BY GEORGE WATSON

AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

On the wall-length shelf behind the desk in Dan Spencer’s new office sits several items of baseball and personal memorabilia, sometimes intertwined.

There are plaques commemorating past awards won and items reflecting his current status. There are relatively few, however, objects showing the 11-year stint at Oregon State, only a blown-up magazine photo of Beavers catcher Mitch Canham tagging a North Carolina runner during the 2007 College World Series, and a picture of Spencer holding a prized fall chinook salmon.

At home there are boxes full of other Oregon State mementos, but they won’t be up on that wall. It’s clear that Spencer is focused on the future and what he can do to put Texas Tech baseball back on the map as its first new head coach in more than two decades.

After helping lead Oregon State to back-to-back College World Series championships, Spencer came to Tech in the summer of 2007 as an overhaul of the staff under coach Larry Hays. Spencer took the job after the sudden retirement of Hays in July. And from the way practices have been run to the rise in internal expectations, it’s clear his influence has quickly spread throughout the clubhouse.

“I don’t think you change for the sake of change,” Spencer said of implementing his style and personality. “You change … because that’s how you want to play, not because what you thought you were doing wasn’t the right way to do it. You have to do what you feel comfortable with and you have to coach like how you are. If you try to be somebody you’re not, that’s a bad deal.”

The long road back
It’s no secret that Spencer and his staff have one of the toughest jobs in collegiate baseball ahead — turning Texas Tech back into the NCAA tournament stalwart and Big 12 Conference championships contender it was from 1995 to 2004. In that span, Tech won two Big 12 titles and appeared in the regionals in eight of those nine years.

Since then, the Red Raiders have fallen on hard times. They’ve not made a regional in four seasons and have missed the Big 12 Championships in Oklahoma City — which takes the top eight of the 10 baseball-playing schools in the conference. Tech has not finished higher than eighth since finishing third in 2004.

Enter Spencer, who along with assistant coach Trent Petrie joined Hays’ staff before last season. Little did anyone know it would be Hays’ final year after 22 seasons as the Red Raiders’ skipper, a span in which he became one of just three coaches to win 1,500 career games.

 The first thing that Spencer and Petrie did last year was set out on the recruiting trail in an effort to add more talent to the Tech roster. But it’s specific talent — athletic, can run and will put pressure on defenses like Tech’s most successful teams did. Their addition to the 2009 roster has fostered a sense of optimism throughout the coaching staff and roster.

“I think we’re going to give him a hell of a first year for being a head coach,” said Chad Bettis, a sophomore pitcher and product of Monterey.

But along with improving the talent comes changing the culture. Not one player on this year’s roster was around when Tech last made the NCAAs, and only a handful were on the roster the last time the Red Raiders qualified for the Big 12 Championships.

“The way to be a good program and get into the postseason like Tech was when it was in eight straight is have a lot of guys who have been there and want to get back,” Spencer said. “And I’m not just talking Omaha, I’m talking about the whole ride. It’s the postseason, for crying out loud. It’s supposed to be exciting. Once you establish that and get that taste in your mouth as a program and the more opportunities you have to go back, then it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy and a cyclical deal. It can snowball on you like it did here once and like it will again.”

Perfect examples
Spencer will no doubt lean on his experience with Oregon State, which made the College World Series three straight years from 2005-2007, but before that had trouble breaking through.

But he’ll also have two perfect examples of how it’s done coming to Dan Law Field this season in the form of Nebraska and Texas A&M.

Three years ago, the Aggies were exactly in the same position Tech finds itself now. A&M finished 25-30 — Tech’s record from 2008 — under first-year head coach Rob Childress, who came over from Nebraska after longtime A&M coach Mark Johnson was fired. But after a year of recruiting and changing the talent makeup of the club, Childress guided A&M to a fifth-place finish and Big 12 tournament title in 2007 and a Big 12 regular-season championship in 2008. Now, the Aggies enter 2009 ranked No. 1 by Baseball America.

“We did everything we could to try and change the culture into one that had been a part of winning like it was when I was at Arkansas … and at Nebraska,” Childress said. “(2006) was not fun and we were able to go out and bring in a class of 25 new kids and completely overhaul the roster. But it wasn’t just talent, that was secondary to attitude. That’s where it really started.

“Baseball is a sport that will pay you back, and you get back what you put into it.”

Childress simply followed the plan that was a part of the emergence of the Nebraska program in the late 1990s, when he was an assistant under current Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn. Van Horn took over the Cornhuskers in 1998 and struggled that first year, but from 1999 to 2002 won three conference tournament titles and made back-to-back CWS appearances in 2001 and 2002.

“What I saw when we got to Nebraska were players who I felt were embarrassed of the program,” Van Horn said. “We needed to change that mindset. Now, it was easier said than done, but we got after it and got better players. (Spencer) is a good coach and he will get it going. They’ve got the facilities and the fan support and there are a lot of kids in the state of Texas who want to go play for Texas Tech. Texas Tech has it’s work cut out for it but they can do it.”

What lies ahead
Spencer has an advantage over Childress and Van Horn. By being a Tech assistant for a year, he starts his head coaching career with some of his own hand-picked players instead of completely taking over someone elses’. The Red Raiders roster this year features 16 newcomers, 12 of them freshmen, but it’s only the first step.

His demeanor will tell anyone that Spencer is not intent on making this a five-year plan. If he has his druthers, it’d be a five-minute plan. But bringing in this year’s class is just the first step, and Tech has already announced a signing class for this coming fall that features three junior college transfers and six high school players.

“The key is to put this class that we signed in November with (the current one). You put two or three of those together and now you have something,” Spencer said. “There are some similarities (to Oregon State) in the way the people of Lubbock want to win and expect to win. The difference is … at the time we put the bunch together at Oregon State we had a stadium in place and that helped in the recruiting area. That will be the key for us to take the next step, and we’re going to do that. We’re going to attack the stadium issue like we do the opposition and recruiting and whatever it is.”

And as short as it may be and as distant in the past as it is, Spencer said Tech can lean on its tradition in the rebuilding process, but as a blueprint of how it was done and how it can be done again.
“I think you have to earn the respect of the kids you’re recruiting, the respect of the opponents you’re playing and make sure they understand you’ve been there before,” Spencer said. “We’ve done it on the recruiting deal, and they know we’re out there. Now we’ve got to go win some games.”