Gillespie Having Success at Irvine, not USC

Back in 2006, USC baseball coach Mike Gillespie (pictured) “stepped down” as head coach of the Trojans. After twenty years at USC, most fans and in particular Athletic Director Mike Garrett grew increasingly frustrated with USC’s sudden dive into mediocrity. With pressure from the athletic department, Gillespie resigned as coach of the Trojans, and Garrett swiftly hired Gillespie’s son-in-law and former Dodgers catcher Chad Kreuter to take over USC baseball despite not having any prior Division I head coaching experience.

Now two years later, Gillespie appears to be getting the last laugh, as the first year UC Irvine coach has taken the the Anteaters to NCAA regional in Lincoln, Nebraska, while Garrett, Kreuter, and the rest of the Trojans baseball team, enjoy watching the tournament from the comfortable seats in Heritage Hall.

While Gillespie would never publicly admit it, he has to be laughing a little bit at the current state of the USC baseball program. Despite ten Pac-10 championships, fifteen NCAA appearances, four College World Series berths and one national championship, Gillespie was shown the door for his son-in-law who had no prior collegiate head coaching experience.

With his glittering resume, Gillespie certainly should have been allowed to leave on his own terms much like legendary USC coaches Rod Dedeaux and John Robinson. However, for whatever reason, Garrett somehow forgot all of Gillespie’s accomplishments and decided to push his own agenda.

In one sense, I can understand why Garrett decided to replace Gillespie, but what is particularly frustrating about the matter is the fact that he hired an inexperienced, unproven head coach. A storied baseball program like USC should not be a place for an untested coach like Kreuter to make his start in the coaching ranks.

During his tenure at USC, Garrett has made some impressive hires such as Pete Carroll and Tim Floyd, but the decision to replace Gillespie with Krueter leaves me scratching my head.