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Savage is the only head coach in UCLA baseball history to have led the program to three consecutive NCAA postseason berths (2006-08). He coached the Bruins to their third consecutive NCAA Regional in 2008, a season that culminated in an NCAA Regional Final appearance at Cal State Fullerton. In 2007, UCLA secured its first NCAA Super Regional berth since 2000 after having swept the NCAA Long Beach Regional. Savage led the Bruins to the NCAA Malibu Regional in 2006, his second season at the helm of UCLA's program.
Aside from making strides on the field, Savage and his coaching staff have found success on the recruiting trail. Each of his four recruiting classes has been nationally ranked in the top-13 by Baseball America. Savage's first recruiting class at UCLA was ranked No. 5 by Baseball America, and that group lived up to its billing by leading the Bruins to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in school history. His second recruiting class was tabbed No. 13 by Baseball America, and his last two classes have been ranked No. 7.
Additionally, Savage's players at UCLA have seen success in the major-league draft and in professional baseball. In Savage's five seasons as head coach, UCLA has produced 31 Major League Draft selections, including a program-record-tying 12 selections in the 2006 MLB Draft. Two of Savage's pitchers, left-hander David Huff (Cleveland) and right-hander Josh Roenicke (Cincinnati), have been promoted to the major leagues. Of those 31 draft selections, 11 of been chosen within the Major League Draft's first 10 rounds.
UCLA has collected the second-most wins (55) and second-highest winning percentage (.561) among Pac-10 teams (conference games) over the last four years. Additionally, at least one UCLA pitcher each of the past four seasons has recorded 100 or more strikeouts - left-hander David Huff (100) in 2006; right-hander Tyson Brummett (138) in 2007; left-hander Tim Murphy (111) in 2008; and right-hander Gerrit Cole (104) in 2009.
In 2009, Savage led UCLA to a third-place finish in the Pac-10 for the fourth consecutive season. The Bruins compiled a 27-29 record and 15-12 mark in conference play. Playing against the third-most difficult strength of schedule for the second straight season, as ranked by Boyd's World, UCLA played 25 games against teams that advanced to the 2009 NCAA Tournament. Likewise, the Bruins played more games (21) and earned more victories (eight) against top-25 teams than any Pac-10 team (as ranked by Baseball America).
UCLA's pitching staff recorded its second-lowest earned-run average (4.28) in the last 17 seasons. The Bruins' lowest ERA (3.77) in that span came in 2006, Savage's second year at the helm. UCLA's success on the mound was fueled by Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole, who finished the season as two of the conference's three freshmen to earn All-Pac-10 team honors. Bauer captured National Freshman Pitcher of the Year honors from Collegiate Baseball and was named a first-team Freshman All-America selection by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA).
Offensively, Cody Decker became the first Bruin to hit 20 or more home runs under Savage. Decker finished the season with 21 home runs, becoming UCLA's first Pac-10 home run leader since 2002, in addition to earning his second of two All-Pac-10 team selections.
In 2008, UCLA became the school's first baseball team to secure a third consecutive trip to NCAA postseason play. The Bruins went 33-27 with a 13-11 Pac-10 record, culminating in an NCAA Regional Final berth at Cal State Fullerton. UCLA's pitching staff recorded a conference-leading 4.29 ERA in Pac-10 action. Murphy guided the Bruins' rotation in 2008 and became the first UCLA pitcher to lead the Pac-10 in strikeouts (111) since 1996, when Jim Parque totaled 116 strikeouts.
The Bruins' 2008 regular-season schedule featured 26 games against teams that advanced to NCAA postseason play. UCLA played 18 games against teams ranked in Baseball America's weekly top-25 poll. Savage helped lead the Bruins to series victories in three of the team's four Pac-10 road series (at Arizona, Washington and California).
In 2007, Savage helped UCLA overcome an 8-14 start and record a 33-28 overall record, en route to the program's first NCAA Super Regional appearance since 2000. The Bruins went 14-10 with a third-place finish in the Pac-10. UCLA won 19 of 23 games midway through the 2007 season, marking the team's most successful stretch since 1997, when UCLA last advanced to the College World Series.
The Bruins' road to the Super Regionals that season included 29 games against 11 teams that earned NCAA Tournament berths, including 14 contests against teams that advanced to Super Regionals. Backed by three masterful performances from its starting pitchers, UCLA swept the NCAA Long Beach Regional at Blair Field. Brummett came within one out of tossing a complete game in a 7-3 win over Pepperdine, before Murphy recorded the save. Left-hander Gavin Brooks threw a complete game in a 3-1 victory over Illinois-Chicago, and Murphy went the distance in a 7-4, Regional-clinching victory over host Long Beach State.
