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Does anyone know why Penn State Baseball is doing soooo poorly? This year they are 8-25 and have been swept their last 4 3 game series'. They are currently 1-14 in their last 15 games. Last season was not much better as they posted an 18-37 record. They have such a great facility and such name recognition it would seem that recruiting would not be too hard as compared to other northeast and midwest schools. What's going on with baseball in happy valley?

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It's tough to see a Penn State team in any sport being last in their conference, right? This is not the only year they have struggled as in 3 of the last 4 years they have not won 20 games. This year so far, is even worse than those. Does anyone care about baseball at Penn State. How can the athletic department let such poor performance continue? At this point why would any strong players go to that school?

 

No idea what is going on with their program, but I do have an odd personal anecodote re: PSU.  The RC emailed my son (2019) literally as we were leaving a showcase last summer that finished up in the evening (under the lights).  My son called the RC’s mobile number (as the RC requested) and also replied to the email.   Alas, the RC never replied - in any way, ever!  Just silence LOL.  It was one of the more bizarre things in his recruiting journey so far.  Not a big deal – mistakes happen, emails and phone calls get missed, etc. -- but we had to wonder, maybe that is some type of indication of their program?  It probably is not fair, but that was the perception we were left with... 

They are invisible on the West Coast regarding recruiting.  Lot's of kids have parents and family from back east who attended Penn State and/or would love to see their kids attend, but it's very difficult when Penn State isn't around.  Someone said the coaches recruit the players (not the other way around) and they are clearly recruiting in the northeast, so I guess they are reaping what they sow.

 When i see this post and take a look at the last 2.5 years of baseball there i cannot help but think about the relief i feel when i think back to my son decommitting from there back in 2014. We were culpable for the early mistake of committing....eager and impatient early in the process... flying blind really.  I see they have had some changes in the staff, I hope Cooper gets it turned around. Great school and largest alum network from what i recall but cold AF in the winter.

Very interesting comments about Penn State baseball and RC. My son played for coach Cooper his first year at Wright State, it was also my son's first year at Wright State. He did not have a good experience being there with coach Copper. My son was a starter during coach Copper's first year at Wright State, hit second or third in the batting order and ended the season with a .306 batting average which got him newcomer of the year awards from the conference as well as 1 of 2 major team awards at the end of year banquet. He was so disappointed in some of the things coach did that he moved on to play baseball at other places after his experience at Wright State so as to not have to play for coach Copper any longer. He even got to play  pro baseball for a couple of years after graduation. It would be inappropriate to go into details of the exact problems that we had with the coach but it is not surprising to us that Penn State is struggling with him at the helm.

Does anyone else have experiences or opinions (good or bad) that they would like to share?

Upstate Dad posted:

Some northern teams do very well and each year many players from these schools get drafted. Very few quality programs go 1-14 in conference right? Why is Penn State doing particularly poorly relative to their northern competition?

Boston College (13-26/5-16) has the same problem in the ACC. For the most anyone who can leave the weather does so. The year Vanderbilt won the CWS their #1, #2, closer and cleanup hitter were all from Massachusetts. There were other players from the state sprinkled around the ACC. Imagine if BC could keep these players in state and keep other New Englanders in the region.

Last edited by RJM

The next wave of northern school success will come from indoor domed stadiums.  That might be 10-20 years away and will be difficult to justify the cost.  

Even then, say Michigan (or Penn State) has an indoor domed stadium, you still have to convince a top flight recruit to play nearly half their conference games in cold weather, as opposed to playing in the SEC

Even a relatively warmer climate school like Louisville in the ACC has a challenge convincing kids from the south to play colder weather road games vs BC etc as opposed to playing in the SEC

but none of that explains Penn State's failures as compared to Minnesota/Indiana etc

3and2Fastball posted:

The next wave of northern school success will come from indoor domed stadiums.  That might be 10-20 years away and will be difficult to justify the cost.  

