Replacing a Legend Is Difficult

The baseball coach who follows Augie Garrido at Cal State Fullerton will walk in a big shadow.

But Oklahoma Coach Larry Cochell, who did it for three years when Garrido left after 1987 season to coach at Illinois, says he still feels good about that experience.

“Any time you replace someone who has been that successful, it’s a challenge, and you can expect to have some comparisons,” Cochell said Thursday. “Augie is Cal State Fullerton baseball. He was then and he is now. He took it from a small college-division program and turned it into a national power. When I took over there, I was very aware of the person I was following.”

But Cochell believes the key element for Garrido’s successor this time will be the same as it was for him.

“I had great administrative support from the university,” Cochell said. “I think it was a matter of everyone saying, ‘Hey, he’s following Augie Garrido, and we don’t want him to fail.’ I had tremendous support from the administration and tremendous support from the community, and that’s one of the things it takes to be successful.”

Garrido resigned Wednesday from Fullerton to accept a six-year, $200,000-per-year contract package to replace Cliff Gustafson as head coach at Texas, but Cochell sees no reason why Fullerton won’t continue to have one of the nation’s top programs.

He said his own experience at Fullerton indicates that. The Titans reached the College World Series in two of Cochell’s three years as their coach.

Cochell’s first Titan team was 43-18 and swept all four games in the NCAA South Regional in Starkville, Miss. In the College World Series, Fullerton defeated Miami and Stanford in its first two games, but Stanford came back to beat the Titans twice.

The next year the Titans dropped to 30-27, 10-11 in the Big West, and missed an NCAA tournament berth, but Cochell had Fullerton back in Omaha the following year primarily with players he recruited.

In 1990, Cochell’s Titans won the Big West title, then beat Texas twice in Austin in the NCAA Central Regional. They were eliminated quickly in Omaha, however, with losses to Oklahoma State and the Citadel.

Soon afterward, Cochell took the Oklahoma job, and Garrido returned to Fullerton, where his teams reached the College World Series three times in the past five years and the 1995 team gave him his third national title.

“For me, Fullerton was a great experience,” Cochell said. “The reason I left had nothing to do with anything at Fullerton. It was the opportunity to go back to Oklahoma, where we really liked living, and to coach at Oklahoma with its great sports tradition.”

Cochell coached at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa for 10 years, and at Northwestern for one, before moving to Fullerton.

“It was probably an easier transition for me because I had recruited Southern California so much when I was at Oral Roberts, and had coached at Cal State Los Angeles before that,” Cochell said.

Cochell says recruiting will be a key for the new coach.

“The elements a coach needs to be successful are there,” Cochell said, pointing in particular to Southern California’s strong high school baseball. “They also have the good stadium now, too, and that helps.”

Cochell believes Garrido’s associate head coach, George Horton, is a natural choice to succeed him and continue Garrido’s successful system.

“I’ve followed George’s career since I tried to recruit him to Cal State L.A., and he’s done an outstanding job everywhere he’s been,” Cochell said. “I don’t think they can find anyone better for that job.”

Horton, a former coach at Cerritos College and Garrido’s top assistant the last six years, says he definitely wants the job. He also has Garrido’s recommendation.

Rick Vanderhook, the other full-time assistant at Fullerton, said Thursday he plans to remain on the Titan staff and hopes Horton will replace Garrido.

“We’ll be losing the charisma that Augie gave the program, but I don’t think it will be that big of a change if George gets the job,” Vanderhook said.

Vanderhook and Horton have been primarily responsible for Fullerton’s recruiting. Vanderhook said he has been in contact recently with Fullerton’s recruits, as well as many of the returning players.

“I think we’re going to be fine with all of them,” Vanderhook said. “I haven’t had one negative response. If George is hired, I don’t think it will be that big a change for our players.”

Although Horton hasn’t been a Division I head coach before, Cochell says that shouldn’t work against him, particularly at Fullerton.

“George probably knows more about baseball than at least 90% of the Division I head coaches in the country right now,” Cochell said. “If I was the athletic director making that decision, it would be an easy one.”