Realistic Candidates for HC

[Quaoarsking]

too late for what? They gonna be in a Regional and are playing good baseball. He has never missed a Regional and was in the Final Four last year. Zero chance he gets fired

Anything's possible, but their remaining schedule includes road series at South Carolina and Texas and a home series against Alabama. Their RPI is good, but if I have 50-50 odds either way, I'm betting on them not making a Regional. Even if they do, it's likely his second straight year barely sneaking in with a sub-.500 SEC record.

That doesn't mean they'll fire O'Sullivan necessarily, but if they do, we should hire him.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Call the guys at Clemson, NC State, if they both say no call Butch. If Butch says no call Mingey

Not happening. Too old and not happening. Not happening. If we really want him, he'd probably come but he'll have to take a discount. Probably a lower salary.

[bulldogcountry1]

I just think it's important to hire someone who has experience with the pressure and expectations of a program like State, whether as a player, assistant, or HC. Hiring someone from out west or someone who has only been at schools who don't prioritize baseball seems like a big risk.

[preachermatt83]

My top 7 choices. And percentage that we would/could hire them. This is 100 percent my opinion. Not anything I know or would put much argument up about. And this is very very preliminary so I?m sure other names will come up that I haven?t even thought about. But as of this moment my choices in order would be ?.

Erik Bakich- Clemson Hc 40 %

David Pollard- duke hc 60 %

Mark wasikowki- Oregon Hc 50 %

Josh Elander- Tenn assistant coach 90%

Butch Thompson- auburn hc 20 %

Rob Vaughn- Alabama Hc 50 %

Skip Johnson- Oklahoma hc 70%





Other possible candidates that I don?t really have an opinion on either way
Nick Mingione
Will Coggin
Cliff Godwin
Brian O?Conner

[DawgPounder]

Vaughn is on the same level, if not lower than Lemonis. I say we shoot a big shot. Got nothing to lose, especially if we start pouring more money into baseball like we should.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Not happening. Too old and not happening. Not happening. If we really want him, he'd probably come but he'll have to take a discount. Probably a lower salary.

I guess number 5 on my list would be the guy at Alabama but I dont know how pumped id be to get to options 5 before we had a bite

[BuckyIsAB****]

Id rather have dude at Oklahoma than Vaughn

[StarkVegasSteve]

I guess number 5 on my list would be the guy at Alabama but I dont know how pumped id be to get to options 5 before we had a bite

Well those won't be option 1-4 on the actual target list because they aren't happening.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Well those won't be option 1-4 on the actual target list because they aren't happening.

Im sure we will Keenum it up

[StarkVegasSteve]

My top 7 choices. And percentage that we would/could hire them. This is 100 percent my opinion. Not anything I know or would put much argument up about. And this is very very preliminary so I?m sure other names will come up that I haven?t even thought about. But as of this moment my choices in order would be ?.

Erik Bakich- Clemson Hc 40 %

David Pollard- duke hc 60 %

Mark wasikowki- Oregon Hc 50 %

Josh Elander- Tenn assistant coach 90%

Butch Thompson- auburn hc 20 %

Rob Vaughn- Alabama Hc 50 %

Skip Johnson- Oklahoma hc 70%





Other possible candidates that I don?t really have an opinion on either way
Nick Mingione
Will Coggin
Cliff Godwin
Brian O?Conner

Lower Bakich to about 5%

Pollard is probably correct. I'd probably peg it more 50%

Wasikowski is probably at 35-40%

Elander is right

Lower Butch to 1%

Vaughn is probably right

Skip is probably 35-40%

Other candidates

Mingione-75% he'd take it. 5% chance we'd match his salary
Coggin-90%
Godwin-100% will use us for a raise and leak we offered it. 0% chance it actually happened
O'Conner-1%

[StarkVegasSteve]

Im sure we will Keenum it up

We'll see. There is a reason we went ahead and pulled the trigger though.

