It's not quite official, but it appears that Oregon State University's Dan Spencer has confirmed that he will be in Lubbock on Monday at a scheduled press conference. We've got a couple of news organizations to give credit to on this story.
First is Williams and Hyatt Show Blog who have been reporting these rumors for quite some time confirmed the press conference late last night. Hyatt also mentions that there could be another hire, although he isn't ready to divulge the specifics of that coach (see earlier posts).
Next is LAJ's George Watson who confirmed by phone that he would be in Lubbock on Sunday and will be at the press conference on Monday. This is from Spencer:
SNIP
"Coach Hays is one (factor)," Spencer said. "I played for him and he is a very well-respected baseball guy. It's the Big 12 Conference and that's something that's exciting. And it's the opportunity to do something different. There is a tradition of winning there although they haven't won as much as they would have liked in the last couple of years. But it wasn't so far long ago they were winning. I'm hoping I can come down there and help them get it going again."
George also muses that Spencer may be hired to take the same or a similar position, but it's also been speculated that Spencer might eventually be the next head coach. That really gets me excited. I think Coach Hays is a damn fine coach, but the prospect of having a guy who's had some success at the highest level be the man in place when Coach Hays retires is exciting. If Spencer can come in and do the same thing that he's done at OSU (scroll down to the team pitching ERA) then sign me up.
Jake at Building the Dam also had this news late last night, but earlier this week and he had this to say about Spencer's success: