Chris Lemonis named Mississippi State’s 18th head baseball coach

Before there was even time to reflect on Mississippi State’s run through the College World Series, the athletic department named its next head baseball coach just two days later.

This morning, the Chris Lemonis era officially began with an introductory press conference.

Lemonis is the 18^th head man of the Diamond Dawgs who are coming off the program’s tenth ever trip to Omaha. He’ll be replacing interim head man Gary Henderson while retaining assistant coach Jake Gautreau on staff.

After spending the last four years as head coach at Indiana, the 48-year-old Lemonis is walking into the lion’s den of high expectations and he’s not afraid to embrace the pressure of heat-of-the-moment predictions. “I had to get onto one of my players on my very first meeting. And I hated to do it, but Elijah MacNamee told everybody in the locker room after the last game that we were winning the National Championship next year. So I told Elijah thanks, as the new coach I really appreciate the standard you just set.That’s the expectation, and we won’t be scared to talk about playing for a National Championship.”

MSU Athletic Director John Cohen said, “Steve Jobs, who’s a pioneer in many, many ways said this: He said, you don’t want to provide people with what they want. You want to provide them with what they’re going to need, even if they don’t know they’re going to need it. We’re going to need this guy, and he’s going to lead this program for a long period of time.”

Lemonis takes over an MSU program that’s been to three straight NCAA Super Regionals.