Throughout this season, I’ve shared many of my personal opinions and some of what I heard regarding this team and staff. Baseball seems to bring out many of the most passionate opinions for whatever reason. Some of the stuff said is true, and some stuff is way off. Now that we are heading in a new direction, it’s probably time to put a bow on this era. I am going to spoiler this as it is a little lengthy, but the tl;dr version is Pierce will not be coming back and the list of reasons is lengthy.
(P.S. I typed this up a month ago if that says anything about the direction this thing is headed)
(P.S. I typed this up a month ago if that says anything about the direction this thing is headed)
There are two areas I look at when evaluating a team/coach. The controllable and the uncontrollable.
The Controllable
Staff Construction- Everyone focused on Pierce taking over pitching coach duties this year. He was the pitching coach all 8 years here, whether he held the title or not. The good years, the bad years, this year, he was at the forefront. It was the bus he wanted to drive and the area where he wanted the most say. He was in the bullpen during practices long before he named himself pitching coach. It’s part of the reason he felt comfortable moving Sean Allen to the role after the 2019 season.
On that note, Pierce's decision to hire Woody Williams was horrible and a HUGE red flag. Now, let’s be clear: Williams himself is not a horrible pitching mind or coach, but we asked a 55-year-old volunteer assistant JUCO coach who had never recruited a day in his life to come in and learn to recruit against SEC schools on the fly. It was destined to fail from the beginning. There was no runway or guardrails to help ease him into the role. He was great with the kids on campus and by all accounts was a good guy to be around, but in this current age of college baseball where talent acquisition is everything, it was an atrocious hire that raised eyebrows throughout College Baseball. Also, the decision to hire Steve Rodriguez was horrible. He provided very little on the recruiting trail and overall as a coach. Pierce was right in his thinking to fire him after last season, but he should have never been hired in the first place. The staff restructure after 2022 proved that a) Pierce’s coaching network is not strong and b) other assistants started to see the writing on the wall. If Pierce wanted to move on from Sean Allen, okay.....but there should have been a rock-solid plan in place to get a new voice in the room with skins on the wall. Instead Pierce just flung from the hip.
The best hire Pierce made during his tenure was Caleb Longley. We should hope Longley is retained and wants to stick around because he is a rising star in this game. Hitters love him, he recruits well and is very respected. He saved the ass of this staff many times.
Team Identity- Everyone throws their arms up whenever we play in these MLB ballparks or early season tournaments and wonders why we get our teeth kicked in. The #1 reason is that these last few teams lacked identity or often took too long to figure out who they wanted to be. LSU, Vandy, Arkansas….they know who they are from the jump. We flounder around in February and March experimenting and praying it goes well.
We were a great hitting team 80% of the time, but what would happen when the wind blew in at The Disch or we went to these bigger MLB ballparks or went to Omaha? The bats would often disappear. When the long ball wasn’t working, it oftentimes looked ugly. The 2023 and 2024 teams in particular walked at very low rates, struck out at extremely high rates and often could not string hits together outside of the long ball.
We seemed to fluctuate between wanting to be a pitching/defense team, a long-ball team, a team that wanted to swipe bags, etc.
Roster Construction- During these final few years, this team was not constructed well. The only pitcher signed from the 2021 class who is contributing in a meaningful way is Ace Whitehead. The only pitcher signed from the 2022 class who is contributing in a meaningful way is Max Grubbs. That is just unacceptable for a two-year running class. Meanwhile, on the position player side, we failed to recruit the catcher position at an acceptable level for several classes, leaving us with a noticeable hole. The portal stuff has been beaten to death, but we have failed to acquire an impact arm in the portal in 3 years.
Misevaluation of Current Roster- None of us are present for fall ball and early season practices, but some of the decisions made and pecking orders established in the last few seasons were head-scratching, to say the least. What made the staff believe Chris Stuart needed to open the season as the closer last year? Or that David Shaw needed to be the closer to open this season? Or that Mitchell Daly needed to hit cleanup to start the season in 2022? What made them believe Cody Howard was a weekend rotation guy headed into this season? Why was Kimble Schuessler getting consistent playing time behind the plate?
Pierce seemed to get blinders often when it came to certain players and went with comfort over performance. Witt struggling late last year and then going to the Cape over the summer and continuing to struggle should have been a blinking red light that he should not be counted as a top of the rotation arm to start the year. Instead, we rolled the dice, he never recovered and we were left with a gapping hole in the rotation.
The Uncontrollable
The 2020 team- This was likely his best team here. I can’t sit here and say we would have won a national title because that team was relying on quite a few freshmen (Hodo, Ardoin, Faltine, Powell, Hansen), but odds are they would have gotten more comfortable as the year went on and we would have gone on a run.
Our weekend rotation (Elder, Madden, Hansen) was all picked in the top 5 rounds of the MLB draft.
Injuries- I have never seen a run of injuries for KEY guys like we’ve had. Injuries are a part of the game, but whenever it happened to Texas, it always seemed to be a key guy, not the middle reliever or midweek starter.
It started with David Hamilton tearing his Achilles riding a scooter in 2019, then covid was covid, 2021 it was Andre Duplantier, Travis Sthele and Austin Todd. Many forget but Travis Sthele was a big get and was supposed to be a key contributor as a freshman. 2022 it was Witt. 2023 was Luke Harrison. This year, it was Will Mercer.
Final Thoughts
David Pierce is a good coach. He has won everywhere he has been, including several spots with very little historical success. Some people liked him, some didn’t, some were indifferent. He was old school and cut his teeth under Wayne Graham, so you had to be built a certain way to play and thrive under him. The tough reality is we could be sitting here 20 years from now with 2005 still being the last title. It’s harder than ever to win in this sport. The list is a mile long of great coaches without a title.
