A Sea Of Red

Joe Hudak gone after 19 years

http://winthropfans.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 5acd48b344

I guess that proves how seriously they take baseball success. How many other schools in the Big South outside Lynchburg would have canned a coach with his track record?

I'm guessing it was about way more than his record. The players down there seemed to hate him.

SuperJon wrote:I'm guessing it was about way more than his record. The players down there seemed to hate him.

Yeah, jilted feeling over his also coaching a youth baseball team.

Regardless, there's more to this...

I'm not denying that there could be more to this (I honestly don't know..I'm not too well connected)...

But I think the WU administration sees where Coastal is at, and saw that WU wasn't too far away from getting that point 5-6 years ago, but then things have gone downhill a bit...despite putting a lot of resources into the faciliites. I think all of that plays a big role too..no matter if there are other circumstances or not. I am surprised that it did happen now, I really thought they'd at least give him next year (where he would've had a pretty experienced team after only losing a small amount of seniors after this past season).

There has to be a renewed urgency department-wide. This isn't just about baseball. Both Coastal and Liberty have become better department-wide, and this could very well have been a not-so-subtle signal to every Winthrop coaching staff that medicority won't be tolerated

JK37 wrote:There has to be a renewed urgency department-wide. This isn't just about baseball. Both Coastal and Liberty have become better department-wide, and this could very well have been a not-so-subtle signal to every Winthrop coaching staff that medicority won't be tolerated

I think that attitude needs to be adopted in every department across the Big South. However, from what I've seen while reading the message boards some of Winthrop's athletic teams aren't quite as well funded as LU and CCU (i.e. the running sports), but Hudak apparently had no excuse.

Not going to lie pretty surprised by this. Its a fairly well known fact that the president @ Winthrop is a huge baseball guy. If i'm not mistaken one of the 'suites' at the new stadium is his own personal box -- but at the same time that program was built on and around hudak.

Everything that has been said is accurate though. That facility is far and away the best in the Big South and it can't be denied that top players were leaving winthrop to go elsewhere and the recruiting has suffered. In the last 3 years they lost...what....3-4 arms that went on to be contributors and were drafted @ other schools? All guys that would've been friday or saturday guys in the big south. No reason Winthrop shouldn't be an at-large every year with that building and the funding they have -- even if it is slightly behind LU/CCU.

It'll be interesting to see if McGuire gets the job -- or if it will be an outside hire.

With the bank they invested in that ballpark, I'll bet they intend to look outside. Frankly that is a very attractive gig and they should get some strong candidates applying.

JK37 wrote:

SuperJon wrote:I'm guessing it was about way more than his record. The players down there seemed to hate him.

Yeah, jilted feeling over his also coaching a youth baseball team.

Don't hate on CSER.

Winthrop ends up hiring Tom Riginos (associate head coach of Clemson) today.

Congrats on landing somebody with street cred there in the Palmetto State.