Matt Swope is ready to take the reins of Maryland baseball after two decades of preparation

The idea of Matt Swope becoming the head baseball coach at Maryland began last summer for Maryland athletic director Damon Evans.

“I had watched Swope over the past couple of years and knew he was the next guy in line,” Evans said.

Swope — a Maryland native who had played for the Terps from 1999-2002 and set multiple program records — was coming off his first of two seasons as associate head coach. At the same time, then-head coach Rob Vaughn was aggressively pursued by multiple schools in the offseason to join their program.

While Vaughn stayed for the 2023 season, Evans knew that Maryland’s skipper would be pursued again. And in the closing weeks of the season, he became alerted by staff members that Alabama would be targeting their newest head coach. Following a meeting with donors, Evans received a phone call from Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne that all but confirmed their beliefs that the Crimson Tide wanted to talk to Vaughn.

Yet there was “zero doubt” in Evans’ mind that he had the succession plan for success if Vaughn left.

“It was kind of easy in making this decision to bring him on board as the next head coach of the baseball program,” Evans said. “Matt is directly responsible for the offensive explosion this team has had over the past three years.”

And roughly two hours after Vaughn’s departure to Tuscaloosa was reported, the news of Swope becoming Maryland’s new coach became public.

“He is well equipped for [the job], and I think he’s specifically well equipped to do it at Maryland,” former Maryland coach John Szefc said. “… He earned that opportunity … I don’t think you’ll run into many people who aren’t fans of Matt Swope.”

Szefc, Virginia Tech’s current head coach, wanted familiarity with Maryland’s baseball program and athletic department after arriving from Kansas State in 2012. He hired Swope — one of the best Terps in program history — as his director of operations as a result.

“I think I learned most how to be a head coach in those first three or four years, so I’m super thankful for coach Szefc giving me that start,” Swope said.

Swope held that role for the next four years before a promotion to assistant coach in 2017, Szefc’s final year with the program. While working with Swope, the ex-Terp skipper saw that one of Swope’s greatest strengths is his ability to communicate. That communication allowed Swope to engineer one of the best offenses in college baseball with his coaching philosophy and technique. 

“He’s really good with people, he’s [a] really good people-person,” Szefc said. “… He’s been with Maryland baseball from the ground up. All that experience, combined with his baseball background, combined with his ability for dealing with people, players, parents, all those things factored in will make him very successful [as head coach].”

Working with Players

While studying brain types abroad in Europe five years ago, Swope met someone with a lab in Switzerland that studied motor preferences, the way that a body wants to produce a movement, such as swinging a baseball bat. Swope has since applied it to baseball, looking over the different positions of a players feet, hands, legs and hips, and how it impacts their swing. 

“It’s completely changed everything I do with the hitters and how I coach and I’m excited to bring that to the entire staff and weave that into every tiny thing we do with this program,” Swope said.

Beyond his work with motor preferences, Swope creates daily report cards for his players that detail each swing decision for every at bat, judging if the hitter made the correct call or not. 

One example of the Swope’s impact is the improvements made by Elijah Lambros this past season. Lambros batted just .152 in his freshman campaign at South Carolina before transferring to College Park, a move that greatly benefited the center fielder.

Lambros bumped his batting average over 100 points to .288 after working with Swope to improve his swing. He unleashed his power as well, slugging 14 home runs after connecting on none the previous season. 

“[Maryland’s] so focused on developing everybody individually,” Lambros said. “It’s turned into a solid nine players on the field that work together and play the right way.”

Swope’s imprint on the Maryland offense hasn’t been individualized — the entire lineup has benefitted. The Terps smashed just 13 home runs in Swope’s first season with Maryland. That number jumped up to a program-record 137 in 2022. Fast forward to 2023 and Maryland jacked 131 home runs — the most in the Big Ten — alongside a school record 552 RBIs and 578 runs.

“There’s a lot of coaches that are smart but don’t communicate well,” Vaughn said in March. “He’s turned into an elite-level communicator, and I think he’s a massive asset to our program.”

After being connected with the baseball program for over 20 years, Swope has seen how it’s changed from his time on the diamond. There was no tradition then, according to Swope, which is why his main goal when he rejoined the program was to build one.

Despite Vaughn now departing, Maryland won’t lose the tradition he and Swope built. Swope is sure of that.

“Our mission and vision does not change,” Swope said. “We will develop leaders and men of character. We will play hard. We will compete in the classroom and graduate our players. We will develop professional baseball players to live out their dreams. We will win championships and we will do it better than it’s ever been done before.”