This week is the week
If you haven't noticed, it was another quiet weekend searching for intel on Michigan baseball's new head coach.
The last time we had a weekend this quiet, Erik Bakich was officially announced to Clemson later that week.
I expect this week to be the week. The transfer portal deadline is Friday. Multiple 2022 commits have decommitted, and several 2023 and 2024's have, too, more potentially on the way.
So when I expect it to be this week, it's because it has to be.
Towards the end of last week, we reported there was a meeting between Michigan's returning players and representatives from the athletic department. As we know, Warde Manuel was at a donors' summit in New York and wasn't at the meeting.
From one source at last week's meeting: "Got nothing out of it. They said they have a goal to announce next week."
All signs point towards this search coming to a close this week.
Who will it be?
From everything I've been told, it's more or less down to Central Michigan head coach Jordan Bischel and Padres hitting coach/former U-M volunteer assistant/former U-M player Michael Brdar.
Last week, the alumni circles within Michigan's baseball community thought Brdar would be the guy. However, nothing was solid or confirmed there. I heard from several informal and reliable sources that Brdar's name was heating up, and he was trending as the guy.
This coaching search has been a mysterious, behind-the-scenes search internally. Department sources have kept it close to the vest and likely will continue. I can understand, considering how public this coaching search has been ridiculed. While Michigan should've been far more adequately prepared to lose a coach that was rumored to be leaving as soon as the word around town was that Monte Lee would be out at Clemson, which was about a month before the Big Ten Tournament, I can understand the department's approach at keeping this thing internal to avoid further leaks.
Now, at the time of writing, Brdar's name has gone quiet, and it's now Bischel's name that's beginning to heat up. Multiple agents around the Cape Cod League (the top collegiate summer league, filled with future pros) and a prominent U-M baseball source indicated that the "word on the street" is that U-M is zeroing in on Bischel.
I write this with a sign of caution: this isn't an official report that Bischel is signed, sealed, and delivered. I will need a lot more detail to go into an official report. However, the source I got this from has been reliable throughout, and those same agent circles knew about the mutual interest between Bakich & Clemson during the regular season.
Following the Bischel interview last week, I was told that the CMU head coach "felt really good" about it, enough for this source to say, "I think he's going to be the guy," but that was a source's hunch then based on a conversation with Bischel.
As I heard that last week, I wanted to confirm if he is the leader. Upon asking around, I continued hearing about all of the aforementioned Brdar intel, which made me think there's a lot more to this. There's no way both guys are the guy. I decided to not report on anything but the Bischel interview because I don't believe members would've gained any knowledge from that. If it didn't help readers better understand where this hire was going, what's the point of writing it?
Besides alumni who indicated before the weekend that he wants the job, I haven't heard Brdar's name since. Going into the weekend, I was under the impression that Brdar was deciding if he wanted to stay in San Diego and continue coaching two generational hitters in Fernando Tatis, Jr. and Manny Machado. Then once he chose to be in or out, Michigan would hire him or make a move on the final candidate. Once the Bischel intel came in, I became as confused as all of you and decided to sit on the info.
Fast forward to today, when I received far more solid intel about Bischel being the lead guy in the race, and in asking those same sources who previously provided information on Brdar, they hadn't heard anything since before the weekend.
With all that in mind, I still can't confirm that Brdar is out of this race. Let alone whether he's out under his own power or because Michigan is going elsewhere with the hire.
Still, it smells like something is in the air and potentially happening soon.
The CWS ended yesterday, and Michigan lost two more commits today. At this point, they'd have to be absurdly negligent to not realize how integral it is to the program that a head coach is introduced ASAP.
There is no better time to get this over with and bring Bischel, Brdar, or whoever it may be to Ann Arbor so he can get to work on rectifying a program that's been buried alive since the former head coach left two weeks ago.
I wouldn't be shocked to see this situation stay close to the vest and potentially see Michigan immediately announce the hire once it's made to avoid any additional leaks or rumors about who the coach may be.
Hopefully, once there's a pen to paper, we all know soon after. I'll let you know any relevant, worthy intel in between.
