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Confirmed #Oklahoma's full-time coaching staff: Former #Nebraska HC Mike Anderson, #Sooners pitching coach Jack Giese (retained). #OU #Big12
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) July 3, 2013
Finally, that's a heck of a staff Pete Hughes put together at #Oklahoma. Big 12 ties? Check, Knows the area? Check. Good job there. #Sooners
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogersPG) July 3, 2013
According to Kendall Rogers of Perfect Game, Oklahoma's recently named head baseball coach Pete Hughes has finalized his assistant coaching staff.
News leaked out earlier Tuesday afternoon about former Nebraska head coach Mike Anderson reportedly accepting a position in Norman. Evidently, Anderson and Hughes have a history and the offer was too tempting for him to turn down. Unfortunately, with Anderson coming on as Oklahoma's new hitting coach that very likely means Aric Thomas will not be retained. Between his two stints (1996 - 2004, 2011 - present), Thomas has been an assistant at Oklahoma for over ten years.
The other obvious coaching news is the apparent decision by Hughes to retain pitching coach Jack Giese, which should make a number of OU baseball fans happy as many had hoped this would be the case. When the news of Sunny Golloway's departure was initially reported, there were reports that Giese would possibly be joining him at Auburn. Obviously, that did not come to pass and now it would appear as though the man who oversaw the College Baseball Hall of Fame's 2013 Pitcher of the Year will return.
As Rogers noted in his tweet above, Hughes can check off a lot of boxes assuming this is in fact his coaching staff. Anderson has a history both as a successful hitting coach and leading teams to Omaha, while Giese is obviously a well regarded pitching coach. Plus both Anderson and Hughes have recruiting ties to the midwest to go along with OU's existing ties out west and now any connections Hughes has to the east coast. Add in the fact Hughes has the luxury of not having to build a program from the ground up and hopefully the transition for OU baseball is a seamless one.