Dan Radakovich said it was time to inject some new momentum into Clemson\u2019s baseball program so the Tigers\u2019 athletic director decided on Thursday he was not going to retain Jack Leggett as head coach.
\nLeggett, who still had one more year remaining on his contract beginning in July, leaves Clemson as a Hall of Fame coach who took the program to 21 NCAA Tournaments in 22 years, including nine advancements to the Super Regional rounds and six trips to Omaha for the College World Series.
\n\u201cThis decision was not an easy one. There is no denying the success of our program in the past. It has placed Clemson baseball in position to compete for championships. So after my evaluations, it came down to this, I think we can do better,\u201d Radakovich said.
\nRadakovich says he came to this decision after careful evaluation and review of the season and the projection of the baseball program the last few years.
\n\u201cIt was my decision to bring a fresh approach to our program,\u201d he said.
\nThere is no question Clemson\u2019s program has derailed since going to Omaha for a sixth time in 2010. Since then, the Tigers have failed to get past the regional round of the NCAA Tournament in each of the last five years and have lost 10 of their last 15 tournament games.
\nClemson has lost five straight NCAA Tournament games after losing to Arizona State and Pepperdine in last week\u2019s regional round of the tournament. The Tigers finished 32-29 in 2015, after going 36-25 in 2014.
\nThe Tigers went 35-28 in 2012, but won 40 and 43 games in 2013 and 2011.
\n\u201cWe need to inject some new momentum and create optimism around our baseball program,\u201d Radakovich said. \u201cI\u2019m confident in our search for a new head coach we will find someone who will bring that excitement to our fans and our student athletes.\u201d
\nLeggett and his supporters might argue he could have done that, too. Was everything that occurred in the last four years all Leggett\u2019s fault?
\nClemson is currently upgrading the players\u2019 facility, which Leggett has been asking for nearly a decade for, with a new locker room, showers and clubhouse. The facility, which was funded mostly by his former players, will also house a Clemson baseball museum as well as coaches\u2019 offices and a state-of-the-art team meeting room.
\nThe $6 million project is scheduled to be completed this fall.
\nClemson\u2019s administration has also worked around the Academic Common Market issues that have hurt the program when it comes to recruiting out-of-state players.
\nSeventeen players from the Tigers\u2019 35-man roster this past season were out-of-state players. Baseball can use just 11.7 scholarships which are to be spread out among 27-active players on the roster. Of the 27 athletes, they are to receive a minimum of 25 percent scholarship reward.
\nThe 27- and 25-rules, as they are known, went into effect in 2010 and 2011. The last time Clemson won a regional was in 2010 and the last time it hosted a regional was in 2011.
\nLeggett was so confident he was the man that could turn the program around, he even offered up a solution that would allow him to stay on for another two or three years so he could recruit to these new advantages and get the program back where he once had it.
\nAlready using the ACM and the new facility, Leggett and recruiting coordinator Bradley LeCroy had the No. 11 recruiting class in the country in position to come in this fall and were already off to a good start for the 2016 class.
\nWhen Leggett was informed, during a conversation he and Radakovich had earlier this week, he had to fire his entire coaching staff in order to come back, he would not budge. So Radakovich went in the other direction.
\n\u201cWhen kind of looking at things, and kind of staying the same course, that is the head coaches\u2019 prerogative. I made the decision at that point in time to change direction,\u201d Radakovich said.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not going to go into a lot of those details,\u201d he later would say. \u201cThat\u2019s part of a personnel evaluation we do each and every year. I don\u2019t think that is fair to put that out into the general public.\u201d
\nSome might say it is not fair to fire a Hall of Fame Coach, either. But Radakovich thinks Clemson can do better. In three or four years we will know the answer.<\/p>\n