Mississippi State baseball is on the market for a new coach. Chris Lemonis was relieved of his duties on Monday, and now one of the best jobs in college baseball is up for grabs. Being the head man for the Diamond Dawgs is always an attractive gig, but there's a chance it's even more attractive this year. In fact, one college baseball insider could see a path towards Mississippi State being able to land a national title-winning head coach.
Kendall Rogers says Mississippi State opening may attract Virginia's Brian O'Connor
After some of the dust had settled from the immediate fallout to Chris Lemonis' firing in Starkville, D1 Baseball's Kendall Rogers, one of the top insiders in college baseball, posted on "X" that "the timing is right for MSU to target several high-profile names."
On D1 Baseball's instant reaction podcast to the Mississippi State news, Rogers explained in further detail why the timing looks to be ideal.
With era of revenue-sharing and no scholarship caps fast approaching for college sports, new realities are about to set in for many programs. The majority of schools are going to have to be much more selective with how they choose to allocate resources across sports, and the result could be some traditionally competitive programs falling behind.
One school Rogers mentioned was Virginia. The Cavaliers have experienced a boatload of success during the 22-year tenure of head coach Brian O'Connor, winning several ACC championships, making seven trips to the College World Series, and capturing the 2015 national title. They are presently one of the top programs in the sport.
But as a high-academic school that invests heavily in smaller sports such as lacrosse, soccer, and tennis while also caring deeply about basketball, how much money will Virginia truly be pumping into baseball going forward? That could be a challenge to a coach like O'Connor according to Rogers.
On the contrary, there's no question whether or not Mississippi State will remain heavily-invested in baseball. It's too big a part of the fabric of Starkville. When it comes to NIL, revenue-sharing, and scholarship opportunities, State will almost certainly be one of the best positioned in baseball.
That makes an already attractive job even more so, and it might make it so attractive that an elite, established coach would be interested. As Rogers puts it, "for some of these older coaches like an O'Connor, maybe that's ultra-enticing."
Of course, Kendall Rogers is not saying that Brian O'Connor is or even would be interested in the Mississippi State opening. But it's not nothing that Rogers sees a path towards State attracting a candidate of that caliber. Clearly, he believes the Diamond Dawgs are in position to make a stellar hire.
And if they could hire Brian O'Connor, my goodness, that wouldn't just be a home run. That'd be a grand slam walk-off in Omaha.