Most of the issues in my opinion goes back to Foxhall.

Since this thread is about recruiting- there is zero reason why we shouldn't bring in at least 3-4 transfer pitchers a year. We're always going to lose pitchers every year just by the nature of how the draft works. I've never seen a college team have all pitcher who are sophomores at key spots including MSU so we have to know on the front end that we're going to have to bring in people. And despite winning the National Championship we needed LHP. That should have been obvious from the start. The only LHP we returned was Tullar. And even if they expected him to take a big step up this year that's still only one LHP on the roster. And the fact that he hadn't really performed made it even riskier. We definitely dropped the ball big time there. Also, none of our starting pitchers had experience starting in the SEC. We didn't even know if Sims could handle starting going into the year or if he was a closer only guy. Taking a pitcher or two who had some experience starting in college would have helped out a lot this year.

There are several layers to this with Foxhall. Is it recruiting or development? Or some of both? Fristoe and Tepper were both big time recruits. Neither has developed as quickly as they should IMO. Or did in Tepper's case. People point back to Bednar- well he also has a brother in MLB and I guarantee you that they talk some on the side and that was probably a factor with him. If you have to ask me it's some of both. We rely on way too many JUCO pitchers and it's absolutely hit or miss. I doubt there is another blue blood that recruits JUCO players like MSU. And JUCO is going to get even more watered down because now guys that want to go to MSU and get passed over can go play for USM, UAB, or whoever and if they perform well can come to MSU via the portal. There are also rumors that Foxhall hasn't been going to tournaments to recruit in person. Neither has Lemonis per rumor. Until now. Gautreau has been the only one that has been seen from MSU.

And it's a staff wide issue. Yes, I get we have injuries. But we shouldn't have that many pitchers struggling to find the strike zone like that. That's lack of development. Our mechanics as a pitching staff were terrible. And it's fair to ask if the injuries are something that we are or aren't doing on the conditioning side?

Foxhall's in game coaching style doesn't help either. He just tries to let guys figure things out. Of course there is a double standard there since some guys are allowed to walk the house but others are not even allowed to go out there for the same thing- Tullar and Stinnett vs. Walling. He doesn't visit the mound enough. And he is too rigid with his 6 IP out of the starter, 2 IP out of the set up guy, and 1 IP out of the closer. That's led to us keeping starters in too long or taking out relievers in a groove like Pick and then replacing them with Fristoe only to blow the lead. None of that builds confidence in any of our pitchers. And then there is his whole "save the pitchers" philosophy which is just absurd. All it does is lead to us not using our best pitchers- see the Mizzou weekend where we didn't even pitch Fristoe and Pico only threw like 13 pitches. May have that backwards but it was something like that. And then earlier in the week he pitched Forsythe in the Governor's Cup and all I heard was we're saving our arms for SEC play! And then he used the exact same pitchers against Mizzou in games 1 and 2. LOL!

Gautreau my biggest issue is not finding good middle of the field guys like we used to with Tanner Allen, Mangum, Rowdey, Stovall, etc out of high school.

Gautreau can stay but if he leaves I don't care, and Foxhall probably should go but his job will probably be saved by the portal pitchers we bring in that he didn't coach or develop. He has the built in excuse of "We won a National Championship" and "injuries" which he may or may not partially be responsible for which a lot of fans will chalk up to "bad luck". This actually reminds me a lot of Russ McNickle when he was here after we went to Omaha in 2007 and had major pitching issues like we had this year and had the same results on the field.

Lemonis is pretty hands off as a coach from what I understand. Which was perfect for what he inherited. But he needs to crack the whip now. If I were in his shoes I would get a different pitching coach and roll with whatever Gautreau decides to do. I suspect we'll lose Gautreau to Tulane and keep Foxhall for another year with the understanding that he is coaching for his job. It's sad because we could do so much better than Foxhall.