Even then, say Michigan (or Penn State) has an indoor domed stadium, you still have to convince a top flight recruit to play nearly half their conference games in cold weather, as opposed to playing in the SEC

Even a relatively warmer climate school like Louisville in the ACC has a challenge convincing kids from the south to play colder weather road games vs BC etc as opposed to playing in the SEC

but none of that explains Penn State's failures as compared to Minnesota/Indiana etc

It’s a lot warmer in Bloomington in the spring than State College. Bloomington is less than 100 miles north of Louisville. State College is only 200 miles from Niagra Falls, Ontario. While Penn State is a quality Big Ten college a degeee from Michigan is on another level. 

Last edited by RJM

It seems to me that it should be a lot easier to recruit talent to Penn State than Ithaca, NY right? Not only is the weather better in PA than upstate NY but Cornell is an Ivy league school and the pool of baseball talent is much more restrictive due to their highest admission standards.  Yet this year Penn State lost to Cornell University too!  All things considered, anyone think this coaching staff is doing a good job? Are there any other examples that may lead you to conclude that Penn State is or is not the place for a good baseball player to go?

Qhead posted:

No idea what is going on with their program, but I do have an odd personal anecodote re: PSU.  The RC emailed my son (2019) literally as we were leaving a showcase last summer that finished up in the evening (under the lights).  My son called the RC’s mobile number (as the RC requested) and also replied to the email.   Alas, the RC never replied - in any way, ever!  Just silence LOL.  It was one of the more bizarre things in his recruiting journey so far.  Not a big deal – mistakes happen, emails and phone calls get missed, etc. -- but we had to wonder, maybe that is some type of indication of their program?  It probably is not fair, but that was the perception we were left with... 

My 2018 experience the same lack of communication from PSU RC.  Even after PSU followed 2018 on one of the recruiting services, all e-mails were ignored (didn't even get a generic invite to come to their camp).  Points to one of many signs of a poorly run program.  Changes are clearly needed.

So far we have a couple of reports of poor followup in the recruiting process, inability to keep a proven .300 hitter in the program, and a multi-year series of poor season long win loss records at the Penn State baseball program.

Let's hear from more people with good and bad experiences in happy valley baseball. I think this is all great information for anyone considering going there and having baseball as part of their college experience.

At one point Robbie Wine was brought in to pump up the program. He infused the team with JuCo players for quick improvement. Even so, he only had four winning seasons in nine hears before resigning. Theyve been bad since he left. They have nice facilities. Bad weather is an issue.

I’s guessing there’s more going on that is a negative. Maybe its lack of interest. In the PSU baseball articles I found online about Wine leaving i couldn't find one comment positive or negative. 

Last edited by RJM

Unfortunately like some have mentioned above, all signs point to poor communication.

4 teammates of ours (RHP/LHP/C/CF) went up to a camp at PSU, which had 120+ players (not sure if this is a lot or the norm for a college camp). After the camp each talked to a coach and were asked to follow up. LHP was told to call the RC, schedule a visit, and see a game once football season started. Didn't return texts, calls, emails. RHP was asked for fall schedule and to let them know when he was pitching in Ft. Meyers WWBA. None of the coaches showed up, kid gave up 2 hits over 7 and hits 92, within the next two weeks was committed to a rival of theirs. The other two were not even looked at. All four ended up committing to D1 schools, 3 of them to top Big 10 schools, the other to an ACC. I heard the HC was not even at the camp for the final day (live games). 

School wise Penn State has a beautiful campus, great tradition, and belongs to a P5 conference. They are elite (top 10) in football, volleyball, hockey, lacrosse, wrestling, and soccer. There is no reason for them to be a Big 10 bottom feeder. Kids from PA dream of going to school and playing sports there. The same can't be said for Illinois, Purdue, and Maryland. Those schools have been doing much better than PSU. My guess for all this would be the guys recruiting. You have the campus, a 7,000 seat AA stadium, and a national identity. Baseball down south will always be better, but even Rutgers, Mich St, and Purdue have made steady improvements for the past 3 years. Something needs to happen and I'm hoping it does. Always have to root for my northern schools to be in the mix. 

