The firing of Chris Lemonis was unfortunate, but necessary.
It’s rare that college baseball coaches are terminated in-season, but Mississippi State is a rare baseball program.
Built by Ron Polk, the program was college baseball when college baseball wasn’t cool. Indeed, it’s success helped make college baseball cool.
The job of MSU athletics director Zac Selmon is to now protect the Bulldogs’ brand. His worry is not the brand for college baseball in Mississippi, but there’s a trickle down effect here.
When Mississippi State struggles, the state isn’t putting its best foot forward.
“We have not consistently met the standard of success that our university, fans and student-athletes expect and deserve,” Selmon said in announcing the Lemonis break-up..
Lemonis had ample time to build a program to meet that standard.
The demands are high, no doubt, but the there is ebb and flow in the demands. The program has made multiple trips to the College World Series, but it’s not an Omaha program right now. It’s trying to rebuild to that level, and the first step is becoming a consistent NCAA Tournament program.
Earning a 2 seed on the road in his only postseason appearance since winning the national championship in 2021 – the Lemonis body of work in his last four seasons – wasn’t going to cut it. The three other seasons – this one trending that way with the Bulldogs 7-14 in SEC play at the time of the firing – not only weren’t tournament material but weren’t close to it.
Might Lemonis’ fate have worked out differently if the Bulldogs had hosted a regional last year?
They were in the conversation with a 17-13 SEC mark and a 19 RPI.
Playing at home in the NCAA Tournament is always a key piece of the puzzle for those fluctuating demands for the Mississippi State job.
That baseball palace, the new Dudy Noble Field, wasn’t built to house an NCAA 2 seed for 30-some-odd regular season home games.
Selmon knows that, and he also knows that he’s about to complete his third baseball season as AD without a Starkville Regional, without the game’s best sights, sounds and smells at Dudy Noble Field in June.
The youngster from Norman will turn 40 this November. He’s the youngest AD in the SEC and is responsible for all sports on the MSU campus.
In some cases his job security may be based on a sliding scale of success in other sports provided football is not a disaster.
Baseball is different at Mississippi State. Baseball alone can be a job killer if left to rot. What a terrible legacy for any MSU athletics CEO
