Coaching Changes At Furman, San Jose State
With the end of the college baseball season comes the start of the coaching change season, and Furman and San Jose State got involved late last week.
Ron Smith resigned after 23 years as head coach at Furman, while San Jose State fired head coach Dave Nakama after four seasons.
Smith is the winningest coach in program history and went 580-693-3 at Furman, his alma mater. The Paladins made one trip to the NCAA tournament under his direction, reaching the regionals in 2005 as Southern Conference tournament champions.
Furman went 29-30 this year, finishing under .500 for the seventh time in eight years. Righthander Will Gaddis was named SoCon pitcher of the year, and outfielder Jabari Richards won the conference’s freshman of the year honors.
Nakama went 66-162 at San Jose State after more than a decade as an assistant coach in the Pacific-12 Conference at Washington and Stanford. The Spartans went 17-39 this season and finished in last place in the Mountain West Conference.
Under Nakama, San Jose State never won more than 19 games in a season. The Spartans finished last in the MWC in their first three seasons in the conference after moving from the Western Athletic Conference.
| 2016 COACHING CHANGES | ||
| School | Departures | Arrivals |
| Alabama | Mitch Gaspard | |
| Appalachian State | Billy Jones | |
| Army | Matt Reid | |
| Butler | Steve Farley | |
| Furman | Ron Smith | |
| Kentucky | Gary Henderson | Nick Mingione |
| Lamar | Jim Gilligan (ret.) | Will Davis |
| Missouri | Tim Jamieson | |
| Purdue | Doug Schreiber | |
| San Jose State | Dave Nakama | |
| SIU-Edwardsville | Tony Stoecklin | |
| Texas | Augie Garrido | |
| Villanova | Joe Godri | |
| Youngstown State | Steve Gillispie | |
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