Kentucky vs. Ball State (Game 3)
- Thread starter TuckyFB
- Start date
My first call is to Roger Williams at Louisville. He is their pitching coach and he has been there since Dan McDonnell arrived. Their pitching staff is consistently a top 5 pitching staff and I think in order to be a successful baseball team you have to have pitching first. Taking him, I think, helps UK and hurts Louisville, so it is a good two-fer. Not sure he wants to be a HC though.
He is a West Coast guy, so luring him would be difficult, but Andrew Checketts has done great at UC Santa Barbara and would be a great hire here.
A pie in the sky home run would be hiring Jim Schlossnagle from TCU. I doubt it would ever happen, but might as well dream big.
There are probably a ton of young assistants who can do well, but with many of them it seems that we're rolling the dice.
Pains me to say it but I would also take Louisville's pitching coach too. I don't know about Checketts and don't think Schlossnagle would leave TCU since hes been at TCU since 2004.
Yea, I imagine most of those are unlikely. Baseball doesn't have too many huge big name coaching moves that happen all that often.
UK could also go after former player Andy Green who is currently a bench coach for the Cubs. Cowgill could also be one to watch as he just got a managing job of a Double A team. If he is successful then UK could try to bring him home.
Typically though you see assistants at better schools get the shots. Like Vitello was at Arkansas, like McDonnell was at Ole Miss prior to being hired by Louisville. Mingione is in the line, but a difference is that Mingione was not an assistant all that long before UK hired him. He was at Miss State for a good long while, but I think he was a volunteer or grad assistant rather than one of the two hired assistants. So,
I wouldn't mind Andy Green, he was the manager for the Padres for 3 years and did ok.
Yea, before the Padres promoted Tatis and they actually began acting like they wanted to have a good baseball team. haha
Don't see college baseball turning to pro baseball for coaches much, probably because of salary. I'd like to see UK make at run at Matt Bragga, what he did at TN Tech his years there was remarkable. Former UK player, think he's at Rice now, he's a veteran coach who understands the ins and outs of college baseball. UK could do worse IMO. Building a new facility then putting a crappy product in it doesn't make sense.
Last edited:
My first call is to Roger Williams at Louisville. Second call is to Scott Brown from Vandy. Third call would be back to one of those guys again. Then I would think about going after Erik Bakich from Michigan.
Bragga just doesn't quite do it for me. He was at Tennessee Tech for 15 years and he had a whole lot of less than stellar years. 3 of them or so were outstanding, especially the one where he won 50+ games, but there are a whole lot of season there that leave a lot to be desired. He's been at Rice for a year and a bit... his first year he went 26-33 and he started last year 2-14 and this year he is 4-6 while playing teams that are probably right in the Rice wheelhouse.
Rice is a pretty solid baseball school and he has not really helped their recruiting to get back to where they were in the mid 2010s (30-50) and has had, or likely will have, two classes in a row outside the top 100 in recruiting.
Maybe he turns it around at Rice and I look silly, but he took a long time to get going at Tech and that makes me nervous.
Understand what you're saying and I don't expect UK to go Bragga's direction...I'm just saying UK could do worse. The tendency in college baseball is to hire young assistants from a winning program. Don't see a lot of lateral movement in college baseball. Of course, this is what UK did with the current coach. One would think, maybe I should put it as one would hope, Barnhart has a short list. And yes, I know about the contract extension....a head scratcher to be sure, but this could be a historically bad year. Hard to imagine Mingione surviving...even tho Calipari will.
Now, I want to preface this by saying this was only a rumor in 2017. D1Baseball, more importantly Kendall Rogers, said UK swung for the fences on who they offered the job to. The two names that popped up more than once was Brian O’Conner from Virginia and Dan Heefner from Dallas Baptist. Minge was not the first choice.
How alluring of a job is UK baseball is the real question. Have a nice stadium, play in a premier conference, and the state definitely has some talented players. But no history and the fan support isn’t great so not sure. I’d go after the UofL and Vandy assistant first no doubt about it though.
It’s definitely a tough job. But it’s one that comes with low risk high reward. I’ve heard a lot of experts say being the northern most school in the SEC hurts. But it hasn’t stopped Louisville. Kentucky’s issue is what you said. Not a ton of history and a small alumni base to help with that. Fan support could be there. 2017 was one of the best fan experiences I’ve seen for UK baseball. 2012 was another year where Cliff Hogan Stadium was full almost every weekend.
Yeah, that "northern most school" is just an excuse. Hasn't hurt U6, Michigan, UVA and a few others. Hell, Nashville and Vandy isn't exactly the Deep South.
The northern most school 'excuse,' held a lot more validity several years back, around 2008 I think. This was because the collegiate baseball season had no set start date. So, schools in warmer climates could start earlier and play more games while schools like Kentucky or Michigan would start later. So, when a Kentucky would play a say Mississippi State, Miss State would already be in mid-season form while UK was just starting.
So, while this has gone away and we now have a universal start date, there is still a distinct disadvantage to being a northern school. It isn't impossible to overcome, as we've seen, but it requires an amazing coach to do it.
