Comments on: Maryland Hires John Szefc Away From Kansas State

By: fred4945

fred4945 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:36:59 +0000

Your final response said a mouth full.
If anyone thinks an ex-pro with a year's experience as a volunteer assistant can turn a college program around, look no further than Nebraska. With just such a guy at the helm, they finished fourth (regular season) and sixth (tournament) in the Big 10 — perhaps the 10th-14th baseball conference in D-I.
On the West Coast, Tony Gwynn is known as the coach who does less with more than anyone else in college baseball. (A top-25 recruiting class for about the last decade; no championships in rather middling conferences.)
Sprague has responded to repeated failures by firing assistants. Changing conferences won't help, either. With superb facilities and situated in recruiting heaven, he still lost 2 out of every 3 this year. Time to prepare 3 letters, Ed.
As Don Slaught, the hitting genius, says, coaching and playing are two entirely different skills. With apologies to George Bernard Shaw, few of those who "did" can teach. College coaching is much more work work than most ex-pros have a stomach for.

By: John Manuel

John Manuel — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:13:35 +0000

Andrew, we’re probably a bit late replying, but I think Eric Milton didn’t get the job because coaching is hard, and ex-big leaguers who never coached in college have a middling track record. Look at guys like Tony Gwynn, Vance Law, Ed Sprague, Sean McNally … it takes awhile to get adjusted to college ball from pro ball. Tracy Woodson’s done it at Valpo and done a nice job, but this is an Atlantic Coast Conference job with serious challenges. I think you need someone with college baseball experience beyond one season as a volunteer assistant to turn around a program like this one.

By: Andrew Kramer

Andrew Kramer — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:07:33 +0000

My comments after BTW above were meant towards those individuals disparaging Bakich, not Aaron (who does a terrific job)

By: Andrew Kramer

Andrew Kramer — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:55:58 +0000

@Aaron – Why do you think that interim coach Eric Milton wasn't given the job?
BTW: I really can't stand when a coach leaves and people start to denigrate his record. The Terps improved steadily under Bakich and were probably a win away from making the NCAAs this past year. The highlight was a comback win on the road against then number 1 ranked Florida State. The Terps record against teams making the tourney was very impressive.

By: Jason Meese

Jason Meese — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 03:32:10 +0000

The guy is from the East Coast and won at Marist which has its share of challenges. As an assistant he went to NCAA Regionals at Kansas and Kansas State which are a lot like Maryland in that they have limited resources in a league stacked with power programs. My guess is in 3-4 years Maryland will look back and be glad they hired this guy.

By: Aaron Fitt

Aaron Fitt — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 22:09:29 +0000

Chip, I think it’s a great hire. John Szefc is exactly the kind of guy Maryland should target — he’s a grinder, and he’ll really get after it on the recruiting end, and get the most out of his players.

By: Aaron Fitt

Aaron Fitt — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:53:02 +0000

I’ve got to correct you in multiple areas, Chris. First of all, our recruiting rankings come out after players set foot on campus — so the Maryland recruiting class that was ranked No. 25 in our rankings was the group that actually showed up on campus (guys like Tim Kiene, Mike Montville, David Carroll, Korey Wacker, Kyle Convissar, Tomo Delp — all guys who made significant impacts this year). And you couldn’t be more wrong about Maryland’s nonconference scheduling. This year they opened the season at UCLA, a year after opening the season at Texas. In Week 2 this year, they went down to the Keith Leclair Classic, a strong tournament every year that featured quality teams like East Carolina and Purdue this year — and Maryland went 5-1 in those two weekends. No ACC team schedules more rigorously than that.

By: Chris Stephens

Chris Stephens — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 15:45:36 +0000

I believe you overestimate Bakich's impact at Maryland. You mention he recruited well but he recruited players with the full knowledge that they would sign professionally and never step foot on campus at College Park. It was basically a gimic to boost Maryland in recruiting rankings. Additionally, Bakich scheduled weak out-of-conference opponents to boost their record. The only players who did well at Maryland and professionally were Farr's recruits, not Bakich. They needed to hire someone who would stay, and not coaches like Bakich who wanted to use Maryland as a stepping stone.

By: Jeff Kellogg

Jeff Kellogg — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:28:12 +0000

It's an outstanding hire, imo.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:28:18 +0000

Aaron, do you think this is a good hire for Maryland? I've heard some of the baseball alums from UMD are not thrilled with this hire, but on paper it sounds like a good one to me.