Mike Bianco Position: Head Coach College: LSU (1989)

Five seasons ago Ole Miss hired Mike Bianco to head up its baseball program in a move that was characterized by many as a "grand slam" sure to propel the Rebels onto the national stage. In the short amount of time since that hiring, the Rebels have seen a resurgence of the baseball program in the Southeastern Conference and in the eyes of the nation.

Over the course of the past five seasons, Bianco has led the Rebels to unprecedented success including a five year record of 198-110-1 (.642), the best winning percentage of a head coach in his first five seasons in the modern era, surpassing even that of legendary head coach Tom Swayze (.542).

Since his first season in 2001, Ole Miss has been recognized as a program on the rise and one of the nation's top programs, continually producing outstanding athletes on the field and in the classroom while bringing championships to the Rebels.

Under Bianco, the Rebels have produced 10 All-America selections, including six freshman All-America selections. Added to the list most recently were Brian Pettway and the school's first three-time All-America selection, Stephen Head. Ole Miss has also seen 14 All-SEC selections, including back-to-back Freshman of the Year selections in Seth Smith (2002) and Head (2003). Head also earned National Freshman of the Year Honors.

Excitement around Rebels baseball has run high the past five seasons under Bianco, as the head coach has led his program to five straight seasons of more than 35 wins each year. Most recently, the Rebels produced 39 wins in 2004 before posting a school-record 48 wins in 2005. That season also saw the Rebels host a second-consecutive NCAA Regional and the school's first Super Regional. Bianco also brought in an SEC Western Division championship, the program's first championship in 23 years.

Proof of the buzz surrounding Ole Miss baseball under Bianco isn't hard to find. Attendance has been on a steady climb since he took the reins of the program, with the Rebels passing the 120,000 mark for attendance in 2004 and shattering that mark with more than 170,000 fans packing into Oxford-University Stadium in the 2005 season.

On Monday, June 13, 2005, the Rebels also played in the third most-viewed television broadcast of a collegiate baseball game in the history of ESPN when the Rebels played eventual national champion Texas in the 2005 Super Regional. The Rebels also hosted two of the most attended events in the 2005 season. The Rebels hosted the second most attended NCAA Regional, drawing more than 34,000 fans, and the weekend Super Regional with Texas saw more than 26,000 fans pack the ballpark for the most attended Super Regional in the nation.

Continuing success after college has been a big theme for players who have played under Bianco in five years at Ole Miss. Since his first season in 2001, the Rebels have seen more than 20 players drafted in the past five seasons.

OLE MISS ENTERS A NEW ERA

The Rebels' new era of success can be traced back to June 7, 2000, when Bianco was introduced as the school's 20th head coach, and the sixth of the modern era (1947-present).

Following the press conference announcing his arrival at Ole Miss, Bianco quickly went to work building his vision of the Rebel program.

After hiring his coaching staff, Bianco began to beat the recruiting trail, signing three players that would become key components of the Rebels' 2001 NCAA Regional team.

Picked to finish sixth in the SEC Western Division, Ole Miss would defy expectations in 2001. The Rebels posted a 39-23-1 record, one win shy of the school record for a season, and contended for the overall SEC and SEC West titles until the final weeks of the season. Ole Miss would finish second in the SEC West with a 17-13 record and tie the school mark, at the time, for SEC wins in a season.

With the Rebels' rise, Ole Miss cracked the top 10 in the national rankings for the first time since 1972, and concluded the season with a No. 2 seed at the NCAA Regional in New Orleans, La.

Four Ole Miss players would be named either first or second team All-SEC, with outfielder Burney Hutchinson earning second team All-America honors from Baseball Weekly.

Ole Miss would find itself in the national spotlight again in 2002. After winning two-of-three at No. 2-ranked Alabama in April, Ole Miss climbed to a No. 6 ranking in the April 22 Baseball America Top 25 poll. The No. 6 ranking was Ole Miss' highest since finishing No. 6 in the final Collegiate Baseball poll in 1969.

In 2003, Bianco guided Ole Miss back to the postseason. With a pitching staff that featured five freshmen accounting for over 60 percent of the team's innings, the Rebels finished 35-27, including a 17-13 mark in the SEC to tie a school record for conference wins, and earned a berth in the NCAA Houston Regional. The Regional appearance was Ole Miss' second under Bianco and just the program's fourth dating back to 1977.

