What past hires tell us about Mississippi State's next baseball coach

Mississippi State baseball coaching search: Top candidates, Oklahoma connections, and what Zac Selmon’s past hires reveal.

Mississippi State Bulldogs athletic director Zac Selmon is introduced during a timeout during the first half against the TCU Horned Frogs at Humphrey Coliseum. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Who will be the next head baseball coach at Mississippi State is the million dollar question in Starkville right now.

Sure, there’s still three weeks left until the SEC Tournament and that’ll be followed by the NCAA Tournament and Mississippi State still has a chance at making the later. But the million dollar question will hang over this team until the next coach is announced.

We likely won’t know the answer to that question until June, though. Until then, we all get to take part in one of the longest traditions in sports, speculate.

Plenty columns and lists will be (and already have been) written about who the next coach could be. Will it be a current SEC head coach? An SEC assistant coach? Or maybe even a mid-major coach?

Really, the only person who as any idea is Mississippi State Director of Athletics Zac Selmon.

Selmon has been in Starkville for a little more than two years and has made two important coaching hires in that time. The most recent was more of a promotion than hiring. Selmon named Nick Zimmerman the women’s head soccer coach. Zimmerman had been a part of the program since 2019, starting as an assistant coach and then as associate head coach in 2022.

The other hire you’re likely already familiar with. Selmon hired Jeff Lebby, who had never been a head coach at any level, as the Bulldogs’ head football coach.

So, is there anything we can learn from those two hires about what Selmon will go for in the search for a head baseball coach? Yes.

First, Selmon isn’t afraid to give someone their first head coaching job. That includes Lebby, but also Zimmerman. That opens door for some popular assistant coaches in the SEC.

Second, the Oklahoma connection. Selmon came to Mississippi State from Oklahoma, where Lebby was the offensive coordinator. It’s foolish to think the Sooner connection didn’t play even a small role in that hiring decision.

If that history repeats itself, get ready to meet Reggie Willits who is the associate head coach for the Sooners and serves as the offensive coordinator.

But a more intriguing option is the Sooner’s head coach, Skip Johnson. He’s led Oklahoma since 2017 when Selmon was at Oklahoma and both men were at the school when the Sooners advanced to the 2022 College World Series.

If Texas can hire Texas A&M’s coach, why couldn’t Mississippi State hire Oklahoma’s?

Of course, this is just speculation and the next Bulldogs’ coach may not even be someone on this list. But it bears watching, based on past history, if Selmon taps back into his Oklahoma connections.