My story on the newly hired Terrapin baseball coach Erik Bakich is set to run in tomorrow’s edition of The Diamondback, but Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt has beaten me to the punch, having already checked in with Bakich.
The piece is short but solid. A lot of what Bakich told Fitt is very similar to what he said to me when I spoke to him on Sunday night, especially in regards to recruiting strategy and his description of new recruiting coordinator Dan Burton.
Burton, formerly of Austin Peay, is about as “fresh” as a coach can be having graduated from Louisville in 2008. Burton spent a season as a student assistant with the Cardinals before moving to Austin Peay to become volunteer assistant there. His hiring shows that Bakich is serious about recruiting and thinks it will be a top priority in order to rebuild the program.
“Dan is a ball of energy and reminds me a lot of myself,” Bakich said Sunday. “That was important to me, I wanted a guy who was single and would immediately hit the recruiting trail and just tirelessly work to find players for our team.”
Although Bakich will most likely get the chance to make a serious impact recruiting for the class of 2010, there are still open spots available in this year’s class. Bakich said he plans to fill those openings as soon as possible whether it means finding junior college players or more high school players.
Bakich said he is hoping to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the program and try to find some quality talent. Despite the fact that Bakich is not particularly familiar with the current players on the Terps roster, he said he doesn’t plan to “clean house”, a practice that has become all too common in college athletics.
“That’s not what I am about,” Bakich said. “There is no doubt we still have some needs and we still have some positions to fill. But we already have a team and we are going to work to make them the best players they can be, develop them to their full potential.”
Most of the players already signed with the Terps were recruited by assistant coach Jim Farr, who served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator under former head coach Terry Rupp. Farr had expressed interest in the head coaching spot a few weeks ago and said he was looking forward to finalizing the recruiting class as well.
However it now looks like he won’t get that opportunity. Bakich said he plans to hire two more coaches, a pitching coach and a volunteer assistant. He said he has a list of about five candidates for the always-important pitching coach job. But when asked whether Farr was a candidate to remain with the program, Bakich said he was most likely going to go in a different direction.
“I haven’t spoken to him,” Bakich said. “He is a well-respected coach in the area and I know he was also a candidate for the head coaching position, and for that reason I think we will try to find someone new and move on from there.”
Maybe Bakich can use his well-documented recruiting prowess to lure a big name assistant to the program as well.
Michael Lemaire is a staff writer for The Diamondback and served as the Terrapin baseball beat writer for the 2009 season. He can be reached at lemairedbk@gmail.com