The "Young Guns" pitching staff also helped the Rebels lead the SEC in ERA with a team mark of 3.45.

BACK-TO-BACK SEASONS OF FIRSTS

Bianco and the Rebels followed up their 2003 NCAA Tournament appearance by receiving a second straight NCAA bid in 2004. It marked the first time in school history that Ole Miss had received back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids.

In addition, Ole Miss was selected as one of 16 host sites for an NCAA Regional, marking the Rebels' first time as a regional host.

The Rebels finished the 2004 season with a 39-21 record, including setting a school record with 18 SEC victories.

Ole Miss would be ranked in all four of the major college baseball polls each week of the season, including eight total weeks in the top 10 in at least one of the polls. The Rebels were in the top 10 for six straight weeks from March 22-April 26, receiving a ranking as high as No. 4 in the March 29 Collegiate Baseball poll.

Sophomore 1B/LHP Stephen Head turned in another sensational season to earn All-America honors for the second straight season. In doing so, he became the school's third-ever two-time All-America selection.

Head also earned SEC Co-Player of the Year honors and was named one of five finalists for the 2004 Golden Spikes Award, amateur baseball's most prestigious award. He was Ole Miss' first-ever finalist for the honor.

Just when the Rebels looked to be setting new standards, Ole Miss went out in 2005 and did it again with the second straight NCAA Regional in Oxford that saw Ole Miss claim the Regional Championship and advance to host the program's first-ever Super Regional against the Texas Longhorns.

The 2005 season also saw the second straight Boo Ferriss Award come to Oxford for Brian Pettway, who was also named an All-America seletion for the first time in his career. He joined Stephen Head, who became the program's first three-time All-America selection when he earned the All-America distinction again. Head also claimed the first-ever Ferriss Award in the 2004 season.

EXCITEMENT LEADS TO RECORD CROWDS AT SWAYZE FIELD

Ole Miss' success on the diamond under Bianco has led to the Rebels' being successful at the box office. Ole Miss has ranked among the nation's top 25 attendance leaders in all five of Bianco's seasons at Ole Miss.

Last season, the Rebels had one of the top attendance averages in the nation as more than 170,000 fans packed Oxford-University Stadium to see the Rebels play. That marked the fourth best in the Southeastern Conference as O-U stadium was standing room only for most of the dates on the Rebels' schedule.

In 2004, the Rebels ranked eighth nationally in attendance, drawing a total of 121,457 in 35 home dates, marking the first time in school history that Ole Miss passed the 100,000-mark in total attendance and smashing the previous school record. The previous mark was 84,910 set in 2002.

In 2004, Ole Miss was also 12th among NCAA Division I schools in average attendance, averaging 3,497 per home game.

Ole Miss passed that mark the following season in 2005, when almost 50,000 more fans made the trip to Oxford to see the Rebels play. In all, 170,152 fans came to O-U Stadium to see the Rebels play in 2005, including 26,074 fans for a three-game set with Texas in the Super Regional. That attendance was eighth nationally for the Rebels, marking the second-straight season in the top 10 for attendance.

All total, 18 of the top 20 crowds at Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field have come during Bianco's five years, including the largest crowd in program history when more than 10,119 came to see the Rebels play Alabama on April 9, 2005.

In turn, the Rebels have parlayed the record crowds into a successful homefield advantage. Under Bianco, Ole Miss has won 74 percent of its home games, compiling a 131-46-1 mark at Swayze Field.

TOP RECRUITER

Not only have fans and the media covering college baseball noticed Ole Miss' resurgence under Bianco, some of the top talent in the country is also taking a close look at the Rebels.

Four of Bianco's five recruiting classes at Ole Miss have garnered top-20 national rankings, including two that have placed in the top-10. His first recruiting class was rated as one of the nation's 10 best by both Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America, including a No. 6 ranking by Collegiate Baseball.

The 2003 recruiting class was ranked No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball.

The Rebels have had four first team Freshman All-Americas, one second team Freshman All-America and two honorable mention Freshman All-America selections in Bianco's five seasons at Ole Miss.

Ole Miss has also had back-to-back SEC Freshman of the Year winners in outfielder Seth Smith (2002) and left-handed pitcher/first baseman Head (2003). In addition, Head earned co-National Freshman Player of the Year honors, and second team All-America honors as a utility player.

