I am not sure what to think of this hire. First off, he comes from Air Force, so that makes this extremely hard to do a comparison. Air Force has a unique recruiting system and unique requirements for enrollment. Despite those obstacles Air Force has done all right recruiting under him, including a top 50 recruiting class for 2015. On field results don't exactly impress. Air Force hasn't had a winning record since he has been there, or even broken .500. Their hitting was worse than ours last year and so was their fielding percentage. To be fair, this could be a product of those aforementioned obstacles. Still, it is hard to say. Part of me is disappointed in this hire because there is simply too much unknown. He looks like he has some promise and has done some good things in the past, but his stop at Air Force doesn't really solidify him as being an excellent assistant coach, or excellent recruiter.
I think I would have just preferred someone I could feel a bit more comfortable with. Someone like Kurt Elbin who helped VCU finished the season in the top 25, finished in the top 50 in hits, fielding %, sac bunts, and sac flies. Or maybe someone like Dan Fitzgerald from Dallas Baptist. He finished in the top 25 this year, and when he was a head coach in JUCO his team reached the JUCO world series 4 times. These two examples would be great because they open up recruiting avenues into two very good recruiting states (Texas and Virginia) and they have proven the be on winning and successful teams. Not to mention that with Fitzgerald you might also open up a bigger JUCO pipeline. So, Bicknell may end up being a good fit, and I am not writing him off, but I would have loved to have seen UK really grab a guy who I could be really confident in.
That being said, unless our ERA improves it isn't going to matter. haha
