Cowbell Corner

Why did Mississippi State choose now to fire Chris Lemonis?

Timing is everything in sports, both on and off the field and the Bulldogs' decision let their coach go this week may have been all about timing.
Taylor Hodges|
Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis raises the national championship trophy with his team after the win against the Vanderbilt Commodores at TD Ameritrade Park.
Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis raises the national championship trophy with his team after the win against the Vanderbilt Commodores at TD Ameritrade Park. | Steven Branscombe-Imagn Images

There are many different angles and storylines around the currently vacant Mississippi State baseball head coaching position. But before too much time passes by, let’s step back and look at the timing of this firing.

Why do it now?

College baseball coaches aren’t usually let go in the middle of the season and, out of respect for what he did for the program, Chris Lemonis should’ve been allowed to finish the season before being shown the door.

And it’s not like all is lost in Starkville for the current season. Yes, if the NCAA Tournament started today the Bulldogs wouldn’t be in it. However, the path to the field of 64 isn’t as arduous as one might expect. In fact, it really hasn’t change much since I wrote this before the news broke earlier this week.

That’s one opinion to have. The other is that Lemonis being let go now was the best decision for the program.

Mississippi State is one of the premier baseball programs. It has great facilities and a (sometimes too) passionate fan base. Starkville is one of the south’s best college towns. The Bulldogs can attract big name coaches and it should.

Letting Lemonis go now lets Mississippi State Director of Athletics Zac Selmon get started before any other teams start going for big names that can make a splash (which is the growing feeling of what the Bulldogs want to do).

READ MORE: Who will replace Chris Lemonis at Mississippi State?

Here’s another factor consider: the transfer portal.

In today’s world of college sports, you can go from pretender to championship winner in offseason by bringing in the best (and right) transfers from the portal. It certainly helped the Bulldogs win their national title.

The NCAA being the brilliant-minded organization that it is, has every sports’ transfer window starting during that sport’s postseason tournament. For baseball, the transfer portal opens June 2 and closes July 1. NCAA Regionals will be held May 30 – June 2 and super regionals starting June 6.

If Mississippi State had kept Lemonis until the Bulldogs’ had no more games left, that’d probably be around May 26 when the NCAA tournament field is announced. That’d give Mississippi State a week until the portal opens to go through a coaching search, hire a coach and assistant coaches and not fall behind in recruiting players in the and keeping others from entering it.

Now they have a full month to conduct a thorough coaching search that, hopefully, results in a splashy hire.

What exactly a splashy hire would be is a topic for another column. But the Bulldogs have time to figure it out.

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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