What to Add?

 In this second post of what is really a two-parter, I analyze a statement soon-to-be-former UT Arlington Athletic Director Jim Baker said to the Shorthorn on a story they ran about his retirement. 

UTA Athletics has been pursuing an athletics master plan that will address current and long-term needs, improvements and facility expansion for most Division I teams. It will also help revitalize the west side of campus. 
Baker said UTA is 95% done with the plan and wants to ensure that it gets passed down to the new administration as a road map. But any decisions regarding the plan will be up to the new Athletics director and UTA president. 
“I won’t have a say in it, nor should I,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure they have all the information.”

The first entry mentioned what is obvious, the facility renovations. However, reading between the lines, along with what I've heard in the background, I suspect the department is once again eyeing an expansion of sports, even if preliminarily.

What to Improve?

I've been hanging on to this the idea of this entry (and this one too) since February when the Shorthorn, UT Arlington's student newspaper, reported on Athletic Director Jim Baker's impending retirement. I added my own commentary a bit later. The link can be found here.

There's a couple of paragraphs at the end of the article that caught my eye that I believe will very much will have an impact on the future of the Athletic Department. And seeing how we've entered the summer months, now is the time to pontificate.

"UTA Athletics has been pursuing an athletics master plan that will address current and long-term needs, improvements and facility expansion for most Division I teams. It will also help revitalize the west side of campus."

There are possibly two things that are being addressed here, though the obvious is "facility expansion." So based on that quote, I want to go down the list of current facilities and give my opinion on what upgrades are best or needed for each facility. The list is in order starting with the least needed facility for upgrades and ending with the venue that needs the most attention.

Over Before it Started

 Earlier this week, Incarnate Word University (or rather the Southland Conference) announced the Cardinals would stay in the SLC, less than two weeks before they were supposed to join the Western Athletic Conference. 

While many folks are proclaiming this the doom and gloom of the WAC, I think this is great for the conference. The main thing this affects is the football numbers.

As it is, New Mexico State is a football independent at the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A), while the WAC resumed football sponsorship at the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA). The Aggies are leaving at the end of the year to go to Conference USA with Sam Houston State. Tarleton State University and Utah Tech University are transitioning from Division II and not eligible for postseason play. As such, their numbers do not count towards the minimum needed for an automatic berth for the conference into the postseason. Lamar made the odd decision to go back to the Southland, which is a terrible conference for all things non-football. California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Seattle U, Utah Valley along with UTA do not sponsor the sport. That leaves Abilene Christian, Southern Utah and Stephen F. Austin as full, postseason eligible members. Once, the DII transition is complete and once UT-Rio Grande Valley starts their program, the WAC will be at the bare minimum. 

That was what Incarnate Word brought to the table. A warm body.

New AD Named

The wait is finally over. On June 13, 2022, UT Arlington named Jon Fagg as the seventh Athletic Director in the 65-year history of the Athletic Department as a four-year University. Jim Baker announced his retirement in February, effective September 1. Fagg will start his tenure on August 1.

Fagg comes to UTA from University of Arkansas, where he's been since 2008. He was most recently a deputy athletic director. Prior to that, he served stints at North Carolina State, Fresno State and the Big South Conference. 

Looking over the list of prior job duties, I see much of the same stuff that you'd expect: "direct oversight of the NCAA compliance program," "academic support," and "student-athlete experience." He also was directly involved in their two major revenue sports in football and men's basketball. 

However, one thing does stick out to me.

Another Coach Leaves

 On this week, in As the UTA Coaches Carrousel Turns, another sport is looking to replace a head coach. At the beginning of the month, the UT Arlington Athletic Department announced that PeeJay Brun was resigning after five seasons of running the program. 

Unlike Coach Darrin Thomas' resignation, this one doesn't move the needle as much for me. Coach Thomas was at UTA when I was a student broadcaster and I built a casual relationship with him. He was in the department for over 20 years. He had a decent run a little less than midway through his career. Conversely, he also was facing a growing call of Maverick fans wanting a change at the helm. There's not much of the latter that I was aware of with Coach Brun.

Some similarities do exist however. Both are spring sports where UTA has traditionally done well. Both led programs that have all-time winning records. Both replaced a head coach who finished sub-.500, but whose predecessor prior won less than they lost. Both ended their time in Arlington with two, full losing seasons in a row after the NCAA shut down 2020 play in the spring. And finally, both play in the toughest mid-major conference, if not the toughest, in the NCAA. The Sun Belt top-to-bottom can compete with any team in the NCAA.

But Thomas also made an NCAA tournament (though one in 15 years isn't a resume builder), won a conference title (again, just one), and a Sun Belt Division championship. While SBC softball hasn't split into divisional play while UTA was a member, the rest of the softball accolades are pretty bare, with one exception.

Baseball Skipper Resigns

 Big news out of Arlington on Monday for the baseball team as Head Coach Darin Thomas announced he was resigning after a 15-39 season, which saw the worst winning percentage and the highest number of losses since 2007. Overall, 2022 ranks as the second worst in losses, tied with 1977 (2007 saw 40) and is the fourth worst winning percentage.

I detailed earlier how young the team was, but UTA has had young teams before. I'm not sure what happened, but this was the second losing season in a row. I'm not sure how much of a factor that played in Coach Thomas' decision.

What I'm also not sure of is what was in play in the background. I know a lot of fans were ready for a change. Given how Athletic Director Jim Baker canned Men's Basketball Coach Scott Cross for not making the NCAA's, it seemed odd how baseball was allowed to stay in a field of mediocrity.

Consider the following two trends.

Young Struggles

 I haven't felt much impetus to post lately as the normally strong spring push from the UT Arlington Athletic Department hasn't really materialized. However, I did want to mention a few things, starting with the baseball team.

First, they are putting up one of the worst performances as far as a win/loss in a generation. As of April 29, their winning percentage sits at .293. That would be a decent batting average, but sits as the second worse in the conference, ahead of Arkansas State, who conveniently comes to Clay Gould Ballpark this weekend. The last time UTA finished a season with a sub .300 winning percentage was 1977. The Mavericks sit at .222 in conference play, the worst of the 12 Sun Belt Conference teams. That could change depending on the Red Wolf series.

There's not much light at the end of the tunnel. UTA goes to College Station next week where Texas A&M is 26-14, then they go to Lafayette, where Louisiana is 23-16, 12-6, then a home series against Appalachian State (14-24, 5-13) and a road trip to Georgia Southern (28-13, 14-4).

There's two main issues with the team as I see it.