Arkansas hires Wake Forest’s Matt Hobbs as new pitching coach.
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas formally announced on Tuesday the hiring of pitching coach Matt Hobbs, who spent the past four seasons at Wake Forest.
Hobbs, a former pitcher at Missouri, contributed to a notable rise in statistics and performance by pitchers at Wake Forest. He worked with 12 Demon Deacon pitchers who were drafted or signed as free agents during his fouryear tenure at the Atlantic Coast Conference school in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Hobbs replaces Wes Johnson of Sherwood, whose work in analytics, the TrackMan system and a focus on lower-body strength was cited in improved fastball velocity and confidence among Arkansas pitchers the past two years. Coach Dave Van Horn and the Razorbacks advanced to the championship round of the College World Series in June.
Johnson was hired as the pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins earlier this month.
Hobbs will be introduced during a news conference this morning.
“Arkansas is one of those places that has such a rich baseball history,” Hobbs said in a statement released by the UA. “To have the opportunity to come here and work under someone like Dave Van Horn, it’s such an honor. Everyone speaks so highly of Coach Van Horn and of Arkansas, that I can’t wait to get started, get to know my new pitchers and get to work.”
Van Horn told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Nov. 15 he would get right to work on a strong list of candidates to replace Johnson.
“There’s always a short list of coaches out there that are on teams’ radars, and Matt Hobbs is always on that list,” Van Horn said in the UA release. “He’s very highly respected throughout all levels of baseball around the country.
“His reputation is that he’s an extremely hard worker, enjoys recruiting and he’s very innovative. Young pitchers want to play for him and learn under him.”
Hobbs has coached eight players who have been taken in the first 10 rounds of the MLB amateur draft, including 2018 first-rounder Griffin Roberts.
The Demon Deacons’ ERA improved each of Hobbs’ first three years, from 5.73 in his first year, to 5.24 and 4.11. The same holds true for strikeouts and walks per nine innings.
Wake Forest posted a school-record 524 strikeouts in 515 innings last season for an average of 9.16 strikeouts per nine innings.
Hobbs previously worked at Missouri, the University of San Francisco, the University of California at San Diego, Santa Barbara (Calif.) City College and Chapman University.
He won 13 games and posted 125 strikeouts during his career at Missouri (19992002) and was drafted by the San Diego Padres (2001) and the Kansas City Royals (2002).