Hobbs excited to lead Arkansas' pitching staff
FAYETTEVILLE - Based on his own research and interview, the advice of departing pitching coach Wes Johnson and Tennessee coach and former Arkansas assistant baseball coach Tony Vitello, Arkansas Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn introduced new pitching coach Matt Hobbs at a Wednesday press conference at Baum Stadium.
Hobbs was hired Tuesday after four seasons as the pitching coach at Wake Forest to replace Johnson, who was recently named as the pitching coach for Minnesota Twins after coaching Razorbacks pitchers in 2017 and 2018 teams that went 45-19 and 48-19 and finished in 2017 as Fayetteville Regional finalist and 2018 as the national runner-up at the College World Series.
A native of California and a former pitching coach at the University of San Francisco, Hobbs pitched and later coached at Missouri for retired Mizzou coach Tim Jamieson.
At Wake Forest, he coached pitchers for a 2017 Super Regoinal finalist team that was beaten in the Gainesville Super Regional by eventual 2017 national champion Florida after winning the Winston-Salem, N.C. Regional that Wake Forest hosted.
Hobbs’ 2018 pitchers set a Wake Forest strikeout record for coach Tom Walter’s Demon Deacons.
Like Johnson, Hobbs utilizes biomechanics and various technology innovations and videos in his coaching.
“Matt has a reputation out there nationally for being really innovative,” Van Horn said. “A very good teacher and developer of young pitchers. There’s a lot of guys across the country that want that type of pitching coach. We feel like what’s been going on here the last few years, this is just a smooth transition for us and we’re excited to get Matt rolling.”
Van Horn said he listened closely to recommendations by Johnson, Vitello and Jamieson whom Van Horn coached against in the Big 12 when he coached Nebraska and Jamieson coached Missouri and then with in 2011 on Team USA when Jamieson head coached and Van Horn assisted.
As the Twins’ negotiations with Johnson intensified, Van Horn said, “I actually called Wes in and started picking his brain that if you were to leave, who are some guys that you like? Matt was one of them obviously. There were five or six that I was considering, but Matt was at the top of the list.”
Vitello and Jamieson vouched, too.
“They had nothing but great things to say about Matt and that was big for me,” Van Horn said.
In turn, Hobbs said Vitello and Jamieson said great things to him about Van Horn.
Married with three children, Hobbs said obviously there are Wake Forest aspects he enjoys, making it hard moving his family, but he had been entranced by Arkansas since he played for Mizzou during its Big 12 days in a twogame midweek non-conference series against the Razorbacks at Baum Stadium.
“I saw what it was like on a Tuesday and it was amazing,” Hobbs said. “That day when I was down here, I was looking around at the stadium and it was an average Missouri team against a really good Arkansas team and the stands were absolutely packed. I could just imagine what the energy’s like on an SEC weekend. Some of the things over the last 17 or 18 years that coach Van Horn has been here are really something incredibly special. To be
a part of that now is a great honor, and I’m obviously looking to keep things going in the right direction on the field.”
Hobbs was asked about the similarities and differences in his coaching approach to Johnson’s.
“I think me and Wes have some similarities,” Hobbs said.
“I think we’re a little bit different in the way we’re going to apply some of the use of data that are used here. Whether it be TrackMan, Rapsodo, or any of the ball-tracking systems or how we’re going to use video and how we’re going to communicate with the players.
“The main difference I think is that the messaging will probably be something that’s a little bit different, because I’m different than Wes.
“But I think the content is fairly similar, so it should be a pretty seamless transition for our pitchers.”
Hobbs met with the pitchers as a group Tuesday and begins meetings with them individually.
In joining hitting coach/ recruiting coordinator Nate Thompson on the recruiting trail, Van Horn said Hobbs brings vast contacts from his California roots by birth and coaching at San Francisco to recruiting the Midwest and South at Missouri, perhaps opening some new recruiting avenues to Arkansas from recruiting the Southeast for Wake Forest.
The Razorbacks open their season Feb. 15 at Baum Stadium against Eastern Illinois.