New softball coach

I agree with the need to completely rebuild, but we do have some really good players on the roster. A good softball coach should be competing for world series visits by year 3. The state of Texas has unbelievable talent pool and with a good hire combined with existing facilities we would be an immediate draw for elite talent. Just because we havent done squat in the post season doesnt mean things are completely bleak.
Agree 3 years is the target with being competitive with ou the yardstick.
 
The more I think about it, the more I think some up-and-comer should be chomping on the bit for a job like Texas. What does a coach need?
1) Commitment from the school - check. UT admin has always supported the program
2) A good recruiting pool - check. National name recognition and strong Texas club softball
3) Strong fan support - check.

But, making sure it's not someone out of their depth that drives the program into the ground trying to show how good of a coach they think they are!
 
I agree with the need to completely rebuild, but we do have some really good players on the roster. A good softball coach should be competing for world series visits by year 3. The state of Texas has unbelievable talent pool and with a good hire combined with existing facilities we would be an immediate draw for elite talent. Just because we havent done squat in the post season doesnt mean things are completely bleak.
I agree with you that we have "a few" good players but absolutely no elite pitching that could take us to the CWS in the immediate future. And to say "we would be an immediate draw for elite talent" is at best a long term possibility. Our Super Star Freshman Janae Jefferson committed to Texas as a Freshman in 2014. The number one player in the nation for the 2020 class is Jayda Coleman (from the Colony in the DFW area by the way) and she committed to Oklahoma as an 8th grader. This is the standard in College Softball. So what I am saying is that today's elite 2018 8th graders and freshmen are already committed to the top programs and this is the recruiting class of 2022-23. Unless our new Coach is able to do some top level Poaching of players it is going to be much longer than "by year 3" to build a top program at Texas. Could this be a deterrent to getting an existing top Coach from another program to come to Texas? Who ever CdC hires will be facing a long term challenge to repair the mess Connie Clark left. I hope for the best. Texas should have our teams in every sport at the most elite level and in the National contention conversation every year! I look forward to seeing the building process whoever we hire.
 
Well the weekend has come and gone and NO announcement! It's been 5 days since the article on the Oregon coach came out so the chance for that happening has probably come and gone. But CdC could be getting the approval for a big bump in salary from where Connie Clark was with Fenves and the board. I think the Oregon Coach would be a great hire. My first choice would be a female Coach but.....we need to just hire the best coach available!
CdC seems sharp enough to not let these elite Coaches just negotiate to use Texas to get a jump in salary at the school they are with now. This is what happen to Perrin when he was looking for the new baseball coach. Every elite coach he contacted turned around negotiated new deals at there existing school. I read the Arkansas and Auburn Coaches both got a huge raise in salary.
Come on CdC let's make the big splash!!
 
Well the weekend has come and gone and NO announcement! It's been 5 days since the article on the Oregon coach came out so the chance for that happening has probably come and gone. But CdC could be getting the approval for a big bump in salary from where Connie Clark was with Fenves and the board. I think the Oregon Coach would be a great hire. My first choice would be a female Coach but.....we need to just hire the best coach available!
CdC seems sharp enough to not let these elite Coaches just negotiate to use Texas to get a jump in salary at the school they are with now. This is what happen to Perrin when he was looking for the new baseball coach. Every elite coach he contacted turned around negotiated new deals at there existing school. I read the Arkansas and Auburn Coaches both got a huge raise in salary.
Come on CdC let's make the big splash!!
I've been thinking about the article about the Oregon coach. It seems to be almost a made up article to be click-bait. What I'm saying is that the author seems to have said, "Well, Texas hasn't called, but.....you never know". Well, that could be written about the FSU coach or the Alabama coach or any one of them. I thought about writing CDC or tweeting him. When I've written CDC about issues, he's been responsive. But, I figured all the competitive games he's got to (CWS) are done, and maybe he's down to negotiations with.......WHO?!?
 
Grand slam home run!

Way to go Chris Del Conte! Your statement that you want all our programs to be Top 10 is now believable.
 
What caught my eye were his comments:

Texas first contacted him less than a week ago, White said, after it had wrapped its hiring of a track and field coach. From there, he said he was sold on the Longhorns' financial commitment to softball, including a player development center that will break ground next summer and be "eye-catching" when it opens, White said.

