Central Florida To Hire Wright State’s Lovelady
About a week after Terry Rooney left to become an assistant for new Alabama coach Greg Goff, UCF on Monday was set to hire Wright State coach Greg Lovelady as Rooney’s replacement, sources confirmed to Baseball America.
Lovelady, who replaced Rob Cooper as the Raiders coach when Cooper left for Penn State in 2013, had a record of 124-56 in three seasons at Wright State, leading the school to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back 40-win seasons, including a school-record 46 wins this year. Wright State reached the regional final in each of the last two seasons, giving the Raiders their first NCAA Tournament victories since 1994.
Lovelady, 37, was an assistant under Cooper for nine seasons, drawing praise for his work as Wright State’s recruiting coordinator, pitching coach and catching instructor. In his first year as coach, the Raiders went from 9-12 in conference to 25-4 and the Horizon League title.
Prior to his coaching career, Lovelady was a catcher at Miami and won two national titles with the Hurricanes in 1999 and 2001. In June five of his players were drafted, including catcher Sean Murphy, who was taken by the Athletics in the third round, and senior righthander Jesse Scholtens, who the Padres took in the ninth round.
Former Clemson coach Jack Leggett was also among the finalists at UCF, but declined the job. He was fired last year after 22 seasons as the Tigers’ head coach.
| 2016 COACHING CHANGES | ||
| School | Departures | Arrivals |
| Alabama | Mitch Gaspard | Greg Goff |
| Alabama State | Mervyl Melendez | |
| Appalachian State | Billy Jones | |
| Army | Matt Reid | Jim Foster |
| Butler | Steve Farley | Dave Schrage |
| Central Florida | Terry Rooney | Greg Lovelady |
| Florida International | Turtle Thomas | Mervyl Melendez |
| Furman | Ron Smith | Brett Harker |
| Jacksonville | Tim Montez | Chris Hayes |
| Kentucky | Gary Henderson | Nick Mingione |
| Lamar | Jim Gilligan (ret.) | Will Davis |
| Liberty | Jim Toman | |
| Louisiana Tech | Greg Goff | Lane Burroughs |
| Missouri | Tim Jamieson | Steve Bieser |
| Nebraska-Omaha | Bob Herold | |
| Northwestern State | Lane Burroughs | Bobby Barbier |
| Purdue | Doug Schreiber | Mark Wasikowski |
| San Jose State | Dave Nakama | Jason Hawkins |
| SIU-Edwardsville | Tony Stoecklin | Sean Lyons |
| Southeast Missouri State | Steve Bieser | |
| Texas | Augie Garrido | David Pierce |
| Tulane | David Pierce | Travis Jewett |
| Villanova | Joe Godri | |
| Wright State | Greg Lovelady | |
| Youngstown State | Steve Gillispie | Dan Bertolini |
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