From peanuts in a plastic bag on his desk to Ohio equipment boxes in the corner of his office, it doesn’t take long to determine Rob Smith’s office in The Convo is one belonging to a baseball coach.
New Ohio coach Rob Smith, who is fresh off an associate coaching gig at Creighton, was hired in June to replace former coach Joe Carbone, who retired after 24 seasons of manning the top step of the home dugout at Bob Wren Stadium.
While at Creighton, the Bluejays won three Missouri Valley Conference titles and appeared in the NCAA Regionals that many times. In 2008, Smith was named the Collegiate Baseball Teaching Professional of the Year, and his pitching staff was second in the country with eight shutouts and ranked 14th in the country in earned run averages for the second-straight year.
However, this is his first head coach position, and although he has had limited reps with his team, he’s liked the progress he has seen thus far.
“The improvements they’ve made on the defensive side have been exceptional and I am excited to see them go out and put it to the test,” Smith said.
In the short amount of time the team has practiced together, Smith’s principles of effort in practice and attention to detail have begun to resonate with the players, he said.
“I don’t know if I’ve been around a team that has worked as hard as this club, that has prepared as diligently as this club,” he said. “They want to be good and they show in their effort every day in practice.”
Ohio will be dealing with a different blueprint this year than it has in the past. Smith outlined his scheme by saying everything starts with defense, as well as making sure that pitchers understand they have to attack the plate and not surrender free bases.
At the plate, he emphasizes team offense by saying no one bat will carry the offense.
“You have to have versatile players one through nine that have the ability to execute the game, and that have the ability to produce quality plate appearances that are productive from a team standpoint and not just about batting average,” Smith said.
More importantly, he talked about establishing a culture of winning that will be sustainable for the future.
“Our entire coaching staff brings experience in postseason play,” he said. “When you’ve been around that collectively, we have a good understanding of what it takes to prepare a team to win a conference tournament or to win a regular season championship or to get into a Regional and compete.”
It’s very far-fetched to say that Ohio will make it to the NCAA Tournament this early in Smith’s tenure. Success can take time. But who’s to say that Smith won’t one day have a new family photo to add in his office, one where Ohio is splashed across the front of his jersey, surrounded by family with the famed Rosenblatt Stadium serving as a backdrop.
nr225008@ohiou.edu
