Prizes
It has never been harder to make a run in college baseball than it is now. By 2024, the hitting and home run numbers had surpassed the length of the Gorilla Ball era of the 1990s, and pitching coaches across the country found themselves scrambling to figure out how to string together 27 outings each night.
So in this highly charged offensive season, Matt Hobbs stands out for the work he’s done building and guiding the Arkansas pitching staff. Under Hobbs’ leadership, the Hogs ranked fifth in the nation with a 3.87 ERA and lead and a 3.11 K:BB ratio, while leading Division I with 12.1 strikeouts per nine innings. In six years as the Hogs’ pitching coach, Hobbs played a key role in elevating the recruiting efforts and developing the program on the mound, turning Arkansas into one of the best places in college baseball to find top arms. As a result of his work, Hobbs is the 2024 D1Baseball Coach of the Year, presented by PitchCom.
“First of all, he is a very good scout of talent and potential talent. I feel like the way he works is at a high level,” Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said of Hobbs. “And he cares a lot about the players, the children and their development. That was another thing we discussed when I talked to him, I tried to get him to come here, we talked about development. That, I think, is one of the reasons why he came because I was self-absorbed: the kids need to be better. If you come here, the kids will be better and more kids will want to come. We’re trying to bring in good pitchers and make them better, and kids will want to come here if they see that the pitchers that are there and in the program that have gone through the program continue to improve and get better.
“He’s really good when it comes to job description: recruiting, development, work ethic. Then when the kids get here, they can train them and not really change them but fix them, show them how to make them better — you’re just a good teacher. The way you talk to children is great. And you talk to them the right way.”
If you spend an hour around Baum-Walker Stadium on a practice day, it’s obvious how easy it is to get along with Hobbs and his pitchers. They share jokes together, but when it’s time to get down to business, they get down to it. Hobbs knows how to balance friendship and discipline in a great way, like many great coaches.
“As far as the clubhouse being around the boys, the boys gravitate toward him,” Van Horn said. “We are trying to run our program almost meticulously. The older boys, they show the younger boys how to do things. We have nothing to do with scaring people or making threats. We want it to be fun but we want it to be serious, and we’re trying to prepare guys to be successful in the minor leagues and then the big leagues. But at the same time, we are comfortable around our boys. I think our players really like being around Coach Hobbs. He is a fitness fanatic. He is about 40 years old and physically he looks like he is about 22 years old. He exercises a little in the morning, several in the afternoon and a little at night, he works out three times a day, and I tell you, it’s like seven. days a week. The players see that and I think that impresses them. He’s a fun-loving guy, with a joke or two, friendly, but can be a bit of a stalker if he needs to be. It’s a fine line there, you want the players to love you, respect you, and I think you have that.”
Every Arkansas pitcher has his or her own unique practice and development plan, and Hobbs is able to provide feedback in a way that is clearly visible. That’s not always easy in this age of information overload, and Arkansas has all the latest and greatest technology available to players in its state of the art lab. The key for Hobbs and his analytics team is to synthesize developed concepts into digestible action items for pitchers. A few years ago in the fall, I spent time with Hobbs in his office, watching him fiddle around with his computer accessing mind-blowing data about the biomechanics and pitch metrics of individual pitchers. It was a lot to take in – but I left the session feeling like I had a better understanding of complex techniques that I wasn’t used to before. And I’ve seen Hobbs explain advanced concepts to new grinders in a very clear way.
“We have the latest information and are at the cutting edge of technology. That was another thing, when we brought him here to train, we were starting to design our indoor environment – you could call it our staging lab, whatever. He liked that we were going to have it and he was going to have the opportunity to have a hand in designing it, bringing the expertise of working with different guys. We told him that we got it in the budget for this program and it will be here for you to use. I watch him design it, put cameras where he needs them, the force mound, he has all this technology but he knows how to use it. He knows how to stay on top of what comes in the way and what we need to continue what we were doing.
“I think he feels it well and knows how to present it. The kids, they don’t seem to be struggling, they know what they have to do, and they get what’s being tested, so to speak. And they’re told how to improve it, whether it’s some things on their own or while they’re training or doing drill work. Then they have to take it to the field. We don’t want a robot on the mound, it still has to catch runners and put them in position and all that stuff.”
Van Horn first got to know Hobbs when DVH was coaching in Nebraska and Hobbs was riding in Missouri. When longtime Arkansas running backs coach Dave Jorn was about to retire, Van Horn began asking for names of potential replacements, and Hobbs’ name kept coming up. During that time, Hobbs had built an impressive track record of developing talent and building winning staffs at Wake Forest, Missouri, San Francisco and UC San Diego. The Hogs eventually hired Wes Johnson to replace Jorn, but when Johnson left in 2017 to become the coach of the Minnesota Twins, Van Horn asked Johnson about a possible replacement.
“Long story short, I brought up some names, and when I brought up Matt, he almost acted like he was the guy to go after first, and then go from there,” Van Horn said. “When I brought Matt in, I knew he was very smart, he just wanted to get to know him.”
Now, after six years of building a highly talented staff that gets results in the SEC, Hobbs is no longer a rising star in the coaching ranks; you are a bright stable star. And the pigs know they are lucky to have him.
“Matt could be the head coach right now,” Van Horn said. “Matt has had many opportunities to coach in the Division I division, and he has had the opportunity to go to the big leagues as a coach, and I know that. We kept him here, he loves Northwest Arkansas, he loves living here, and I hope he loves working for me.”
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