In College Ball, It Was The Summer Of Coaching Changes

David Pierce has been through this before. This fall, for the third time in five years, he is introducing himself to a new team, new administrators, new alumni, new neighbors.

2016 COACHING CHANGES
School	Departures	Arrivals
Alabama	Mitch Gaspard	Greg Goff
Alabama State	Mervyl Melendez	Jose Vazquez
Appalachian State	Billy Jones	Kermit Smith
Army	Matt Reid	Jim Foster
Butler	Steve Farley	Dave Schrage
Central Florida	Terry Rooney	Greg Lovelady
Florida International	Turtle Thomas	Mervyl Melendez
Furman	Ron Smith	Brett Harker
Jacksonville	Tim Montez	Chris Hayes
Kentucky	Gary Henderson	Nick Mingione
Lamar	Jim Gilligan (ret.)	Will Davis
Liberty	Jim Toman	Scott Jackson
LIU-Brooklyn	Alex Trezza	Dan Pirillo
Louisiana Tech	Greg Goff	Lane Burroughs
Maryland-Eastern Shore	John O’Neil	Charlie Goens
Missouri	Tim Jamieson	Steve Bieser
Nebraska-Omaha	Bob Herold
Northwestern State	Lane Burroughs	Bobby Barbier
Oakland	John Musachio	Jacke Heale, Colin Kaline
Purdue	Doug Schreiber	Mark Wasikowski
St. Peter’s	T.J. Baxter	Danny Ramirez
San Jose State	Dave Nakama	Jason Hawkins
South Dakota State	Dave Schrage	Rob Bishop
SIU-Edwardsville	Tony Stoecklin	Sean Lyons
Southeast Missouri State	Steve Bieser	Andy Sawyers
Texas	Augie Garrido	David Pierce
Tulane	David Pierce	Travis Jewett
Villanova	Joe Godri	Kevin Mulvey
Wright State	Greg Lovelady	Jeff Mercer
Youngstown State	Steve Gillispie	Dan Bertolini

But that hasn’t made things much easier for Pierce as he takes over as the head coach of Texas after two seasons at Tulane. No matter how many times a coach goes through the process of taking a new job, it is always difficult to meet a new group of players, recruits and support staff, all while uprooting your family and adjusting to a new home.

“Moving from New Orleans, people assume it’s easy for me because I’m coming back to Texas,” said Pierce, a Texas native who has spent nearly his entire career in the state. “But I met a lot of great people at Tulane and we were just getting settled. Two years is about what it takes with my family to get settled. It’s been tough with the moves.”

But moving is a part of being a college coach. Career advancement is often accompanied by a change in jobs, especially for head coaches.

This offseason brought more upheaval than usual. Thirty programs will have a new head coach next spring. That is 11 more changes than last offseason, and is the most new head coaches in any year since Baseball America began cataloging the coaching carousel in the Almanac in 2002. In that time, there have been an average of 23.4 new coaches every spring.
This year’s carousel saw Augie Garrido, the all-time winningest college baseball coach, step down at Texas after going 25-32 this spring. Other longtime coaches such as Jim Gilligan (Lamar), Tim Jamieson (Missouri) and Doug Schreiber (Purdue) found themselves on the way out this year. Among those moving up were young head coaches such as Greg Goff (Alabama), Greg Lovelady (Central Florida) and Mervyl Melendez (Florida International), all of whom guided their teams to the NCAA Tournament this spring. Promising assistant coaches such as Scott Jackson (Liberty), Travis Jewett (Tulane) and Mark Wasikowski (Purdue) got their first chances at being Division I head coaches.

The carousel hasn’t fully stopped yet, as Nebraska-Omaha remains under the leadership of interim head coach Evan Porter. But all the new head coaches and dozens of assistant coaches in new jobs this fall are all going through the transition process.

Dave Schrage, who was hired at Butler this summer, is in his sixth Division I head coaching job. He said the parts of the transition that happen away from the baseball field are the hardest.

“So many things behind the scenes not involved with coaching and your job you have to deal with from a family perspective – moving company, bank accounts, buying a new house, getting a mortgage – a lot of that stuff interferes with getting into your job and hitting the road recruiting right away,” he said. “Just getting to meet the people at the university and the other coaches and administrators, it always takes time to develop those relationships.”

Goff got his start as a head coach at Division II Montevallo (Ala.) and is beginning his third head coaching job in Division I as he takes over at Alabama after two years at Louisiana Tech. He said his previous experiences helped him learn what to prioritize as he settles into a new university.

“The first thing was our staff,” Goff said. “You’ve got to have great people. No matter what you know as a head coach, if you can’t find great people you’re going to be in trouble. After the staff part of it is recruiting. It doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are, if you don’t have the thoroughbreds to win the Kentucky Derby, you’re not going to win.”

