Mississippi State passes on Gary Henderson, makes outside hire to take over baseball program

Mississippi State made it official Monday afternoon — Chris Lemonis is the Bulldogs' new head baseball coach.

Lemonis arrives in Starkville after leading Indiana to the postseason in three of the last four years. Prior to that, he served as Dan McDonnell's top assistant at Louisville while the Cardinals reached the College World Series three times.

MSU has scheduled a 10 a.m. press conference on Tuesday to introduce Lemonis as the Bulldogs' head coach at Dudy Noble Field.

MSU athletic director John Cohen chose to go with Lemonis instead of Gary Henderson, who as interim head coach led the Bulldogs to within one win of the College World Series championship series.

Henderson was elevated to the top job at MSU after Andy Cannizaro was forced out less than a week into his second season on the job in February. Cannizaro acknowledged he made “poor decisions” before leaving the program.

MSU finished 39-29 under Henderson's direction and made an improbable run to Omaha, winning the Tallahassee Regional and the Super Regional at Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs won their first two games in Omaha before falling in consecutive games to Oregon State to end their season.

“Chris is a winner and has elevated programs everywhere he has coached,” Cohen said in a press release. “He understands what it takes to get to Omaha, and he’s done it as a coach and a player. He is the most dynamic recruiter I have been around in my 25 years in college baseball, and his track record of identifying and developing Major League talent in his 24 years of coaching illustrates that. Chris is also one of the elite baseball tacticians in the country. We are excited that Chris will successfully lead us into a new chapter of Mississippi State baseball.”

Lemonis, 48, worked as an assistant at The Citadel (1995-2006) and Louisville (2007-14) before landing his first head coaching job at Indiana in 2015.

In the four years under Lemonis, Indiana had a record of 141-91-2.

MSU's press release on the hiring of the Myrtle Beach, S.C., native, pointed the level of talent that Lemonis was able to recruit to Louisville and Indiana. Sixteen of Lemonis' Indiana players were taken in the MLB Draft over the last four years.

Lemonis' father, Thomas, was a 1973 Mississippi State graduate in electrical engineering.

“It’s an incredible honor to be the head coach at Mississippi State,” Lemonis said in a press release. “The tradition, fan base and facility in Starkville are second to none in college baseball. My goal is to keep the program moving forward, strive for championships and ultimately win in Omaha. We will be aggressive in attracting the best players in the country to Mississippi State, and when they get here, we will develop them to their fullest potential on and off the field.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2018 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Mississippi State passes on Gary Henderson, makes outside hire to take over baseball program."