Also while weather does play a factor it is not everything. PA will get more snow than Indiana, Illinois, and Nebraska, but the temperatures are essentially all the same across the Big 10. Essentially 5-30 degrees until late march, thats usually true from Iowa across to Rutgers. In general this is why the Big 10 is not as strong as the other power 5 conferences. Big 10 recruiting is harder but even within the conference PSU is weak. 

With a school like BC, while the weather does suck 8 months a year, it doesn't help when the baseball field is used as a parking lot during football season. They have some other problems aside from weather, but the new stadium should help a lot. 

Very interesting and informative post PABASEBALL! I think you are right. The current HC has been there long enough so that every single player on the team is one he has brought in. There can be no excuses. So much of winning at any level above HS is recruiting. You just have to have the highest level talent to win consistently. You have brought up 2 faults that I believe to be true. The first is the lack of ability to identify talent that would help Penn State win. It seems you have examples of excellent players that were largely ignored by PS coaches. The second point, and it has been made before, is less than appropriate communication and ignoring people that deserved better treatment.

As I said before, my son played for a full year for Coach Cooper as a starter and we can agree that our opinion is both of your points play out an a continual basis to players on the team.  My considered opinion based upon being part of a Cooper led program for a year and seeing the performance of Penn State over the last 4 years is that he has problems assessing talent, and when you look at the hitting statistics it appears that batting assessments are particularly troubling. For example this year his hitters are doing over 60 points worse than the hitters on the teams they face. A .218 team batting average just doesn't make for winning and it would seem appropriate to point a finger at the person who is responsible for bringing those players in, right? I am sure the players are trying as hard as they can but they simply are not rising above the level of competition they are facing.

Shouldn't the fans and alumni of Penn State expect better than the way their baseball team has performed over the last 4.5 years? Lets hear form some people who have ballplayers that are considering going to play baseball on this team. Why would you want to go here? What other options do you have? Why would you chose or not chose Penn State to play for?

PABaseball posted:

Also while weather does play a factor it is not everything. PA will get more snow than Indiana, Illinois, and Nebraska, but the temperatures are essentially all the same across the Big 10. Essentially 5-30 degrees until late march, thats usually true from Iowa across to Rutgers. In general this is why the Big 10 is not as strong as the other power 5 conferences. Big 10 recruiting is harder but even within the conference PSU is weak. 

With a school like BC, while the weather does suck 8 months a year, it doesn't help when the baseball field is used as a parking lot during football season. They have some other problems aside from weather, but the new stadium should help a lot. 

The average March and April temperature at PSU and BC is the same. BC has a really nice new stadium. Playing at Penn State is just as bad as playing at BC.

Last edited by RJM

Recruiting is obviously an issue.  Comparing the PSU roster to the Michigan roster...PSU has 20 kids from PA and 1 from CA, while Michigan has 10 kids from MI and 9 from CA.  Understand that Michigan is more of a national school academically, but it's very apparent that PSU can and should be doing a lot better reaching out for talent.  There are plenty of talented kids (many from alumni) in CA that would love to play at PSU.  In the recently completed 3 game series between the two (which Michigan swept), PSU was outscored 41-14 and committed 10 errors.

It's unclear if there are budget constraints (seems doubtful), or if the coach doesn't want to expend the effort, but clearly a broader net needs to be cast to better compete in the Big 10.  Ironically, Cooper played JC ball in California.

Nice analysis AD2018.... It would seem that with such poor performance Cooper is not even getting the best 20 players from PA. 

Now the important issue is why such locals only recruiting? Penn State is a school with a national reputation. Mostly good but certainly some bad. 

So let's see , has anyone there seen a penn state recruiter at an out of state event? How about at the WWBT in Jupiter? I have been there many times but do not remember seeing them there ever. Has anyone else seen them?  Where have they gone? Are they lazy? Are there other reasons that are more understandable?

Does Penn State even care how the baseball program performs?

Upstate Dad posted:

Nice analysis AD2018.... It would seem that with such poor performance Cooper is not even getting the best 20 players from PA. 

