Auburn is ‘fairly close’ to hiring its next softball coach.

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al.com

Auburn is ‘fairly close’ to hiring its next softball coach. What’s been the hold up?

Updated: Jun. 03, 2024, 1:07 p.m.|Published: Jun. 03, 2024, 12:53 p.m.

~4 minutes

AUBURN, AL - SEPTEMBER 12 - Team during practice at Jane B. Moore Field in Auburn, AL on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023. Photo by Grayson Belanger/Auburn TigersGrayson Belanger/Auburn Tigers

As of Monday, it’d been nearly 10 weeks since Auburn softball coach Mickey Dean announced his plans to retire at the conclusion of the 2024 season.

Monday also meant it’d been 15 days since the Tigers’ season ended in a loss to Florida State in the NCAA Tournament’s Tallahassee Regional.

Despite the time that’s passed, Auburn still hasn’t named Dean’s replacement.

“I feel more of an urgency to get it right than to do it quickly,” Auburn athletic director John Cohen said when asked about the coaching vacancy at an APSE region meeting on Monday morning. “I’m looking for the right people in place. That’s really important to us.”

Cohen went on to hint that an announcement could be coming soon.

“I do feel like we’re fairly close to having a decision made,” Cohen said.

But as the college softball transfer portal continues to fill with talent and there’s no staff in place to help Auburn capitalize, that sense of urgency does begin to swell, which warrants the question: What’s been the hold up?

“It’s like everything else we deal with, we live in an information age,” Cohen said. “There’s more information to go through and decipher than ever before. So, it just takes a while.”

Another common piece of speculation is that Auburn’s next head coach might still be coaching this season or have only just recently concluded their season, which would point to Cohen and the Tigers possibly poaching a coach from a program that reached the Women’s College World Series.

Regardless, Cohen has a pretty good idea of what he’s looking for in Auburn’s next head softball coach.

“We need a coaching staff that will engage the community,” Cohen said. “You look at the best softball programs in the country, it starts there. The best coaches are the coaches who have engaged their community.”

Cohen, a former baseball coach himself, also knows that recruiting and player development is a huge factor.

“We need an elite recruiter,” Cohen said. “The question I love to ask the most to our candidates: ‘If you had a pie chart, in your opinion, what percentage of the pie chart to get to Oklahoma City would involve recruiting and evaluation and what portion of it is player development?’”

Cohen admits to stealing the question from Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barhart, who posed the same question to Cohen when he was interviewing for Kentucky’s head baseball coach vacancy in the early 2000s.

“We’re in the process of finding the people who can come to Auburn, our softball program, and really have a great history and tradition of player development and recruiting evaluation,” Cohen said.

At the end of the day, whoever is next in line to take the reins of the Auburn softball program, the ultimate goal is to have the Tigers in a situation to be one of the last eight teams standing — something Auburn hasn’t accomplished since 2016.

“We have a nice tradition in the sport and we want to get back to Oklahoma City,” Cohen said.

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247sports.com

PMARSHONAU Sunday reflections from Auburn and beyond

Phillip Marshall

9–12 minutes

Search for a softball coach, rough Saturday for SEC baseball, a personal moment and more

Search for the right fit to coach Auburn softball

Coaching searches in college athletics, especially in sports that aren't going to make anyone fabulously wealthy, can be tricky things. And softball can be trickier than most. In  softball coaching circles, there are few secrets.

Fans always want the big splash, the big name that has proved he or she can win at the highest level. The truth is that finding that person is extremely rare. Three current SEC head softball coaches were head coaches in power conferences before they took their current jobs. Four were assistants. The others were head coaches at mid-major programs.

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Auburn went after at least one big name after Mickey Dean announced this season would be his last. It didn't work out for reasons that really had nothing to do with Auburn. Other head coaches at power programs were interested, but Auburn was not necessarily interested in them.

Winning a press conference and making a splash is fun, but it's not always the best way to go. The key for an athletics director is finding the right person who is the best fit, not the best-known person. And that is the challenge that faces Auburn athletics director John Cohen.

A look at where current SEC softball coaches came from

Alabama: Patrick Murphy, assistant coach at Alabama

LSU: Beth Torina, head coach at Florida International

Arkansas: Courtney Deifel, one season as Maryland head coach

Texas A&M: Trisha Ford, head coach at Arizona State

Mississippi State: Samantha Ricketts, Mississippi State assistant

Ole Miss: Jamie Trachsel, Minnesota head coach

Florida: Tim Walton, head coach at Wichita State

Georgia: Tony Baldwin, North Carolina assistant

Tennessee: Karen Weekly, co-head coach, Chattanooga

Kentucky: Rachel Lawson, head coach, Western Kentucky

Missouri: Larissa Anderson, head coach, Hofstra

South Carolina: Beverly Smith, North Carolina assistant

A rough Saturday for mediocre SEC baseball teams

Five SEC baseball teams with 13-17 SEC records made it into the NCAA Tournament field. What we have seen is why they were 13-17. Alabama was two-and-done in Tallahassee, losing to Central Florida and Stetson. Vanderbilt is headed home from Charlottesville after losing to Coastal Carolina and High Point. Florida, South Carolina and LSU all lost Saturday and are in losers' brackets. So are Arkansas and Mississippi State, which are not among the five 13-17 teams. Arkansas is the only SEC team that has lost on its home field, falling 7-6 to Kansas State.

Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia and Kentucky are 2-0 in their regionals, all on their home fields, and one win away from moving on to super regionals.

A Gator meltdown in the WCWS

In softball, Florida was thoroughly dominated in a 10-0 run-rule loss to Texas in the Women's College World Series on Saturday. The Gators, who didn't have a hit until the fifth and final inning, play Alabama today in an elimination game. That had to be a harsh blow for a team that was dominant down the stretch of the SEC season and won the SEC Tournament with relative ease.

In the WCWS, the Gators, among the nation's top offensive teams, have scored one run and gotten three hits in two games. They escaped with a 1-0 win over Oklahoma State in their opener.

Texas' roster is dominated by freshman and sophomores. The Longhorns will be a load in the SEC next season.

Happy birthday to the love of my life

Pardon a personal moment, if you will. The best person I have ever known and the love of my life turns 70 today. Teresa and I will have been married for 48 years on July 1. We are blessed with three children, eight grandchildren, two cats and three granddogs.

For all those years, Teresa has been the rock of our family. She loves unconditionally, and she is loved. She has put up with me at my worst. Her unselfishness has made it possible for me to do what I have done for all these years. She is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Birmingham-Southern story goes on

The remarkable story that is the Birmingham-Southern baseball team continues. You probably know the story. The school officially went out of business on Thursday. The only thing left is the baseball team that is the playing in the Division III World Series.

The team lost its first World Series game but won Saturday on a walkoff home run. It now has fans nationwide. A GoFundme page to pay the team's expenses and compensate the coaches has reached $109,965.

What 'way too early' really means

Is anything in modern journalism more worthless than "way too early" rankings of anything? Way to early is another way of saying meaningless for any purpose other than getting people to click. The same goes for ranking coaches and a number of other lists.

A big moment for a good man

Some college athletes you come across are arrogant, whether they have real reason to be or not. And some are like former Auburn infielder Ryan Bliss, a polite and humble young man, with an infectious smile and elite talent.

Bliss got his first major league hit Saturday night for the Seattle Mariners. A dream come true for a man who earned it.

Until next time …