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San Jose State passed over interim coach Mark O'Brien and hired longtime Pacific-12 Conference assistant Dave Nakama as its head coach Wednesday, replacing the retired Sam Piraro.

Athletic director Gene Bleymaier, in his first coaching hire after arriving from Boise State, chose Nakama, who most recently was an assistant for three seasons at Washington after working as an assistant at Stanford (1997-98, 2002-2009). Nakama has previous head-coaching experience at Division II San Francisco State (55-109 from 1999-2001) and Mission JC in San Jose (1992-96). His Mission teams made a pair of California state JC playoff trips, and he coached Gary Matthews Jr. there.

"San Jose State always has had a very good baseball reputation," Nakama said in a statement released by the school. "I'm excited to continue this tradition and return to the Bay Area—a great place to work and live."

O'Brien, who filled Nakama's spot on Mark Marquess' Stanford staff while Nakama was at San Francisco State, had been the interim coach for the Spartans and had served as an assistant to Piraro for the previous season; he also is an alumnus of the school. O'Brien has more head coaching experience, having led Santa Clara for 10 seasons (2001-2011; 258-289, .472 winning percentage), and was considered the front-runner for the position. The Broncos program never quite broke though during O'Brien's tenure despite a new on-campus ballpark (site of California's 2011 super regional) and suffered from transfers (such as present big leaguer Jared Hughes) and turnover among his assistant coaches early in his tenure.

"It was a surprise," O'Brien said when contacted Thursday. "School started Aug. 22. The guys had started lifting; we'd had some team meetings, the normal start-of-the-year deal. It if had happened two months ago, I could understand more."

San Jose State stumbled to a 22-29 season in 2012, and the slow turnover of the coaching staff does not seem likely to help recruiting in the short term. Nakama's recruiting track record at Stanford and Washington was referenced heavily in San Jose State's official press release, but O'Brien also was involved heavily in recruiting at Santa Clara as a head coach.

Now that job falls to Nakama, who will have to hire a completely new staff as he tries to get San Jose State back to the College World Series since its surprising 2000 run.

Sickening process to name someone interim, then perform a second rate search that took 2 MONTHS to come up with Nakama???? Unbelievable!

Posted by Joe Blow | September 6, 2012 at 2:41 pm | Shortcut

There's a whiff of bile (or whine) to both Manual's report and Joe Blow's comment on the San Jose State hire.

SJSU's new AD's hire of Nakama showed he's serious about being competitive — and, hopefully, serious about baseball.

Nakama is known for tremendous recruiting success at UW and Stanford. John, your comparison of O'Brien's recruiting experience at Santa Clara is absurd. There is no comparison between the nationally-ranked recruiting classes Nakama put together and O'Brien's mediocre classes.

Let me give you an example of the difference: I placed a jr. college all-american at Washington in 2011. SJSU invited him down for a game that spring at his own expense; they lost his game tickets and ignored him during and after the game. Made him feel completely unwelcome. Two weeks later, Nakama flew him up, they made a huge impression on him and he passed up another Pac 12 visit to sign. He was one of their top offensive and defensive performers last year.

SJSU has been a second-rate program since well before I arrived in California to coach in 2005. O'Brien had every opportunity to succeed at Santa Clara (new stadium, superior academics, Bay area amenities), but failed. He's known as a very nice guy who can't build a winner.

Bleimeyer was right to seek out Nakama, a hire which was recognized in the coaching world as a coup. Nakama will be wise to clean house at SJSU. He'll be competitive in 3 years — which is something Piraro hasn't been for almost a decade.

Posted by fredj | September 7, 2012 at 6:47 pm | Shortcut

I think it's awesome. O'B had his chance. Karma's a *****

Posted by Joe Blow 2 | September 11, 2012 at 12:50 am | Shortcut

Playing at Stanford University from the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2004, I had the great priveledge of playing for both of these wonderful coaches.
I was recruited heavily by Coach Marquess, O'B, and Coach Stotz. I do have to say that all of these coaches were absolutely a joy to play for and really helped in my development.
Coach Nakama is also a first class coach and really knows his stuff. I congradulate Coach Nakama on his hire, but I sure do hope Coach O'Brien has another opportunity. Both are quality individuals that deeply care for their players and are great baseball people. Best of luck to both of them.
Brian Hall

Posted by Brian Hall | January 9, 2013 at 2:04 pm | Shortcut

Congratulate***

Posted by Brian Hall | January 9, 2013 at 2:05 pm | Shortcut