Savage Takes Over At UCLA

By John Manuel
July 2, 2004

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See Also: The Coaching Carousel

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UCLA was viewed by many in college baseball as the best available job on the market.

Thursday, UCLA came off the market, as the Bruins tabbed UC Irvine's John Savage as their new head coach. Savage follows the retiring Gary Adams, who 30 years ago also leaped from UC Irvine to UCLA after winning back-to-back Division II national championships.

"This is my third job," Savage said from his Seal Beach, Calif., home Friday morning, "and I haven't had to move yet."

Savage, a former assistant coach at Nevada and Southern California, spent three years as the Anteaters' head coach. He was hired at Irvine by current UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero, and built the Irvine program from scratch (it was resuscitated in 2002 after a decade-long hiatus) to 2004 NCAA regional team in that short time. The Anteaters went 88-84-1 in his tenure.

"It's an honor to be following in the footsteps of Gary," Savage said. "UCLA is a lifelong job. It's the kind of place where you'd like to think it will be your last job, with the tradition and prestige that goes with the university.

"It's an opportunity to attract the best players in the country, to compete in the Pac-10 as a head coach. It's an opportunity to be at a school where you can go into every household in the country and know that as UCLA, you have a legit chance of getting that kid."

Savage said upgrades to Jackie Robinson Stadium, the Bruins' home field named for their most famous alumnus, would be a top priority of the program, one he discussed with Guerrero before taking the position.

"This is an exciting day for the Bruin baseball program," Guerrero said. "John is an outstanding coach and a first-class person. He is arguably the finest developer of pitchers in the college game, and his teams swing the bat well and play fundamentally sound baseball. We are thrilled to bring him to Westwood."

Savage, 39, is a Reno, Nev., native and alumnus of Santa Clara. He gained notoriety during his tenure at USC, where he served as recruiting coordinator and pitching coach for the 1998 national champions. He was pitching coach when Barry Zito (1999) and Mark Prior (2000-2001) transferred in to play for the Trojans, and both were first-team All-Americans and first-round picks. Savage also served under Trojans head coach Mike Gillespie as an assistant coach with Team USA in 2000.

He takes over a Bruins program with a strong tradition of producing big leaguers but not big victories, earning it the dreaded "sleeping giant" label. UCLA has made 11 NCAA tournament appearances in Adams' 30 seasons and has been to the College World Series just twice--1969 (before Adams) and 1997. (UCLA went 0-2 both times.) Adams' record in 30 seasons at UCLA was 984-823-7 (.545), including 35-29 this season.

However, Adams' tenure produced 17 first-round picks, had a record 12 players drafted in 2000 and 38 players who played in the major leagues. Current UCLA alumni who played for Adams include Eric Byrnes, Jeff Conine, Troy Glaus, Eric Karros, Dave Roberts, Chase Utley, Eric Valent and Todd Zeile.