When the Texas baseball program formally strikes to the Southeastern Convention on July 1, Longhorns head coach David Pierce received’t be coming alongside.
Pierce was fired on Monday, ending his eight-year tenure at Texas. His dismissal got here a couple of weeks after a disappointing season ended with a 10-2 loss to Louisiana on the NCAA Event’s School Station regional. In statements launched by the varsity, each Pierce and UT athletic director Chris Del Conte described the dismissal as a mutual determination.
“CDC and I met after the season and we mutually agreed that one of the best factor for this system was to go in a special route,” Pierce stated. “It’s been an honor and privilege to guide this program for the final eight years. It definitely is a time I’ll at all times cherish as a coach, and I’m so appreciative of The College of Texas for the chance.”
Wrote Del Conte: “After the season, Coach Pierce and I had a while to go to in regards to the 12 months, the way forward for our program, the place we’re, and the place we’re headed. It was a tough determination for us each, however we’ve mutually agreed that we must always make a change. I’m so grateful for Coach Pierce and all he has poured into our baseball program for the previous eight years.”
A glance again at David Pierce’s tenure
Pierce, 61, signed a contract extension in 2021 and had two years remaining on a deal that paid him an annual wage of $1.2 million. In response to the language in his contract, Texas owes Pierce 70% of his remaining base wage if he’s fired with out trigger, however the determination makers nonetheless felt this was the proper time to make a training change.
Pierce, who was employed from Tulane in June 2016 to interchange Augie Garrido, went 295-162 at Texas. He led the Longhorns to Huge 12 championships in 2018, 2021 and 2023 and Texas reached the School World Sequence in 2018, 2021 and 2022.
The Longhorns bought closest to profitable a nationwide championship with Pierce in 2021, once they completed in a tie for third place on the School World Sequence however had been despatched dwelling from Omaha by eventual champion Mississippi State.
In his 13 years main Texas, Tulane and Sam Houston State, Pierce has a 494-271 report with 11 NCAA match appearances. He received a nationwide championship as part of Rice’s 2003 teaching workers.
Pierce’s Texas groups hosted three regionals and had a 25-14 displaying over six journeys to the NCAA baseball match. His last season, nonetheless, was marred by workers strife and an underwhelming efficiency on the sector.
Texas pitcher: This season ‘was turbulent at occasions’
Final summer season, Pierce fired Woody Williams and tabbed himself as UT’s third pitching coach in as a few years. Pierce was at all times concerned with the dealing with of pitchers, however Texas’ staff ERA rose this season from 4.18 to 4.91 — its worst mark since 1999 — because the Longhorns struggled with accidents, establishing depth and the regression of staff ace Lebarron Johnson Jr. Texas assistant coach Philip Miller, a longtime Pierce lieutenant, additionally took an unexplained go away of absence in March and by no means returned.
On the sector, the Longhorns went 36-24 and completed in third place within the Huge 12. Texas misplaced each of its video games on the Huge 12 match after which did not make an excellent regional for the primary time because it missed the NCAA match totally in 2019.
“(This season) was turbulent at occasions. We undoubtedly had our share of adversity all year long, however there wasn’t a second the place we backed down from something,” junior pitcher Ace Whitehead stated. “The blokes, powerful as nails. There’s only a lot you may say, however I am simply happy with the fellows and happy with the coaches.”
A couple of minutes after the Texas baseball season ended, Pierce was requested if he anticipated to return for the Longhorns’ 2025 marketing campaign and SEC debut. Pierce stated that call wasn’t his to make, however he acknowledged that “so long as the College of Texas offers me the chance, they’re going to get every thing that I’ve.”
“We’re judged 100% on a win and a loss, however you have to get into the substances of this staff and the substances of this program to know how good it’s. That is from our assist workers all through our gamers,” Pierce added. “The query of will I return? That is not in my arms. I understand how nicely that our staff performs and I understand how nicely our workers has labored. I have been doing this a very long time and we have had a ton of success.”
Now what? Texas begins its seek for a brand new coach
Regardless of Texas having a comparatively profitable run over his eight years, the Pierce period didn’t reside as much as the lofty and virtually unrealistic requirements established by the coach’s predecessors. William Disch, Bibb Falk, Cliff Gustafson and Garrido led Texas baseball from 1911-2016 apart from a three-season stretch wherein Falk served within the army. Every one coached no less than 19 years at Texas. Falk, Gustafson and Garrido every received two nationwide titles with the Longhorns. Busts of all 4 coaches have been erected exterior of the Longhorns’ dwelling ballpark, which is called in Disch and Falk’s honor.
Now a brand new coach will try to emulate that success whereas additionally main UT into the SEC. The Longhorns’ new house is broadly considered school baseball’s greatest convention. 5 of the final six nationwide champions got here from the SEC, and both Texas A&M or Tennessee will safe this 12 months’s title. In terms of common attendance, seven of the top-eight ballparks in 2024 had been on SEC campuses and the No. 5 attract school baseball was the SEC-bound Longhorns.
Since Chris Del Conte turned its athletic director in December 2017, Texas has not shied away from big-game searching in terms of recruiting coaches. Former males’s basketball coach Chris Beard (Texas Tech) and present girls’s basketball coach Vic Schaefer (Mississippi State), softball coach Mike White (Oregon) and observe and area coach Edrick Floréal (Kentucky) had been established winners elsewhere earlier than they had been employed. Bob Bowman just lately left Arizona State after profitable a nationwide championship to change into UT’s director of swimming and diving. The varsity’s new girls’s golf coach is Laura Ianello, who received an NCAA title in 2018 at Arizona.