Scott Stricklin Staying at KSU; UPDATE: Erik Bakich Likely New U-M Baseball Coach (update3)
Posters here and elsewhere claimed that Scott Stricklin interviewed with Michigan yesterday for the baseball head coaching position, but Perfect Game blogger Kendall Rogers is now reporting that Stricklin is staying at Kent State:
BREAKING | #KentState coach Scott Stricklin has informed me that he's agreed to new terms w/ #Flashes. Will stay put. Huge for them. #MAC
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) June 26, 2012
It sounds like the old leverage-a-job-offer-into-getting-a-better-deal-where-you-are scenario.
Stricklin told me the new deal calls for significant stadium improvements. He was a top candidate at #Michigan. Big for @FlashesBaseball.
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) June 26, 2012
So, will it be Chris Sabo after all or someone else? Tom Walter, Erik Bakich, and Steve Merriman have been the other rumored candidates.
UPDATE: The word on Twitter is that Maryland head baseball coach Erik Bakich will be the new Michigan baseball coach. Tweet from Kendall Rogers:
SCOOP | All signs at this point on #Michigan gig point to #Maryland coach Erik Bakich. With Stricklin out, that'd be a nice hire. #bigten
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) June 26, 2012
As I noted in a post below, it was earlier reported that Bakich had already interviewed for the Michigan job. If Bakich is in fact hired, it will be interesting to see if he brings his pitching coach, Sean Kenny, with him from Maryland. Kenny is an Ann Arbor native and attended Pioneer and then EMU.
UPDATE2: Jeff Ermann of InsideMDSports recently tweeted this:
Rumblings about UMD baseball coach Erik Bakich and Michigan. Sources say they've offered 400k+. And per @KendallRogersPG, deal may be close.
— Jeff Ermann (@insidemdsports) June 26, 2012
Compared to the $400K+ supposedly being offered by Michigan, Bakich's current Maryland salary is just a little over $100K. He has one year left on his contract, so Maryland could offer him an extension and a better deal, but that's a pretty large gap to make up.
UPDATE3: Recent tweet from Skippers Dugout:
Been told by insider that #Maryland HC Eric Bakich has had 2nd interview with #Michigan
— Skippers Dugout (@SkippersDugout) June 27, 2012
Also this from Kendall Rogers:
I'd look for #Michigan to know one way or the other on if Erik Bakich takes the #Wolverines gig Wed. Looks good right now though. #BigTen
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) June 27, 2012
I figured Stricklin would use the Michigan offer to get what he could out of Kent State for himself, his assistants and his team. Good for him--you can't blame him for it--but very disappointing for Michigan.
Some good names still on the table, but I suspect that Brandon needs to make a move soon, if he hasn't already.
is the only big name school looking for a coach this summer; that's got to help.
The only thing that we can offer him that he can't already get at Kent State is money and name recognition. MAC and B1G are pretty much on equal footing when it comes to college baseball.
That's a significant exaggeration. The B1G is a mid-major, the MAC is a minor conference. B1G teams can and do receive at large bids to the NCAA tournament; there has never been an at large bid for the MAC. The number of major leaguers from the B1G is significantly greater than the number from the MAC. This year, the B1G was .560 in non-conference games, and the MAC was .391.
Massey's ratings had the B1G at #11 of the 30 D-1 conferences, and the MAC at #20. The B1G had 4 of the top 100 teams, and 7 of the top 150. The MAC had only 1 in the top 100 and also only 1 in the top 150--#184 Central Michigan was the second best team in the MAC. And remember, all of these numbers are for just this season, when the MAC had their best team since Ron Oestrike's EMU teams of the mid 1970s.
There is a difference between the B1G and the MAC--they are not equals--but it pales in comparison to the difference between the B1G and (say) the Pac 12, so the difference is not as clear as it could be.
Ok, maybe they're not on equal footing. But you are still able to get to a similar level coaching a MAC as a B1G team. Stricklin and Mahoney showed that. It's not a big upgrade for Sticklin - he already has an established program and he's probably not going to be able to take Michigan to higher levels than he's taken Kent St.
Yes, that much is true. Three to five years of hard work by our new coach could get Michigan back to the super regionals, but Stricklin doesn't need to go to the super regionals or even the college world series to prove anything to anybody--he has already been there, and with a higher degree of difficulty than he would have at Michigan.