"They are going to invest quite a bit of money in a player development area," he said. "Their facilities are just incredible. It kind of blew me away a little bit."

It was odd that he was leaving after they built a new park 3 years ago. I know that CDC is moving aggressively on building plans for the campus (he said he left TCU because he ran out of projects to work on). I've heard:
1) new player development area - I took that to mean indoor pitching area
2) plans for an building which houses an infield for both baseball and softball (obviously it can't be located near the actual stadiums due to size) - that caught my eye!
3) plans to retrofit shades over the current stadium - a godsend

Still, amazed that Oregon didn't counter-offer. Rumors (and they are just that), that his salary will be in the "range" of 4 times his current one at Oregon. That would make me leave!
 
Great hire. Still kinda shocked that he'd leave the Pac 12 to go to a conference that only has seven teams that play softball.
 
CdC is just Amazing! He is going to build Texas into the National Power it should be! In every sport! He just hired the 2 best available Coaches in the Nation to lead our Track and Softball programs. It also appears the boosters are just signing over signed blank checks to him and advising him to fill out the amount!

Mike White is a fantastic hire. He took Oregon from a no body to a power house in 3-4 years. White had agreed to a six-year contract worth $1.425 million in guaranteed salary (an average of $237,500 per year) in 2015. Texas may have well have at least doubled that in guaranteed money to get White to come to Texas.
VolHorn and Viper may well have been right about the rebuild process time being 3 years. I sure hope so! Good things to come for the Horns in Softball!
 
Great hire. Still kinda shocked that he'd leave the Pac 12 to go to a conference that only has seven teams that play softball.
Texas is a better job because of the built in recruiting in Texas as opposed to Oregon. Also, I’ve always felt that playing in the Big 12 would actually be an advantage when it came to hiring a coach. Making great money, living in a good city while only really having to consistently compete with 1 team to win your conference.
 
What caught my eye were his comments:

Texas first contacted him less than a week ago, White said, after it had wrapped its hiring of a track and field coach. From there, he said he was sold on the Longhorns' financial commitment to softball, including a player development center that will break ground next summer and be "eye-catching" when it opens, White said.

"They are going to invest quite a bit of money in a player development area," he said. "Their facilities are just incredible. It kind of blew me away a little bit."
racerx,

Where did you see those comments? I may have missed 'em, but would like to se the article/writeup if you have a link.
 
Oregon friends in LA were shocked when I sent them the article link. All wanted to know why Uncle Phil let White make the move.
 
Based on what I read recently, he actually interviewed for the Arkansas job back in 2015, and the Hawgs had zero softball success in their history. So, looking back at it now, he obviously wasn't enamored with Oregon despite them building him a state-of-the-art stadium. Oregon ended up raising his base salary to $238K (not sure from what), and he had compensation bonuses of like $100,000 depending on conference championships and advancing each weekend in the NCA tourney. Maybe he just used Arkansas to leverage a pay increase.

When word broke last week that he was having discussions with Texas, that had to tell the Oregon AD that this coach wasn't a lifer at Oregon if he was flirting with Texas three years after flirting with Arkansas. I don't think you can do that twice in 3 years and expect your AD to give you another raise; when would it stop?

So, I was confident he was looking to make a move, and CDC would get him to Texas.
 
Win!! He will make an immediate impact on this team and I will make a bet he swings a few commits to other schools our way. This is a big time hire.

:hookem:
 
Bout' time and I think an excellent choice. Discount his first 2 years rebuilding at UO he's been to the WCWS 5 out of the last 7 years. That's one of the top 3 in the country. I'll take that any day over what we had, NC or not.
 
Someone on another message board wished us luck and said, "I hope it doesn't turn out to be a hire like Gail...."

Made me think.

:(
 
Someone on another message board wished us luck and said, "I hope it doesn't turn out to be a hire like Gail...."

Made me think.

:(
Gail's mistakes were not assembling a staff who could recruit the state of Texas, and not understanding how tough it was going to be recruiting against Baylor and Texas A&M without having the Duke academic reputation as her calling card.

Mike White is a "grinder" as described by Del Conte. I get the feeling he knows how much hard work will be involved in returning Texas to the WCWS, but will create and implement a successful plan to get us there.

In women's softball, there is no required one-year sitout season like in women's hoops; so, things can be turned around quicker if he strikes it rich in the transfer market.
 

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