If you haven't noticed, it was another quiet weekend searching for intel on Michigan baseball's new head coach.
The last time we had a weekend this quiet, Erik Bakich was officially announced to Clemson later that week.
I expect this week to be the week. The transfer portal deadline is Friday. Multiple 2022 commits have decommitted, and several 2023 and 2024's have, too, more potentially on the way.
So when I expect it to be this week, it's because it has to be.
Towards the end of last week, we reported there was a meeting between Michigan's returning players and representatives from the athletic department. As we know, Warde Manuel was at a donors' summit in New York and wasn't at the meeting.
From one source at last week's meeting: "Got nothing out of it. They said they have a goal to announce next week."
All signs point towards this search coming to a close this week.
Who will it be?
From everything I've been told, it's more or less down to Central Michigan head coach Jordan Bischel and Padres hitting coach/former U-M volunteer assistant/former U-M player Michael Brdar.
Last week, the alumni circles within Michigan's baseball community thought Brdar would be the guy. However, nothing was solid or confirmed there. I heard from several informal and reliable sources that Brdar's name was heating up, and he was trending as the guy.
This coaching search has been a mysterious, behind-the-scenes search internally. Department sources have kept it close to the vest and likely will continue. I can understand, considering how public this coaching search has been ridiculed. While Michigan should've been far more adequately prepared to lose a coach that was rumored to be leaving as soon as the word around town was that Monte Lee would be out at Clemson, which was about a month before the Big Ten Tournament, I can understand the department's approach at keeping this thing internal to avoid further leaks.
Now, at the time of writing, Brdar's name has gone quiet, and it's now Bischel's name that's beginning to heat up. Multiple agents around the Cape Cod League (the top collegiate summer league, filled with future pros) and a prominent U-M baseball source indicated that the "word on the street" is that U-M is zeroing in on Bischel.
I write this with a sign of caution: this isn't an official report that Bischel is signed, sealed, and delivered. I will need a lot more detail to go into an official report. However, the source I got this from has been reliable throughout, and those same agent circles knew about the mutual interest between Bakich & Clemson during the regular season.
Following the Bischel interview last week, I was told that the CMU head coach "felt really good" about it, enough for this source to say, "I think he's going to be the guy," but that was a source's hunch then based on a conversation with Bischel.
As I heard that last week, I wanted to confirm if he is the leader. Upon asking around, I continued hearing about all of the aforementioned Brdar intel, which made me think there's a lot more to this. There's no way both guys are the guy. I decided to not report on anything but the Bischel interview because I don't believe members would've gained any knowledge from that. If it didn't help readers better understand where this hire was going, what's the point of writing it?
Besides alumni who indicated before the weekend that he wants the job, I haven't heard Brdar's name since. Going into the weekend, I was under the impression that Brdar was deciding if he wanted to stay in San Diego and continue coaching two generational hitters in Fernando Tatis, Jr. and Manny Machado. Then once he chose to be in or out, Michigan would hire him or make a move on the final candidate. Once the Bischel intel came in, I became as confused as all of you and decided to sit on the info.
Fast forward to today, when I received far more solid intel about Bischel being the lead guy in the race, and in asking those same sources who previously provided information on Brdar, they hadn't heard anything since before the weekend.
With all that in mind, I still can't confirm that Brdar is out of this race. Let alone whether he's out under his own power or because Michigan is going elsewhere with the hire.
Still, it smells like something is in the air and potentially happening soon.
The CWS ended yesterday, and Michigan lost two more commits today. At this point, they'd have to be absurdly negligent to not realize how integral it is to the program that a head coach is introduced ASAP.
There is no better time to get this over with and bring Bischel, Brdar, or whoever it may be to Ann Arbor so he can get to work on rectifying a program that's been buried alive since the former head coach left two weeks ago.
I wouldn't be shocked to see this situation stay close to the vest and potentially see Michigan immediately announce the hire once it's made to avoid any additional leaks or rumors about who the coach may be.
Hopefully, once there's a pen to paper, we all know soon after. I'll let you know any relevant, worthy intel in between.
