This is crazy. Ohio baseball is bad. It's not mediocre, it's bad. We have been irrelevant in the MAC, let alone nationally, for as long as I can remember. And former players have the gall to be upset when the AD wants to go in a different direction? They think things are pointed in the right direction?

Kent State won a game at the College World Series this year. Did we win a game in the MAC tournament? Carbone did not earn the right to have his opinion seriously considered. Don't talk about our "national reputation" (ha). Talk to me about wins and losses. Schaus would have been derelict in his duties to keep things in house.

I'd love to know why just because you don't like Joe Carbone as a coach, that automatically makes you a person who only has an axe to grind. Like he is some perfect man or something. He's a .500 coach against D1 schools. He won two MAC titles. I could go ask a person in Japan who knows baseball but doesn't know a thing about Ohio and he would say that is terrible.

If Ohio has financial issues when it comes to funding southern trips, how about they do stuff that the softball team does to make long trips and play in great areas every year? Is some magical person funding softball? No, they get out and do fundraisers and they are creative in raising money.

Carbone was big on home and home setups. He created a relationship with Corbin at Vandy and that worked out (due to his Ohio roots). No other southern team would take him up on that deal. When his buddy at Clemson retired, Ohio stopped playing them. Every other northern team worth anything sucks it up and goes on the road to play tough teams. You are telling me for budget reasons, the team can go to Furman but can't go to Clemson? Can't bus it to North Carolina, North Carolina State, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Georgia, Georgia Tech, etc. once a year (with many of those schools with connections to the state of Ohio)? We do not play a tough schedule on a consistent basis at all, save one cool series every few years. Instead the team goes to Western Kentucky to play in the cold February and March rain. Might as well just play at home.

I guess I'm nothing more than an axe grinder though with the rest of the negative Carbone posters, so my opinion means nothing. People can't possibly be upset when they look around and see nearly every other sport at high points, while Ohio has been a joke baseball school who is just now getting around to replacing Bill Toadvine.

Well let's see, the team hasn't won anything since the mid-90s (or even been a runner-up), and the most news the team has made on even a regional scale was when there was a gambling scandal that led to player suspensions and dismissals in 2008. Good luck living up to those lofty expectations Coach Smith!

doubledribble,

I'm not trying to start a flame war, but I'm honestly puzzled by your comment.

I realize that, perhaps, you would have preferred to see Coach See (see what I did there?) as Coach Carbone's successor.  Perhaps not.  Perhaps you felt Coach Carbone should stay for a while longer.

Honestly, though, those things don't matter. At this point, they are not possibilities.

I can feel your love for the Bobcats shine throughout your posting; there is no doubt in my mind that you love the Bobcats, and Bobcat baseball in particular.   I understand that fully.

The part I don't understand, and help me with this, is that you'll somehow change the way you feel about it due to the way the coaching change was handled.

The players are still Bobcats.  The team is still the Bobcats, and the new coach is still the coach of the Bobcats.

The program will still need all of our support, regardless of who's coaching.  The players deserve no less.

Speaking for myself, I will welcome Coach Smith the only way I know how: with the full support of my love for the Bobcats.  He's done nothing to earn anything less.

Perhaps he knows nothing about our storied history; that's fine. It's our job to teach him.

Perhaps he doesn't love OU the way an alumnus does; again, that's fine.  Give him a chance to live there a bit, and I'm certain he'll come to love it as we all do.

OU is a special place, and maybe we should share some of that  special-ness with people that aren't Bobcats, and give them the chance to learn what we already know: OU is special, and OU Baseball is a special part of OU.

My intention is to give the guy a chance.  He might just be special, too.

Peace,
-john

." Hopefully Schaus has a plan in place to replace the lost revenue from  various equipment deals driven by the stellar national reputation of our former coach"  > Doubledribble

Say WHAT???    You mean the great deal Carbone got from Akadema??   Players had to buy their own gloves at a discounted price and the crappy shoes were thrown out after a couple weeks!!     I believe Coach Smith has already made a great deal with Lousiville Slugger - Full support,   Players get new gloves FREE of charge and they are supplying all their bats!!   I'm sure a shoe deal with a "reputatable" shoe company is also in the works. I couldn't help but notice as I watched a practice and scrimmage last week that the players also were wearing much better warm-ups and other gear than they had during Carbone's years. I think Joe thought that they should all dress like they did when he played, in worn out and cheap equipment.  He just didn't believe that the baseball players were laughed at by athletes in other sports when they showed up in the weight room in shorty shorts from the 1970's.Oh, that's right,,, Joe made very few appearances in the weight room.  Coach See understood that, but he couldn't speak up for the players.  Coach carbone would have none of that. The players knew that. They lost respect for See, especially last year when he sat by and watched them get abused and mistreated without saying a word.   Perhaps the relationships that the new staff has from Creighton and Baylor will bring about support far surpassing the support that Carbone's reputation brought.

