Listening to the calculated optimism of new assistant coach Matthew Boggs, you would never know the Blue Devils’s baseball team amassed a 14-39 record last year and finished last in the ACC.
“Our expectations I think may be higher than what people outside the program think,” Boggs said. “I don’t know that we can go out and make it to the World Series, but if we can make it to the ACC Tournament then you never know what can happen.”
After Sean McNally was introduced as the new head coach of the Duke baseball program July 15, he spent the next 10 days assembling a staff that would bring an end to the apathetic and defeated environment that contaminated the Duke clubhouse.
On July 28th, McNally announced he had found his solution, by making public the hiring of associate head coach Dave Turgeon and Boggs.
“I’m thrilled to get the two guys that I did,” McNally said of Boggs and Turgeon. “They were the top two guys I wanted to bring in. Their best assets are their ability to communicate and their intelligence. They’re great fits for this University. We recruit character first, and these are two high quality coaches.”
Lacking previous collegiate coaching experience, McNally sought assistants that could compensate for his unfamiliarity with recruitment and other aspects of managing at the college level.
A 1987 graduate of Davidson College, Turgeon played 13 years in the minor leagues, followed by a three-year stint coaching within the Cleveland Indians organization. More recently, Turgeon has served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the University of Connecticut and Boston College baseball teams, which both saw significant improvement in their staff ERAs during Turgeon’s tenure.
McNally and Turgeon were friends from their time spent together with the Indians.
“Dave Turgeon’s background is as unique as one in college baseball,” McNally said. “I’m really excited to bring him on board. He’s as good of a pitching coach as there is, period.”
The 26 year-old Boggs, who has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Tulane, brings excitement and a youthful exuberance to the staff.
A 2002 graduate of Georgia Tech, where he played infield, Boggs comes to Durham with the rare experience of having both played and coached in the College World Series. Boggs believes that his youth and ability to identify with players will prove to be valuable recruiting tools.
“I think youth is a plus, as far as recruiting goes, because it’s easier obviously as a player to relate to coaches who are a little bit closer to your age,” Boggs said. “I think that dynamic helps you as a team, having the coaches that are able to remember what it was like.”
Boggs and McNally have no prior experience actively recruiting players for college programs and will be relying heavily on the expertise of Turgeon, who McNally named the recruiting coordinator.
According to Boggs, pitching and speed appear to be high on McNally’s list of recruiting wants for next year’s class. The Blue Devil pitching staff was particularly weak in 2004, sporting a 6.72 ERA, the second worst in the program’s history.
“One thing that you need in college baseball is pitching,” Boggs said. “You need good starting pitching, and you need one or two guys that you can count on to close out games. Pitching is always at a premium.”
McNally believes that his recruiting trips have been going well and that several of his top prospects have shown strong interest.
“Everyone’s always looking for pitching, but we’re just looking for as many good players as we can find,” McNally said. “We’ve made great inroads and we’ve got some really, really good players interested in our program.”
McNally and his staff also understand the huge challenge they face in turning around the ACC’s worst team. Beyond their pitching woes, the Blue Devils struggled mightily in the field, committing 102 errors which led to 99 unearned runs—the most in the program’s history.
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