Mississippi State’s Present is Bleak, but the Future is still Bright

Andy Cannizaro is out as Mississippi State Baseball Coach. In the official statement, the only reason given for his sudden and shocking resignation was he “made some poor decisions.”

Those poor decisions will have a lasting impact on Cannizaro’s family more so than anyone else, but discussing the details about what may or may not have transpired is secondary to what Mississippi State fans want to know.

What will happen to Mississippi State baseball?

I’m not going to sugarcoat it. The present looks murky at best. The team is off to an 0-3 start and now has to deal with the emotions of losing their coach in such an ugly fashion. They will have to answer the questions, at least for the next few games, when people ask what they know and can tell about what transpired with Coach Cannizaro.

From a recruiting perspective, this will hurt. Recruiting with an interim coach is almost impossible. Cannizaro was an amazing recruiter, and brought in a ton of high profile signees. Some of them will likely seek out a release from their Letter of Intent.

But I chose the picture for this post for a reason. Mississippi State baseball is one of the strongest brands in all of college baseball. The team will open their brand new stadium at the beginning of March, and it will be the crown jewel of college baseball stadiums.

The program has an extremely loyal fan base. Mississippi State baseball weekends are some of the best events from both a sport and social perspective you will find in the Southeast.

It is for these reasons we should all have hope that the baseball program will weather this storm. Whenever a new coach is hired, he’ll be handed the keys to the Rolls Royce of college baseball programs. And there will be many quality candidates AD John Cohen will have to choose from. Coach Cannizaro was handed those keys, but he failed to appreciate the opportunity he had, despite having no head coaching experience prior to taking the Mississippi State Head Coaching Vacancy.

Yes, the last 24 hours as a Mississippi State baseball fan have been difficult. There will probably be many more difficult hours in the days ahead. But if you want hope for the future, then just remember it takes more than one bad moment to ruin this program.