Baseball Assistants Officially Named; DetNews Interview w/Erik Bakich
As expected, new Michigan baseball head coach Erik Bakich has officially announced the hiring of Sean Kenny and Nick Schnabel as assistant coaches. Kenny will be the pitching coach, while Schnabel has been named recruiting coordinator.
Also, Jim Russ of the Detroit News has an extensive interview with Bakich, published under the title Aggressive baseball will be trademark of Erik Bakich's Michigan program. It doesn't sound as if anyone is going to outwork Bakich, who says:
"I don't have any hobbies. I try to be the best husband and father that I can be, and outside of that I'm going to spend 100 percent of my time making sure that Michigan baseball returns to a championship level."
Only one "tremendous" from Bakich in the interview, but he did say "this is Michigan" twice.
For some further background on Bakich's decision to leave Maryland for the Michigan job, the Washington Post has an article worth reading titled Maryland looking for new baseball coach amid uncertain financial situation. The financial difficulties of Maryland's athletic department clearly played a role, and in the end Maryland wasn't able to match the deal that Michigan offered:
“There were some things that I felt like in order to advance the baseball program [at Maryland], the resources and the support would probably need to be increased a little bit,” Bakich said Thursday in a telephone interview. “I’m extremely sensitive and aware and understanding of the athletic department’s struggles, so I completely understand the decision of not being able to commit those resources at this time.”
. . .
“My family, my wife and I are extremely grateful and pleased with the commitment the [Michigan] athletic department has made to our baseball program and to our coaching staff,” Bakich added.
Michigan “put together a pretty attractive package, which we weren’t able to match. These things happen, and I’m really sorry to see Erik leave,” said Bob “Turtle” Smith, a 1963 Maryland baseball alum and one of the program’s most significant boosters.
Kenny's the one that we really wanted to come along IIRC. AA native, played at EMU, has coached at several different schools etc etc. Let's hope he can help get the instate talent to MIchigan (although the elite ones are always tough to keep away from southern or western schools or MLB). Like everything I've heard so far regarding Bakich and staff. Very excited to see how they do.
Question for someone in the know - did we keep all of our commits?
was my pitching coach at the University of San Diego for one year. He is one of the best guys in the world, and a master recruiter. He helped bring a top 25 ranked class when it had never been done at our school, and I knew from day 1 there that Michigan was his dream job. He also told me Bakich is an absolute stud. Not sure there could have been too many better options out there. These guys could be the Hokesters of baseball.
I know this staff will be better than Chris Harrison...
Harrison was just an interim coach IIRC. So I would hope so.
I like this guy. I hope they can adopt a format with college baseball with a lot more warm weather games however they can do it. If they operated this way in the pros, there would be no Yankees in New York or Tigers in Detroit. I believe college baseball could be way bigger than it is if they can bring uniformity nationwide and eliminate weather as much of a factory. The post season set-up is already the best of all the college sports, even basketball.
I really like how the baseball and softball tourneyments are run.
It all comes back to personnel. MIchigan used to routinely send players to MLB. For a couple of years in the 1980's, they had a lineup with four or five future MLB players on it. As much as it pains me to say this, the program hasn't been the same since Bud Middaugh "resigned."
Hopefully, Bakich can produce a team like Middaugh did on the field, but without a hint of impropriety off the field. That is going to involve getting talented players again. We all feel some pain when a hockey or basketball player leaves early, but at least we had them to cheer for in the first place.
Michigan's baseball program is often considered a "sleeping giant" by those who know its history. It's time for the giant to wake up.