Hitting coach Godwin leaves for Ole Miss

UCF's baseball recruiting coordinator has been recruited away from the Knights.

Cliff Godwin, also the Knights' hitting coach, accepted a position as the hitting coach at Ole Miss on Tuesday and is already in Oxford, Miss., working with the coaching staff and planning recruiting trips.

Godwin replaced Rebels assistant coach Matt Mossberg, who resigned from the position in early June.

"The job was open, I didn't apply for it," Godwin said. "Obviously I felt loyal to [head coach] Terry [Rooney] because we've been together for so long, so kind of through some of the coaching circles, people asked me if I was interested and I said, ‘Yeah, I'd be interested.' Coach [Mike] Bianco reached out to Terry and asked could he speak to me."

Godwin, also in charge of UCF's offense and catchers, interviewed with Bianco over the phone before flying to Mississippi on June 12 to talk in person. He was unofficially offered the job on June 16, and his title became official on Tuesday.

Godwin and Rooney split after six years of work

"The toughest thing was at a personal standpoint for me to tell Terry I was leaving," Godwin said.

Before spending three years together at UCF, Rooney and Godwin worked side-by-side for three years. The two spent a year at Notre Dame and led the Fighting Irish to the Big East Tournament title in 2006. Next, Godwin and Rooney were assistant coaches at LSU, a Southeastern Conference foe of the Rebels.

In 2007, their first year at LSU, Rooney and Godwin put together the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation. In 2008, they lead the Tigers to the College World Series. This season, the duo guided the Knights to their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2004, something Godwin calls his biggest accomplishment in his three seasons at UCF.

Through the years, Rooney and Godwin have not only built great teams, but also a great friendship.

"Terry understands because Terry's only been a head coach for three years and he's been in this position as an assistant coach to be offered what he felt like was a position that he had to take, and that's what I felt like," Godwin said. "Terry was great, he was great throughout the process when Coach Bianco called him, he's telling Coach Bianco how great I am. Some head coaches would say, ‘he's not very good,' so you wouldn't get the job. So Terry is a great friend and he's obviously highly recommended me for any opportunity I've ever had."

Heading back to the SEC

While this was an opportunity that he couldn't pass up, Godwin, whose ultimate goal is to be a head coach, said that it's tough to leave the coaching staff and the players. Godwin put together UCF's back-to-back nationally-ranked recruiting classes, No. 4 and No. 20 in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Through throwing batting practice and working on players' swings, he's gained personal relationships with the Knights, as well.

However, Godwin feels that nothing compares to the SEC's tradition, and more importantly, its fan base.

"At the same time, the SEC is the best conference in the country and I think that for me, it was one of those things that I couldn't pass up," Godwin said. "Coach Bianco is a great coach and has a great track record of winning at a high level. The reality of it is we play in front of, most of the time, 8,000 people."

Now that he's with Ole Miss, Godwin will face LSU on a yearly basis. When he coached at LSU in 2008, he helped the Tigers post a 23-game winning streak en route to the College World Series.

"I look forward to competition," Godwin said. "Obviously it'll be good to see a few familiar faces. There will be a few seniors who I recruited at LSU still playing, probably, so it'll be good to see them. And we've kept in touch and you know, I'm friends with their coaches and stuff,

"It's one of those things where you want to beat them, but you want the best for the kids and the coaches at the same time, so it'll be one of those things that's kind of bittersweet, I guess."

This season, the Rebels won one of three games at LSU and posted a 30-25 overall record.

"I'm just looking forward to bringing a track record of winning," Godwin said. "I mean, Coach Bianco and the entire staff has done that, but just a new level of energy to our position players and confidence and an air and they're not going to be afraid of anyone or any pitcher, and we're going to get better. That's the one thing I know in my heart. No matter what the talent level is, whether it's great or just average, we're going to get better."

Facing former teams is nothing new

A graduate of East Carolina University, Godwin had the difficult task of battling his former baseball team on the diamond for the past three years in C-USA play.

"It's been tough, I can tell you that," he said. "There's nothing more [difficult] than walking into East Carolina's stadium, and the team that I played on basically got the money raised for that stadium."

Godwin was the Pirates' catcher from 1997-2001, and went with ECU to the NCAA Regionals as a No. 1 seed in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Because the Pirates didn't have a stadium, they couldn't host and had to play on the road for two years before they hosted the regional in 2001, at two minor league parks. During that senior season of his, the Pirates made it to the Super Regionals.

"When I walk into that place and I look at it, I get chills, because all the hard work of all my teammates and my coaching staff helped build that," Godwin said. "Obviously I want to beat them because I'm so competitive and we want the best for our players, but at the same time, it's tough, because I'm from right there."

Leaving UCF

Taking his new position and leaving UCF wasn't easy. Not getting to personally say goodbye to all of the Knights was even harder. With the Knights scattered around the country playing summer ball, Godwin had a hard time tracking down many of them in person, but he did manage to see some of them.