By: Chris Towers / Asst. Sports Director
It was to be a match made in turtle heaven: the man known as “Turtle” interviewed for the vacant head coaching job for the University of Maryland.
Maryland’s mascot?
A carnivorous swamp-dwelling turtle known as a terrapin, of course.
Unfortunately for college baseball fans and turtle enthusiasts in College Park, Maryland reportedly decided not to offer FIU baseball head coach Henry “Turtle” Thomas the position after his interview last week.
Following the loss of five key contributors to graduation or the draft, the loss of the team’s head coach – a man with a reputation as one of the top recruiters in the nation – would have been a huge setback for a program on the rise.
Thomas has quickly established himself as one of the top coaches here at FIU, bringing in a top 15 recruiting class last year and taking the team to its first Sun Belt Conference Tournament since 2006.
It would have been very tough to replace a recruiter like him, and more than in other sports, baseball teams can only go so far without top flight talent.
It is difficult to imagine the job at Maryland wouldn’t have represented an upgrade in comparison to FIU though.
With perennial baseball powerhouses such as the University of Miami, Florida State, University of North Carolina and Clemson, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s higher quality of competition is one attractive aspect. But another possible upgrade would’ve been something more tangible: money.
Thomas told The Miami Herald that money would not influence his decision to take the job or not, but it was very probable that he would’ve been offered more money than FIU is paying him.
The classified posted by the University of Maryland on http://ncaamarket.ncaa.org states that its Athletics’ budget is $55 million. Meanwhile, FIU’s Athletics’ budget is expected to be $16 million this year, The Associated Press reported on June 24.
Also, the posting showed the salary is “commensurate with experience.”
Thomas’ 35 years of recruitment experience coupled with 19 top-10 recruiting classes would’ve most likely compensated him well.
Luckily for FIU, the Terrapins decided to go with Erik Bakich, former assistant coach of Vanderbilt University, so they will be able to put off the daunting prospect of having to replace Thomas for at least one more year.
However, for some bigger schools, Thomas may represent somewhat of a big fish in a small pond, and if he continues to see success at FIU, more and more schools are going to be looking his way when it comes time to jump start their own struggling programs.
It wouldn’t be surprising if this is an annual event from here on out, as Thomas expressed a willingness to leave if the right suitor comes calling.
Thomas can’t be faulted for expressing his interest in the job; you can hardly blame someone for keeping his options open.
However, it has to be disconcerting to the FIU baseball fans that just two years into his tenure, he was willing to uproot for greener pastures.
Loyalty is tough to ask for, but you’d hate to see the team end up with a Nick Saban type of situation, where there is so much uncertainty surrounding the coach that it ends up being a distraction.
For the program to continue succeeding, it needs Thomas at the head steering the whole way.
There is no doubting Thomas’ faithfulness to the team when he’s here; he’s a professional, and will do whatever it takes to turn his team into a winner as long as he’s here.
But how long he will remain here is what remains to be seen.
