The University of Kansas athletic department on Friday announced the hire of Oregon head coach Matt Ulmer as the school’s replacement for Ray Bechard with the KU volleyball program.
Bechard, who had been the KU coach for 27 years, retired in late-December after guiding the Jayhawks to a fourth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The opening drew interest from coast to coast and KU Athletic Director Travis Goff had plenty of options from which to choose when seeking the Jayhawks’ next head coach.
In plucking Ulmer away from the Ducks, Goff appears to have made a hire that is unparalleled during his impressive string of hires since taking over as KU’s AD.
In his 8 seasons as Oregon’s head coach, Ulmer led the Ducks to three Elite Eights, two additional Sweet 16 appearances and a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 7 of his 8 seasons.
That includes a Sweet 16 appearance this season, when the Ducks finished 24-8 and in the No. 10 spot in the final AVCA poll of the season, two spots ahead of where Bechard’s Jayhawks landed.
Prior to his time at Oregon, which included a stint as an assistant coach before being promoted to the top job, Ulmer led Long Beach State to the 2013 beach volleyball national title.
It’s not often that a coach with that kind of resumé can be hired away by anybody. And we’ll learn more about why Ulmer decided to make the move when he’s introduced on campus next Tuesday.
But, for now, the news is as much about what Kansas did as who Ulmer is.
“In bringing Coach Ulmer to KU, we have paired one of the premier coaches in the game with one of the premier programs in the country,” Goff said in a news release on Friday. “Thanks to a strong foundation, history of success and our demonstrated commitment to volleyball, there was exceptional interest in this position from some of the most accomplished coaches in the sport. Matt stood alone due to his elite track record, impeccable reputation, devotion to developing student-athletes and his vision for an even brighter future for Kansas volleyball. We are confident he will carry on the tradition that Ray Bechard established in his 27 seasons as our passionate leader."
Let's not overlook the fact that Goff made this hire in about 3 weeks, with the volleyball transfer portal closing in the middle of it, adding some urgency to filling the vacancy.
While three weeks isn't particularly fast or slow for a coaching hire, it seems pretty incredible to be able to seal the deal with the coach you want from a top-10 program in that period of time.
While Goff’s other KU hires have been impressive in a bevy of ways and turned their respective programs around in short order, this was the first time that the KU AD has had to hire a new coach for a program at the top of its sport.
Football coach Lance Leipold, women’s golf coach Lindsay Kuhle, baseball coach Dan Fitzgerald and women’s soccer coach Nate Lie all took over programs that needed a kick to get back on track.
In some fashion, all of them have, with Leipold getting KU back to bowl games and driving momentum to build a new stadium, Kuhle having her team ranked and breaking school records on a regular basis, Fitzgerald doing big time work on the recruiting trail and returning Kansas baseball to the Big 12 tournament and Lie’s soccer squad winning the Big 12 tournament this fall in Year 1.
Based on that track record alone, it wouldn’t be a reach to predict that Ulmer will be a hit, as well. But he still has to do it first.
The fact that he’s done it already, though, in a volleyball conference as strong as the Big Ten, certainly puts the odds that he’ll succeed at KU and in the Big 12 at a pretty high rate.
And it puts the odds of Goff going 5-for-5 with his head coaching hires at a pretty high rate, as well. That, in and of itself, is astonishing in this day and age.
Be sure to check back with Wave the Wheat next week for much more on KU's hire of Ulmer to lead the volleyball program into the next era.
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