[StateDawg44]

We'll see. There is a reason we went ahead and pulled the trigger though.

I hope we aren't giving Parker the rest of the season as a test or something.

[sandjunky]

So we can all throw out the unrealistic hires. You've all seen them: Vitello, Tadlock, O'Sullivan, Link Jarrett, etc.

So that brings us to this: Who REALISTICALLY could we hire? BTW this is in no particular order, just who think of first

1. Chris Pollard (Duke)- His resume is good and it looks he'll win the ACC this year. He's not as high on my list as some people have him on theirs, but he could regularly get you to the Regionals and probably could have you hosting every other year. That is kind of his track record at Duke. His conference tourney record is very impressive as well.

2. Mark Wasikowski (Oregon)- Another one that people are higher on than I am. His unfamiliarity with this part of the country is probably what gives me trepidation on him. But he has built off what George Horton laid the foundation for and has been to back to back Supers.

3. Steve Sabins (West Virginia)- Probably the guy I am most interested in, not necessarily the favorite but more want to learn more about. He's 37-5 this year, which is his first season. Had a rocky start to conference play(1-3 in his first four) but is 14-0 since with 4 straight sweeps.

4. Skylar Meade (Troy)- Really has gotten things rolling at Troy and has kicked it up even another notch this year. The one drawback to him may be his connection to Lemonis as his last year at Louisville was Dan and Chris' first year there and they went to Omaha with that group. Have always heard that Dan and Co. are close with that first team.

5. Andrew Checketts (UCSB)- Had some early success at UCSB (2 regionals and a CWS in his first 5 years) and then kind of stumbled but has recovered nicely and built a really good program in Santa Barbara. My trepidations on him are the same as Wasikowski, unfamiliarity with recruiting in this part of the country.

6. Nick Mingione(Kentucky)- I don't really think anyone needs too much info on Nick. We know him pretty well. The buyout, if the amount that is rumored is correct, will probably keep us from hiring him.

7. Dan Heefner(DBU)- He's not coming unless he backs off some of the hardline religious stuff. It won't work at a public university. He can get away with it at a private Christian bible college. Also, he IS NOT a fan of alcohol and would not be a fan of it in our stadium. BUT if he backs off some of that stuff, he's the hire no questions asked. And btw, I am not talking have bible studies or praying before games.

8. Rob Vaughn (Alabama)- He would be my hire. He's recruited well and has done really well in the portal. He also fits the addage of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" because we've owned him since he's been at Bama. I think he'd kill it here and I think we can get him.

9. Skip Johnson (Oklahoma)- This is kind of the Selmon connection. Skip has obviously shown he can coach (CWS Runner Up 2022) but has kind of been up and down in his tenure there. I think if we pushed though, we'd get him.

10. Will Coggin(UGA HC)- I don't think Will needs an intro. Everyone knows his pros and cons at this point. He'd be higher up my list than most, but I think he knows what it takes to win here because he saw it. I would need to know what he wanted to do about the pitching though first and foremost. He has it made at UGA with Wes.

11. Josh Elander (Tennessee HC)- Josh has been with Tony every step of the way at Tennessee. So it would take a good offer to pull him from there. But he has seen how Tony has built that program from legit the ground up, and he'll have a higher starting point. The question for us is, Is it truly all Tony at Tennessee or do these assistants have that same fire and bravado as he does?

12. Erik Bakich(Clemson)- This is probably the guy I would throw the kitchen sink at. He has won everywhere and has been elite everywhere. He took Michigan to the CWS finals....MICHIGAN. In baseball.

I know what you are saying but

Who would not want their son to play for Heefner?

https://www.christianitytoday.com/20...seball-season/

[Saltydog]

Butch loves his Mother. His Mother lives in Monroe County. It's time.

