Unlike Mid-American Conference (MAC) softball, which has three first-year head coaches, MAC baseball has no new head coaches taking over a program in the 2025 season.
However, five teams have coaches entering their second years at their respective schools. All five coaches hope to get over a .500 overall record for the first time with their new squads and four out of the five coaches are trying to get their first season with a winning MAC record.
Four of the five coaches had immense success at Division II schools before coming to the MAC and all five were star collegiate baseball players.
I will break down each of the five coaches’ resumes and rank their first-year performances based primarily on the improvement the program made from 2023 to 2024.
- Miami: Brian Smiley
Brian Smiley is the only second-year MAC head coach who previously coached at a Division I school. Smiley spent the past 14 seasons at Indiana State as both an assistant coach and head coach and led them to become one of the best teams in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC).
Smiley was hired by Miami last season to help turn around one of the worst MAC baseball programs in recent history and he did just that. Miami finished in fifth place last season with a 27-27 (17-13 MAC) record.
This was the best conference record for the Redhawks since 2019 and their first MAC Tournament appearance since 2019. It was also a four-win conference record improvement and a six-win overall record improvement from 2023. Overall, I’m ranking Smiley’s 2024 performance as the best among second-year head coaches.
- Northern Illinois: Ryan Copeland
Ryan Copeland became the head coach in DeKalb last year after four winning seasons at the University of Illinois-Springfield (UIS), including a 2022 loss in the DII National Championship.
Copeland flipped the Huskies program back in the right direction last season after posting a 21-33 (14-16 MAC) record and finishing in seventh place in the conference. This was a massive improvement from 2023 when NIU finished dead last with a 10-43 (5-24 MAC) record.
Copeland’s first season was NIU’s best record since 2021 which is why I’m ranking his 2024 season as the second-best debut performance out of the group.
- Akron: Bryan Faulds
Bryan Faulds is probably the least experienced head coach out of the five MAC second-year head coaches. He recently had his first head coaching position at St. Edward’s from 2022 to 2023 before coming to Akron. The DII school in Austin, TX was 72-43 with Faulds penciling in the lineup card.
Faulds led the Zips to a 15-39 (10-20 MAC) 10th-place finish last season, resulting in six fewer overall wins and two fewer conference wins than in 2023. Overall, I’d rank Faulds’ first year as the third-best performance of the new-year head coaches.
- Central Michigan: Jake Sabol
Jake Sabol came to CMU after spending the previous four years at Northwood University, a DII school in Midland, MI.
Sabol led Northwood to four straight winning seasons, including a 2023 Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) regular season and tournament championship. His 2023 Northwood team also broke seven program offensive records.
Sabol took over at Central Michigan (CMU) in 2024 after former head coach Jordan Bischel left to coach at the University of Cincinnati.
Bischel had been at CMU for five years and led the Chippewas to three MAC regular season titles and four 30-win seasons. His departure to Cincinnati also included the departure of many incoming recruits as well as current players on the team, leaving Sabol with a much different team.
Sabol led the Chippewas to an 8-22 (17-38 MAC) last-place finish last year. The disappointing debut season was 11 MAC wins and 17 overall wins shy of their third-place 2023 season. Overall, because of the hole he was put in with Bischel leaving, I’d rank Sabol’s first year as the fourth-best performance of the new-year head coaches
- Eastern Michigan: Robbie Britt
Robbie Britt was an extremely accomplished head coach at the DII level at the University of Charleston before coming to EMU last season.
Britt led Charleston to a 125-48 record over four seasons with the Golden Eagles, including two Mountain East Conference (MEC) regular season and tournament championships.
Britt’s brief time at EMU has been a letdown, to say the least. The Eagles dropped from a 27-26 (12-18 MAC) record in 2023 to an 11th-place 14-38 (9-21) record in Britt’s first season in Ypsilanti.
I’m ranking Britt’s 2024 performance as the least successful out of the group and he may be on thin ice this season if he has another underwhelming year.
