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Yep. Best era of MSU baseball thus far.
Getting John Cohen as our coach was pivotal for our program. He really set us up for the past few seasons. The thing is those accomplishments happened with massive coaching turnover happening.
We have the resources and people in place to potentially be the best in the country every year.
What if Cohen had remained coach and not handed the AD job? Would we have the Natty, multiple Nattys or no Nattys?
As we've seen before, one bad season don't destroy a top program. We are a national program and we need to rebound from 2022 and show it.
I'd like to believe that, but I worry that even with our tradition it's a more difficult task these days with the parity and NIL money being thrown around. We HAVE to be willing to consistently invest more in baseball than programs like LSU, Arkansas, OM, or even Tennessee or we'll end watching them win more titles than us one day (LSU, of course, already has more).
We've been spoiled in recent years.
In the long run, it might pay off. Lemonis now knows he has to approach things like Saban, ruthless and make the hard decisions for the better of the program. Not keep guys on for loyalty. Really hard to do but that's how the game is now with NIL and transfer rules
Give props to BrunswickDawg for the top notch assessment.
Based on the fact that our NIL is still in it's infancy stages, what we've pulled out of the portal in part with NIL, knowing what the going rates for NIL are for the best baseball players, and the historical commitment our fans have shown our program since the 1960's if not even before that I feel good about where we stand. Even if we don't get Skenes we have a class that rivals LSU as it is- coming off of a losing season and without our NIL being at full potential which thanks to Charlie Winfield we are just now scratching the surface. We've historically invested more than Ole Miss and Tennessee and will continue to do so. Ole Miss couldn't even fill their stadium for the National Championship celebration and Tennessee's best crowd this year wouldn't have ranked in our top 30. We've been competing with LSU and Arkansas for awhile now.
For us it's the opposite of what you are thinking. We're just now scratching the surface of our potential. Before we couldn't sell that you could win a National Championship here- which is what was used against us a lot. That is no longer true. LSU with their dynasty utilized their TOPS advantage and steroids and essentially gamed the system. Since the NCAA changed some rules regarding bats circa 2001 they have basically the same number of championship and finals appearances that we do the past 20 years. When the SEC allows us to have more full scholarships- yes along with everyone else which is what I have advocated for awhile now- it's going to give MSU an advantage because things like facilities and fan support are going to matter more because as the system exists now it's about who can give the most scholarship money- and right now that's Vanderbilt. And along with that support- the NIL will be there. And who knows? Maybe at it's full potential we'll even be able to make some recruits like Jett Williams make a difficult decision about taking MLB money vs coming to school. Maybe not- but at the end of the day for us it's going to come down to our coaches identifying the best players and getting them to MSU rather than having to constantly fight NCAA legislation and recruiting against an unbalanced system for the first time since Ron Polk took over in 1976.
That's a great MSU "What if?" I think we would have had more titles. Really would depend on if he would have been able to poach Cann from LSU and made him the assistant head coach/coach in waiting. That would have been plausible as Cann had some issues with Manieri taking most of the credit for recruits Cann brought in. Which is part of the reason we got Cann in the first place. The biggest thing keeping Jake from a title was coaching instability on our part IMO.
I don't know why, but I've had this feeling over the last week that we get 2 or 3 more NCs in the 20s... It's probably just bad gas though. I really do think last year was the perfect storm with our pitching injuries and woes.
One thing is for sure, after what Ole Miss just pulled off, we need another one in our trophy case quickly.
No need to let them think they are on our level. Although currently I guess they are.
MSU fans need to re-learn some patience. All that you can reasonably expect is to have a super regional caliber team most years. After that, all bets are off b/c of the endless number of variables that factor into college baseball. LSU can spend all of this money putting together an all star free agent team and then have horrible chemistry. Of course, they will just do it again next year but everyone gets the point.
Look at olemiss' cinderella season. The last team in won it.
Don't think patience has much to do with it. I think it was more the shock of the 2022 season. Sure, we had injuries and other issues, but I doubt anyone thought we could fall from National Champ to last in the West and not even a Hoover post season. I don't expect the 2023 rebuild team to finish dead last again or we do have very serious problems. I do expect a hard nosed team that competes and wins State style. Hail State!
This. It isn't that we didn't go to CWS or win it again. It was that we went from NC to the cellar and finished about as bad as possible and one of worst in recent MSU memory. Personally, I was fine with making or hosting a regional last year. Finishing in top 16 shouldn't have been too much to ask or at least make a regional somewhere.