Cochell Leaves Fullerton

Larry Cochell of Cal State Fullerton accepted the job as baseball coach at Oklahoma on Tuesday and promised to make the Sooners competitive nationally.

“If we do our job, there’s no reason we can’t compete with anyone,” Cochell said.

Cochell, 49, becomes the seventh baseball coach at Oklahoma. He replaces Stan Meek, who coached on an interim basis last year following the retirement of Enos Semore.

The hiring must be approved by the university’s regents.

“Donnie Duncan has convinced me that the administration is committed to having a nationally ranked program,” Cochell said. He said the university had the resources to make that happen.

Cochell said his priorities as the Sooners’ coach are to win the Big Eight Conference title, then the NCAA regional title and the national championship. He said he had no timetable for reaching those goals.

He declined to comment on terms of the proposed contract with Cochell, other than to say it would be competitive with those of other baseball coaches nationwide.

Cochell is one of only four coaches to take teams from two schools to the NCAA College World Series. His teams from Cal State Fullerton and Oral Roberts University have made the trip.

Cochell developed Oral Roberts into a national power during his tenure as head coach from 1977-86. Oral Roberts finished fifth in the College World Series in 1978 and won more than 50 games in 1983 and 1985.

He was athletic director at the Tulsa school from 1983 to 1986, but lost that job to basketball coach Ted Owens at a time when Oral Roberts announced cutbacks in all sports but basketball.

Cochell spent one year as coach of Northwestern University before leaving for Cal State Fullerton. The Titans finished second in the 1988 CWS in Cochell’s first year there, and returned to the CWS this year, losing their first two games.

His record as a coach is 791-450.

Cochell said the decision to move from Southern California was as much a family decision as a career move.

“We just like Oklahoma,” he said. In addition, he said, his 18-year-old son plans to enroll at Oklahoma in the fall.

“This, we want to make our last stop after 25 years,” he said, as his wife, Fran, nodded in agreement.

Cochell said he didn’t expect the style of baseball in Oklahoma to be different than that in California. He said he likes the Big Eight Conference.

“When you talk about the Big Eight, these teams can play with anybody,” Cochell said.

Asked about replacing Meek, Cochell said, “I can’t do anything about that. I’m head coach at the University of Oklahoma and I have to move on.”

Duncan said he and Meek met for more than 30 minutes Tuesday in a session he described as professional and businesslike.

“We both expressed ourselves regarding everything that was on our minds,” Duncan said. He said Meek would continue to be employed by the athletic department for some time. Meek’s future involvement with the baseball program would have to be decided by Meek and Cochell, Duncan said.

The Sooners had reached the NCAA tournament six straight years until the retirement of Semore, the winningest coach in the Big Eight Conference with a 22-year record of 851-370.

Last year under Meek, the Sooners finished last in the Big Eight with a 9-15 record, failing to make the conference tournament for the first time since 1981.

Meek had been the pitching coach at Oklahoma since 1976, during which time the Sooners’ produced major league pitchers Jack Armstrong and Danny Jackson of Cincinnati and Bobby Witt of Texas.