Henderson

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Originally Posted by basedog

Most are saying Hendo isn't the future BUT what this team is doing you have to think he may be our HC next year.

Cohen has a tough decision but he loves baseball probably more than most, we shall see how this all plays out. Even now I'm not sure if Hendo wants the HC job but after the last two weeks maybe he does!

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I agree . Cohen is not going to screw our baseball program up. If he thinks Henderson is the man then that's who it will be, If not then he will get his man. Henderson was happy with being our pitching coach, and took the interim to help Cohen out. Does he want the HC job now. ? Well it appears that it may be trending in that direction, as he has bonded with our players and vice versa. It is one thing for certain, a very few message board coaches who coach and coach on the so-called "Game Threads (what a joke) to call those "game Threads", won't be calling the shots on our coaching hire.

Its no doubt that Henderson can coach, my only thought will his age hinder recruiting. Maybe so, maybe not. Time will tell.

Preacher, do you really think you deserve to have that avatar? You started using it as a joke and basically to criticize and make fun of Henderson (am I right?). On the other hand, our players bought into his program, respect and believe in him. Two different methods of thinking.

I found this interesting about Henderson. In this last 6 sec seasons (5 at Kentucky and 1 here), he is 94-92 in sec play. This was better than I expected having to deal with powers vandy, Florida, and South Carolina

ETA... for reference, I think we can all agree that Bianco has been good at om. In his last 6 seasons, he's 99-80 (.553). Henderson is at 94-92 (.505).

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Originally Posted by msbulldog

Okay Clark, you are the logical one on this board, tell us swami what is the most logical choice? Extend Hendo or get somebody else? I'm leaning to the latter.

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Honestly, if John had made it public that the hire from the beginning would also include Henderson, with this season as his interview, then you can make a good case that Henderson has done enough to warrant being extended. I don?t think you could have picked any coach in the country and gotten much better results.

That being said, Henderson was never named a candidate, even 2 weeks ago the debate among fans was not as large. Heck we don?t even know if he would want the job. However, I am a firm believer that you shouldn?t hire an Interim coach who was not a candidate until the emotions of an better than anticipated surge came into play. Very similar to when many people was pushing for Ed Orgeron to get the USC job off a surge of positive emotions and success. Even media was pushing this thought process. I disagreed with that at USC and LSU. I just believe that if he was not a serious candidate in Cohen?s eyes prior to the last few weeks, then it?s a mistake to let a short term momentum surge and the emotions of success to override the longer process that has been taking place with the hire and the long term outlook for the program as a whole. And that is a lot more than in game strategy and coaching. We are talking about running a program.

Now if Cohen decides that he was wrong to not consider Henderson from day 1, fine, I can understand that. But I do believe that it?s usually a mistake to let the emotions of winning cloud the hiring process. Of course if he wins the whole thing, all bets are off and you have to reward that job and make sure every available resource is in line to push him forward as the head of the program. Including taking all of the heat away from Henderson maybe not being as poplar of a choice as some fans would have liked.

I would hate to be in Cohen's shoes for this decision. Damm if you do, damm if you don't.

I'd be praying that he doesn't want the job, and wants his old one back. but that would be up to the next coach I guess.

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Originally Posted by shannondawg

I would hate to be in Cohen's shoes for this decision. Damm if you do, damm if you don't.

I'd be praying that he doesn't want the job, and wants his old one back. but that would be up to the next coach I guess.

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It's good Cohen doesn't have to come before some posters on ED and justify his choice. LOL

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Originally Posted by shannondawg

I would hate to be in Cohen's shoes for this decision. Damm if you do, damm if you don't.

I'd be praying that he doesn't want the job, and wants his old one back. but that would be up to the next coach I guess.

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Worst spot for Cohen. Hell, the next coach if it isn't Henderson will be arriving to some high expectations for sure.

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Originally Posted by shannondawg

I would hate to be in Cohen's shoes for this decision. Damm if you do, damm if you don't.

I'd be praying that he doesn't want the job, and wants his old one back. but that would be up to the next coach I guess.

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You would be taking a pay cut shannondawg!

No one knows how the conversation went between Henderson and Cohen when he was handed the interim job. That conversation will prolly be the determining factor as to whether he is a legitimate candidate in cohens eyes.

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Originally Posted by shoeless joe

No one knows how the conversation went between Henderson and Cohen when he was handed the interim job. That conversation will prolly be the determining factor as to whether he is a legitimate candidate in cohens eyes.

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True but publicly Cohen has spoken about our job several times. And unless I missed it, Henderson’s name has not been mentioned when Cohen spoke about the position. Could have they have had talks about this opportunity over the last few months? Cohen would be an idiot to not talk with his interim coach. But like you said, publicly that is not known. The other issue is all of the names supposedly that were serious considerations. Unless they were complete smoke screens and Cohen has told Henderson he is the man behind the scenes and that is why names have been withdrawn and such

Other things to consider. Henderson already quit once because he said he needed a break dealing with the 24/7/365 responsibilities as a head coach. Are we looking for a stop-gap hire who may be gone in a year or two because they burned out or a 10 year program building hire? With where we are now, I'm looking for the latter and based on his past record and his getting burned out before, I can't say that I'd even give him a look and neither would 90% of the people penciling him now if Mac hadn't hit the walk-off against FSU. Before anybody says it, I know that we can't offer anything longer than a 4 year contract but that's not the point.

