Lemonis was never prepared for this

[The Federalist Engineer]

This and it's sad.

Something to consider is that the Quest for the Championship was a driver and a chip on the shoulder of every MSU Baseball Player, Fan, and Coach. It made all MSU players better, I am thinking about cats like Elijah MacNamee and Hunter Stovall.

Once that Championship was attained, maybe it took the focus and drive away from the entire program. Basically the plot of Rocky III. The next coach needs to be Carl Weathers-Like, bring back the Chip-on-the-Shoulder. Level up and be like Oklahoma and Notre Dame, that don't have parades for every piece of hardware they might win.

Was it just me, I was tired of talking about 1985. That was played out. MSU fans sounded like Al Bundy, talking about his touchdown in High School. "Gene's Ankle", "Miami's Tomahawk HR", and "Thigpen's arm in right field". We were like Chicago Bears fans, correcting everybody about the best team of all time, the 1986 Bears - when everybody would then ask, "Just one sorry Super Bowl against the Pats?"

To be totally self aware, I never mentioned 1985 to friends from places U of Arizona, U of Oklahoma, Duke, and Notre Dame. "So, you didn't win anything? You made a Final-4 and lost?"

[Captain Falcon]

I just don?t think you win a national title in baseball by accident. I realize he inherited a strong roster, but the 2021 team had some flaws that we absolutely had to work around. Bednar and Sims were great, but we didn?t have any other starters that could get us 5 innings by the time the Super Regional rolled around. Even Harding, as clutch as he was, was really more of a 3-4 inning guy. TA and Rowdey were stars, but the rest of that lineup was frankly just OK. LoTan was a good hitter and other guys had their moment?s but let?s not act like we had some murderer?s row. We started Brayland Skinner, Scotty Dubrule, and Lane Forsythe in our championship clinching game. I like those guys but no one would mistake any one of them for a great hitter.

Lemonis WAS a very good coach for us. I will always believe that. He was aided by his team?s talent, sure, but the guy made some really strong moves as a manager his first few years. It makes this cataclysmic fall from grace all the more surprising to me. I thought we may take a step back for a year or two after 2021. No one could have foreseen this kind of collapse. And I feel like it is revisionist?s history to suggest that he was never any good to begin with. That is simply not an accurate depiction of his first three years at all.

[KB21]

I just don?t think you win a national title in baseball by accident. I realize he inherited a strong roster, but the 2021 team had some flaws that we absolutely had to work around. Bednar and Sims were great, but we didn?t have any other starters that could get us 5 innings by the time the Super Regional rolled around. Even Harding, as clutch as he was, was really more of a 3-4 inning guy. TA and Rowdey were stars, but the rest of that lineup was frankly just OK. LoTan was a good hitter and other guys had their moment?s but let?s not act like we had some murderer?s row. We started Brayland Skinner, Scotty Dubrule, and Lane Forsythe in our championship clinching game. I like those guys but no one would mistake any one of them for a great hitter.

Lemonis WAS a very good coach for us. I will always believe that. He was aided by his team?s talent, sure, but the guy made some really strong moves as a manager his first few years. It makes this cataclysmic fall from grace all the more surprising to me. I thought we may take a step back for a year or two after 2021. No one could have foreseen this kind of collapse. And I feel like it is revisionist?s history to suggest that he was never any good to begin with. That is simply not an accurate depiction of his first three years at all.

This. Chris pushed all the right buttons and ended up winning the whole damn thing. The one thing that I see that I consider a trend is pitching development, or the lack thereof. Why could we not get anything out of a guy with the stuff Eric Cerantola had? Why was Christian MacLeod an absolute stud in 2020 but completely fell off the wagon in 2021? Why hasn't KC Hunt advanced his career? Cade Smith has fallen off this year, though he is injured.

[Commercecomet24]

I just don?t think you win a national title in baseball by accident. I realize he inherited a strong roster, but the 2021 team had some flaws that we absolutely had to work around. Bednar and Sims were great, but we didn?t have any other starters that could get us 5 innings by the time the Super Regional rolled around. Even Harding, as clutch as he was, was really more of a 3-4 inning guy. TA and Rowdey were stars, but the rest of that lineup was frankly just OK. LoTan was a good hitter and other guys had their moment?s but let?s not act like we had some murderer?s row. We started Brayland Skinner, Scotty Dubrule, and Lane Forsythe in our championship clinching game. I like those guys but no one would mistake any one of them for a great hitter.

