Quote Originally Posted by StateDawg44 View Post
Thanks for proving my point? Their fans aren't "marketing" anything other than arrogance. The school might be selling something else but that's a totally different issue with our marketing department. Their fans are just as cocky and arrogant as their baseball team and act like they've always been some powerhouse and invented the game. Out of the clear blue. And like you said. It's because they have a legit coach. And we are talking about extending our (uncool) coach.




Another problem.

We won't ever compete with their spending. So are we just a second-rate option at this point and aren't doing what we can to make sure we get the evaluations right or make up the difference some how? Is our athletic department to blame then?




You mean like when we made it to Omaha with 4 different coaches? Try holding on to the guy who lost all momentum we had and will bury us again a year from now. Then sell that shit to the same recruits. I realize there will be ebb and flow with each new year and don't expect to be top 5 at all times. It's just clear as day that we aren't competing like we should be when it comes to the portal and having playing time to sell at a program that has proven it knows how to get to Omaha.

I don't expect to land the Skenes, or Montgomery lottery every year by any means. Although with the ties Montgomery had to MS and our program I do feel like that was a fairly big miss. Probably solely because we sucked the previous two years under Lemo. There are a ton of other players that we whiffed on that could've helped immensely. But we pull players that don't contribute one bit like Hoyle.

Your points are conflicting. You complain about recruiting and not doing what we need to take the next step. Yet say we need to extend the same person we are complaining about. I can concede another year (1) on a contract and the smallest buyout we can get him to sign. I just don't believe players are weighing that much of their decisions based on Lemonis' contract details. DVH, Schloss, Vitello, etc... I could see it contributing some. But you're giving too much credit to Lemonis with this IMO and those coaches don't have this problem.

ETA: If a player is waffling on whether or not a year contract extension is long enough then they probably aren't going to be an immediate impact or top contributor that would be gone to the draft the next year any ways.
1. We changed coaches 4 times in 4 years out of necessity. It wasn't just because we wanted to. Our success during that is the exception. It's not the rule.

2. Montgomery was never going to come here. We all thought wrong on that one. And, our portal was pretty damn good this year. I'd venture to guess almost every SEC team would take Khal Stephen and I'm fairly certain he would be the Friday night guy on every team not named Arkansas. I know there's a team in Baton Rouge that wishes they would've gone after him instead of Holman. On Hoyle, we spent no NIL money and he was a walk on. He was carried for pinch running. We did it as a favor to the Mangum's.

3. On the contract stuff, the kids may not care but the parents do. Baseball is not football or basketball where there's a bunch of transfers. These parents want to know who's going to be the ones around their kid 24/7. If Lemonis can't sell that he will be here our recruiting will get worse than you currently think it is. Also, it's obviously not too bad outside of pitching.

Look at the end of the day, you can hate Lemonis, which you do, all you want. But we aren't firing him and he's going to get extended at least 2 years.