Looking Back, Coaching Forward: Mike Bianco Reflects on First 25 Years at Ole Miss
- Info CBC
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
By Andrew Riedell
In the summer of 2000, Ole Miss Athletic Director John Shafer was looking to make a splash at head coach for a sport he once played, as an All-Conference shortstop in the late 60s for the Auburn Tigers. Shafer met with a 33-year-old head coach from McNeese State, a small school in Lake Charles, LA. The meeting went well, and he told the young coach within minutes of meeting him that he believed the best chance of winning a national championship in any sport at Ole Miss was in baseball. The coach in question, you may wonder? Mike Bianco.
I had the pleasure recently of talking with Bianco, the longest-tenured head baseball coach in the Southeastern Conference, about his last twenty-five years with the Rebels in Oxford, MS, during which he has led them to 19 Regional appearances, hosting nine of them. He has won two SEC Tournaments, been to eight Super Regionals, made two trips to Omaha, and, of course, guided the Rebels to a College World Series championship in 2022 after being generally considered the last team in the NCAA field. The story does not begin, though, in Oxford or even Baton Rouge; his story starts as a young 18-year-old ballplayer in Fort Pierce, FL.
Bianco began his playing career at Indian River State College under legendary Head Coach Mike Easom before transferring to LSU and playing for equally legendary Head Coach Skip Bertman. I asked him about how big a role Easom and Bertman played in influencing his philosophy and approach to coaching baseball.
“A bunch. More than they know. I think as a young person, you don’t realize in the moment what you’re learning," Bianco said. "You’re kind of a product of where you come from, so there are bits and pieces of every coach, not just Coach Easom and Coach Bertman, but those fingerprints are more on our program than any other coach I’ve ever played for."
In his 25 years in Oxford, Coach Bianco has amassed 949 wins, and with the landscape of college athletics changing, I asked him what he has learned over that time.
“I’ve learned that the system that Coach Bertman brought to LSU in 1984 still works, and I’m proud of that. The legacy of that system of Coach Bertman is still strong and still working, but part of that is that it is adaptable. There’s so much that has changed from an analytical side and a data side, and the way we recruit. We’ve been in it for such a long time, so to continue to hire great people and have a great staff allows you to adapt and change with the things that have happened in college athletics.”
And, some things do not change, such as the rivalry between Ole Miss and Mississippi State, both teams having won National Championships during his tenure, and back-to-back at that. Bianco has a 43-55 record facing his in-state rival, and he heard about it from fans during his first few years as the Rebels head coach.
“When I came here, I was more of the mindset that it was a fan thing. My first three years facing them got frustrating; of course, the fans let me know it. From a mental standpoint, I realized it’s three other games in the Southeastern Conference, but I found out after my first year, we’re not gonna win them all; but when you lose those, it hurts a lot more, and when you win those, it means a lot more. You look at the 30 conference games. Those are the most important of those games. You realize quickly how important, you know, those games, those weekends are to our fans, to our players, to everybody involved.”
Bianco has seen runs of success over the Bulldogs and has also struggled against them, such as the last few years, but he also said it is a good thing for the state of Mississippi to have such good college baseball going on.
“I think the cool thing for college baseball fans and in general, just Mississippians, is that, we’re both really good in baseball, we both have proud traditions, and we both have had a lot of success. You look around the state and there's Southern Mississippi, the success they've had over the last decade is pretty impressive. People in Mississippi should be very proud of the success that College Baseball has had in Mississippi.”
Bianco is on the All-Alex Box Omaha Era Team, spending two seasons at LSU, including the 1989 College World Series season, when he was one of the team captains. Fittingly, one of his sons, Drew, got to follow in his footsteps and play at LSU four seasons for his father’s alma mater. We talked about what that was like for both Bianco and his family.
“You know when we (Ole Miss) played LSU, it was the most asked question the week that we were playing, both to Drew and me. It got a little old by year two or three.” Bianco explained that Drew's playing for LSU served as a reminder to his wife that rooting for two teams in America’s toughest conference isn’t easy.
“As a mom, you know everybody’s looking for that reaction. So when he would come to the plate, the TV cameras would be on her, and it would be a no-win situation. Obviously, her husband’s the head coach at Ole Miss, and it meant a lot for us to win, but she wanted to see her son succeed.”
Bianco saw all four of his sons play college baseball, and then his daughter attended Ole Miss as a student. Bianco and his wife Camie sat down with their sons and told them they would not play baseball at Ole Miss. He explained how that was ultimately healthier for them, how he grew up in those four years when he attended Indian River and LSU, and he wanted that rite of life for them.
“I wanted my children to experience that, but they couldn’t experience that here. They could play college baseball here, but they couldn’t experience that every time they walked into the locker room, they would be the coach’s kid, and I wanted them to go sink or swim on their own. I wanted them, too. If you’re good enough to play for us (Ole Miss), you’re good enough to play for anybody in the country. So go find your own way, and we will always support you.”
Of course, we talked about both the present and future with Coach Bianco, particularly the return of his Friday night starter, Hunter Elliot. But, he expects a bunch more Rebels to step up in the 2026 campaign as well.
“Guys like Hudson Calhoun and Cade Townsend, and others on the mound. I don’t think it’s just being able to return Elliot, but to return Austin Fawley, Judd Utermark, and Will Furniss. We weren’t sure that we would get these guys back in the draft.”
He also gives credit to Carl Lafferty, the Ole Miss recruiting coordinator. “Coach Lafferty, our recruiting coordinator, did a tremendous job in the portal, and that’s how we’d like to use the portal. I think you’re always going to have to look at your program, the consistency of your program, and have another really good class; but then, you get to be able to plug and play some of the transfers, such as Daniel Pacella and Dom Decker.”
Ole Miss will host two fall scrimmages, with Tulane and NCAA Tournament notable Little Rock both coming to Oxford in October, and then they will turn their sights to Coach Bianco’s 26th season.
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