Lemonis WAS a very good coach for us. I will always believe that. He was aided by his team?s talent, sure, but the guy made some really strong moves as a manager his first few years. It makes this cataclysmic fall from grace all the more surprising to me. I thought we may take a step back for a year or two after 2021. No one could have foreseen this kind of collapse. And I feel like it is revisionist?s history to suggest that he was never any good to begin with. That is simply not an accurate depiction of his first three years at all.

This is a very good post. Accurate. This team didn't have near the talent level that some of Polks teams had yet Lemonis managed to get us the natty that always escaped Coach Polk(and no knock on Coach Polk because I really love the guy). It wasn't luck, it was very good management of the pieces he had.

[The Federalist Engineer]

I just don?t think you win a national title in baseball by accident. I realize he inherited a strong roster, but the 2021 team had some flaws that we absolutely had to work around. Bednar and Sims were great, but we didn?t have any other starters that could get us 5 innings by the time the Super Regional rolled around. Even Harding, as clutch as he was, was really more of a 3-4 inning guy. TA and Rowdey were stars, but the rest of that lineup was frankly just OK. LoTan was a good hitter and other guys had their moment?s but let?s not act like we had some murderer?s row. We started Brayland Skinner, Scotty Dubrule, and Lane Forsythe in our championship clinching game. I like those guys but no one would mistake any one of them for a great hitter.

Lemonis WAS a very good coach for us. I will always believe that. He was aided by his team?s talent, sure, but the guy made some really strong moves as a manager his first few years. It makes this cataclysmic fall from grace all the more surprising to me. I thought we may take a step back for a year or two after 2021. No one could have foreseen this kind of collapse. And I feel like it is revisionist?s history to suggest that he was never any good to begin with. That is simply not an accurate depiction of his first three years at all.

Not luck at all.

Lucky Championship = You skid into Hoover with a 14-16 record, You win a bunch rain-out games in a Miami regional, You play a Buddikha Alabama team in Omaha Game-1, Your top-seed is Arkansas (Omaha Choke Arists), You play a limited cinderella team (Oklahoma for Example) in the Final.

MSU won 20 SEC games. Won a National Seed. Had a Super Hot Notre Dame to beat, Had Texas in the Omaha Bracket, Had a Super Hot Virginia to Beat, Then COVID knee-capped the Limited team (NCSU) and MSU had to play a National Powerhouse (Vandy)

[KB21]

Not luck at all.

Lucky Championship = You skid into Hoover with a 14-16 record, You win a bunch rain-out games in a Miami regional, You play a Buddikha Alabama team in Omaha Game-1, Your top-seed is Arkansas (Omaha Choke Arists), You play a limited cinderella team (Oklahoma for Example) in the Final.

MSU won 20 SEC games. Won a National Seed. Had a Super Hot Notre Dame to beat, Had Texas in the Omaha Bracket, Had a Super Hot Virginia to Beat, Then COVID knee-capped the Limited team (NCSU) and MSU had to play a National Powerhouse (Vandy)

Yep.

[Commercecomet24]

Not luck at all.

Lucky Championship = You skid into Hoover with a 14-16 record, You win a bunch rain-out games in a Miami regional, You play a Buddikha Alabama team in Omaha Game-1, Your top-seed is Arkansas (Omaha Choke Arists), You play a limited cinderella team (Oklahoma for Example) in the Final.

MSU won 20 SEC games. Won a National Seed. Had a Super Hot Notre Dame to beat, Had Texas in the Omaha Bracket, Had a Super Hot Virginia to Beat, Then COVID knee-capped the Limited team (NCSU) and MSU had to play a National Powerhouse (Vandy)

Now this is a great post!

Have some rep!

[R2Dawg]

Not luck at all.

Lucky Championship = You skid into Hoover with a 14-16 record, You win a bunch rain-out games in a Miami regional, You play a Buddikha Alabama team in Omaha Game-1, Your top-seed is Arkansas (Omaha Choke Arists), You play a limited cinderella team (Oklahoma for Example) in the Final.

MSU won 20 SEC games. Won a National Seed. Had a Super Hot Notre Dame to beat, Had Texas in the Omaha Bracket, Had a Super Hot Virginia to Beat, Then COVID knee-capped the Limited team (NCSU) and MSU had to play a National Powerhouse (Vandy)

We also played 7 games against national seeds in CWS. It is hard to win but the contrast to our NC is OM last year. Last team in and didn't play a national seed even one game to win NC. Only team to ever do that. That is about as close to luck as you get but even then they had to play and earn it.