[Tuck4Bama]

Wells Is Back

By UA Media Relations

Posted Jun 27, 2007

The University of Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore announced today that he has accepted Jim Wells’ request to return as the school’s head baseball coach.


Wells, 52, announced his retirement from coaching on Thursday, June 21, after spending 13 years as the school’s head coach. He has compiled a 553-272 (.670) record.
Coach Wells will be available to the media today at 4:15 p.m. at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
“We had a very long discussion this morning and it became obvious to me that Jim has had a change of heart regarding this situation,” Moore said. “It also was obvious to me that Jim is totally committed to achieving excellence in every phase of the baseball program. I think it’s very important to note that Jim struggled greatly with his original decision to retire. That reflected the passion he feels about this University, the Alabama baseball program and the community at large. I am pleased that he has reconsidered that decision and I am confident that his commitment to this program is now stronger than ever.”
“Talking about it with recruits, our players, the families and the coaching staff was difficult, but I thought I would get past that,” Wells said. “Over the course of the last few days, I knew I just didn’t feel right about it. I came to realize that I had personally rushed myself into that decision, that I didn’t allow myself the time needed to really consider everything I needed to. So I felt the best way to handle it was to deal with this head-on, and I decided to talk with Coach Moore this morning. We talked at length and I let him know that the last few days have allowed me to step back and re-evaluate everything here. It made me realize that I haven’t lost my passion for this job.
“A combination of things – both personal matters and professional challenges – had made me feel that this was a situation that had become difficult to manage recently. But I have worked out some things so that this is a very manageable situation, and I am more excited, energized and passionate about coaching the Alabama baseball team because I've been through this. I want to make it clear to everyone that this situation was totally driven by me, and I want to apologize to our fans, the administration and, most of all, to my players and the coaching staff.
“I know this is what I want to be doing and this is where I want to be, and I am looking forward to getting back to work. We have tremendous challenges and opportunities ahead of us, and I am eager to take those on.”
Wells has guided Alabama to two Southeastern Conference Championships (1996 and 2006), six SEC Tournament Championships (1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2003) and 10 NCAA Regional appearances during his tenure. He also led UA to four NCAA Regional Championships (1996, 1997, 1999 and 2006), two NCAA Super Regional appearances (1999 and 2006) and three trips to the College World Series (1996, 1997 and 1999).
Wells became the school’s all-time winningest coach during the 2006 season and set the record this past season for most games coached at Alabama. He became the school’s all-time winningest coach as he notched his 488th victory on March 3, 2006 against Appalachian State to break the previous record of 487 wins held by Dr. Barry Shollenberger (1980-94). Wells set the UA standard by coaching his 823rd all-time game for Alabama on May 19, 2007 at Mississippi State, breaking the previous record of 822 games held by Shollenberger. Wells finishes his UA career with 825 games.
Overall, Wells spent 18 years as a Division I head coach and has compiled a 735-361 (.681) record in 1,106 career games. In addition, Wells has won five regular-season conference championships, eight post-season conference championships and taken 13 of his 18 teams to NCAA Regional play, with three teams advancing to the College World Series. The Crimson Tide captured the 2006 SEC Championship with a 20-10 record this season. Alabama (44-21) won its sixth NCAA Regional championship and fourth under Wells last season. Bama played in the NCAA Super Regionals for the second time in school history and first since 1999. He has twice been named SEC “Coach of the Year” (1996, 2002) by his peers. He was named Southland Conference Coach of the Year three times.

[Stoney]

That really isn't great news.

[Tuck4Bama]

Originally Posted by Stoney

That really isn't great news.

Do you think this was a move to get a raise?

[Stoney]

Originally Posted by Tuck4Bama

Do you think this was a move to get a raise?

It was bad politics to take him back... we needed fresh blood.

[Tuck4Bama]

Wells Attempts to Explain Decision

By Mitch Dobbs

Posted Jun 27, 2007

In a turn of events that is no longer unprecedented in Southeastern Conference sports, Alabama baseball coach Jim Wells faced questions Wednesday afternoon about his decision to return to the position he resigned just six days ago.


“I realized what I had after I let it go, and I wanted to get it back,” he said. “I can’t give it to you A-B-C. I can just tell you I know it wasn’t right and I’m sorry to put you folks through this.”
Wells didn’t leave Alabama for another job like Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan did a few weeks ago, however. He resigned without any definite plan. In his departing statement last week, Wells said he was looking forward to spending more time with his wife and three children.
Today he joked, “They don’t want me there. This is a family decision. ‘Please get out of the house.’ There’s only so many times you can sharpen the knives.”
Wells also said on Wednesday, “things over in Louisiana” where his mother lives, “are getting better.”
Wells said he decided on Monday morning that he wanted this old job back.
“Then I had to deal with, ‘Well how could you come back after this, after you’ve retired, resigned.’ Well, it’s my life, my family’s life, and I’ll just face the music and do it. I saw how much I missed it, and the timing wasn’t right.”
Wells didn’t know whether or not athletics director Mal Moore would welcome him back when he called him Wednesday morning, he said. He thanked Moore and President Robert E. Witt for allowing him to return. He blamed himself for making a decision he said was premature.
“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “This is all self-inflicted. No one did this to me. I wanted to take time but this job doesn’t allow you to take time. One deal is I think if I would have allowed myself more time we wouldn’t have to go through this. No one did that to me. I did that to myself.”
Wells admitted that facilities and his ability to recruit with the scholarship disparity Alabama suffers were a part of the reason he was feeling gloomy about his position in the time leading up to his resignation, but, he said, “that wasn’t the core of it.”
“Those are all factors out there,” he said. “What their value is varies. It’s strictly me. I know that’s an easy way out. That wasn’t the core of it. Yeah, we’d like to have it and one day it will be here. It wasn’t the number one thing. The number one thing was dealing with me.
As for his staff, who had been job hunting over the past week, Wells said, “No changes at this time but naturally guys for self preservations were looking for what was out there and there’s a lot of movement in college baseball now.” After the formal press conference Wells neither confirmed nor denied a report that former Wells assistant and current Northwestern State (Louisiana) head coach Mitch Gaspard would return to join Wells staff.

[Stoney]

I still think it was about the money...