Report: Washington State baseball coach Brian Green expected to take head coaching job at Wichita State
PULLMAN – After four years at the helm, Washington State baseball coach Brian Green is reportedly leaving the program.
Green is expected to take the head-coaching job at Wichita State, according to a Twitter report Sunday from Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com.
The Cougars posted an overall record of 91-79 and went 35-54 in Pac-12 play under Green, failing to qualify for the postseason in every season.
After leading a successful rebuild at New Mexico State, Green was hired by WSU in 2020 to turn around a cellar-dwelling Cougars program that had won a combined 27 games between 2018-19. WSU showed progress under Green, but never became more than a mediocre team in the ultra-competitive Pac-12 Conference.
The Cougars’ overall record improved in each season of Green’s tenure, but their Pac-12 win total decreased every year.
WSU started hot this season, opening with a 13-2 record after winning its first conference series. But the Cougars stumbled during their Pac-12 schedule, finishing 29-23 with a 10-19 mark against conference opponents. WSU wound up 10th in the Pac-12 standings and missed the conference tournament by a game and a half.
The Cougars went 26-23 overall and 12-18 against Pac-12 competition in 2022. WSU placed ninth in the conference – one win shy of qualifying for the Pac-12 tourney.
In 2021, WSU compiled a 26-23 record for its first winning season (in a full season) since 2015, but went 13-17 in Pac-12 play to finish eighth in the conference standings.
The Cougars went 9-7 in Green’s first year – the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season.
Under Green, an offensive-minded coach, the Cougars were a respectable hitting team but often held back by their pitching. In 2021, WSU was one of the Pac-12’s top offensive teams and among the worst pitching teams in the conference. The Cougars took a step back offensively in 2022, but finished in the top half of the Pac-12 in several hitting stat categories last season. Lapses from the bullpen were especially glaring in 2023.
WSU’s recruiting improved under Green, who brought in two classes that were ranked in the nation’s top 50. Still, the Cougars couldn’t get over the hump and remain searching for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010.
Green is heading to a Wichita State program that’s looking to get back to its winning ways. The Shockers have made 27 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, most recently in 2009, and won the national championship in 1989. Wichita State went 30-25 last season. The Shockers played under an interim coach throughout the season because fourth-year coach Eric Wedge stepped away from the team in late 2022.
Green has a history with Wichita State athletic director Kevin Saal. Both were employed at the University of Kentucky in the mid-2010s – Green was an assistant with the Wildcats’ baseball team and Saal served as a front-office member of the school’s athletic department.
Head-coaching positions are not affected by the athletic department’s recently implemented hiring freeze, so the Cougs’ search for a new baseball coach will proceed normally. Last month, WSU President Kirk Schulz announced a temporary hiring freeze across all athletic programs – along with a pause to non-essential travel, purchases and new professional development – due to the athletic department’s $11.5 million budget deficit.