Mississippi State Baseball Moves on From Head Coach Andy Cannizaro

Andy Cannizaro didn’t spend much time in Starkville as Mississippi State’s head baseball coach. Despite going 40-30 as the Bulldogs’ head coach in one season and, well, the first three games of his second season, Cannizaro is reportedly being let go by the university.

Mississippi State is fresh off of a 0-3 sweep to Southern Miss in Hattiesburg in which MSU was outscored 23-6 as this news is being released. It appears that Cannizaro’s short stint with State will end with him reportedly being replaced by pitching coach Gary Henderson, as reported by David Murray and Robbie Faulk of 247 Sports.

Henderson was previously the head coach at the University of Kentucky where he amassed a record of 258-199 overall and 105-134 in conference play. During his time in Lexington, Kentucky, Henderson made it to two NCAA Regionals, developed a group of 7 pitchers since 2012 that would go on to reach the big leagues, won over 30 games in a season 6 times, and became the fastest coach in UK’s history to get to 100 wins.

Mississippi State will miss Andy Cannizaro’s youth and energy at the helm of its baseball program, but the Bulldogs will reportedly be led by a man that John Cohen, MSU’s AD, trusts.

As MSU’s baseball coach at the time, Cohen hired Henderson to be the pitching coach of Cohen’s team. Once Scott Stricklin moved on to Gainesville, Florida and Cohen switched offices and job titles and Andy Cannizaro was hired, Henderson was retained. He then helped lead a team that was plagued with injuries and pieced together a pitching staff that was decimated by shoulder issues.

It’s uncertain what will happen in the long run with MSU’s baseball program just yet. But with a stadium still under construction and a coach dealing with controversy heading out the door, Mississippi State and John Cohen will be relying upon Gary Henderson to sort things out.