Josh Holliday Named OSU Baseball Coach

On Friday afternoon (bury the lede much?) OSU named Josh Holliday its new head baseball coach over the presumed favorite, current ORU head man, Rob Walton.

Holliday, who played and coached at OSU in the late 90s/early 2000s, has been an assistant at Vandy for three years after stints at NC State, Arizona State, and Georgia Tech.

He’s never been a head coach though, but is thought of by many as one of the best (if not the best) recruiters in the country.

It’s an interesting hire from Holder and Co. especially after his comments in the Oklahoman yesterday made it seem like the process would be an extended one.

My initial thought was “are we serious? There’s a guy 70 miles to the east who’s basically turned a little private Christian school into one of the most preeminent landing spots for pitchers in the entire country and he wants the job and we’re not giving it to him?!”

But the more I think about it, the more I like it. Holliday has played on OSU CWS teams and understands the tradition. His pops was Gary Ward’s sidekick through the glory years and a little “hey, Matt Holliday is taking BP at Allie P. in February” can’t ever be bad for recruiting.

The part the sort of puzzles me is Holder going back to the Holliday well. Tom preceded Frank and it seemed like that bridge had been at least been lit up, if not burned. I mean, look at these quotes from Josh at the Vandy-OSU regional last year [1. Benefit of the doubt – what’s he supposed to say: I WOULD LOVE TO BE THE HEAD COACH AT OSU!!? Vanderbilt would have been really excited about that.]:

That was a really special time in my upbringing and a real memorable place for me for a lot of reasons, but we all kind of grow and move on. You evolve as a grownup, you know? I’m 34 now. I’m not 4 when I was a batboy, I’m not 14 when I was following ’em around, I’m not 20 when I was playing there.

I mean that wholeheartedly. My time there was my time, my teammates, my coaches. For a long time, that was a very precious, dear thing to me. But we get a chance to go out and grow and evolve. That’s just part of life.

Well, it’s time to move on back.

And judging by his quotes during the press conference today, it looks like he has. And he’s excited.

Josh Holliday: “Our history and our players is really something that sets us apart. I embrace the former players. Many are my heroes.”

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 8, 2012

Holliday: “Recruiting to OKSt is gonna be recruiting from the heart…I met my wife met by best friends. OKSt to me changed my life.” #okstate

— John E. Hoover (@johnehoover) June 8, 2012

Josh Holliday very emotional. Talking about how much Stillwater means to him.

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 8, 2012

Holliday: “I learned to hit left-handed because Robin Ventura hit left-handed.”#okstate

— John E. Hoover (@johnehoover) June 8, 2012

“I want people to know some of the greatest players who have ever played college baseball have dug into that batters box.” #okstate

— Kyle Porter (@pistolsguy) June 8, 2012

And how about this one? Does it sound familiar?

Josh Holliday: “I believe this is what I was born to do. Not a lot of times do you get to reach your dreams.”

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 8, 2012

And one final one from Holder…

Mike Holder: “I asked and conferred with a lot of people, and the name Josh Holliday kept coming back up.”

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) June 8, 2012

I’m all in.