Thompson has been Missouri State’s hitting coach the past three years. He has indirect ties to Dave Van Horn and Wes Johnson from time at Nebraska and Dallas Baptist.
Jake Burger told me before the regional that Nate Thompson was the reason he went from being a doubles hitter to a home run hitter. He was highly complimentary of him as a coach.
When DVH called to get “permission” to talk to Thompson, I’m putting the over/under on cuss words from that curmudgeon Guttin at 8.
Only kind if joking. Went to look at his bio and it’s already gone from their website. Not sure exactly how it works, but for comparison here is Dan Enos bio from Michigan State in 2009:
http://www.msuspartans.com/sports/m-foo … 20826.html
Here is Thompson’s from earlier today:
http://missouristatebears.com/sorry.ashx
Maybe MSU is just short on server space, but I have a feeling the old curmudgeon wasn’t very happy.
I’m told by a coaching friend “that this is a fantastic hire.” The scouting report is that he’s a plus plus as a coach and a very good recruiter. His ability to improve hitters is said to be outstanding. Players will love him.
Not long ago on this site I posed the tongue-in-cheek question, “I wonder what Missouri State’s hitting coach makes”. Evidently, not enough to keep him at MSU. I really like this guy. I was impressed that MSU was hitting for average up and down their lineup. But…the thing that stood out for me is that their guys were really tough outs. It wore me out watching our pitchers battle them for an out.
Nathan Thompson is definitely going to get a hefty raise in his new position. I checked around for what I could find online. Thompson’s salary was $25K/year in 2014 at Mo St. Keith Guttin’s salary as Mo St head coach was just over $113K/yr in 2015. Tony Vitello’s 2017 salary at Arkansas was just over $183K/yr. Thompson will likely come in below Vitello (at least for now) but will definitely come in more than $25K and likely will be north of what Guttin was making at Mo St in 2015.