Tulane's David Pierce To Be Named Next Texas Baseball Coach

Several media outlets are reporting that Tulane's David Pierce will be named as the next Texas head baseball coach.

Pierce has only five years of head coaching experience - three at Sam Houston State, two at Tulane - and, before that, was Wayne Graham's lead assistant at Rice for 9 years where he served as both hitting and pitching coach.

If Pierce's resume looks a little lighter than Augie Garrido's when Texas hired him from Cal-State Fullerton (Augie already had three national titles and seven college world series appearances before his run in Austin), he does possess a deep familiarity with the state and earned a reputation for finding talent while at Rice.

It should also hearten Longhorn fans that Cliff Gustafson was hired to manage Texas directly from the high school ranks (he took a pay cut to do so).  Glittering resumes aren't always a necessary precondition for success.  Pierce's assistant hires (and hiring budget) will be the ultimate bellwether for the program.

Realistically, Pierce was a back-up option.  Texas embarked on a month long search after forcing out Augie and Pierce was interviewed fairly early in that process.  After that interview, Texas reached out to as many as ten other candidates to gauge interest and fit and Texas circled back and selected Pierce as several more high profile candidates passed, Texas demurred, or both parties couldn't come to terms.  In any event, there are a half dozen baseball coaches who can thank Texas for getting them a raise.

Pierce is only UT's 6th baseball coach in program history.