[Coach34]

Anything's possible, but their remaining schedule includes road series at South Carolina and Texas and a home series against Alabama. Their RPI is good, but if I have 50-50 odds either way, I'm betting on them not making a Regional. Even if they do, it's likely his second straight year barely sneaking in with a sub-.500 SEC record.

That doesn't mean they'll fire O'Sullivan necessarily, but if they do, we should hire him.

They gonna end up a 2 seed

But yeah- that would be an easy decision to make if insanity were to happen

[StarkVegasSteve]

I know what you are saying but

Who would not want their son to play for Heefner?

https://www.christianitytoday.com/20...seball-season/

These parents have spent tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars on their kids for the sole purpose of getting them to the MLB. They don't give a crap if he's religious or not.

[WinningIsRelentless]

This is lacking context.

Pollard was at some lower level schools early in his career and took over a Duke program that quite literally had done nothing before he got there. His first few years were rough but then he built it up and they've made 6 regionals in 8 years. Soon to be 7 in 9.
He took them to their first regional in 55 years. He's been to 3 super regionals, something Duke had never done before him. So his overall winning %, while not completely irrelevant, is pretty meaningless when comparing him to Lemonis.

Lemonis on the other hand, is a guy who took over an Indiana team that had gone to the CWS before he got there and then proceeded to do nothing with them. He gets a little credit for not immediately crashing the car Cohen and Cann built for him. Kudos for that.

I've said before that I'm not as high as others on Pollard, but to try to say he and Lemonis are basically the same is asinine. Pollard walked into a team at Duke that had not made a tournament appearance since 1961. He had to build them from the absolute floor. Lemonis walked into a team that was coming off a 3rd place finish in Omaha and returned all but 1 starter in the field and all but one starter on the mound.

Let?s add more context then. Lemonis coached in the toughest conference in the country here. Before he was at UI. Duke is a private university so they have the scholarship advantage. Duke doesn?t play in the SEC. And the cherry on top is a Duke degree is worth at least mid 7 figures more than a Mississippi State degree.

With all that said I?m not saying Lemonis doesn?t deserved being fired but saying Pollard is better than Lemonis is a stretch at best.

Our best option is identify a top tier assistant that we can get for under 900k for his first HC job and take the savings to apply to baseball NIL.

We don?t have the financial resources that 95% of the sec has so we have to do it different. We have to learn how to identify up and coming coaching talent that we can get on campus and use the savings to go to players. At the end of the day Jim?s and Joe?s win the games.

[HoopsDawg]

Let?s add more context then. Lemonis coached in the toughest conference in the country here. Before he was at UI. Duke is a private university so they have the scholarship advantage. Duke doesn?t play in the SEC. And the cherry on top is a Duke degree is worth at least mid 7 figures more than a Mississippi State degree.

With all that said I?m not saying Lemonis doesn?t deserved being fired but saying Pollard is better than Lemonis is a stretch at best.

Our best option is identify a top tier assistant that we can get for under 900k for his first HC job and take the savings to apply to baseball NIL.

We don?t have the financial resources that 95% of the sec has so we have to do it different. We have to learn how to identify up and coming coaching talent that we can get on campus and use the savings to go to players. At the end of the day Jim?s and Joe?s win the games.

Duke can't take players from the portal unless they are graduate transfers or were academically eligible to Duke out of high school. Pollard is a phenomenal coach and would be a great hire. But he's already turned down A&M and Miami. He's not taking our job.

Dan Heefner is another one that would be a homerun. I would at least call him. But he too is unlikely.

I think Elander is the choice.

[BeardoMSU]

Im sure we will Keenum it up

Keenum won't be able to contain his cream when Parker takes 2/3 from OM, and will remove the interim tag immediately. ***

[StarkVegasSteve]

Keenum won't be able to contain his cream when Parker takes 2/3 from OM, and will remove the interim tag immediately. ***

The really sad thing is that you're not wrong. And he's not alone. We'd have a large portion, 35-40%, that would want to give Parker the job solely off that fact.