I hope whoever the next guy is can help bring this fanbase together because there were too many out on Pierce from the beginning and just let it cloud their viewpoint for all 8 years. He wasn’t Augie, he wasn’t Gus, but no one is. The sooner we can accept that, the better. And hopefully the next coach gets the support needed to bring a title back to Austin.
Hook ‘Em
The Controllable
Staff Construction- Everyone focused on Pierce taking over pitching coach duties this year. He was the pitching coach all 8 years here, whether he held the title or not. The good years, the bad years, this year, he was at the forefront. It was the bus he wanted to drive and the area where he wanted the most say. He was in the bullpen during practices long before he named himself pitching coach. It’s part of the reason he felt comfortable moving Sean Allen to the role after the 2019 season.
On that note, Pierce's decision to hire Woody Williams was horrible and a HUGE red flag. Now, let’s be clear: Williams himself is not a horrible pitching mind or coach, but we asked a 55-year-old volunteer assistant JUCO coach who had never recruited a day in his life to come in and learn to recruit against SEC schools on the fly. It was destined to fail from the beginning. There was no runway or guardrails to help ease him into the role. He was great with the kids on campus and by all accounts was a good guy to be around, but in this current age of college baseball where talent acquisition is everything, it was an atrocious hire that raised eyebrows throughout College Baseball. Also, the decision to hire Steve Rodriguez was horrible. He provided very little on the recruiting trail and overall as a coach. Pierce was right in his thinking to fire him after last season, but he should have never been hired in the first place. The staff restructure after 2022 proved that a) Pierce’s coaching network is not strong and b) other assistants started to see the writing on the wall. If Pierce wanted to move on from Sean Allen, okay.....but there should have been a rock-solid plan in place to get a new voice in the room with skins on the wall. Instead Pierce just flung from the hip.
The best hire Pierce made during his tenure was Caleb Longley. We should hope Longley is retained and wants to stick around because he is a rising star in this game. Hitters love him, he recruits well and is very respected. He saved the ass of this staff many times.
Team Identity- Everyone throws their arms up whenever we play in these MLB ballparks or early season tournaments and wonders why we get our teeth kicked in. The #1 reason is that these last few teams lacked identity or often took too long to figure out who they wanted to be. LSU, Vandy, Arkansas….they know who they are from the jump. We flounder around in February and March experimenting and praying it goes well.
We were a great hitting team 80% of the time, but what would happen when the wind blew in at The Disch or we went to these bigger MLB ballparks or went to Omaha? The bats would often disappear. When the long ball wasn’t working, it oftentimes looked ugly. The 2023 and 2024 teams in particular walked at very low rates, struck out at extremely high rates and often could not string hits together outside of the long ball.
We seemed to fluctuate between wanting to be a pitching/defense team, a long-ball team, a team that wanted to swipe bags, etc.
Roster Construction- During these final few years, this team was not constructed well. The only pitcher signed from the 2021 class who is contributing in a meaningful way is Ace Whitehead. The only pitcher signed from the 2022 class who is contributing in a meaningful way is Max Grubbs. That is just unacceptable for a two-year running class. Meanwhile, on the position player side, we failed to recruit the catcher position at an acceptable level for several classes, leaving us with a noticeable hole. The portal stuff has been beaten to death, but we have failed to acquire an impact arm in the portal in 3 years.
Misevaluation of Current Roster- None of us are present for fall ball and early season practices, but some of the decisions made and pecking orders established in the last few seasons were head-scratching, to say the least. What made the staff believe Chris Stuart needed to open the season as the closer last year? Or that David Shaw needed to be the closer to open this season? Or that Mitchell Daly needed to hit cleanup to start the season in 2022? What made them believe Cody Howard was a weekend rotation guy headed into this season? Why was Kimble Schuessler getting consistent playing time behind the plate?
Pierce seemed to get blinders often when it came to certain players and went with comfort over performance. Witt struggling late last year and then going to the Cape over the summer and continuing to struggle should have been a blinking red light that he should not be counted as a top of the rotation arm to start the year. Instead, we rolled the dice, he never recovered and we were left with a gapping hole in the rotation.
The Uncontrollable
The 2020 team- This was likely his best team here. I can’t sit here and say we would have won a national title because that team was relying on quite a few freshmen (Hodo, Ardoin, Faltine, Powell, Hansen), but odds are they would have gotten more comfortable as the year went on and we would have gone on a run.
Our weekend rotation (Elder, Madden, Hansen) was all picked in the top 5 rounds of the MLB draft.
Injuries- I have never seen a run of injuries for KEY guys like we’ve had. Injuries are a part of the game, but whenever it happened to Texas, it always seemed to be a key guy, not the middle reliever or midweek starter.
It started with David Hamilton tearing his Achilles riding a scooter in 2019, then covid was covid, 2021 it was Andre Duplantier, Travis Sthele and Austin Todd. Many forget but Travis Sthele was a big get and was supposed to be a key contributor as a freshman. 2022 it was Witt. 2023 was Luke Harrison. This year, it was Will Mercer.
Final Thoughts
David Pierce is a good coach. He has won everywhere he has been, including several spots with very little historical success. Some people liked him, some didn’t, some were indifferent. He was old school and cut his teeth under Wayne Graham, so you had to be built a certain way to play and thrive under him. The tough reality is we could be sitting here 20 years from now with 2005 still being the last title. It’s harder than ever to win in this sport. The list is a mile long of great coaches without a title.
I hope whoever the next guy is can help bring this fanbase together because there were too many out on Pierce from the beginning and just let it cloud their viewpoint for all 8 years. He wasn’t Augie, he wasn’t Gus, but no one is. The sooner we can accept that, the better. And hopefully the next coach gets the support needed to bring a title back to Austin.
Hook ‘Em