This year’s hyperactive coaching carousel may end up proving to be an anomaly, brought on by a variety of factors including fewer changes last year and a cascading effect of prominent programs such as Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri and Texas all making moves in the same summer. But many coaches think this year’s activity is closer to the new normal than a one-time wonder.

Increased Prominence

Mike Martin has been Florida State’s head coach since 1980 and, with Garrido out of the business, is the winningest active coach in the country. He said the landscape of college baseball has experienced significant changes in just the last five years, let alone over the course of his career.

“I don’t think there’s any question that baseball is receiving a lot more attention now than, gosh as recently as five years ago,” he said. “From the athletic director standpoint you have the potential to make a lot of money in baseball as a result of what you’re seeing around the country in facilities. You have marketing up the program at the level now that’s the highest I can remember it. Athletic directors are expecting a lot out of the program in order to meet their input into the program.”

These developments are generally welcomed across the country. They mean fans are more engaged, bringing better facilities for the players and raising the salaries of coaches. But more attention also means more pressure to win for many coaches, and that pressure leads to coaching changes.

“It’s awesome for baseball because so many people are putting emphasis on facilities and salaries,” Goff said. “It’s a great time in baseball, but you better win.”

Bigger expectations, in turn, can cause attrition in the coaching ranks. The opening at Alabama was created when Mitch Gaspard resigned after seven seasons as head coach. In a letter to Alabama fans following his decision, Gaspard wrote “being a coach is more than just a day job. It truly is a way of life.” He joined Kansas State as associate head coach in August.

Goff said he understands the toll the stresses of coaching can cause.

“The wear and tear and demands of it all, the transition in some jobs happened because of that,” he said. “The demands and the quality of life goes down because expectations have gone up.”

Those forces aren’t limited to schools in the biggest conferences. Baseball has long had powerhouses from outside the power structure that rule football and basketball, including the juggernaut Garrido built at Cal State Fullerton. But Coastal Carolina’s national championship this year, the first in any sport by a school in the Big South Conference, showed that remains true even in the era of Power Five autonomy. That Coastal was no Cinderella on the diamond makes the lesson more widely relevant: building a baseball power does not require membership in an elite conference. As more schools realize what is possible, more raise their expectations.

“Our game has grown by leaps and bounds,” Schrage said. “With that comes higher coaches’ salaries and, especially in bigger Power Five conferences, the investment in facilities people coming to games in record numbers. That’s exciting but that’s why (the game) saw as many changes as it did. The administration wants to win and put their baseball program on the map.”

Every program that makes a coaching change has different circumstances, but Martin believes in some situations the move for a change was too hasty. Multi-year contracts are becoming much more common for baseball, a move Martin believes is crucial after working on one-year deals until he signed a three-year contract in 2009. He is currently signed through 2018.

“I didn’t have a problem with it because it’s just my nature,” he said. “But in this day and age, coaches need long-term contracts. But my nature was I started when we counted the number of baseballs we had before practice and if we didn’t have that number when it ended, we didn’t go home until we found them all. A lot has changed, and it could be that that needs to be changed in regards to coaches’ security.”

Change Still On The Horizon

Whether this year’s number of coaching changes becomes standard or not, it is a profession that inherently will have a fair amount of yearly turnover. While baseball experienced one of its largest turnovers this offseason, it still lags behind other sports in the amount of change. The 30 changes mean 10 percent of schools will have a new coach in 2017. Football (21.1), men’s basketball (14.8) and women’s basketball (15.5) all had a higher percentage of coaching changes this year.

Next year’s carousel is already spinning. Stanford coach Mark Marquess announced in June that he will retire after the 2017 season, which will be his 41st as head coach. His replacement has not been named, but many expect the job opening will cause a ripple effect. That never truly materialized with the Texas job this summer, though several prominent head coaches received contract extensions after being connected with the job.

Whoever replaces Marquess will face a challenge similar to what Pierce has at Texas, as he takes over from Garrido, one of the sport’s greatest coaches. Pierce, who also succeeded Rick Jones at Tulane, said he sees it as an opportunity.

“I never looked at it as replacing Rick Jones, I just looked at it as opportunity to come to Tulane,” Pierce said. “I’m honored to be able to follow Augie and all the great coaches here in the past. I’m honored, but it’s not intimidation. It’s a great opportunity to step in and continue traditions going on for so many years here.”

Pierce has the biggest shoes to fill of any of this year’s new head coaches, but he, and the 30 other men taking over a program this year now has an opportunity to make his own mark this spring and in the years to come.