Terps hire Bakich as new baseball coach

The Terrapin baseball team hasn't made the ACC Tournament since the league expanded to 12 teams in 2006 and hasn't played in a NCAA Tournament game since it won the conference championship in 1971. That didn't stop Erik Bakich from leaving his job at a rising baseball powerhouse to try and resurrect the program.

When Bakich, who spent the previous seven seasons as an assistant at Vanderbilt University, read the press release regarding former head coach Terry Rupp's resignation in May, he wasted no time in thrusting his name into the search.

"When I saw that coach Rupp had resigned and saw [Associate Athletics Director for Compliance and Baseball Supervisor] Dan Trump's name in the press release, I e-mailed him and told him I was interested," Bakich said. "I have had head coaching interviews before but was waiting for the right situation, and I saw similarities between Maryland and Vanderbilt when I got there."

When Bakich arrived at Vanderbilt in 2002, following head coach Tim Corbin from Clemson, the Commodores hadn't made the SEC tournament since 1996. After they finished under .500 again in 2003, Corbin and Bakich helped organize one of the largest turnarounds in program history, winning 45 games and making the Super Regionals the next season.

Bakich quickly earned a reputation as a top-notch recruiter, bringing in Baseball America's No. 1-rated recruiting class in 2005 and the No. 2 class in 2008. But Bakich insists that it wasn't only recruiting hauls that helped turn around the program - it was also establishing a winning culture.

"We had to create a whole new team identity, change the mentality of the players, make sure we were playing hard every single game," Bakich said. "At Maryland our goal will be the same thing."

But that doesn't mean recruiting isn't important to the new coach. Bakich said the Terps needed to "set up a fence" around the state and parts of Northern Virginia to make sure the area's top talent doesn't get away.

Bakich said the program would be "looking in a different direction" when asked whether he would retain current associate head coach and recruiting coordinator Jim Farr. That decision could potentially make Bakich's early job more difficult, as he will also have to work to convince current Terp pledges to honor their commitments.

But true to his reputation, Bakich wasted no time getting to work and hired his first assistant coach, Austin Peay's Dan Burton. Bakich said he and Burton will go to a tournament in Atlanta over the weekend to hunt for recruits.

Bakich's enthusiasm is exactly what many think can improve a program with no history of perennial success.

"It's a tremendous hire," Baseball America's Aaron Fitt said. "Maryland's best chance to become relevant again is to take a shot at an up-and-coming hotshot assistant who has proven himself as one of the nation's best recruiters. Given Maryland's poor level of commitment to its baseball program, the Terps should feel very fortunate that a candidate of Bakich's stature was interested in this job."

While the hiring of Bakich may be a step in the right direction, the goal of getting to the ACC Tournament will still be an uphill battle. Fitt actually predicted five ACC teams (Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami and Clemson) will be in next year's top-16 national rankings, and the lowly Terps still have holes to fill. But Bakich remains undaunted.

"We want to make it where they can't have the ACC Tournament without Maryland," Bakich said.

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