Don’t you think if the Florida coach is named as the new LSU coach, we can flip a couple of recruits from Louisiana? I think so.
Baseball recruiting
- Thread starter MSbaseballfan
- Start date
Baseball kids rarely flip. I know a kid who committed to USM as a high school freshman and will have many other better offers but he’s not waivering. Just doesn’t happen in baseball. Unless you’re Tanner Allen.
That was some crazy stuff and I’m surprised that I didn’t catch wind of it somewhere before now.
I would be baffled by O’Sullivan leaving.
Then again, I’ve been baffled before- Kim Mulkey and Vic come to mind.
Then again, I’ve been baffled before- Kim Mulkey and Vic come to mind.
Cross mentioned something worth noting yesterday....
he said there was a very nasty situation going on down in Florida somewhere, almost couldn't talk about it.....murder/suicide......husband/wife.....alluding to infidelity I think.....in the article about the situation, Kevin O'Sullivan's name was mentioned at the end. His name being involved in this situation has been rumor only, and being mentioned in the article was somewhat shocking. Went on to say that the ncaa mess at lsu is going to be a lot worse than people think, and their hires are going to have to be squeaky clean. In so many words, O'Sullivan to Lsu probably isn't going to happen.
His synopsis of Bianco to LSU was 50/50 on whether he would go or stay if offered.
he said there was a very nasty situation going on down in Florida somewhere, almost couldn't talk about it.....murder/suicide......husband/wife.....alluding to infidelity I think.....in the article about the situation, Kevin O'Sullivan's name was mentioned at the end. His name being involved in this situation has been rumor only, and being mentioned in the article was somewhat shocking. Went on to say that the ncaa mess at lsu is going to be a lot worse than people think, and their hires are going to have to be squeaky clean. In so many words, O'Sullivan to Lsu probably isn't going to happen.
His synopsis of Bianco to LSU was 50/50 on whether he would go or stay if offered.
Did you see the crowds at UF's regional? I think if I were O'Sullivan I'd be content to keep winning in Florida with fans that only sort of care, but I can see the appeal of going to a school that cared more about baseball.
Well there are definitely perks there in being able to do whatever you want to in recruiting with no consequences.
As awful as the results of the O'Sullivan stuff were, as far as I know, even the rumors were just that he was involved in an affair with the wife of the guy. I don't think colleges are going to get in the business of not hiring coaches that have hooked up with other people's wives. It would drastically cut down on the hiring pool. That said, it certainly may affect O'Sullivan's decision if offered. May make him more likely to stay because it's currently staying out of the major media and he may think staying will make that more likely to continue. Or he may just want to get away from the situation because it's been so horrific.
Yeah, apparently the expectation is that it's going to get really bad at LSU when the hammer finally drops. There are even rumblings that they are iffy about hiring Godwin due to him being single and the perception around that.. that's why I think Bianco could really come into play there. There are probably a lot of things that people can say about Bianco, but he's nothing if not squeaky clean.
Obviously there are a lot of things LSU could sell the fanbase on with Bianco. "Coming home", the consistency year-in, year-out, etc. But, the postseason shortcomings are going to make him less than desirable to the fans, as well. They will have to convince themselves that his postseason failures at Ole Miss won't happen at LSU because they are a better program. Won't take a ton of mental gymnastics for them to do that, because it may very well be true. I think if the LSU decision makers are truly starting to consider Bianco, they are really hoping that he can guide Ole Miss to Omaha this year, because that would certainly make the hire more palatable to the fans.
Of course, then the big question would become "would Bianco even take the job?". I have no clue on that, but I would have to think it would be very tempting for him. But, 2 weeks ago I would have laughed at the "LSU will hire Bianco" notion, and now I'm starting to think it's very much in play. There's real smoke to the fire.
Wrong. They'd go back to the superpower of old.
We WOULD, most likely, go back to owning Ole Miss with easier effort than the last 20 years.
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Unlike most Ole Miss fans I think there is a real chance that we could regress when Bianco is done. Be that he's hired, fired or retired. What Bianco has done at Ole Miss is extremely impressive until you look at the postseason, and those postseason failures are only viewed poorly because of the drastically raised expectations from the regular season and talent level. As most of us know, there's a scholarship gap in our league, and MSU and OM are neither one guaranteed to be good every year unless that's fixed. There is a certain margin for error there.
I get that our facilities and fan support for the next coach are night and day better. But so are the expectations and so is the immediate competition. MSU is a better more consistent program today than they were in 2000 when Bianco took over. Y'all aren't going away under Lemonis. LSU is LSU. Texas A&M is investing big in baseball and Schlossnagle's track record speaks for itself. Arkansas has DVH. Vandy is Vandy, we all know that situation. Georgia is still a sleeping giant. Florida is Florida. Bianco's greatest achievement is never losing fewer than 13 SEC games in a 20 year stretch. That's impressive, and not easily replicated. He's only had 4 losing seasons in-conference.
