They cannot go from one fired SEC coach to another. The time to grab Lemonis would have been last year or either wait out our situation this year.
They will need a sitting HC or an SEC assistant.
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The market is the market though. I don't think they're going to pay someone 3 million or whatever to just do it. Not in baseball anyway. And I'm not saying that we would pay that either for someone but I'm just saying that I don't think they're going to go way over market to get O'Connor. Rob Vaughn is sitting right there at Alabama and to me that seems like a better fit. Plus it would give them an edge on Justin Lebron if he enters the portal. And I'm not convinced that O'Connor would choose them over us anyway. Right now we're a much better situation.
That's why I think that hit piece was put out. They're trying to fire him for cause. Not following a doctor's Tommy John protocol and then that pitcher getting hurt after he was overworked is probably grounds for that alone without the other mountain of stuff in that article. And that article was essentially written by the people of South Carolina's version of Genespage. It wasn't by accident.
I could see that. Or Elander. Meade would be better though.
They are in the same situation that Georgia has with much less commitment. They're right in between two MLB teams in the Cardinals and Royals and that's what they are competing against in state for baseball. They'll never ever compete against that. They are in a good recruiting area and there is no reason why they can't at least be competitive in the SEC and at least go to regionals. I think they need the right coach and Kerrick Johnson isn't the right guy. Fitzgerald would be great there because he can recruit and he knows the league and the area and the JUCO's. But it's a massive rebuild that is going to take years and honestly whoever their coach is there needs to get someone like Max Scherzer involved to start building some facilities and to get some things going there.
Talked to a few people last night and Steve basically confirmed the exact thing I was hearing, O'Conner is expected to stay at UVA.
So in the words of Sean Carter, On To The Next One.
My money remains on Bakich
Here's the thing with Bakich. He's Cannizarro. He's what we lost. And this is the chance to get that back. Albeit without the off the field issues and we probably won't have spiked shoulder pads this time around. But that swagger, fire, and bravado would be back. Also, the recruiting would be back.
Here is Mizzou's problem. They had a chance to hire Vitello in 2016 when Jamison retired and they didn't do it. Now would Vitello still be there? Absolutely not. The guy would probably be at Texas or even LSU right now because Mizzou refuses to make baseball any type of priority. So what happened? Well they hired Steve Beiser who, although he wasn't terrible, never made it to the NCAAT. He was 188-155 in his tenure at Mizzou. Tennessee hires Vitello a year later and all he has done is go 329-128 in his tenure with 3 CWS appearances and a national championship. And btw, he wanted that Mizzou job.
I'm feeling like Bakich until someone credible says otherwise.
There is just some intrigue around Bakich. And look, like him or not, Robertson has the best athletic dept sources and has been dodging the Bakich candidacy as much as possible. If he was not a candidate he would either come out and say he is not a candidate or have some smart ass response saying that Vitello is a candidate too technically.
It was also very interesting that SuperTalk added him to their hot board last week. They did not just get that out of thin air
I?d be just as happy with Bakich as I would?ve BOC.
Two different coaches but Bakich seems like a fit.
I will say it again. If it is Bakich, it's the biggest stealth coaching hire that has ever been. Outside of Super Talk putting him on the hot board, there hasn't been a peep about him in the baseball media. He wasn't on Kendall Rogers's hot board. Baseball America came out with a 40 coaches to watch article discussing coaches who could be on the move, and he wasn't mentioned. The top 4 on BA's list were Brian O'Connor, Tom Walter, Dan Fitzgerald, and Chris Pollard.