Back in March when I attended the DodgerTown Classic, I came away surprised at how far the USC baseball program had fallen. Under Kreuter's tenure they'd been a sub .500 team and I said then if they didn't do better soon, Kreuter would be on his way out. Well they had a horrible year (28-37 and 7-20 in the Pac 10) and on Monday new AD Pat Haden fired Kreuter.
Where do they go from here? The LA Times article I linked to mentioned some local coaches, but I don't see any of them leaving. Maybe Hill from USD, but unless the money is substantially better (and that's a possibility as SC being private can pay whatever as compared to the limitations of a state school), why would any of them leave their current situation? Yes, USC has tradition but still, just seems a reach for one of them to leave a current successful program in order to resurect the Trojan program.
One thing the new coach needs to do is start mining the Southern California talent. That was a noticeable difference between USC and UCLA when I looked at their rosters this spring. UCLA was something like 90% southern California kids and USC was barely 40% (see the Dodgertown write up for more details). Not a coincidence UCLA made it to the College World Series final and USC had a losing record.
Here's an idea for a coach. What about Rick Vanderhook? Current UCLA assistant coach and prior to that long time Cal State Fullerton coach. How many CWS has he been apart of??? Successful winning coach with ties to the local southern california high schools and prep programs. USC would be hard pressed to find a better guy to take over and he's currently right down the road. Here's his bio from the UCLA website:
Coach Vanderhook - With this resume and his connections, are you telling me he wouldn't be succesful at USC???
Bill
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