Duke Hires Wake Forest Pitching Coach Corey Muscara as Next Head Baseball Coach

Duke has found their guy! Per our very own Aram Leighton, the Duke Blue Devils have hired Wake Forest pitching coach Corey Muscara as their next head baseball coach.

Duke had been in search of a new head coach after their former head coach, Chris Pollard, took the opening at the University of Virginia.

The Blue Devils decided to go with Muscara as the 26th head coach in Duke baseball history. He joins the team with 15 years of coaching experience, including the past four seasons at Wake Forest.

Muscara’s Track Record of Success

Muscara has an incredible track record as a pitching coach at Wake Forest and is considered one of the top pitching minds in all of college baseball. He helped the Demon Deacons average 43 wins per season and was also named D1Baseball’s Assistant Coach of the Year in 2023.

While at Wake Forest, Muscara helped develop one of the nation’s top pitching staffs, producing consistent success and a pipeline of early-round draft picks, including 2023 first-rounder Rhett Lowder and 2024 top pitching prospect Chase Burns, now with the Cincinnati Reds.

On top of those individual accolades, the entire Wake Forest pitching staff has seen success. In 2023, Wake Forest led the nation in ERA (2.83), strikeouts per nine (12.1), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.26). Even in 2024, they logged 11.9 strikeouts per nine, which ranked second nationally.

Before heading to Wake Forest, Muscara coached at multiple schools, including Maryland (2018-21), St. John’s (2013-17), and Southern New Hampshire (2010, 2012).

During that time, he helped Maryland earn a top-seven recruiting class in 2020, saw nine St. John’s pitchers selected to the MLB Draft, and helped lead Southern New Hampshire to a record 43 wins and a Division II College World Series appearance in 2012.

Muscara has a clear track record of success in both the winning and player development departments, which should bode well for Duke.

Expectations at Duke

In the Duke news release, Muscara expressed his enthusiasm to start. “I am incredibly honored to lead the Blue Devils’ baseball program,” Muscara said. “I’m eager to get to work with our student-athletes and to represent Duke with pride.”

Muscara will take over a Duke program that recently lost their head coach to Virginia. Pollard took his entire coaching staff with him, as well as many of his key players, including potential 2026 MLB Draft first-rounder AJ Gracia.

In addition to Gracia, Sam Harris, Noah Murray, and Kyle Johnson have all followed Coach Pollard to Virginia. Former catcher Macon Winslow also went to North Carolina.

Others like Gabe Nard, Andrew Healy, and Owen Proksch remain in the portal, according to 64Analytics, so there is a chance that some could return depending on Coach Muscara’s and the new regime’s needs.

There are also nearly 3,000 names still left in the transfer portal, and some other recent recruits who decommitted from their commitments that Coach Muscara could potentially build on.

Despite all of that, Muscara has been well-known as a good recruiter, and while it might be tough to build quickly in year one, there is a good chance Duke will maintain their success from the past few years right off the bat.

Muscara brings a ton of energy and passion to the job as well. He’s a guy who has the personality and leadership abilities that make you want to run through a brick wall.

It was clear Duke wanted to maintain the success Pollard had built with the hiring of Coach Muscara. This was a team that went 41-21 last year and hosted their first Super Regional at Jack Coombs Field.

Muscara presents an opportunity for Duke to take that next step. To have the chance to blend elite pitching development with the recent rise in competitiveness from Duke in the ACC and national tournaments.

With a proven track record of developing elite arms and building dominant pitching staffs, Muscara arrives at Duke with momentum and vision.

As he takes the helm in Durham, the Blue Devils aren’t just getting a new head coach, they’re getting a leader ready to elevate the program to national prominence.