Now the important issue is why such locals only recruiting? Penn State is a school with a national reputation. Mostly good but certainly some bad. 

So let's see , has anyone there seen a penn state recruiter at an out of state event? How about at the WWBT in Jupiter? I have been there many times but do not remember seeing them there ever. Has anyone else seen them?  Where have they gone? Are they lazy? Are there other reasons that are more understandable?

Does Penn State even care how the baseball program performs?

I have not seen them at Jupiter or LakePoint, and certainly not AZ or anywhere in CA.  PSU needs to figure out what Michigan already has - there are thousands of really good players in CA, probably better than are on their roster, but only about 300 spots each year at California D1s.  People can say it's cold, etc but if you want to play D1 baseball, B1G is a big draw.  Lot's of kids from Southern California go to Utah, BYU, Air Force, Army and other cold places that cast a wider net.  PSU could successfully recruit here but they have to make the effort.

Upstate Dad posted:

Nice analysis AD2018.... It would seem that with such poor performance Cooper is not even getting the best 20 players from PA. 

Now the important issue is why such locals only recruiting? Penn State is a school with a national reputation. Mostly good but certainly some bad. 

So let's see , has anyone there seen a penn state recruiter at an out of state event? How about at the WWBT in Jupiter? I have been there many times but do not remember seeing them there ever. Has anyone else seen them?  Where have they gone? Are they lazy? Are there other reasons that are more understandable?

Does Penn State even care how the baseball program performs?

he isn't getting the best 50 either. they are an afterthought to many recruits.

Personally I wouldn't bet on them winning 7 game series vs West Chester a D2 PA state school who won the NCAA last year.  

My 2017 from SoCal attended most of the main showcases and tournaments in California and Arizona in his efforts to play college baseball and never once was Penn State at any of them.  From Stanford to Headfirst to Showball to the Arizona Junior and Senior Classics, never once was a Penn State coach there.  Almost every other Big Ten school was at one or more of them, as were many other schools from NE states. 

Clicking on the AZ Senior Fall Classis from 2017, there are over 100 schools that attended, including many D2, D3 and JCs, but no Penn State.  Beloit College?  Yes, they were there, which helps explains how they get kids from CA and TX.  And my son has friends from SoCal who are playing at schools like Valpo and St. Louis, so they must be doing something to get kids to go to those programs.

Penn State is a great example where a kid can get too hung up on playing "D1" baseball.  I agree with Old School, I think West Chester as a D2 is definitely the better option if a kid wants to stay in PA and play college baseball.  And there are some excellent academic schools in the area as D3s that are also better options.  Pretty amazing when you think about what Penn State should be able to offer but obviously does not.

Very enlightening to us all Backstop22! I hope Penn State administration is listening to the thread. There certainly is a pattern presented by multiple posters that shows major weaknesses in recruiting which has led to poor performance. Poor communication teamed with non appearances at major high school events seem like a recipe for failure. If Penn State cares about baseball it would seem that changes need to be made, right? 

I think it's time for someone from Penn State to jump in here and let us know what's going on there that has prevented them from doing what it takes to win.

Meanwhile it would seem that the best players would be smart to avoid commiting to join a program that has not proven to be competitive.

 

 

 

 

Being from Ohio, and if baseball was excluded from the picture, I'd say Penn State would be as much of a draw as a school as most of the other B1G schools.  The school is big, has a great college "atmosphere" and also have 100K plus for football Saturday's in the Fall.  For a midwest kid considering schools for baseball, I'm not sure why Penn State couldn't get the same kids that schools like Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Rutgers & Minnesota are getting...and PSU is quite a bit behind all of those schools right now as far as baseball is concerned.  Cooper won at Wright State....regularly being much bigger and better schools, so he obviously could recruit.  Not sure why things haven't gone better since he took over PSU.   NE Ohio has some good HS baseball....heck, just recruiting Cleveland and NE Ohio alone (PSU is only about 2 hours away) would get them some pretty good talent.

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