Garrido Candidate for Texas Job

FULLERTON —  Augie Garrido, who has coached Cal State Fullerton to three College World Series championships, is considered a leading candidate to replace Cliff Gustafson at Texas.

Fullerton Athletic Director John Easterbrook confirmed Tuesday that Garrido was invited to Texas to discuss the job. Indications are that Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds hopes to name a new coach by the end of the week.

Garrido was not available for comment Tuesday, and Dodds declined to answer questions about the coaching search.

“Obviously, we’d like to keep him at Fullerton, but I haven’t spoken with him since he went to Texas,” Easterbrook said Tuesday.

Gustafson, 65, the winningest coach in NCAA Division I baseball, announced his retirement after 29 years with the Longhorns. Garrido, 58, ranks as the third-winningest active coach with a record of 1,152-524-7. His teams have won seven NCAA regional titles in his 21 years at Fullerton.

Earlier, speculation on a successor to Gustafson focused primarily on Florida’s Andy Lopez, a former coach at Pepperdine, but Lopez decided against becoming a candidate.

A search committee completed screening candidates for the position Sunday. A Texas athletic department source said Garrido is one of “maybe five” who will be interviewed, but it’s believed Garrido is a front-runner. The Texas source said Garrido did not apply for the position, but was recommended by the search committee.

Dodds earlier had indicated plans to interview Arkansas State Coach Bill Bethea, a former Longhorn player and assistant coach, and Gustafson’s top assistant, Tommy Harmon. Tennessee Coach Rod Delmonica also had been mentioned as a top possibility for the job. Others are Bob Todd of Ohio State, Jim Wells of Alabama and Jack Leggett of Clemson.

Also mentioned was Oklahoma’s Larry Cochell, who was head coach at Fullerton for three years after Garrido left Fullerton for the Illinois job in 1988. When Cochell went to Oklahoma, Garrido returned to Fullerton for the 1991 season. Since then, the Titans have reached the College World Series three times in the past five years and won the championship in 1995.

The Texas job is regarded as one of the most attractive in college baseball with a salary and fringe benefits in the $200,000 per year range. The new coach is expected to be offered a five-year contract, making the package worth more than $1 million.

Garrido’s base salary reportedly is slightly less than $100,000 per year, but that figure doesn’t include income from endorsements and his summer baseball camp.

One of Garrido’s continuing concerns has been that Titan Field has not been brought up to standards for consideration as an NCAA regional tournament site, although there are plans to continue improvements to the stadium.

Texas, however, has been the host of 17 NCAA regionals in the past 18 years at Disch-Falk Field, where the seating capacity is more than 7,000. A subpar season in 1995 kept Texas from being a tournament host that year.

Garrido has had a longtime friendship with Gustafson, and their teams have played against each other frequently in recent years in regular-season series.

The Titans swept a three-game series in Austin this year, only the third time an opponent has done that at Disch-Falk Field. Fullerton also won a three-game series in Austin in 1994. Texas has a 15-14 edge in the series between the teams.