Make O'Connor the highest paid coach in college baseball. Go after Rooney. Or if you want a great recruiter with Southern ties, go after Casey Dunn, Head Coach at Samford.

insight into potential candidates and can only speak as an amateur player and fan (alum) as well as a huge baseball fan who has traveled to a lot of ND baseball games. I had only one interaction with coach Aoki with my son in post 2012 win and it was "cold" at best and dismissive at worst. I thought he could have least been somewhat engaged to talk with a young fan. The players (as always) on the other hand were gracious and engaging with both me and my son. I guess I can't read too much into one meeting with Coach Aoki but it did make a negative impression on me.

On the other hand I met Coach Mainieri many times and he always went out of his way to embrace the few fans that trecked to their games. It got to the point where, although he may not have recalled our names, he did remember us and always approached us to talk before or after games. As far as coaching competency and player development, the proof is in the results. I don't think our talent was ever equal to the best programs but Mainieri's teams could literally compete with any team in the country.

There has to be someone out there that can bring this program back to being the class of the north and it won't break the bank of our athletic department. There is no way that the talent on this team can be this bad. As someone who plays and coaches the game at a relatively high competitive level, my perspective is that the ND team that I have watched over the course of the last couple years cannot possibly be a competently coached and developed one.

As Sherman mentioned below, I hope you and your fellow baseball alumni will make your voices heard by the powers to be. You are in a unique position to make positive changes happen.

Baseball alums and even your teammates?

Second, while you cite Bohannon's successes at UK, how did UK perform after his departure? I'm looking for a way to isolate the teams's performance post Bohannon. Was it because of him, or the head coach and other assistants while he was there.

$awbuck should be notified since, as many have indicated on this site, because he doesn't have clue.

1.) Silence because the game of baseball isn't like other sports. A lot of us "baseball" people don't like to show other baseball people up. Meaning a lot of time the game can police itself. However that being said, there always comes a time like this when a fellow player grabs another player around the neck and has to have a "conversation". (Plus I had to find a non-free email account to register that didn't use my real name)

2.) Without being a Kentucky fan, I guess I cannot 100% answer that question with any insight other than following boxscores. However the recruiting classes and performance of players once they reached the school speaks for itself. Especially in that conference.

Indicator for me is that he's continuing his winning ways even at a program like Auburn that obviously needed a fresh start.

I had to find a non-free email account to register that didn't use my real name

Falsifying registration info is not permitted here.

We don't force people to post under their names, but we do expect them to provide actual contact information if they want to post here. Believe me, we've kept bigger secrets than the names of baseball alums posting on our boards.

You need to rectify this pronto.

NM

Garner support from your fellow baseball alumni.

Whether on public internet forums or directly (and perhaps confidentially) to the Athletic Department, or both The evidence is there for all to see. If only the AD were willing to make a change, whether or not tantamount to an admission that he made a bad hiring decision in the first place.

For the general fan, ever find it odd that ending every summer season for the past 6 years that Notre Dame always has a plethora of top prospects ranked throughout the leagues? Ie. Cape Cod, Northwoods, NECBL, Prospect, Great Lakes.

Then these very same athletes return to South Bend and perform below their talent levels. So the players that leave these summer leagues playing against the best talent in the country and are ranked by Baseball America, Perfect Game, D1 Baseball, as potential day 1 draft picks, return to Notre Dame and play terribly. Why? The talent and tools don't just mysteriously disappear! Either they're not being challenged or this staff doesn't have the talent and experience to develop these young men.

Can we help these pitchers with command and implementing new approaches on the mound? Can we have a hitting coach behind the cage during bp help these young men with their swings and approach? Or are we just filling out a lineup card? Or simply passing the buck by hiring a "mental coach" to shout out ridiculous scoring methods and point systems during weekly practices for cheering, running to 1B, ground balls to the right side, and yelling "back" when the pitcher picks to first base. Save those rookie level tactics for the juco's of the world.

You show me Eric Jagielo (who was already good and drafted as a HS player), and I'll show you multiple nationally ranked players who arrived on campus over the past 6 years and became nonexistent.