San Diego State’s search for a new baseball coach brings to mind one of the legendary John Wooden’s famous quotations: “Be quick but don’t hurry.”
John David Wicker, SDSU’s director of athletics, said “I believe that a change in leadership is needed in the program” when Shaun Cole was fired last week. Wicker said a national search would begin immediately. The Aztecs must be deliberate and thorough in their search. They don’t want to rush the decision.
At the same time, a new coach needs to be determined soon.
The 30-day window for the baseball transfer portal opened on Monday, and at least eight SDSU players already have entered it. The list includes junior right-hander Marko Sipila (4-3, 3.91 ERA, 74 SO in 71 1/3 IP), the team’s No. 1 starting pitcher, and five of the team’s top six hitters — junior Nevan Noonan (.356, 9 HR, 52 RBIs), sophomores Finley Bates (.300, 23 RBIs) and Jake Jackson (.249, 4 HR, 31 RBIs) and freshmen CJ Moran (.377, 36 RBIs) and Daniel Arambula (.304, 37 RBIs).
Jackson, a Madison High School graduate, said that entering the portal allows the players to keep all of their options open.
“I would love to return to SDSU,” Jackson said. “I know me and all the other guys want to come back. We all have been talking because we are all close and we want to come back and win the Mountain West if the opportunity is there.”
SDSU plays one more year in the Mountain West before moving into the reconstituted Pac-12, so a new staff has some runway before moving into a conference that at this point would have only five baseball-playing — Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, SDSU and Washington State.
The SDSU head coaching job has long been coveted in the coaching community, but circumstances have changed.
“If you had this conversation 10 or 20 years ago, the phrase ‘sleeping giant’ I’m sure would have come up,” said Aaron Fitt, D1Baseball.com’s editor-in-chief. “Everybody has always thought that. In San Diego, there’s so much (high school) talent, there’s great weather and all the resources of a large school there. There’s a lot of things that made that an attractive job, but the landscape has shifted.
“The sport has now become so much about the NIL, revenue sharing stuff that’s coming and how many scholarships you invest.”
SDSU’s commitment to its baseball program has been lacking, and the Aztecs will need to show renewed commitment in order to attract an experienced Division I coach for the position.
When the House settlement is finalized, scholarship limits for each sport will be removed. Baseball, which has been limited to 11.7 scholarships, could offer them to everyone on the 34-man roster.
Schools will also be allowed to spread up to $20.5 million (most of it going to football) in revenue sharing with athletes across their athletic programs.
SDSU will probably be around 20% of the cap in revenue sharing, with little of that making its way to baseball. The school is not expected to have the resources to significantly increase scholarships.
“There’s going to be a lot of teams that have 34 full scholarships, and a lot of those teams aren’t going to be in the West,” Fitt said. “That’s going to shift the balance of power (In baseball, as well as other sports) even more than it is shifted toward the SEC and, to some degree, to the ACC. A state school in California no longer has the upside that it once did.”
Another challenge for SDSU is a once state-of-the-art facility that, as Fitt said, “doesn’t stand out anymore and is clearly showing its age.”
Tony Gwynn Stadium was regarded as one of the best ballparks on the West Coast in 1997, when former Padres owner John Moores funded a $4 million rebuild. It has been neglected, with much deferred maintenance.
One of the few improvements was a new videoboard put in three years ago. The rub there is SDSU has not provided the staffing required to take advantage of all the functionality featured in the new board.
“It’s definitely a lot less desirable,” Fitt said of the ballpark. “They haven’t really kept pace. Even across town, USD’s facility is beautiful.”
The Toreros’ Cunningham Stadium became Fowler Park in 2013, transformed with a $14 million donation from local businessman Ron Fowler.
The new SDSU coach will want a quality facility to show recruits, although the emphasis on ballparks has cooled.
“There’s a chance the facility arms race we’ve seen in college baseball might slow down now because all the resources are shifting toward NIL and rev sharing,” Fitt said.
There is one other challenge in attracting a new coach — salary.
A coach from outside the state is sure to have sticker shock when he sees the cost of living here. A recent Zillow study indicated that an annual income of $273,000 was required in order to comfortably afford a home in San Diego.
Former SDSU coach Mark Martinez was making $155,000 annually. Cole was believed to be making $120,000 when he was promoted two years ago to replace Martinez. If SDSU is to hire a new coach with Division I head coaching experience, then the salary will have to be increased substantially to be competitive.
Potential SDSU coaching candidates include four Division I head coaches with ties to the program — Hawaii coach Rich Hill, Santa Clara coach Rusty Filter, USD coach Brock Ungricht and Utah coach Gary Henderson.
Hill, who coached at USD for 23 years, and Filter, who was an assistant at SDSU for 16 years, both still own homes in town, so returning would not present the financial implications that it would for others. Ungricht lives locally, but his recent success at USD makes him more likely to stay put.
So where does that leave things?
“I think everyone always says they’re doing a national search,” Fitt said, “but you’re not going to get some guy from the East Coast. I’d be surprised. I think it will be a regional hire.”
