I don't follow college baseball very closely, so my opinion comes with a ton of caveats. When Warde hired Tracy Smith, many were surprised because he was out of baseball for a year after a failed run at Arizona State.
To be fair to the process, coaching baseball at a northern school is not the idea position for a hot coaching prospect. You want to be at a place that can play and practice year round. It's the reason
Clemson doubled the salary of Erik Bakich. Baseball at Michigan is nowhere funded like the football or basketball programs. I still don't understand why NCAA Baseball is not played more in the summer then the spring? Having a snow out, is not a good thing in a baseball season. This can make recruiting a challenge.
Warde also got turned down quickly by Michigan's top coaching prospects. So he was looking at guys like the CMU coach and Tracy who was clearly available. Tracy had a nice run at IU, which made him a hot candidate for a baseball school. ASU picked him up quickly hoping he would carry them back to the top of college baseball. That didn't happen and after 6 years and with 2 years left on his contract, ASU let him go.
Tracy did recruit well to ASU but that talent didn't translate to post season wins and there were rumors of locker room issues which made the Sun Devils make a move. When you recruit MLB talent, there can be plenty of egos in the dugout.
So lets try to answer the Risky or Safe question:
Risk:
- He is 56
- Fired a year ago for lack of post season wins and locker room issues
- Michigan's current roster has been decimated with the loss of Coach Bakich
- Was probably on the bottom of the candidate list
- Built a strong Big Ten program at IU
- Has a ton of college baseball experience
- Michigan probably didn't over pay
- Known to be a good recruiter
6 comments:
I like the Smith hire. Hopefully he learned what he did wrong in Arizona and can extrapolate from all the winning he's had in his past. The biggest plus is the recruiting. Without talent, you cannot make a steak hoagie out of horse shit.
Totally agree with the Summer season for college baseball. Too much other sports going on in the spring- NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, NFL draft, college football spring practice, etc. There is only so much time available on Sportscenter people!
Where's everyone at? Holla!
Let's get the football season started already....bored out of my mind... Sanchez PhD boy where you guys at?
💙 For life
A Philly Steak hoagie is taste delicious....
...but I digress, it seems to me that if the administration doesn't value a sport then what you get is a program that is a SDSU or the like. If Michigan's administration mishandles this NIL thing, then the football program and maybe the basketball programs, and maybe some of the other programs will all become SDSU programs.
You know the only thing worse than thinking that you're the smartest person in the room is when you're NOT the smartest person in the room. I hope Michigan gets this right.
I was watching an episode of the Voice of College Sports on Youtube and came across a recent episode with someone who is truly an expert when it comes to knowing the value of college programs. The expert is Tony Altimore @TJAltimore - Consultant, Strategist. He presents information that will help us to understand what is likely going through the minds of the B1G executives and where they maybe trending and why. After looking at this information it clarifies at least in my mind why I would want some teams and not others within my conference. Some of you guys may have seen it, and yes it's almost two hours long but well worth the watch. IMHO!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VxbJIqI06I
Voice of Reason, thank you for the input. Very interesting information, will definitely check it out!
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