Goodwill and the Big 3 coaches

[Bulldogg31]

Interesting to me how quickly Cohen has burned through his "goodwill" reserves with many in our fanbase, just 2 years removed from a CWS run.

Is it a question of just his style, his personality, or ability (or inability) to relate to the fanbase?

Mullen is great at being hard on his coaches and players while remaining relatable to fans, and Howland looks to be of a similar mold. Where has Cohen missed in building up a deeper benefit of the doubt?

 

[MSU'92]

Because Mullen doesn't get outcoached by the Arkansas Pine Bluffs of the world.

 

[thekimmer]

Also program history. The expectations in baseball are way higher. And for good reason. In football we historically have the smallest budget many times over, smallest stadium, and smallest winning percentage. In short, we are not one of the big boys. In baseball we have the facilities and history to compete at a high level. Translation, in baseball we are supposed to be one of the big boys.

Also the discussion is not just on this one season. It is his 7 year body of work that suggest that while a few of his teams definitely had a knack for getting hot at just the right moment, they have not competed week-in-week out to expectation. For me it comes down to this. Supposedly JC is getting all of these highly ranked recruiting classes. There is only two possible reasons why we are where we are today. Either his players were not what they were purported to be or they are not getting competently coached. Both of these scenarios fall squarely on him. Sure that is a lot of pressure but he is WELL compensated to shoulder that pressure. The kicker is we are even getting outperformed by some of the schools that supposedly don't care about baseball. That CANNOT happen. Nobody wants to see JC succeed more than I do. We can give him another year but history is not on our side.

 

[Bulldogg31]

Kimmer I agree with your comments before. I do not think a coaching change right now is a good idea, but another season or two of this and it will be necessary, I think most agree on that.

Cohen's resume and the CWS appearance definitely should buy more goodwill than some are willing to offer. If we were hiring Cohen today, what would he say his strengths are?

 

[ronpolk]

Also program history. The expectations in baseball are way higher. And for good reason. In football we historically have the smallest budget many times over, smallest stadium, and smallest winning percentage. In short, we are not one of the big boys. In baseball we have the facilities and history to compete at a high level. Translation, in baseball we are supposed to be one of the big boys.

Also the discussion is not just on this one season. It is his 7 year body of work that suggest that while a few of his teams definitely had a knack for getting hot at just the right moment, they have not competed week-in-week out to expectation. For me it comes down to this. Supposedly JC is getting all of these highly ranked recruiting classes. There is only two possible reasons why we are where we are today. Either his players were not what they were purported to be or they are not getting competently coached. Both of these scenarios fall squarely on him. Sure that is a lot of pressure but he is WELL compensated to shoulder that pressure. The kicker is we are even getting outperformed by some of the schools that supposedly don't care about baseball. That CANNOT happen. Nobody wants to see JC succeed more than I do. We can give him another year but history is not on our side.

We don't have the facilities. DNF is not a nice stadium anymore.

 

[ronpolk]

I think part of the problem is cause Cohen was such a 180 from Polk. For years we were a power team who didn't steal and didn't bunt. And Polk never yelled or cussed his players. It was just a shock to some fans, especially the older ones. Then you had the huge drama that Polk created. He didn't come in under the best of circumstances and I think that's followed him. But even his biggest supporters have to admit he does not coach an exciting brand of baseball.

 

[thekimmer]

No doubt the stadium needs to be upgraded but I would not say we don't have the facilities. Our stadium still is among the largest in the country and is still consistently ranked among the top 5 in the nation on various lists. In comparison, football even with the expansion we are 10th by capacity in just the SEC by and will soon drop to 11th. Again, point being expectations, historically anyway, are higher for baseball.

 

[Bulldogg31]

RonPolk I agree. I love Mississippi State baseball, and I watch or listen to every game, but the last few years have been blah. Except, of course, for the deep run in '13 which featured a bunch of HR's by Renfroe and Rea, clutch hits from Frazier, tons of double plays, nasty pitching from the bullpen (although the starters gave me ulcers), etc., plus we were winning.

The past two years have just been hard to watch, even last year when we went to a regional. All the lineup changes, the get-em-on-bunt-em-over-knock-em-in offensive strategy, the baserunning errors, all the runners left on base, it's really hard to watch. I think that as much as the losing has caused Cohen to lose some of the faithful fans.

I think Mullen gets a lot of goodwill from the fact that even when we lose we put up 400-500 yards of offense, create turnovers, etc. It's exciting to watch, even if safeties are getting burned deep or we're missing chipshot field goals. If Mullen still ran three yards up the middle every play it wouldn't take long to wear thin.

 

[BossDawg78]

We don't have the facilities. DNF is not a nice stadium anymore.

Nope. And of everyone involved with State's baseball program now, I'm more pissed at Larry Templeton than anyone else. He's the one that sat on his hands and jacked around while the rest of the conference came right on in the backdoor and made themselves at home.