So, while I get the frustrations, and have often shared them.. this assumption that someone like Godwin will A) even take the job, and B) be better than Bianco is ill-founded. And it's mostly from a bunch of fans that care, but don't truly understand the landscape of college baseball. They see where we have top 5 attendance and a top 10% or so stadium and assume that puts us in the top 10%. And that's very, very debatable. And Ole Miss is certainly not viewed as a top 10 or so job in the coaching circles.
Don't get me wrong, you COULD upgrade. It's just tough, like everywhere else. And no matter how much you invest, it's been proven in college baseball that the right coach makes literally all the difference. The odds are that you don't improve over a proven winner.
I actually don't think it should be that tempting generally. He won't get much, if any more pay. Baton Rouge, while bigger than Oxford, isn't particularly nice. THe only thing it offers is being less recognizable, and I'm not even sure that'd be true. The fans are just as crazy and unreasonable. The main reason he should take it if offered is just that he just has too many people at Ole Miss dissatisfied with him at this point. Even though I would assume his job is completely safe, it's just a headache to deal with and while baseball isn't like football or basketball, it's becoming more like them in that coaches have a shelf life, and he's getting pretty stale. The expectations/pressure certainly won't be less at LSU, but it resets his clock so to speak. If he can go to LSU and get the same salary but a five year guarantee, that will get him to 59 at least and he may not want to coach after that.
Of course, if he makes a run in the CWS this year, that probably moots that point. And that ignores potential sanctions from the NCAA. And if he's not dead set on continuing coaching, it would certainly be reasonable to deal with the headaches of being "stale" and not uprooting his family/life and just coaching until they push him out (which may never happen, even if he continues to struggle in the post season) or until he's ready to retire.
Bianco has to be just a couple years from MS retirement. I think he’d be crazy to consider going anywhere before then
He'd still be able to draw close to as much leaving now as he would in a few years, plus he'd be able to draw a smaller LA retirement check as well. The two would be pretty close to a wash. So that's not really even a consideration. That said, I expect he'll be at Mississippi until he retires, and I expect that'll probably be another 10 years or so.
Yeah I think this is all really fair. Most years the LSU job is an upgrade over the Ole Miss job, but I’m not sure that it is at the moment. The thing that might push it that direction is just the fact that after 21 years at a place, unless you’ve won a title, you start becoming stale. It’s just the nature of fan bases. And, even though fans should recognize that this team reaching a Super is a pretty dang good accomplishment and anything beyond that is gravy.. due to Hoglund being out for the year, Elko’s injury, and Cioffi (who would have been our #1 middle relief option, making only 2 appearances before having TJ surgery.. it won’t be. If we go over there and lose, especially in gut wrenching fashion, then the calls for his head will start back all over again.
Plus, LSU is his alma mater and Skip Bertman is his mentor. He’s human, those things matter. I think he was strongly considering the job when Manieri was hired, but his wife supposedly told him her and the kids weren’t leaving Oxford. With them in school, etc. A lot has changed since then, though. Including the kids not being at home anymore, and Bianco not being quite as beloved as he was at that time.
I could truly see it going either way, if he’s offered the job. What will be a tough decision will be what does Keith Carter do, if that happens, to try (or not try) and keep him?
Ole Miss's hope is you don't fire Bianco and he leaves. I just don't see how a coach would want to go to a school that would fire a coach that turned Ole Miss into a top 10 program and is still a top 10 program. Of course, money talks and ******** walks.
If bianco has 21 years in state retirement right now, he won't hit early retirement until he's 58, so only two years earlier than he can draw it regardless.
Also, his state retirement is not going to be based on his whole salary, but based on the maximum reportable amount (I think around $275k), and that's assuming that much pay actually comes from the school and not from their foundation. Not that that's not a great retirement, if the school is paying $275k a year, that's worth $115k a year starting when he's sixty based on 21 years of credited service. Will be $137k if he sticks around for the full 25 years. But if you're making $1.2M a year, you're probably not letting that difference between $115k a year and $137k a year (plus being able to draw it at 58 rather than 60) drive much of your decision making.
And LSU didn't start giving a **** either until Ron Polk's teams started dominating in the 80's.
The OM/Bianco situation reminds me a lot of the State/Stansbury saga. A ton of regular season success, but like you said, the post season results never matched up with the regular season success/talent level.
However, there are a few differences - 1. Stans really started to decline his last few years. While Bianco may have declined slightly, he’s still consistently has OM hosting regionals. 2. The off the court issues with Stans’ teams that Bianco doesn’t have.
I certainly imagine the fan base response would be similar if you moved on from Bianco too, which is basically a split fan base. And all I can say is that if you do move on, I wish you nothing but the same level of success that we experienced post-Stans.**
However, there are a few differences - 1. Stans really started to decline his last few years. While Bianco may have declined slightly, he’s still consistently has OM hosting regionals. 2. The off the court issues with Stans’ teams that Bianco doesn’t have.
I certainly imagine the fan base response would be similar if you moved on from Bianco too, which is basically a split fan base. And all I can say is that if you do move on, I wish you nothing but the same level of success that we experienced post-Stans.**
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