Newly minted Michigan baseball head coach Tracy Smith completed his staff on Wednesday by hiring former Boise State pitching coach Brock Huntzinger to the same position, multiple sources confirmed to Maize & Blue Review.

D1Baseball.com first reported the news.

Like associate head coach Ben Greenspan, Huntzinger was a member of Smith's staff at Arizona State. The former professional pitcher served as a graduate assistant at ASU until accepting the job as Boise State's pitching coach from 2018-2020.

After forgoing school and signing out of high school as a third-round pick with the Red Sox, Huntzinger spent nine years in the minors. Originally a starting pitcher for Boston, he eventually transitioned to a reliever before electing for free agency following his contract. He spent time with the Athletics, Orioles, and White Sox before retiring in 2016.

Following his playing career's conclusion, he immediately sought an opportunity in coaching and got the ASU job.

In 2018, in an interview about Huntzinger's hire at Boise, he spoke about his intentions as a college coach.

"Since the conclusion of my professional career, I knew I wanted to be involved in baseball at the collegiate level," Huntzinger said. "Building young men and helping them reach their goals – both professionally and academically – is something I am passionate about. To be able to do it at Boise State, with Coach Van Tol, and start this thing from the ground up, is an opportunity that I couldn't be more excited about."

In 2020, Boise State canceled the baseball program, and Huntzinger hasn't worked in the college game since the program's demise. His Twitter profile has been absent of content since 2020. The only trace of his undergraduate and graduate assistant jobs at ASU came from his LinkedIn page, which he hasn't updated since his days in Tempe.

It's a mysterious hire that makes it difficult to gauge, given the plethora of unknowns behind Huntzinger's ability as a coach.

What's most relevant is that Michigan's biggest weakness is its pitching, so hiring an accomplished and proven pitching coach should've been its priority.

Smith hired another former staff member at Arizona State, which makes you wonder, will this be any different?

We'll find out next spring.

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