UM Article on Bakich leaving

Jun 16, 2022, 1:20 PM

Column: Future of U-M baseball program up to Manuel

Brandon Justice • Maize&BlueReview
Senior Editor
@BrandonJustice_
"That was a fun ten years, wasn't it?"

After ten years, Michigan baseball lost Erik Bakich, the head coach who built the program from a regional bottom-feeder to a national contender and College World Series finalist.

Bakich, a California native who played his baseball at East Carolina, is returning to Clemson, the school that gave him his first coaching gig, to be its next head coach for an annual salary of $1 million-plus.

How did we get here?

Two months ago, U-M decided it was moving on from pitching coach Steve Merriman after the season. During the regular season, the Wolverines struggled mightily on the mound, ranking 236th in team ERA. It was a historically bad season for the pitchers as the prolific offense was the only thing keeping this team's record above water.

Of course, Bakich, known for his ability to coach in the postseason, took this team on one final run before his curtain call.

With its backs against the wall in the final regular-season series at home against second-place Rutgers, Michigan had to take two to lock a spot in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Wolverines won the series, turned that into an improbable run, and won the Big Ten Tournament, fittingly by beating Rutgers and, in doing so, knocking them out of the NCAA Tournament.

Then the team who gave up double-digit runs almost regularly in the second half of the season finally got some support from their arms, going 2-0 in the regional, needing only one win to advance to a super regional after nearly missing the NCAA Tournament.

Unfortunately, Michigan ran out of gas while simultaneously getting hosed by the umpires and losing to Louisville twice in the regional final.

And that, unknowingly, marked the end of the Bakich era in Ann Arbor.

Following the season, U-M removed Merriman's name from the website, concluding his time at U-M.

Then, we reported that volunteer assistant coach Brandon Inge wouldn't return in 2023 as he steps away from college coaching.

Shortly after that, we broke the news that Bakich, who was at East Carolina last weekend to support his alma mater and talk to Clemson, accepted an offer from the Tigers.

Along with Bakich, associate head coach Nick Schnabel is joining him, and he's the guy who's been running point in recruiting at U-M.

What this staff leaves behind is the best incoming recruiting class it ever had in Ann Arbor, including in-state draft prospects slotted as starters next season in Nolan Schubart (1B/RF LHH) and Jack Crighton (3B, RHH) out of Orchard Lake St. Mary's, the No. 1 prep baseball team in the country.

Multiple sources across the baseball world indicated that Bakich and his staff are pushing to bring those two to Clemson. Until Michigan figures out who its next head coach will be, the word is that could end up a "most likely" scenario.

On top of those two, U-M baseball parents reached out to M&BR and said there would be an "exodus" if athletic director Warde Manuel didn't make the right hire.

And while I find that to be overzealous and an overreaction, I'm not positive Michigan as an institution or fan base realized what it had in Bakich. He is unequivocally a top-five coach in college baseball. He made Michigan a nationally relevant program, won two Big Ten Tournaments, and took U-M to its first College World Series since 1984.

In ten seasons under Bakich, Michigan never had a losing record.

What he did in Ann Arbor was historical to the program and college baseball. The last time a Big Ten team went to the CWS final before Michigan's run in 2019 was Ohio State ... in 1963!

So the reality is, whoever U-M brings in is a downgrade. Don't compare whoever the hire is to Bakich. Michigan was spoiled to have him. However, whoever they choose will be telling about how much Manuel values his baseball program.

In the aftermath of Bakich leaving, sources told me that the head coach was pushing for developmental tools and facility upgrades "to compete at a national level," but Manuel wouldn't accommodate.

"The coaching staff said they wanted to take the next step. They wanted to win nationally and needed the developmental tools to do that, considering no northern schools will ever recruit the south's top talents. That was their next step."

This program can't compete with the weather down south but can compete with its facilities. But, according to a source, the lack of support only aided Clemson in the head coach's decision.

