partial to JUCO players sometimes. At least he has been at LSU so he knows about the SEC and being at a high level program. Having been at Dallas Baptist he is probably pretty religious and that is going to play up with some of our fans in Bible Belt Mississippi in a good way.

Don't forget that Waz was also at Purdue as their head coach. He has taken a good program at Oregon and taken them up a notch. Personally, I think he would do well here. I like him better than Fitzgerald.

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Utilizing JUCO is not bad. For Kansas, it's smart. You have those good JUCO programs in Oklahoma and Kansas. But he has dudes from everywhere Tennessee to St Cloud State to UC Upstate.

Based on what Rosey reported this morning it seems like we are centering in on O’Conner, but the hire will not be made until we are finished, I would say them as well but it looks like they are going to miss the tournament.

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Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve

Based on what Rosey reported this morning it seems like we are centering in on O’Conner, but the hire will not be made until we are finished, I would say them as well but it looks like they are going to miss the tournament.

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I?m going to have to take a wait and see approach to anything Rosey puts out there.

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Originally Posted by Coursesuper

I?m going to have to take a wait and see approach to anything Rosey puts out there.

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I will say BOC has been the number one target from day one. We shall see soon, IF he is and whenever their season ends, I hope we have a press conference right away. Regardless if we are still playing.

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Originally Posted by basedog

I will say BOC has been the number one target from day one. We shall see soon, IF he is and whenever their season ends, I hope we have a press conference right away. Regardless if we are still playing.

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UVA?s chance for a bid evaporated last night, so things line up for well that to occur. But Rosey is definitely not talking to the guys running our search. They aren?t talking to anybody.

The latest updates from both D1 and BA has UVA in.

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Originally Posted by sandjunky

One candidate not to be named would be a grand slam hire as well

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Interesting

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Originally Posted by KB21

The latest updates from both D1 and BA has UVA in.

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Tulane stole a bid last night. Not good for UVA?s chances.