Multiple sources told the Journal-World on Tuesday that Central Michigan baseball coach Jordan Bischel was in Lawrence and on KU’s campus, presumably to interview for the open Kansas baseball job.
Bischel, who turned 41 on June 2, just completed his fourth season in charge of the Chippewas and, in his first three seasons, reached two NCAA regionals.
He won 47 games in Year 1 in 2019 and finished first in the Mid-American Conference with a 22-5 record. Like the rest of the world, he had the 2020 season wiped out by COVID-19. And, in 2021, he won 42 games with a 30-9 record in the MAC and another first-place finish and NCAA regional appearance.
This season, the Chippewas finished 38-16 overall and second in the conference at 30-7.
Bischel is also a two-time MAC Coach of the Year and his 2022 team was ranked 16th in the preseason by Collegiate Baseball.
Prior to his stint at CMU, he coached four seasons at Northwood, where he reached two NCAA DII regionals and finished first in the conference twice and third in the conference twice.
He owns an overall record of 275-130 in nine full seasons as a head coach, including a two-year stop at NAIA Midland in 2013 and 2014. Prior to that, from 2010-12, he was an assistant coach at nearby Northwest Missouri State.
Other than the age — and younger is in no way a bad thing here — there seem to be a lot of similarities between Bishcel and Kansas football coach Lance Leipold. Both are grinders, who have paid their dues at smaller schools, know how to work hard and value substance over style.
In addition to that, Bischel was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and played college baseball at St. Norbert College, in De Pere, Wisconsin, where he was a first baseman and pitcher and then started his coaching career as an assistant.
From what I’ve been able to gather, Bischel is very well liked by his players and brings a lot of energy to the field with him.
According to his bio on the CMU website, “the cornerstones of Bischel’s formula of success are strong starting pitching and an offense fueled by a high on-base percentage, moving runners, wearing down opposing pitching, and taking full advantage of scoring opportunities.”
The 2021 Chippewas ranked fourth in the nation in walks with 340, were sixth in on-base percentage at .415, were 28th with 408 runs, were third with 55 sacrifice bunts, and ranked 29th with 79 stolen bases.
CMU’s 3.71 team earned run average was 17th in the nation and Chippewa pitching finished 37th nationally in hits allowed per nine innings at 8.09.
Bischel is one of a handful of people — head coaches and assistants — [who have been on KU’s radar during the current baseball search,][1] which is likely to continue with more in-person interviews throughout the week.
[1]: https://www2.kusports.com/weblogs/tale-tait/2022/jun/13/in-person-interviews-on-deck-in-kansas-b/