It's difficult to get just the right candidate. This must be what it's like to run a football coaching search at a place like Miami (Ohio). Yes, it's a prestigious position, and a successful coach can use it either as a springboard to greatness or as a lifetime position, but nobody who has already made a name for himself is going to apply for the job.
Michigan is still one of the most financially successful athletic programs, and has tons of dollars. Dollars that we're now more willing to spend. Striklin is making $145k, and probably up for a raise. Maloney signed a deal under uber-cheap Martin that started him at that and was supposed to end around $190k. Ohio State's coach signed for $250k a couple of years ago. They're not making Saban money, so $100k a year can be a big difference, as I see Brandon, who hasn't been cheap on coaches or facilities (just bands) putting the right candidate in line with at least Ohio State. Striklin's due for a raise most likely, and home, so he can offset that some. But not all people are so set that they can say no to that much more money.
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index.ssf/2012/06/status_of_scott_stricklins_con.html
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110718/BIGRED/707189857
I don't know that Martin was really being that cheap. That $190K figure for Maloney was just base salary; he was also set to make $159K in additional compensation by year five of his contract, for a total of $349K (see this Ann Arbor News article). Which evidently is right around what Brandon is willing to pay the new coach (see my post below).
And Kent State was paying base too..as you also said the incentives put Stricklin over $200k a year, and he's going to get a raise now; at a school with a fraction of the budget. The fact alone that Brandon is offering a comparable starting salary to the end of a salary of a 5 year contract speaks of a pay bump. You don't give the guy the max salary to start, because where do you go up from there? Unless you're trying to pull in some real talent. It also speaks of the increasing market value and salary bumps in the profession over the years...but you actually have to get to the end of the contract to earn the increase, so we'll see.
I get what you're saying about the $350K being a starting point for the new coach's salary--that's a good point. But I still don't see how Martin was being cheap when Maloney got $281K in the first year of his contract back in 2008, which was a huge raise over the $98K he had been making. Under that contract, I'm sure Maloney was one of the highest-paid baseball coaches in the Big Ten.
Our baseball salaries certainly weren't anywhere near Martin's biggest penny pinching. He wasn't known for throwing money at people, but this wasn't his worst offense, you're certainly right on that. I think towards the end there Martin was a bit more willing to pay people; he just wasn't going to try and outbid people. Brandon would, if he saw significant value in raising what they have done in the past. Now maybe Stricklin isn't a guy you make the highest paid whatever (in DB's eyes) when you can get the #2 guy for a fair market value. More to the original point was that one advantage Michigan has over the Miami's of the world is that they have lots of money. If they want it, they can pay. Now, that's no guarantee still, because you could have a case like this where a guy is already making over market value for his conference; is getting a raise; and is his old school that he's already established. Because most guys in that position aren't just passing on a big pay raise, as he is....but a HUGE pay raise.
But I guess it comes down to whether you have a believe you, and Michigan, can succeed together. If you've got a job for life at Kent State you can always make up money by longevity. (Though nothing is ever guaranteed). Especially if you think you're fired at Michigan in 3 years or something. But in most situations it's got to be hard to say to your family "we'll be earning a third less than we could this year."
Well, there's always the money angle to attract a top candidate. See this:
@TigsTown @KendallRogersPG hmmm. I heard UM was willing to pay 350K+..thats a boatload of cash for a B10 baseball coach.
— mgorosh (@sportz5176) June 26, 2012
and this:
@sportz5176 @KendallRogersPG I heard similar, why the names being floated were pretty impressive. Last name I heard was Chris Sabo
— Paul Wezner (@TigsTown) June 26, 2012
I assume the $350K+ figure is base pay + additional compensation. I don't know how that compares to what coaches make in the top college baseball conferences, but Stricklin reportedly will make about $200K this season, with the bonuses he earned. So if he was offered the Michigan job, he left a lot of money on the table.
But I'm not surprised he did so, because if he continues to have success at Kent State he'll be a top candidate for just about any opening next year or the year after. On a Kent State board, there was talk of him as a possible successor to Texas's 73-year-old Augie Garrido.
another well thought out informative post.
Maybe the best way to describe the B1G is "underperforming" for the amount of potential resources -budget, population, fan support, facilities, etc---that could be thrown at baseball vs the reality and results on the field.
