Oklahoma baseball: Former OU head coach Pete Hughes back in Big 12
By Chip Rouse
Former Oklahoma baseball coach Pete Hughes is returning to the Big 12 as head coach at Kansas State.
About this same time a year ago Hughes was the head coach at Oklahoma. A week after the Sooners were exited from the NCAA Louisville Regional, however, elected to step down after four seasons at OU. Hughes agreed to a five-year contract to coach the Wildcats. He replaces Brad Hill, who resigned after 15 seasons as the K-State baseball coach.
Hughes came to Oklahoma in 2014 after seven largely successful seasons as the head man at Virginia Tech. In four seasons as the Sooners’ head coach, Hughes’ OU teams compiled an overall record of 128-107-1 (.544). The only year the Sooners’ made the NCAA Tournament under Hughes was in his final season (2017).
When he left Oklahoma, Hughes took a position as a volunteer coach at the University of Georgia. Hughes’ original contract at OU was for four seasons. At Georgia, Hughes served primarily as defensive assistant, working mostly with the Bulldog infielders.
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Hughes’ Oklahoma teams had unfortunate history of performing badly over the final weeks of the season. While Hughes was head coach, the Sooners were a disappointing 14-24 down the stretch in the important final weeks of the season.
Despite his lackluster success while at OU, Hughes’ teams have produced 652 wins in 21 seasons as a head coach. While at Virginia Tech, Hughes won 30 or more games for five consecutive seasons.
Hughes’ best season as head coach at Oklahoma was in his final season, in 2017. The Sooners finished 35-24 that season and advanced to a postseason berth in the Louisville Regional.
The former Sooner skipper replaced Sunny Golloway, who spent 15 seasons at Oklahoma, six as an assistant and nine as head coach, before stepping down in 2013 to take the head job at Auburn.