Plus, as thorough as the IB seems to be, I have to believe that when he hired him as interim the topic had to have come up about him becoming the permanent coach. If it did and Cohen still came out with what he said about the future coach, that should tell you what the answer was to that.

Just be patient, after we win our first national championship, he will announce the new coach.

I could be wrong, but Cohen put high expectations and qualifications on this coaching search. Henderson does not meet the criteria if you ask me! He has done a good job with the situation at hand but I do not believe he is an elite coach that will be best for MSU baseball in the future. I also believe that if Cohen fails to deliver on his coaching search he promised, he will use Henderson as a scape goat because he could not deliver. Cohen is now in a situation to save face. But Henderson isn?t the answer for our future. Regardless if he when?s a championship!

It’s seasons like this that can invigorate a coach. You can really tell he cares for these kids and they care for him. He’s a calming influence and a tell it like it is guy and these kids responded. I think if you do name Henderson you do it in such a way to make Gautreau the Coach in Waiting in a few years. We practically return our entire team next year and we should get a talent infusion from our recruiting class and TJ guys on our pitching staff so stuff wise we could be better next year. Self will be completely healthy, Price will be back, Ashcraft will be back, Small should have his velocity back as our Friday ace, we should get quite a talent infusion with the freshman pitchers in this class.

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

Meh, Cohen is paid big money to make good decisions. Again, making the CWS doesn't automatically give someone the job. Many were ready to fire him simply for the job he's done with our pitchers. Our freshmen hitters grew up and made the adjustment to SEC pitching. We still struggle to find a starter than can go more than 4 innings. We're 11th in the SEC in pitching, which is Henderson's group. We were 12th in fielding.
Appreciate Henderson for keeping it between the ditches until our freshmen grew up. Still don't want him as our HC. Only way that changes for me is if he wins it. This is going to be a split fan base situation on Henderson otherwise.

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If we win the whole "shebang", we will almost have no choice but to hire him (provided he wants the job). The national sports media will come down on us and Cohen like a duck on a June bug and give MSU some of the worst reporting and bad raps you have ever seen. Cohen will have to sit down with Hendy, Gautreau, Brown and key players and get a feel for where things stand. It might be a Hendy 2 year contract with Gautreau becoming the HC after that. Or something like that. Pay them both well to keep them around. There are lots of ways Cohen can set up an arrangement that will please most and give Gautreau something to look forward to and be our future. But like I said, if we win it all.....Cohen will almost have to name Henderson as full time HC for X amount of years. In fact, he's close to having to do it just because we got to the CWS. Continuity is critical to college baseball coaching. I really thought Canny set our program back 2-3 years by his actions. Luckily, our current coaches have slap turned that around.....a good mixture of experience, youth, and chemistry.

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Originally Posted by msstate7

No one's first choice is Henderson. If we start reaching though, we have a guy that has won here

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This may backfire on us. Many prospective coaches don't understand why we wont give it Hendy. They may be turned off if they think our expectations are too sky high. The coaching circles are close community.....they all know each other very well. Overlooking Hendy could be construed as a red flag to them.....especially if he were to win it all.

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Originally Posted by MSU338

I could be wrong, but Cohen put high expectations and qualifications on this coaching search. Henderson does not meet the criteria if you ask me! He has done a good job with the situation at hand but I do not believe he is an elite coach that will be best for MSU baseball in the future. I also believe that if Cohen fails to deliver on his coaching search he promised, he will use Henderson as a scape goat because he could not deliver. Cohen is now in a situation to save face. But Henderson isn?t the answer for our future. Regardless if he when?s a championship!

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You are right, but it's looking like is very unlikely a coach with those qualifications will take the job

So how you are going down to the next level. Which should include Henderson

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Originally Posted by Pit Bull

If we win the whole "shebang", we will almost have no choice but to hire him (provided he wants the job). The national sports media will come down on us and Cohen like a duck on a June bug and give MSU some of the worst reporting and bad raps you have ever seen. Cohen will have to sit down with Hendy, Gautreau, Brown and key players and get a feel for where things stand. It might be a Hendy 2 year contract with Gautreau becoming the HC after that. Or something like that. Pay them both well to keep them around. There are lots of ways Cohen can set up an arrangement that will please most and give Gautreau something to look forward to and be our future. But like I said, if we win it all.....Cohen will almost have to name Henderson as full time HC for X amount of years. In fact, he's close to having to do it just because we got to the CWS. Continuity is critical to college baseball coaching. I really thought Canny set our program back 2-3 years by his actions. Luckily, our current coaches have slap turned that around.....a good mixture of experience, youth, and chemistry.

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Ron Polk set us back 10 years. I feel like Gary is a similar hire. You’re right, if we win it, we have no choice. And I’m ok with that. Let’s see how it goes. I’m tired of ripping Gary. He’s done what he could and it’s worked out.

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

Ron Polk set us back 10 years. I feel like Gary is a similar hire. You’re right, if we win it, we have no choice. And I’m ok with that. Let’s see how it goes. I’m tired of ripping Gary. He’s done what he could and it’s worked out.

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Kentucky has the most draft picks in the country in the last two years and now Henderson has guided us to Omaha. Perhaps we are getting Henderson as he's peaking and not Polk 2.0. It's easier to recruit here than Kentucky.