Steve Smith named Tennessee Tech baseball head coach

By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information

Following an extensive national search, Tennessee Tech Director of Athletics Mark Wilson announced today the hiring of Steve Smith as the 15th head baseball coach in Golden Eagle history.

"I think it was two things that really sold me on the job," Smith expressed. "First was just the hospitality and the culture of the staff, the nature of family. The thing that touched me the most and impacted me the most were the players. It was a pretty full day, right up until about 2:00 p.m. when I met with them.

"Honestly, as a coach, you deal with a lot of different constituents and are around a lot of people, and you do the best you can to be comfortable with all those situations. The most you are in contact with though, are the players. I was extremely comfortable with those guys. I think maybe as much as they were interviewing me, they were selling me."

Smith joins the Golden Eagle family with a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from over 20 years as the head baseball coach of Baylor University and many more in various assistant coaching roles during his career.

"We are so grateful to be able to welcome Steve and Melinda to Tennessee Tech University and the Cookeville and Upper Cumberland community with open arms," Wilson said. "Our search was built around finding the right individual to guide our student-athletes into achieving their absolute best in the classroom, on the diamond and out among our community and beyond. In Steve Smith, I know we have put our student-athletes in the hands of a man who best meets that criteria and I am honored to bring him into our family as the 15th head coach in Tennessee Tech baseball history."

Smith added "I'm excited to be a part of it and a part of them," Smith expressed. "I'm a small-town guy to be honest. I'm from Mississippi and I've always kind of believed, if you're from Mississippi, you're from a small town. I'm a guy that loves baseball and loves players and will do the best job I can to give the community something they can be proud of.

"I won't be doing it myself. The group that got together the other day was impressive. Any time you can get 30-40 people together at the beginning of the week in late December to discuss baseball and their thoughts on this program -- it told me there is a lot of interest with this team. The name family came up a number of times through the course of the day from both inside and outside of the department. I'm excited be a part of it, as is my wife."

Rooted in collegiate baseball for over 30 years, Smith most recently served as an assistant coach and the pitching coach at Auburn University. He spent the past two seasons (2018-19) with the Tigers, whose pitching staff turned in two of three highest strikeout totals in program history.

In his two years guiding the staff, Auburn registered 12 shutouts, including seven in 2019. In 2018, the Tigers finished in the top 25 in the country in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.67) and strikeouts per nine innings (9.2).

Under Smith's guidance, Casey Mize was named a consensus All-American and First Team All-SEC selection before becoming the first No. 1 overall pick in program history in 2018. Mize was also named the NCBWA District III Co-Player of the Year and a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award. Tanner Burns was named an All-American in 2019, and the duo turned in the program's only three 100-strikeout seasons since 2000.

Additionally, Burns and Cody Greenhill turned in Freshman All-American campaigns and went a combined 13-7 with a 2.73 ERA in 2018. The duo combined to pitch all nine innings in five wins versus SEC opponents, including twice at No. 1 Florida, and also pitched 8.1 innings in a win against Vanderbilt.

The winningest coach in the history of Baylor Athletics, Smith won 744 games during his 21-year tenure with the Bears. He turned in 16 seasons of 30 or more wins and six campaigns with 40 or more, including a program record 50 wins in 1999. Additionally, the Bears' five winningest seasons came under Smith's guidance.

Smith also served as the head coach for the USA Baseball National Team in 2005 and was the national team's pitching coach in 1998. He was also named a pitching coordinator for the 17U National Team Development Program in 2019.

Smith took his Baylor teams to 13 NCAA Regionals, four Super Regionals and culminated the 2005 season with the program's first berth to the College World Series since 1978. He also claimed a trio of Big 12 Conference Championships, including Baylor's first outright title in more than 75 years during the 2000 season.

A five-time Big 12 Coach of the Year, Smith was named the 2012 Midwest Region Coach of the Year. He served as the President of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) in 2008 and was inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.

Player development has been Smith's forte as he not only coached 17 All-Americans, but also guided Jason Jennings to the 1999 Golden Spikes Award, Dick Howser Award and Rotary Smith Award as the best player in college baseball. Jennings also became the first consensus Division I National Player of the Year. Bear great Kelly Shoppach earned the Johnny Bench Award as the top collegiate catcher in 2001.

Smith has had 74 former players selected in the MLB Draft with eight pitchers hearing their names called in the first round. Additionally, 13 of his former players have achieved their dreams of reaching the Big Leagues.

Smith's players also have a history of excelling in the classroom as he has mentored 14 Academic All-Americans, 39 Academic All-District honorees and 159 Academic All-Big 12 selections.

After beginning his playing career as a dual-sport athlete – quarterback and pitcher – at Mississippi College from 1979-80, Smith completed his collegiate days as a two-year letterwinner at Baylor from 1982-83 and led the Southwest Conference in ERA (1.72) in 1982. He went on to be selected by the San Francisco Giants in the fifth round of the 1983 MLB Draft and spent the next four seasons in the Giants' organization, making his way up to the AAA level at the end of the 1986 campaign.

Smith's coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Texas A&M from 1988-89. He quickly earned his first full-time position as an assistant coach at Mississippi State from 1990-94, where he helped lead the Bulldogs to the 1990 College World Series. He went on to spend the aforementioned 21 seasons at Baylor from 1995-2015. After serving as an assistant coach at Santa Clara University in 2017, he joined the Auburn staff for 2018 and 2019.

Smith earned a bachelor's of science in education at Baylor in 1986 and went on to earn his master's of business administration at Texas A&M in 1989.

A native of Gulfport, Miss., Smith and his wife, Melinda, have two sons, Ryan and Case. Ryan is an offensive recruiting analyst for the North Carolina football team. Case is the Director of Recreation Ministries at First Baptist Church Woodway in Waco, Texas, where he and his wife, Danelle, live.

"What excites me are the number of guys coming back," Smith said of what he looked forward to the most of the rapidly approaching season. "I had taken a look at the roster while going through this process. Obviously we lost an important offensive piece, but there were good numbers from some young guys. There is some reason to think we could be a good offensive club. Kind of learning the other day from Mitchell, in terms of pitching, I think there is some upside based on some guys coming back after being hurt last year. I'm just looking forward to getting to know them all and seeing what they can do."

A meet-and-greet event with Coach Smith will be scheduled for a later date in January.