I know there are factors that hold back B1G bb--climate, spring road games, scholarship limits, etc but no way should the B1G and the MAC be mentioned in the same sentence even by casual fan, or rated 11th as a conference. But then Wisconsin doesn't even field a team. Or look at fan support---Nebraska, as a new member averages twice the attendance of the #2 school's turnout.
What is Barry Larkin up to these days? He always seemed to be a smart guy, and with his name recognition I'm sure he could pull in some good recruits.
If he's going to start a coaching/managing career, now seems like a good time to do it.
There was a post in a previous thread that said "I believe Barry [Larkin] is advising DB on this hire"--so it appears he's involved in the process, just not as a candidate.
Larkin is living in Orlando and I think he works once a week for ESPN's Baseball Tonight on Sundays. I can't imagine that he would have the tiniest bit of interest in the Michigan job.
a regular on ESPN's Baseball Tonight and worked for the MLB Channel and the Washington Nationals before that. My guess is that if he wanted to coach, he'd be able to get a gig with a Major League team or as a manager of a minor league team. Both of those avenues are better bets to jobs as a major league manager. I can't recall the last college coach to graduate to a major league job. Maybe Branch Rickey??? 
Erik Bakich...
At least one person on Twitter also says Bakich:
So about Michigan deciding soon.. Wolverines are set to go with Maryland's Erik Bakich. Bakich been a Terp since 2010, prior at Vandy 03-09.
— Chris Webb (@ChrisMWebb) June 26, 2012
Earlier reports said that Bakich had interviewed for the job. Also of note: his pitching coach at Maryland, Sean Kenny, is an Ann Arbor native and attended Pioneer and then EMU.
Thanks for being on top of this whole process. I hadn't looked at Maryland's assistants, and now that I have I am really impressed with Sean Kenny's bio. He's from the area, so he will have instant respect from local recruits, and he has an impressive record at Maryland as well as Pepperdine and San Diego, so he should have instant respect from any pitching prospect.
I am optimistic about Bakich and his staff; hopefully DB can make this happen.
I don't know which twitter guy to believe!!!!
Sounds like a solid hire. The pitching coach helps make it a natural fit. He may have not been in the area lately, but it's not like he doesn't know the area.
Looks like the two twitter guys are now in agreement that Bakich will be hired. I guess Skippers Dugout was fed some bad info about Sabo.
That sucks that we didn't get Stricklin. However, I wouldn't be too upset if Bakich becomes the new head coach. The pitching will take a serious lift up, especially since Kenny has been such a help to Maryland's pitching staff, it'd be nice to see what he can do with the mess at Michigan right now, I wish Sinnery had at least one more college year left in him. Just think what Kenny and Merriman could do together. Sweet that Kenny played for Eastern, and is a native of Ann Arbor. Bakich seems to be a good coach, and a great recruiter. I'm open to Bakich.
After using us for a pay raise, he can stay at Kent State for all I care.
http://annarbor.com/sports/kent-state-baseball-coach-tells-fans-hes-not…
Not offensive, but show some class.
I was just on the Uof M job board, and they had a position listed for both Head Baseball Coach and Assistant Baseball Coach, both posted today. So it seems like they are still looking for candidates and aren't too close to naming anyone yet. Also seems weird that they would have a position posted for an Assistant Coach though, wouldn't the head coach pick who he would want for an assistant coach like they do for other sports?
Employment law says that every job must be posted.
Alright, that makes sense in regards to the Asst coach then since it is a University job, even if they are not the ones filling the position. Every position has to be posted for at least a week.
What I wasn't clear on though, is that the Head Baseball coach position was posted before too, and was re-upped today. So I don't think that they were just posting it because they have their guy and are posting it for a week to be in compliance with the law before they "officially" hire someone and announce it. That tells me that maybe they were after Stricklin, but since he is staying at KSU, they are opening the search back up, and reposted the job for more candidates.
Did you notice that the head baseball coach posting has an ending date of 6/27? That position is not being posted for a full week, and I could easily see a hiring announced later this week--and from among the people who have already been interviewed. I'm almost positive that with certain positions the one-week posting requirement can be waived--basically because of an urgent need to fill the position.
According to this article: LINK, Bakich has been quoted as saying, "Patience is not a virtue of mine. We don't have any time for that shit."
I like him already.
Did Sabo officially decline? Or were reports just exaggerated? Nothing against him, but I'd much prefer a guy who has ties with the game and understands intimately what it's like to run a program.