Every single recruit wants to know from where the team's equipment comes from.  That is one of the first things a new recruit notices when they come to a game.  That kinda thing wasn't important 15 years ago.  Joe never thought it was important, but I know he lost some pretty good recruits because of it.  That's just another way that Carbone lost touch with today's athletes.  He didn't understand about the things that are important to 18 year old players in today's world.  I know some readers will say that carbone was right,,,, the equipment doesn't make the player,,,  ya know, that might be true but the team must stay current in order to recruit top notch kids and to compete with all the other teams with the best gear.

I can't figure out which sentence was more crazy talk, so I quoted them both.

If the people against Carbone all have axes to grind, what sort of blanket label should we give the people making these types of comments?

Also, it's hilarious how so many people were like "oh, it has to be See." Malinowski was there longer, he actually won a MAC title (extremely rare to find a non-retired Ohio baseball player with a ring) and he didn't fail at an SEC school before becoming a Bobcat. Of course, whatever happened against Testicle Tech ended up coming out later, but people were already labeling See as the successor.

Anyway, at the end of the day, this all doesn't matter. Schaus looked past the Athens Mafia to go out and get a coaching staff that knows what it takes to compete on a national level. Who knows if it all will work out for them, but with a great stadium, a IPF on the way and the best weather in the MAC, the rest of the league now has to fear Ohio as the sleeping northern school power it has the potential to be.

How could Carbone be mistreated in the new hire?  I do not understand what obligation the school has to a retiring coach as far as a replacement is considered.  A school has an obligation to hire someone who is moving forward and making things happen in their respective sport.

And as for Carbone running an outstanding program, you can count up all his "on paper accomplishments, " but when over the years, proven athletes end up hating the love of their life because their coach is absolutely INSANE, then he is a NOBODY.  And Joe Carbone is a NOBODY in my eyes!

So let's agree to disagree.  You like and respect Carbone.  And you don't like the hiring decision. 

Let's also agree, that in order for Coach Smith to have a great BOBCAT BASEBALL program, we all need to support him.  And he deserves that.  I am sure he is getting that from his players, coaches and OU AD administration.  Now so called OU Baseball fans, get on board or stay out of Wren stadium!  The players don't need skepticism or criticism of their Coach!  They need the support and confidence of their fans.  I will be there in my Green and White!

GO BOBCATS! 

So where are all of those MAJORITY supporters???   So far we have heard from 2 of you!  None of the current players are unhappy with the choices made. Perhaps 4 or 5 players over the last 3 years would have liked to see See hired or Carbone stay.  Go ask them, then come back here and say the program would have been better off.

He wasn't the person for the job. Clocking time as an assistant doesn't change that.

Personally, I'm glad See didn't get the job. We had to clear out the Good Old Boys that clearly were more concerned with taking care of themselves and patting each other on the back, talking about how great and respected they are, than actually winning. You want to tell me Joe Carbone's reputation is better than Kent's coach? I could use a laugh.

I totally agree!!!!! Give Coach Smith a couple years to polish these rough diamonds and you'll have a true winning team. Signed, One proud Bobcat Baseball Mom.

Well said Mom!!   Talk to the players from the last 4 or 5 years - they all came to Ohio with a passion and a love for the sport of baseball.  Very few, if any of them,  maintained that passion and love for more than a month under the reign of Coach Carbone.  Their passion for the game quickly changed to a hatred for the experience that they were having.  Players, especially young passionate players, can't be beat down with negativity, sarcasim, and name-calling very long before they lose the will to work.  Baseball was turned into something they all dreaded.  They knew that every single day that they came to the Wren was a day they would experience put downs and a berating in front of their team mates and friends.  The will to win was lost.  It didn't matter, win or lose, the experience was negative.  Coach Smith and his staff have come a long way in re-establishing a positive feeling in the locker room and dugout.  The players are excited again. Their passion for baseball is being restored.    Coach Smith, if you read this forum ( and I think you do read this and possibly even post)  Thank you!!!

I went to a few practices in the fall and watched a scrimmage recently, and I can honestly say the team has come MILES from where they ended with Carbone. It seems as if the will to win and the love of the game has been reborn in many of these kids. We can't expect to see a sudden World Series appearance in the first year of this new coaching staff but I believe Coach Smith has them on the right track to be remarkably more successful than they have been in a very long time.