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Clemson baseball: Focus turns to Erik Bakich, announcement imminent?

By Marty Coleman

Clemson fans cheer on the Tigers baseball team playing South Carolina at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson Sunday, March 6, 2022.Ncaa Baseball South Carolina At Clemson
Clemson fans cheer on the Tigers baseball team playing South Carolina at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson Sunday, March 6, 2022.Ncaa Baseball South Carolina At Clemson /
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Graham Neff dials in on search for next leader of Clemson baseball.

It appears the search for a new Clemson baseball coach will end up right where we thought it would, though the route was somewhat circuitous.

Word started filtering out that Director of Athletics Graham Neff had narrowed his search and was working through the details with Michigan coach Erik Bakich on Tuesday afternoon and by late Tuesday evening the deal was all but done.

https://twitter.com/kendallrogers/status/1536895718966939648?s=21&t=27Vw5-XUQ1Xqs6Sr89k5lg

Over the last couple of weeks I’d various names and the reasons they were or weren’t going to be the next head man at Clemson.

Supposedly, one of the hold ups with Bakich was salaries for staff, but I found that inconsistent with what Neff indicated in his press conference when relieving Monte Lee of his duties when he said Clemson had the finances in place to get this right.

In between we heard Dan McDonnell of Louisville, Cliff Godwin of East Carolina and some other names, realistic and lunatic fringe.

Bakich knows and embraces Clemson’s expectations for the baseball program

Bakich of course has a history, albeit a short one, with Clemson, having served as an assistant during the 2002 season, one of the most famous in the history of the program.

Bakich also coached at Vanderbilt under Tim Corbin before becoming the head man and revitalizing a moribund Maryland program prior to moving on to Ann Arbor in 2012.

At Michigan Bakich has a 328-216 record at Michigan in 10 seasons, with 5 NCAA Tournament appearances, including a College World Series runner up finish in 2019 as the Wolverines went 50-22.

Overall Bakich is 398-314, a misleading record given the massive rebuilding job he inherited at Maryland.

For me this is an A hire: A proven, no nonsense coach with over a decade of experience at a major university that is also familiar with Clemson’s expectations.

If Link Jarrett was at the top of my wish list, Bakich wasn’t too far behind.

Next. Nathaniel Joseph decommits from Clemson. dark

Some advocated for others, but Bakich was a name that jumped off the page when it was first floated as a possibility and given that Jarrett is almost assuredly headed to FSU, I’m not sure Neff could have done better.

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