Any word on who White might hire to replace Spencer ?

Since Spencer was defense, I would at which staffs had the best defense in the last couple of years, has the defensive coach as just an assistant, and not associate HC and would like a promotion for a move.
Fielding Percentage last 5 years in terms of rank:
2020: Stony Brook, Oregon, Florida, Washington, UNLV
2019: Florida, OU, Washington, Southern Ill, UNLV
2018: OU, Florida, Michigan, South Carolina, Washington
2017: Florida, Michigan, BYU, Alabama, FIU
2016: Florida, OU, Kansas, Michigan, Ole Miss

Of course, stats can be misleading as staff members may have gotten hired and moved around. But it seems that Florida, Washington, Michigan, and OU consistently know how to field.
 
racerx5908 said:
Since Spencer was defense, I would at which staffs had the best defense in the last couple of years, has the defensive coach as just an assistant, and not associate HC and would like a promotion for a move.
Fielding Percentage last 5 years in terms of rank:
2020: Stony Brook, Oregon, Florida, Washington, UNLV
2019: Florida, OU, Washington, Southern Ill, UNLV
2018: OU, Florida, Michigan, South Carolina, Washington
2017: Florida, Michigan, BYU, Alabama, FIU
2016: Florida, OU, Kansas, Michigan, Ole Miss

Of course, stats can be misleading as staff members may have gotten hired and moved around. But it seems that Florida, Washington, Michigan, and OU consistently know how to field.
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Kind of a misleading stat because most of the good recruits are going to be good a defense as well. So of course the normal top teams are going to be on there. Also the way the statisticians count so many errors as hits. Would imagine it would need to be a female for sure. I wouldn't mind Nadia Taylor possibly, she is young relatable but a little more of a hitting coach.
 
I was watching the NCAA/Facebook replay of big WCWS games from the past - specifically the rebroadcast of Texas vs Arizona that went to 12 innings where Texas squeaked out a 1-0 due to bizarre and unusually poor fielding by Arizona.

The one thing they said about multiple Texas players: "Yeah, her averages have been dropping since her first year"

That in a nutshell is what drove me crazy about the previous coaching staff. We would get elite players and each year, they wouldn't even stay even, they would devolve.
 
Anyone heard anything on the replacement for coach Spencer? It's been a month and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Mike White may be taking his time to find the perfect fit or he is struggling to find a good replacement. I do think it's the first option because Texas alone is a great selling point so it should not be hard to find a replacement who wants to come to Texas
 
Jacob Johnson said:
Anyone heard anything on the replacement for coach Spencer? It's been a month and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Mike White may be taking his time to find the perfect fit or he is struggling to find a good replacement. I do think it's the first option because Texas alone is a great selling point so it should not be hard to find a replacement who wants to come to Texas
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Texas is near and dear to us, but Head Coaches in the more high profile sports are finding quality Assistant Coaches are hard to come by. Could be the pressure to perform; could be the AC's feeling that they could not work for the HC; but the overriding scarcity of quality Ac's who want the pressure that comes with a job at Texas plus general competition for quality probably is the largest reason.
 
Jacob Johnson said:
Anyone heard anything on the replacement for coach Spencer? It's been a month and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Mike White may be taking his time to find the perfect fit or he is struggling to find a good replacement. I do think it's the first option because Texas alone is a great selling point so it should not be hard to find a replacement who wants to come to Texas
Click to expand...
I think with some programs having to make the difficult decisions to cut non-revenue programs, Mike may be biding his time as the potential pool of coaches starts growing. Few softball programs have been officially cut, but maybe schedules and travel to games are going to be severely affected by budgets as ADs and Presidents look at the returning student count and the bottom line.

Or, he's been talking to people we've never heard of like Steve Singleton!
 

Right on time! This also says she will be teaching outfielders and baserunning and instruct with hitting instructors. So who will be teaching infield? I don't know if that is part of her job or is Mike White doing that??
 
NBhornfan said:
Don't know much about the hire. Kind of odd because Chelsea Spencer hired the hitting coach from Ball State too.
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Interesting!
Either Ball State is thinking of cancelling the softball program and the coaches started looking for new jobs OR the hitting coach figured he wouldn't get promotion after his boss left.
 
NBhornfan said:
Don't know much about the hire. Kind of odd because Chelsea Spencer hired the hitting coach from Ball State too.
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Not sure you are correct saying Coach Spencer is hiring the hitting coach from Ball State. I found on June 16 she hired the Pitching coach from Tulsa who had been at Ball State the previous 2 years? Ball State will support their softball program well into the future.
 
Moooooo said:
Texas softball hires Ball State head coach away as an assistant

Click to expand...

A good article to recap why one would step down from a HC job to become an assistant, besides the obvious pay raise. This is what I thought of from the beginning, especially with smaller schools having budget crunches:

And I think broadly how our sport, just with the influx of resources at a really high level — of course, Texas has an extraordinary amount of resource.
 
Ran across this interesting nugget:
Jimmy Kolaitis to be named Arizona State assistant coach - Justin's World of Softball
Kolaitis left Oregon to be the HC at UAB after Oregon's last WCWS and before Mike White himself left Oregon, which is why Mike only came down with one full time assistant coach. Interesting that it's another HC stepping down from a smaller school to be an assistant at a bigger school. Also interesting that Mike didn't reach out to him when searching for Spencer's replacement. Then again, he does have a pretty good hitting coach now!
 
When you compare the route Spencer and Kolaitis took in trying to realize their dreams of being a head coach at a P5 conference school, it definitely worked out much better for Spencer.

Spencer remained an assistant coach for a very visible head coach (at two programs) until the "right" P5 head coaching job opened up; in this case, her Cal alma mater. This is somewhat similar to the Oklahoma assistant coach who succeeded Mike White after he left Oregon; she didn't use a non-P5 school stepping stone either; of course, she was an OU assistant (and very well paid) for like 20 years.

Kolaitis apparently took the head coaching job at UAB to be closer to either his family or that of his wife. Due to recent financial cuts at UAB which apparently affected Kolaitis and his coaching staff, he did what he needed to do from a financial standpoint. Who knows how things could have turned out for him had he remained an assistant coach under White a bit longer.

When you look at our new assistant head coach, I think she noticed the above examples. If she wants to be the head coach of a P5 conference school, being at a "visible" program will get her noticed for her contribution.

As for Kolaitis not being considered for the Texas assistant coach job (if that was truly the case), I'd say it was because Coach White knew he would be under pressure to hire a female. It would not be a good look if the entire coaching staff of a women's program was male.
 
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Another good read about Megan Bartlett and her thoughts on joining the Longhorn staff. Her husbands career seemed to have been an influence in her final decision.
 
Coach White has filled his volunteer Coach position, Courtney Gettins. And she has a New Zealand connection. Looks like a good choice!
 
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