6:00: Morning News

West Virginia’s Mazey not believed to be candidate at Clemson

Coach Randy Mazey, after helping stabilize West Virginia’s program during the past three seasons, doesn’t appear to be a candidate at Clemson, one of the ACC’s plum jobs.

 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — With Clemson reportedly eyeing College of Charleston’s Monte Lee as its new baseball coach, speculation about WVU’s Randy Mazey returning to his alma mater appears to have evaporated.

A Clemson official denied a web report that Mazey interviewed for the job last week. A West Virginia source told MetroNews that Mazey has been focused on recruiting and the school wasn’t aware of any formal contact by Clemson.

Mazey was a longshot despite deep ties to Clemson, first as an All-ACC outfielder/pitcher from 1985-1988 and then as an assistant coach from 1990-1993. With the Tigers making courtesy overtures to Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin and Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan—themselves former Clemson assistants—it was clear that replacing a Hall-of-Fame coach like Jack Leggett would attract big names with big resumes.

Mazey’s first three seasons at West Virginia have been moderately successful, at least by West Virginia standards. But an 88-79 record and zero NCAA tournament appearances in that span aren’t the trappings of what athletics director Dan Radakovich envisioned upon firing Leggett, who led Clemson to six College World Series and averaged 43 wins over 22 seasons.

We’re approaching the 10-year anniversary of Mazey being fired at East Carolina after an offseason incident neither he nor the school has discussed publicly. Mazey took the Pirates to NCAA regionals in all three seasons there and subsequently spent six years as a top assistant helping TCU blossom into a national power. After landing the head-coaching gig in Morgantown and making WVU competitive in the Big 12, his reputation appears entirely rehabilitated from the ECU dismissal.

Mazey’s current contract runs through 2019. He earned a base salary of $245,000 this season (up from $150,000 in 2014) and qualified for two bonuses—$25,000 for reaching the Big 12 conference tournament and $10,000 for the team’s three-year academic progress rate exceeding the 930 NCAA cutoff. He also is due a $25,000 retention incentive on Aug. 30.

While College of Charleston’s Lee appears to be the frontrunner at Clemson, several newspapers have reported Radakovich also is considering Maryland’s John Szefc and Virginia assistant Kevin McMullan.