Texas Baseball Coaching Search**Updated with David Pierce Hire**

[joeywa]

There have been some discussion on this in Burnt Ends as well as on another thread or two here.  I wanted to get this discussion located in one place.

There are probably 6-8 candidates for Texas when it comes to a new Head Coach of the baseball program.  We've had 4 head coaches since 1911.  Think about that; 4, in over 100 years of baseball.  That makes the hire one of great importance for The University. 

Here's who I think is on the list.

Pat Casey, Oregon State

Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt

Dan McDonnell, Louisville

Brian O'Connor, Virginia

Kevin O'Sullivan, Florida

John Savage, UCLA

Jim Schlossnagle, TCU

I believe the list is broken down into two parts, a top 3/4 and a second 3/4

As we have discussed, the Texas opening is going to create a lot of buzz and will rock the boat a bit in the college baseball world.  We are already seeing it happen. 

First, Tadlock at Texas Tech signed a very lucrative extension that goes through 2022 and includes a non-compete clause for teams in the Big12. 

This just happened today:

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

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And Kendall Rogers responded with:

— Twitter API (@twitterapi) November 7, 2011

!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");


As you can see, when Louisville is offering their HC over $1 million a year to lock him up for 10 years, this is becoming a high-stakes table. 

So with McDonnell off the list, what direction does Texas go?  Right now, it's anybody's guess, but I think the Horns have zeroed in on one or two and that's the focus. 

And I personally don't think McDonnell was in the top 3. 

Feel free to chime in. 

 

[Bear19]

If I recall correctly you earlier were pretty confident about O'Sullivan. You still have that opinion?

 

[joeywa]

O'Sullivan is still my #1 candidate.  Obviously things can change, but if I had to pick today, he's at the top of the list. 

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Spike Owen as our new MGR.

I know his managerial experience is limited to Class A ball, but I'm confident he knows enough to do the job well. What candidate understands the UT culture and expectations better? I'd be excited to see him in the dugout.

 

[joeywa]

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Spike Owen as our new MGR.

I know his managerial experience is limited to Class A ball, but I'm confident he knows enough to do the job well. What candidate understands the UT culture and expectations better? I'd be excited to see him in the dugout.

I don't believe he's on the radar.  While I agree with your take, I think Texas is going for a bigger fish. 

 

[utisdabomb12]

Corbin, O'Connor, O'Sullivan. 

I think those are our 3 targets. 

 

[Johnstark23]

I feel like it's Sully, Casey, Corbin, everyone else. I think you offer 1.2 or 1.3 and the first one to raise their hand in that order is your new head baseball coach. It's a once in a generation hire, literally, you don't take flying leaps.

 

[joeywa]

A little tidbit for you guys. I've seen it reported and have heard from a couple of other folks that Skip Johnson has an in-person meeting with Texas AD Mike Perrin tomorrow. I don't know the agenda, but I would have to assume it is to discuss his take on the Texas Baseball program, and hopefully (in my opinion) to discuss any possibility of staying at Texas as part of the program.

Note: this next part is 100% me speculating-

If it were me making the call, I would keep him for his pitching expertise and his recruiting connections in the state. Plus, Skip is a damn good individual and loves The University. He knows a lot of coaches across the country, (and a few of the coaching candidates that I've heard are on the short list,) and could definitely make their transition easier.

Skip would have zero trouble landing another gig, either as a pitching coach or a head coach somewhere. If things don't pan out here he will not be on the street corner begging. He is one of the most well-respected coaches in the country and has the endorsement of several former and current MLB pitchers. I have to believe that he will ultimately do what is best for The University of Texas. He loves this place.

Not really earth shattering as this process will slow to a crawl these next few weeks while the CWS is going on. I'm sure there will be lots of speculation and discussion in the meantime.

 

[Bear19]

From the outside looking in, I don't see where skip has been good for our program. Not from a results point of view.

 

[Bear19]

If he has had much say in evaluating and recruiting then he needs to go.

 

[utisdabomb12]

Skip hasn't been the problem. The problem has been hitting. We should absolutely try and keep Skip, we won't find a better pitching coach. The pitching this year wasn't great but there were a ton issues with this team.

With that said, 5 of the previous 7 years Skip had us in the top 10 in team ERA. So 5 out of the 8 previous years we've had a pretty dominant pitching staff. Like I said above, the problem has been hitting. 

If we don't keep Skip he'll be one of the best assistant coaches available in the nation. I bet there aren't many pitching coaches that fielded a top 10 staff in 5 out 8 years. 

 

[Coal Harbour]

I'm not in favor of Skip Johnson being retained as I don't like the idea of a new head coach being saddled with a pitching coach from a previous regime.  Skip may not be the main problem for the failures of the program the last few years, but he also hasn't brought about a solution either.  Time to move on and bring in new ideas across the board.

 

[J.B. TexasEx]

Yeah, I don't see how UT and Perrin insist on the new HC keeping Skip as his pitching coach.

He needs the freedom to make his own decisions.

 

[Johnstark23]

The new guy will make the call on Skip. Whoever wins the beauty contest will have full control of the staff. If he's not retained I'll bet anybody here he is the pitching coach in Lubbock next season. Tim Tadlock and him are really hid friends dating back to the junior college coaching days.

 

[joeywa]

One thing to keep in mind, while Skip was the guy out there recruiting, he was given certain criteria on recruits, and the ultimate decision on recruits was Augie's.  Augie wanted a certain type of player, and it was up to the staff to go get them.  It should not be assumed that Skip's game approach and ideology are/were the same as Augie's. 

 

[Johnstark23]

What joeywa said. Make no mistake about it, this was Augie's program.

 

[Bear19]

One thing to keep in mind, while Skip was the guy out there recruiting, he was given certain criteria on recruits, and the ultimate decision on recruits was Augie's. Augie wanted a certain type of player, and it was up to the staff to go get them. It should not be assumed that Skip's game approach and ideology are/were the same as Augie's.

What kind of criteria was Skip given that caused us to wind up with this mess of a roster? Was he told to recruit poor fielders and weak hitters?

I ain't buying it.

 

[TexExSpur]

I think the list is relatively short, as in Corbin, O'Sullivan and O'Conner...........In house candidate will be Skip.  I also think it's not much of a search and more of....We'll announce when the time is right. 

 

[joeywa]

What kind of criteria was Skip given that caused us to wind up with this mess of a roster? Was he told to recruit poor fielders and weak hitters?

I ain't buying it.

You don't have to buy it.  That's certainly your prerogative. 

If you think the kids on this team were recruited because they were poor fielders and hitters in HS/Club ball, I encourage you to go back and look at their recruiting notes.  Let me know what you see. 

Our classes ranked as follows, (based on D1Baseball.com, Collegiate Baseball News & Baseball America)

(Note, year is the actual spring baseball season, most recruiting rankings come out in Sept/Oct of the prior Fall)

2016: 21 (D1 baseball 10/2015)

2015: 7 (Collegiate Baseball News 9/2014) 11 (Baseball America 11/2014)

2014: 2 (Baseball America 10/2013) 6 (Collegiate Baseball News 9/2013)

2013: 7 (Baseball America 10/2012) 15 (Collegiate Baseball News 9/2012)

2012: 2 (Baseball America 10/2011)