I'm not up-to-date on the top coaches that might be available, but who would we like to see as the next Aggie men's baseball coach in 2027?

Come back and ask in June

Hinch

When is Earley's contract actually up? I'm not convinced that any change is going to happen if a contract buyout is required.

Not sure Trev has the sack to fire him since JT is still our womens BB coach!

mvegas said:

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When is Earley's contract actually up? I'm not convinced that any change is going to happen if a contract buyout is required.

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Pretty sure they got him cheap since he had no prior head coaching experience. With that said, you can count me in for $20 towards his buyout. I'm sure there's enough people to pass the hat around to cover it.

4 yr deal for a coach with zero hc experience?
Wow

Great2BeAnAGGIE said:

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Not sure Trev has the sack to fire him since JT is still our womens BB coach!

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Forget women's basketball. Should have nothing to do with keeping or not the baseball coach.

And if I'm gonna pick one program to suck- that is going to women's basketball all day.

Great2BeAnAGGIE said:

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4 yr deal for a coach with zero hc experience?
Wow

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Kirby Smart didn't have head coaching experience when he started at Georgia. As many head coaches or first-time head coaches at big schools. It's really not that unusual.

Some work, some don't we'll have to see how the year goes.

They wouldn't fire him before the end of the year anyway or at least not much before the end of the year and then the question is who you get? There are only so many coaches out there in many of them have no intentions of leaving where they are.

It's easy to say "fire the coach" but then who do you get?

That's not my problem to solve....the AD is getting paid nearly $3M per year to figure it out

LB12Diamond said:

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Hinch

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No MLB manager is going to want to deal with recruiting and all the BS that goes with it. And talk about analytics, if Aggie fans can't handle how Earley relies upon it they'll blow a gasket with AJ.

AgRyan04 said:

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That's not my problem to solve....the AD is getting paid nearly $3M per year to figure it out

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The point is you guys act like there are just unlimited amounts of coaches out there just dying to give up their positions and come here. It's not true. It's a pretty limited pool.

Isn't about whose "problem it is".

annie88 said:

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AgRyan04 said:

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That's not my problem to solve....the AD is getting paid nearly $3M per year to figure it out

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The point is you guys act like there are just unlimited amounts of coaches out there just dying to give up their positions and come here. It's not true. It's a pretty limited pool.

Isn't about whose "problem it is".

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It is 100% the A.D.s problem. It is literally his job to figure it out.

annie88 said:

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AgRyan04 said:

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That's not my problem to solve....the AD is getting paid nearly $3M per year to figure it out

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The point is you guys act like there are just unlimited amounts of coaches out there just dying to give up their positions and come here. It's not true. It's a pretty limited pool.

Isn't about whose "problem it is".

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Dear God. Forget making excuses for cos he's. Now we are going to try to kiss after first downs about our athleticism director's job?

He's top five in AD comp. If he can't find a coach then send him back to Lincoln.

annie88 said:

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Great2BeAnAGGIE said:

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4 yr deal for a coach with zero hc experience?
Wow

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Kirby Smart didn't have head coaching experience when he started at Georgia. As many head coaches or first-time head coaches at big schools. It's really not that unusual.

Some work, some don't we'll have to see how the year goes.

They wouldn't fire him before the end of the year anyway or at least not much before the end of the year and then the question is who you get? There are only so many coaches out there in many of them have no intentions of leaving where they are.

It's easy to say "fire the coach" but then who do you get?

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Kirby Smart is a TERRIBLE analogy. Football is completely different IMHO. You see a lot of OCs and DCs become HCs and have various degrees of success because it's not 100% OJT as they have essentially completely managed 40+ kids, recruiting, developing, hiring and managing their staff etc. I would argue that OCs and DCs from big time programs have a higher success rate at running other big time programs as a HC than hiring from a "mid major" or G5/4 in football.

In basketball and baseball I think you can see more success hiring from mid-major or G5/4 established HCs……. which is likely what Trev Alberts will be starting the process on very soon.

Earley skipped a few steps. Not only did he not have head coaching experience, he wasn't even the top assistant coach. POS really put us in a tough place.

This. He was the #4 during Judas's first two years here (plus the entire time at ASU), and didn't become the #3 until the year before he took over. That was his only year as a paid assistant. I was high on Earley when we took him from ASU (esp bc of what he did with Torkelson) and I talked myself into him being the right hire given the circumstances, but it's clear he wasn't ready yet. In fact, I don't recall him ever getting any HC interviews before we interviewed him.

