by Kendall Rogers
OMAHA The coaching carousel continues to rage on around the country, and while we take an inside look at what has happened at Texas over the past couple of weeks, along with what lies ahead, we also have the inside scoop on several openings out there, including Purdue, Army, Jacksonville, Villanova, Florida International, San Jose State and Oakland.
Whats the scoop on coaching changes and more in college baseball? Come find out.
Texas
So, how about that big elephant in the room, the Texas job? So, here we are about a week removed from when all the juicy happenings were going on in Austin. The Longhorns were trying to court UCLAs John Savage, Oregon States Pat Casey and LSUs Paul Mainieri all in a matter of 24-48 hours. Well, that plan backfired on the Longhorns as all three initially showed interest but chose to stay put. That was a calculated risk for the Horns, who frankly, should have gone ahead and offered the job to Savage, who actually tripped to Austin to check out the University of Texas campus and meet with Longhorns officials.
Now, how do things look? Well, the Longhorns are supposedly in a holding pattern, as those high up the food chain in Austin have urged the administration to tap the brakes a little bit. We do know that Houstons Todd Whitting and Tulanes David Pierce interviewed for the vacancy late last week, and neither has been offered the job. We also know theres at least some interest in Dallas Baptist head coach Dan Heefner, too, but its highly unlikely he will get the job. However, we also continue to be told the Longhorns will wait a few more days to press forward on the coaching search.
Whats that mean for the search? The Longhorns could be looking at Oklahoma States Josh Holliday, TCUs Jim Schlossnagle or Texas Techs Tim Tadlock. There are a few things wrong with that, however. For instance, sources have not listed Holliday as a viable option, Schlossnagle has agreed to a new, lucrative, deal at TCU (verbally) and Tadlock might not an option. Why, you ask? Well, the terms attached to Tadlocks contract are not that of someone who could leave Texas Tech for Texas very easily. As a matter of fact, sources referred to the contract as a mess, and filled with a lot of challenges for someone such as the Longhorns trying to pry him out of Lubbock.
No one knows where the Longhorns are headed with their coaching search at the moment, but theyre clearly in a holding pattern for a good reason. With that, we continue to be asked about Kevin OSullivans interest in the opening. OSullivan will not be going to Texas, as his new contract with the Gators has been signed, sealed and delivered.
Sources have referred to Texas athletic director Mike Perrin and his associates as incredibly nice people, but UT fans have to be sitting around wondering how the coaching search for one of the nations premier programs has gone so awry the past couple of weeks. How this baseball search has been conducted should sound some alarm bells for a school that could find itself having another football coaching search in the next year.
The Texas job is an incredible one in college baseball, and it simply shouldnt be this hard to sell that to the coaches the Longhorns have targeted.
Stay tuned on the UT search.