Could Mississippi State interim coach earn full-time coaching job?

Can interim coach Justin Parker turn Mississippi State's hot streak into a full-time job? The postseason will decide that answer.

Mississippi State Interim Head Coach Justin Parker during the game between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Dudy Noble Field at Polk-Dement Stadium in Starkville, MS. | Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State may be faced with a tough decision in the next couple of weeks.

Chris Lemonis, the only coach to win a national championship in Mississippi State’s history, was “relieved of his duties” on April 28. Since then, the Bulldogs have gone 9-1 and enter the SEC Baseball Tournament as one of the conference’s hottest teams.

How much of that is because of the job interim coach Justin Parker has done? How much of that is the emotional bump teams experience following a change in head coaches? How much of that is because to the level of competition the Bulldogs have faced?

The answers to those questions would go a long way in determining how the Bulldogs went from a NCAA Tournament bubble team to a lock to make the field of 64. But they’re nearly impossible for outsiders, or maybe even insiders themselves, to answer.

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The Bulldogs have certainly seen a drop in the level of competition in their last three SEC games (Ole Miss, Kentucky and Missouri). So, that certainly would seem to be a reason for their success. But the Bulldogs have shown an improvement in play, specifically their ability to hold on to leads late in games.

The “emotional bump” teams experience after a coaching change is varied and plenty of successful interim coaches who are hired full-time don’t last very long. So, let’s remove that variable from the equation.

That leaves us with the first question about Parker’s impact on the team. Again, outsiders will struggle to know this answer with certainty. There will always be a level skepticism around Parker’s role in the Bulldogs’ late-season surge. But what would it take for him to prove those skeptics wrong and be named Mississippi State’s next baseball coach?

To answer that question, we must remind ourselves of what has been reported as the goal to reach when announcing its next baseball coach: make a splash hire.

Hiring an interim coach hardly qualifies as a splash hire, but what kind of run would the Bulldogs need in the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament to make Parker such an obvious choice that the waves from his hiring doesn’t matter?

In this writer’s opinion, anything short of a trip to Omaha should disqualify Parker. Even then, I don’t believe that would be the best long-term option.

That’s not a knock on Parker’s coaching ability, which this writer is far from qualified to assess. But to overcome the “splash hire” goal, Park would need to the Bulldogs to make a big splash in the postseason.

An SEC Tournament championship wouldn’t be enough, either. OK, it might be, but the odds of that happening are, in my opinion, less than the Bulldogs making a trip to Omaha (there are enough variables in the NCAA Tournament seeding, at this point, to think they may get favorable matchups).

Winning the SEC Tournament would certainly put Parker a lot higher on the list of candidates and a trip to Omaha would be worthy of seeing if he can do it again, if only as a reward. And if Mississippi State somehow wins the College World Series (think Fresno State in 2008), it’ll be very hard to argue against a promotion for Parker.

Short of that, Mississippi State Director of Athletics Zac Selmon should continue his coaching search and look to bring in a “splash” hiring. That may be Virginia’s Brian O’Connor, Georgia assistant coach Will Coggin, or some other Power 4 team head coach.

We’ll likely have an idea of who the next coach will be in roughly two weeks, unless the Bulldogs make a deep postseason run. Then, all bets will be off.