Arizona State Coaching Search, Job Profile and Candidates

Arizona State on June 7 announced that head coach Tracy Smith had been fired after seven seasons at the helm. 

The Sun Devils went 201-155 overall and 87-92 in the Pac-12 in his tenure. They went to four regionals, but never hosted one or advanced to a super regional. Smith just received what was announced as a two-year contract extension in February of this year, but athletic director Ray Anderson clarified later that it was a one-year extension in actuality, for the purpose of giving Smith back the Covid-19-shortened season. 

One can view Smith’s time at Arizona State like a Rorschach inkblot test in that you can look at the information and basically come to any conclusion that you would like. 

There’s no disputing that the results fell well short of the historical expectation for ASU. It has now gone 10 years without reaching a super regional and 11 since going to the College World Series. In that time, five other Pac-12 programs—Arizona, California, Oregon State, UCLA and Washington—have been to the CWS. Smith also has the worst record of any ASU coach in history and he’s the only one to not take the Sun Devils to Omaha. 

At the same time, given how much the sport has changed, it’s not really fair to compare today’s coaches to the legends of decades ago. Just as it’s not fair to compare Paul Mainieri to Skip Bertman, it’s not fair to compare Tracy Smith to Jim Brock or even Pat Murphy. 

Smith should also get credit for building a juggernaut of a roster in 2020, and if that season had been played to completion rather than canceled, it’s entirely possible ASU’s results mean we’re not even having this conversation. 

He and his staff also turned in one of their best coaching jobs this season. A team extremely young in the lineup and decimated by injuries on the pitching staff scratched and clawed its way to a regional appearance that few expected given the circumstances. 

Despite those successes, in the end, it didn’t amount to enough winning for Smith to get additional time. More than anything else, this move seems to signal that Arizona State isn’t content to accept any sort of new reality for the program and still believes that it should be considered the class of the Pac-12. The next head coach will be tasked with proving this was a prudent risk to take. 

Previous Head Coach 

Tracy Smith: 201-155, 7 seasons

Job Description

Arizona State is among the most famous brands in college baseball, and unlike some other name brands in the sport that have taken a hit in recent years, there’s not a ton holding ASU back from still being a national title-contending program, save for the fact that there is more parity than ever in the game and the program, like so many in the Pac-12, has not invested at the same level as the powers to the east. Arizona State is still an attractive school to recruit to, even going beyond baseball, and it’s still located in the middle of a big (and growing) baseball hotbed in Phoenix. Smith’s compensation was in the upper echelon of Pac-12 coaches and Phoenix Municipal Stadium, unlike Packard Stadium in its last years of use, is a facility befitting one of the best baseball programs in the country. It’s a relatively pressure-packed job, especially within the context of the Pac-12, which is not known for creating pressure cookers for its baseball coaches, but Smith also got seven seasons even as fans began to get antsy in years two and three, so there’s evidence that the next guy will be granted some time to get going. 

What caliber of coach will be interested?

On its face, you might think that Arizona State will have something close to an unlimited candidate pool to select from. It’s true that ASU will have its choice of excellent candidates, but unless Anderson is prepared to offer his new coach a paradigm-shifting deal—and it didn’t sound like that would be the case in his news conference following the firing, it won’t be able to put together the type of package that SEC schools are able to put together to lure other high-end head coaches. While Smith’s compensation put him in the upper echelon within the confines of Pac-12 coaches, it was average at best for the ACC and Big 12 and below-average compared to SEC salaries. Think about what Tracy Smith was when he took the ASU job. He turned Indiana into what it is today, an annual regional contender, and got the Hoosiers to the CWS. That’s an impressive resume that was deserving of getting the shot he got, but he had only ever coached in the Midwest and he was clearly taking a step up by going to ASU. He was a hot coaching name and a very accomplished one at that, but he was getting his first shot at a job on the level of ASU. That type of coach is a good starting point for where Arizona State might look this time around. 

Does Arizona’s success change things?

