Florida State AD Michael Alford: FSU baseball coaching search 'going very well'
For the first time since Florida State baseball coach Mike Martin Jr. was fired on June 10, FSU administrators publicly shared updates on the state of the Seminoles' coaching search Wednesday.
During the FSU board of trustees meeting, FSU vice president/director of athletics Michael Alford and FSU president Richard McCullough both updated the state of the search for the next head baseball coach.
"It's going very well, I'll just leave it at that," Alford said.
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"It's not due to lack of interest in the position. We're just running through our process to make sure we have the right person with high character to lead this program to national championship status. That is our goal and that is our standard."
Previously in the meeting during his opening address, McCullough praised Alford for his hard work on the baseball search and said that "he expects good news on that front soon."
Since the search began, former FSU player and assistant coach Link Jarrett, who is currently the head coach at Notre Dame, has been the top candidate.
The Irish's season finally ended Tuesday after an impressive run to the program's first College World Series appearance in 20 years, meaning the pursuit of Jarrett could be amplified.
Immediately after ND's season-ending loss to Texas A&M, Jarrett fielded multiple questions about his future and whether he'll remain in South Bend or is considering a return to his alma mater.
"My mind has not gone to that place and I'm not going there with it right now..." Jarrett originally said before providing more context later in the press conference.
"When we were in Knoxville that Friday and they made that maneuver, the focus to try to redirect, I’m sitting there with these guys who are the best. They are a unique species of student-athletes...
"My focus was on them. I had to deal with it last year. When your program’s doing the right thing, you’re going to have those things. I wanted to know when this thing ended with a trophy or not, (Notre Dame) was the focus of what I was doing."
FSU athletics academics on the rise
The most recent academic year was an especially good one for FSU athletics in terms of achieving in the classroom.
Alford shared during Wednesday's meeting that FSU finished the spring semester with a 3.13 GPA across all athletic teams. A total of 15 of FSU's 18 teams and 64% of FSU's athletes overall finished with GPAs of 3.0 or better.
He shared FSU athletics' graduation rate is at 85% and that baseball is at its highest mark since 2019, football is at its highest mark since 2018 and that men's basketball was at 100% for the second straight year.
The effort made to improve FSU football's academic progress rate (APR) since bottoming out as the worst among Power Five programs a few years ago has paid major dividends.
FSU football's 987 APR for the 2020-21 academic year was the best in a single year in program history and FSU football's multi-year 958 APR is the program's best since 2012-13.
FSU men's basketball's APR is at 990, marking a new best in program history.
"We have such wonderful student-athletes. What they're able to accomplish with their time schedules is truly remarkable. Their energy makes us all work harder," Alford said.
Fundraising making strides
Alford also shared an update on a number of fundraising efforts while addressing the FSU board.
He said that Seminole Boosters is up over 11,200 members for the 2022-23 academic year, pacing ahead of its goal at 83%. Even more impressively, he said Seminole Boosters is up to 98% of its annual fundraising goal with over $16.2 million pledged for the 2022-23 year.
In terms of season tickets, Alford said FSU is on pace to finish with the most season tickets sold since 2014 with 25,000, and members renewing at a 87% rate that he expects to reach 90%.
For the Seminoles' football game against LSU in New Orleans, he reported FSU has sold over 28,500 tickets and that it has brought in about $4.52 million in revenue.
For the Dunlap Football Center, FSU has raised nearly $59 million with $19 million of that already paid. The ideal timeline is still set for ground to be broken on that late this year.
Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU baseball coach search going 'very well', according to AD
