James Madison University

Inside Information.. Heard that one of these will be the next HC at JMU. Coach Kuhn from UVA and Mike Birkbeck from KSU. Must be a good package considering.

Had not heard of BirkBeck in consideration.  They are flying in candidates the first week of June.  Still Like Coach Sullenger from Biola for this job.

Still not sure about Sullenger, what's Biola's program like? I had not heard they were flying candidates in so soon.. Thought it would be early July because of happenings with CWS

What IF? Coach Legget of Clemson, who was just fired.. http://espn.go.com/college-spo...l-coach-jack-leggett 

Not a long term solution.

Wonder why he was released?  JMU needs a Coach that understands Program Development, recruiting and discipline. Virtually every major school within two hundred mile circle has vastly upgrade their programs.  (Except for Richmond, Wm& Mary, and ODU).  All these other schools are getting the talent we used to get.  Minimum five year turnaround.

Richmond has undergone major upgrades to their facility and program. Brought in Woodson, turfed their field. ODU now has a great hitting facility and have made incremental improvements over the past three years to their stadium. Not to mention, a very good coaching staff. Lost 2 one run games in the regionals last year and are very competitive in a multi-bid league. Their program has undergone a major upgrade in the past three or four years. 

Well.... with the CWS now decided and over, will we soon hear of an announcement?

I hope so and I also hope it is someone from Virginia --- yes I am indeed biased

I heard 7/1 announcement.  State position so current contracts go through 6/30. 

The search committee has finished its work and the decision now rests with the AD and administration.  A number of Coaches have backed out because of other considerations including Racula.  ( 6 year deal @120K).   Coach Kuhn from UVA is currently making $62000 with a considerable bump following the CWS in store.  UVA does not want to break up this team of coaches, so I think Kuhn may get a longer term deal and stay put.  I think the choices are down to about four candidates.  Whatever they decide will be an upgrade to the program.

Coach Kuhn makes considerably more than 62K.  That is his salary.  Between camp money and other revenues of Income he makes more than 3 times that number.  JMU would find it hard to put together a financial package to entice Kuhn or Mac.  Hell the volunteer at UVA makes almost 60K

Good points.  The central idea remains that it is unlikely that JMU will offer enough (or even try) to entice Coach Kuhn.  Yes he makes considerably more, but it is conceivable that his reputation might allow him to carry much of that forward to a new job.  However, the differences between Pitching Coach and Head Coach are considerable.  When to two top coaches at South Carolina left a few years ago the magic in that program vanished.  The harmony that exists within a great coaching staff is hard to maintain.  Beyond the income discussion UVA does not want to lose Coach Kuhn.

For Kuhn, think Bud Foster.  Sweet deal.  Great place to live.  And as much job security as you can have in coaching.  He can get rich, win a ton of games and have another 20+ years on his run.  It would take a bomb to get me out of that gig.

IMO He would need 1st round money to move.  There are not a lot of places that can bring that heat and JMU is not one of them.

I have no clue if it will be Kuhn, but I think some underestimate the attraction of being a head coach for most of these guys.  Kuhn is on record as saying it is not a matter of IF he gets a head coaching job, but a mater of WHEN.  He has come up just short in some previous years, apparently.  I also think it's tough to make a jump from third-in-command to head coach at an ACC-type school.  There usually will need to be a successful JMU-like gig in between.

Whoever it is, there's a long road ahead: 4 2015 commits, and 0 2016 and 2017 commits. And JUCO players are being snapped up by other programs. Hard to argue that they will be competitive before 2019.

If anyone knows of the rationale behind their recruiting "strategy," please advise. Craziest thing to pre-announce a retirement which allowed the pipeline to dry up. On the other hand, GMU, Radford, VCU, ODU, et al benefited from this.

Coach Kuhn is what, 46? It'll take about 5 years to get JMU turned around, if it gets turned around. That's a big risk that may not be tolerable for someone in their late 40's, but not as big as someone in their 30's who needs a stepping stone.

Good observations.  The elephant in the room that few have discussed is the success rate of pitching coaches as they migrate from the specialization aspects of pitching to an overall program leadership position.  Any coach from a big time program like Virginia (now)  can come in and establish the program.  But it takes a very balanced and well schooled baseball person to recruit top hitting and defensive players.  Additionally, what you don't know as a head coach invariably bites you in the "rear".  I know all the standard arguments about how we could bring in experts at the assistant coach level for hitting, defense and base-running etc., but it never seems to work that well.  When Coach Sullenger left JMU in 2011 the program had another NCAA regional appearance and 44 wins overall.  Since that time JMU has barely won 44 games in the last four years combined.  My point is that Coach Kuhn might be a great coach, but he may not be the competitive answer for JMU even if a high priced package was put together for him. 

 I haven't run the stats on the success rate of head coaches who were previously pitching coaches; but that approach is working well for UVA.

Interesting perspective.  The bolded comment caught my eye.  It would seem that a coach either has a background in pitching or hitting/fielding, so aren't all coaches equally susceptible to this blind spot?  Are you suggesting that pitching is an easier skill to delegate to an assistant than hitting?