This staff, Bakich & Schnabel specifically, believes it's capable of winning national championships, and they wanted to do it somewhere where the athletic department supported that motive.

We know Michigan isn't a baseball school. Bakich made the program as relevant as it could be by developing the talent in front of him. And while they've always recruited exceptionally well compared to the rest of the Big Ten, player development set them apart. When they wanted to take the next step, the institution wouldn't let them, according to a source.

In reality, Michigan had no business keeping Bakich as long as it did. He should be in the south coaching premier college baseball. According to the RPI, the Big Ten was the 11th-best conference in the country in college baseball this year. The ACC was third.

Why is a top-five head coach in the sport in the Big Ten?

Clemson shouldn't have had to say much. It's a night-and-day job compared to U-M. But the reputation Bakich built for this program was otherworldly and thought to be #### near impossible when he took the job.

So, now what?

What happens next will change the future of Michigan baseball in the long term.

Does Warde Manuel want this program to be a regionally relevant team who competes in the Big Ten? Or a regular contender in the conference and the NCAA Tournament?

Bakich built it into the latter, but whoever Manuel hires next will decide if it stays there, ascends, or regresses the program back into midwest mediocrity.

The easy answer is Tigers' pitching coach Chris Fetter, according to sources inside the program, incoming recruits, and college baseball coaching circles. The chances of having continuity in both the recruiting class and current roster maximize if Fetter, a former player who worked under Bakich at U-M from 2017-to-2020, is the lead man in the dugout. He has the most connections to this roster and recruiting class since he coached and recruited them.

According to sources, hiring Fetter, who is at the very least interested, will take serious money. It won't take Bakich money, but it'll be more than just about any realistic candidate.

He'll also need help building his staff, and Manuel wouldn't budge in raising Bakich's assistant salary pool. Will it be enough for Fetter to construct a staff that can recruit and develops effectively? Without it, it wouldn't make sense for him to leave his professional post for an underfunded college head coaching job.

Ultimately, can Manuel sell Fetter, considered a future professional manager by most within baseball, to return to his alma mater as its next head coach?

"I'm not sure he would leave the pros, but I know if there's a job he would leave it for, it's to be the head coach at the University of Michigan."

Other options include Central Michigan head coach Jordan Bischel, who recruits well at CMU and wins many ball games, leading the Chippewas to numerous NCAA Tournaments in his short time. However, can he develop? And can he recruit nationally?

In the MAC, the 25th-ranked conference in the country, you can win by recruiting talent alone. That doesn't play in the Big Ten. Bischel would be taking an enormous step going from a winnable conference and one of the worst mid-major conferences in the sport to a power five, albeit the worst.

But he won't cost much, and he'll be well received because of the surface-level statistic of the number of games he's won at CMU and Northwood before that.

However, will he push the needle? Will Michigan stay nationally relevant?

"I don't think Bischel is a fit at all at Michigan. He's good at doing more with less. He's a very good coach. Players love him. But he's never had to recruit nationally. And you HAVE to at Michigan," a prominent college baseball source told me.

Ultimately, this is a fork in the road for Manuel and the baseball program. You make the right hire, right the ship, keep a historic recruiting class, a roster with a ton of talent returning, and keep this thing going.

You don't value it, can't sell the candidates capable of this job to take it, or make an easy hire, and who knows where this goes?

It's going to take careful consideration, vetting from college baseball people, not U-M people, and the appropriate amount of funding to make a college baseball coach want this job in the first place.

Otherwise, we're witnessing the beginning of what's going to be a long-term decline for the Michigan baseball program.

What's next is entirely up to who Manuel decides to don as its next leader.

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UM Article on Bakich leaving

Re: UM Article on Bakich leaving

Great article. Thx for posting. It'll be interesting to watch

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Thanks for sharing***

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Re: UM Article on Bakich leaving

Good read. Go Tiguhs!***

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