By DR. BARRY DAVIS
Head Baseball Coach
Rider University

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — Elite programs are built by elite coaches.

On Sept. 4, 1989 in their annual college football preview, Sports Illustrated labeled Kansas State as Futility U and America’s most hapless team. And for a good reason. At that point K-State football had collected over 500 losses – the most ever by a Division I program.

The Wildcats hadn’t won a league championship since 1934. Nor had they won a bowl game and had only played in one. Also consider they had not won a game in their previous 27 contests.

Enter former Iowa assistant coach Bill Snyder as head coach.

According to Snyder, K-State was the greatest challenge of his professional life.

In his Nov. 24, 1988 press conference, he boldly declared that “the greatest turnaround in college football history exists here today.”

Snyder, the visionary, held to his word transforming K-State into a national power on two separate occasions over his 27-year head coaching career.

Kansas State won two Big 12 championships and participated in 19 bowl games. His teams finished the year ranked in the top 20 a remarkable 13 times, and 18 times his teams won more than they lost.

It is the greatest example of transformation, leadership, and culture change in collegiate athletic history and how an elite coach can build an elite program.

So, the question is how do perennial losing programs become elite and remain elite?

The answer is a simple one – hire an elite head coach. An elite head coach can be characterized as a serial winner, an excellence seeker or an outlier among outliers.

They thrive on coaching and winning.

To illustrate the importance of winning, over 200 NCAA Div. I head coaches in college’s most popular sports, football, men’s basketball and baseball, were replaced by university administrators from 2015-2019.

The last three years during that 5-year span, 88 of those were head baseball coaches.

Although the reasons for coaching changes vary, there is little doubt we operate in a win-now climate. Too many losses and not enough wins lead to change.

To further examine this climate craze, it is imperative to know and understand program transformation and the principles of sustainability.

The Study
A qualitative study was designed to assist in finding those key principles by exploring the leadership approaches of nine elite NCAA

Division I head baseball coaches who have transformed a perennial losing program into a recurring winning program.

Framed by leadership, coaching and culture change, the findings would provide university administrators, stakeholders and search firms a guideline for identifying and selecting an elite head coach and ultimately transforming the existing program into a consistently winning program.

To uncover the common themes required to transform a losing program into a winning program, nine purposely selected elite head baseball coaches participated in one-on-one, face-to-face audio-recorded interviews.

The nine participating head coaches combined to win 7,316 games (current total), six national championships and collectively amassed 188 years of head coaching experience.

The semi-structured interviews asked 11 questions centered on two research questions:

1. How do elite coaches (you) describe your experiences of transforming a losing program into a winning program?
   
2. How do elite coaches (you) describe the importance of creating and maintaining the culture to support the transformation?

The study revealed five common themes found among elite coaches and their programs.

To read more of this article, purchase the Jan. 8, 2021 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — One of the most fascinating stories in college baseball history is how Tim Corbin turned around Vanderbilt.

Prior to taking over in 2003, Vanderbilt had losing records for five straight years and 7 of the previous 9. In 116 years of baseball, the most amount of wins the Commodores ever enjoyed was 37, and that only happened once. The program had never won a Southeastern Conference regular-season title

In 18 years at Vanderbilt, Corbin’s teams have won two national titles in 2014 and 2019 and posted a 753-359-1 record with four SEC regular-season titles. He was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2020.

Prior to the 2020 season, which was cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commodores secured three trips to the College World Series finals over a 6-year span while running their streak to 14 consecutive NCAA Tournament berths — the longest active stretch in the SEC.

Since taking over in 2003, 48 players have been named All-Americans, including 14 who have received first-team All-America recognition.

During that stretch, 28 Commodores have been named freshman All-America and 24 have made MLB appearances.

Corbin’s ascent into being one of the top coaches in college baseball history didn’t happen overnight.

His lessons came from being a baseball player, student football coach while attending Ohio Wesleyan, teaching in New Hampshire after he left Ohio Wesleyan and also served as a junior varsity baseball coach.

Then he was a graduate assistant at Ohio State, assistant at Wofford, head coach at Presbyterian for six years and an assistant and associate head coach at Clemson from 1994-2002.

His most painful lesson was dealing with a player’s death at Presbyterian. Off the field, being a step-father to two daughters changed his perspective on coaching.

All of these life lessons will be brought into focus in this article.

The first question is why was Corbin even interested in being the head coach at Vanderbilt?

He enjoyed nothing but success at Clemson as the Tigers earned NCAA Regional bids all nine years and qualified for the College World Series four times.

To read more of this in-depth article on how Tim Corbin built Vanderbilt into a juggernaut, purchase the Jan. 8, 2021 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE.

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Collegiate Baseball’s 2021 College Baseball Preview Edition (Jan. 8, 2021) has just been published and features all the top teams and players on all levels of college baseball plus a look at the top 78 college baseball players for the 2021 MLB Draft, All-American teams and much more.

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