All of the above is true, but if there is one reason why Anderson might be ready to make something close to a paradigm-shifting deal with a coach it’s that the forward momentum at Arizona is undeniable. The Wildcats got to the CWS finals back in 2016, have one of the best teams in the country this season and have a young core that suggests they won’t be going anywhere for a while. On the diamond, that rivalry burns as hot as any in the Pac-12, and ASU is undoubtedly ready to turn its fortunes around relative to its rivals to the south. How far is the administration willing to go to make sure that happens? Perhaps not too far, as Anderson admitted in his press conference Monday that, to use his words, ASU doesn’t have the luxury of being able to “lavish coaches with compensation” in the way teams in the SEC do. 

Roster Breakdown

The 2022 Arizona State roster won’t be as talented as the 2020 version, but there is an argument to be made that it’s the most talent ASU has had, other than in 2020, in the last decade. The three key injured pitchers, Boyd Vander Kooi, Cooper Benson and Erik Tolman, are all eligible to return, although Vander Kooi and Tolman could also begin pro careers. Most of the rest of the pitching staff that did a nice job of piecing things together also could come back, should it choose to. Offensively, rising freshman Ethan Long established himself as one of the best sluggers in the Pac-12. He and the likes of Sean McLain, Jack Moss, Hunter Haas and Joe Lampe give the Sun Devils one of the most exciting young position player groups in the country. If that group stays in Tempe in a world where the transfer portal is as viable an option as ever, the new coach could find himself at the helm of an excellent team in 2022. 

The Candidates

Arizona State is the sixth Pac-12 program to change coaches in the last two years and only UCLA and Washington haven’t had coaching changes since the Sun Devils’ last search. The way those searches have gone is perhaps instructive to the path of this one. 

Six of the last eight Pac-12 coaches to be hired were college head coaches at the time, with Oregon State’s Mitch Canham and Washington State’s Marty Lees as the two exceptions. Two of those six coaches were hired from Power Five conferences—Stanford hired David Esquer away from California and Oregon hired Mark Wasikowski away from Purdue. The other four coaches were hired from the West Coast’s mid-major ranks—two from the West Coast Conference, one from the Mountain West and one from the Western Athletic Conference.

Grand Canyon’s Andy Stankiewicz was an assistant coach at Arizona State from 2006-09 under Pat Murphy and has spent the last decade across town at GCU. He guided the Antelopes from Division II to Division I and this season led them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Stankiewicz, 56, knows the lay of the land and is a proven head coach.

Dallas Baptist’s Dan Heefner was involved in the search when Arizona State hired Smith. Since then, he’s also been in the mix at Baylor and Texas, but no one has pulled him away from DBU. Could that change here? Heefner has done a standout job at DBU and this season has the Patriots in super regionals for the second time ever. 

Nevada’s T.J. Bruce was a hot name two years ago during the West Coast coaching searches and all he’s done since then is win the Mountain West title and take the Wolfpack to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000. Bruce, 39, has Pac-12 experience from his days as UCLA’s recruiting coordinator and was a part of the staff when the Bruins won the 2013 national title.

UC Irvine’s Ben Orloff could make for an interesting candidate. He’s spent the last three seasons as the head coach of his alma mater and this year led the Anteaters to their second ever Big West title and a regional final. Orloff, 34, is no doubt a rising star, but would he be tempted to leave Irvine so soon?

Arizona State should at least call Oregon’s Mark Wasikowski. He’s led quick turnarounds at both Purdue and Oregon, this season leading the Ducks to a second-place finish in the Pac-12. His salary this season ranked well behind Smith’s, perhaps creating an opening for the Sun Devils. 

If Arizona State were to buck the Pac-12’s trend of not hiring assistant coaches Arizona’s Nate Yeskie and UCLA’s Bryant Ward are two to watch. Yeskie has plenty of Pac-12 experience between his tenures at Oregon State and Arizona—but would he leave the Wildcats for their rival? Bryant is one of the top recruiters on the West Coast, a must for winning in college baseball today.