Head and Smith were also members of the USA National Team that captured the silver medal at the 2003 Pan American Games.

FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS

Bianco's winning ways can be traced back to his playing days. After spending two seasons at Indian River (Fla.) Community College, he played two seasons for Skip Bertman at perennial national-power LSU in 1988 and 1989. He was the starting catcher and team captain for the Tigers' 1989 team that finished third at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. He homered in LSU's 6-3 win over Miami (Fla.) in the 1989 CWS to help advance the Tigers to the semifinals.

While working behind the plate for LSU, Bianco caught major league pitchers Ben McDonald, Russ Springer, Curtis Leskanic, John O'Donoghue, Chad Ogea and Paul Byrd.

His time behind the plate as a player would later benefit him as he would serve as LSU's pitching coach during three world series championship teams in the 1990s. Bianco would also work with the pitchers during his three years as head coach at McNeese State, and continues to serve in that same capacity with the Rebels.

OMAHA EXPERIENCE

Following his playing career, he joined Jim Wells' (current head coach at Alabama) coaching staff at Northwestern State, where he served two seasons from 1991-1992 as a graduate assistant. He helped coach Northwestern State to a 1991 Southland Conference (SLC) championship and an appearance in the 1991 NCAA South I Regional.

He then returned to Baton Rouge where he joined Bertman's staff at LSU. In five seasons at LSU from 1993-1997, the Tigers advanced to the College World Series four times and claimed three national championships. LSU also won three Southeastern Conference crowns and two SEC Tournament titles in that five-year span.

After the Tigers' 1997 College World Series title run, Bianco was named the head coach at McNeese State in July of that year.

BIANCO EARNS FIRST HEAD COACHING OPPORTUNITY

After seven seasons as an assistant at Northwestern (La.) State and LSU, Bianco received his first head coaching opportunity, taking over the reins of McNeese State.

He quickly displayed his abilities to develop a competitive program. In his first season with the Cowboys in 1998, he engineered an 11-game improvement from 1997, posting a 30-26 record -- the first of three 30-win seasons. The 1998 season also saw the Cowboys rise to third in the conference standings and qualify for the SLC Tournament.

Following a 31-25 campaign in 1999, Bianco's 2000 team produced one of the most successful seasons in McNeese State history. The Cowboys finished 39-20, including winning a school-record 20 SLC games en route to claiming their first conference title since 1988, and making their third-ever appearance in the NCAA Regionals. In recognition, Bianco was named the SLC's Coach of the Year.

Bianco's 2000 McNeese State team raked in the individual postseason awards. Four Cowboys were named to the SLC's first team, including the conference's Hitter and Newcomer of the Year in Chris Williamson, and the SLC's Pitcher of the Year in Chris Howay.

Power hitting was the Cowboys' trademark under Bianco, as they hit 212 home runs in his three seasons, including a school-record 81 in 1999. His 2000 team batted .305 and set a new school standard for hits in a season with 600.

COACHED 11 MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS

In his 16 years as either an assistant or head coach at Northwestern State, LSU, McNeese State and Ole Miss, Bianco has coached 75 players who have gone on to sign professional contracts, including 34 pitchers. Among those 75 players, 11 have made Major League rosters, including current San Francisco Giants' right-hander Kurt Ainsworth, Cleveland Indians' first baseman Ben Broussard and Chicago Cubs' second baseman Todd Walker. Most recently, T.J. Beam made the roster with the New York Yankees.

In addition to Ainsworth, Bianco has coached five other pitchers who have appeared in the Major Leagues.

In his five years at Ole Miss, Bianco has coached nine pitchers that have gone on to the professional ranks. Last year, five pitchers were selected in the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, including Stephen Head, Mark Holliman, Eric Fowler, Matt Maloney and Anthony Cupps.

Bianco has also tutored nine catchers that have gone on to sign professional contracts. Last year, catcher Barry Gunther was selected in the 31st round by Florida Marlins and former Rebel Xan Barksdale signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Braves a year earlier.

PERSONAL BACKGROUND

Bianco, 38, was born May 3, 1967, and is a native of Seminole, Fla. He is married to the former Camille Marquette, and the couple has five children: sons, Michael (10), Benjamin (7), Andrew (6), and Samuel (4), and one daughter, Catherine (2).

Bianco was inducted into the Indian River Community College Hall of Fame in 2003.