Ball Five said:

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This. He was the #4 during Judas's first two years here (plus the entire time at ASU), and didn't become the #3 until the year before he took over. That was his only year as a paid assistant. I was high on Earley when we took him from ASU (esp bc of what he did with Torkelson) and I talked myself into him being the right hire given the circumstances, but it's clear he wasn't ready yet. In fact, I don't recall him ever getting any HC interviews before we interviewed him.

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The 19-22 year old players hired him. Not sure how you keep your job as AD after this but it's whatever. Anyone with a brain knew this was a dumb hire and the very definition of short-sided.

chap said:

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Jarrin Jay said:

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annie88 said:

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Great2BeAnAGGIE said:

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4 yr deal for a coach with zero hc experience?
Wow

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Kirby Smart didn't have head coaching experience when he started at Georgia. As many head coaches or first-time head coaches at big schools. It's really not that unusual.

Some work, some don't we'll have to see how the year goes.

They wouldn't fire him before the end of the year anyway or at least not much before the end of the year and then the question is who you get? There are only so many coaches out there in many of them have no intentions of leaving where they are.

It's easy to say "fire the coach" but then who do you get?

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Kirby Smart is a TERRIBLE analogy. Football is completely different IMHO. You see a lot of OCs and DCs become HCs and have various degrees of success because it's not 100% OJT as they have essentially completely managed 40+ kids, recruiting, developing, hiring and managing their staff etc. I would argue that OCs and DCs from big time programs have a higher success rate at running other big time programs as a HC than hiring from a "mid major" or G5/4 in football.

In basketball and baseball I think you can see more success hiring from mid-major or G5/4 established HCs……. which is likely what Trev Alberts will be starting the process on very soon.

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it's actually a great analogy. Majority of successive P5 head coaches went from P5 assistant to P5 head coach. In baseball. I'm actually not sure about basketball. Your point may be valid for basketball.

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The quality of the analogy aside, it doesn't make any difference. Hiring HC's from "established" situations works (Schloss, Augie, etc.) and it doesn't (Horton, Lopez). Hiring mid-majors works and it doesn't. Hiring top assistants works and it doesn't. Unfortunately, we just miss a lot (across all sports).

I think Childress (assistant) at the time was probably a good hire but we just let him hang around too long with MJ-type results. Schloss was the right move for us -- at least it seemed -- until it was clear he didn't want to be here. The thought process that went into the Earley hire was, at best, incomplete. Sure, we were in an awful timing situation but we talked ourselves into thinking that if we didn't commit to Earley THAT DAY, we'd likely miss out. Not only on him but players leaving the program.

You can't run a quality program with short-term thinking. EVER. You ALWAYS do what's best for the program, even if it puts us behind in the short run. Our fear that losing Earley plus players was going to affect us negatively in 2025 -- well, how did that end up working out for us?

Finally, the days of waiting until the season are over to cut bait are LONG gone. We won't have the immediate solution this month (or next) but we need to start seeing who's willing and available. Attempting hires when you have someone in that position is unseemly, at best.

AgRyan04 said:

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https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/top-15-highest-paid-college-baseball-coaches-for-2026/

This is last year's list but he wasn't in the top 15

According to this he started at $900k last year and will get a +$50k bump each year, so he's at $950k this year. I can't imagine he's making any of the bonus incentives.

https://myaggienation.com/article_2c262cc5-101b-5254-92be-2138e56f5160.html

His buyout would be the balance of this year's salary + $1M for 2027 and $1,050,000 for 2028

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I'm not commenting on the fire or keep earley point.

But, holy crap, how do we sign a coach with zero experience at a basically guaranteed salary buyout?! Who's his agent….

Tennessee hired Elander to succeed Vitello, also without prior HC experience. Checked the deets to compare. 5 years, $1M AAV. But holy cow, if they fire him, they only owe him 25% of his remaining salary. In what world did we need to fully guarantee all of Earley's salary? Kendall is right, no school is as stupid with contracts as we are.

Hopefully Vitello stinks it up in the majors and we can hire him quick

Bingo. I was OK with giving him a shot, but there was zero reason for us not to stack the contractual deck in our favor for once.

Or Canham out of OSU