Savage's tutelage proved instrumental in the development of Brummett, an All-Pac-10 selection, and the emergence of Brooks and Murphy. Brummett became the eighth pitcher in school history to have pitched seven or more complete games in one season. By season's end, UCLA landed five players on the All-Pac-10 team, the most selections by any Bruin baseball team since 2000. Freshman outfielder Gabe Cohen secured Co-Newcomer of the Year honors, and Decker earned his first of two All-Pac-10 team selections.
The 2007 ballclub earned five consecutive Pac-10 series wins, as UCLA took two of three games against Washington, Arizona and California in addition to road sweeps of Stanford and USC. UCLA faced the second-most difficult schedule in the nation and the No. 1 most challenging non-conference slate, as rated by Boyd's World.
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Savage engineered a quick turnaround in 2006, leading the Bruins to a 33-25 overall record and a berth in the NCAA Malibu Regional. UCLA finished third in the Pac-10 that season with a 13-10 conference record. The Bruins faced the toughest schedule in the nation, as rated by Boyd's World, by playing 27 regular-season games against 10 teams that advanced to NCAA Regionals. Savage led UCLA to a 15-12 mark against Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Fresno State, Miami, Mississippi, North Carolina State, 2006 NCAA champion Oregon State, Pepperdine, Stanford and UC Irvine.
The Bruins' 2006 campaign marked the first year in which UCLA won each of its home Pac-10 series, taking two of three games from Washington State, Arizona State, USC and Stanford. The Bruins overcame an early 5-9 start, sweeping North Carolina State on the road before returning home to win two of three games against Mississippi and sweeping San Diego State.
In just his second year at UCLA, Savage guided the Bruins' pitching staff to a 3.77 team ERA, the lowest mark by any UCLA ballclub since 1980 (3.55). With the addition of Huff and Brummett to the weekend rotation, the pitching staff recorded six complete games, tied with Stanford for the most in the Pac-10. Three players earned All-Pac-10 team honors, and three Bruins secured honorable mention All-Pac-10 accolades.
Much of the college baseball world noticed UCLA's success in 2006 and aimed their praise toward Savage. Following the 2006 campaign, Savage was named a finalist for the National Coach of the Year award by CollegeBaseballInsider.com, marking the second such time he has been labeled a finalist.
In July 2006, Baseball America hailed Savage as one of "10 People to Watch in the Future." The magazine listed the Bruins' head coach with other distinguished baseball personnel such as New York Mets general manger Omar Minaya, Mets all-star third baseman David Wright and Los Angeles Dodgers assistant general manager Kim Ng. Baseball America lauded Savage for his winning ways: "UCLA has always been viewed as a sleeping giant on the West Coast, and it looks like Savage has the giant stirring."
Prior to taking over the UCLA baseball program in 2005, Savage's coaching career made stops at Nevada, USC and UC Irvine, where he led the Anteaters to the program's first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in 2004. His ability to soundly recruit first-class student-athletes and to develop them into highly recognized Division I baseball players led UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero to hire Savage on July 1, 2004, to replace the retired Gary Adams.
Coincidentally, Guerrero also hired Savage at UC Irvine three years prior and asked him to re-launch a dormant Anteater baseball program. Savage spent his first season recruiting players and building the foundation for his program that began play in 2002. In their first season, the Anteaters compiled a 33-26 record, and the pitching staff set a school record with 487 strikeouts. Despite injuries to key players the following season, UC Irvine recorded 417 strikeouts and a 3.61 ERA (third in the Big West Conference).
In 2004, Savage led UC Irvine to its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division I baseball tournament. UC Irvine competed at the Notre Dame Regional and finished the year with a 34-23-1 mark. Savage's pitching staff recorded 483 strikeouts, four shy of the school record, and compiled a 3.69 ERA (second in the Big West). The UC Irvine offense hit at a .288 clip, averaging 5.7 runs per game.
That season, Savage coached a myriad of talented athletes, including the Big West Conference Freshman Pitcher of the Year, the Collegiate Baseball "Louisville Slugger" Freshman of the Year and the only freshman in the nation to earn All-America first-team accolades from USA Today/Sports Weekly. Savage also led UC Irvine to its highest national ranking in school history - a No. 7 spot from Collegiate Baseball in April 2004.
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Following Savage's historic 2004 campaign, he was tabbed a finalist for National Coach of the Year honors by CollegeBaseballInsider.com. Three of his players were selected in the 2004 MLB Draft, and a total of 12 athletes signed professional contracts under his tutelage at UC Irvine. As a head coach, Savage compiled a perfect 4-0 mark against UCLA. His UC Irvine squads defeated the Bruins twice in 2002 and twice more in 2004.
Prior to taking over the UC Irvine program, Savage served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Southern California (USC) from 1996 to 2000. At USC, he produced numerous successful athletes, including consecutive Pac-10 Pitchers of the Year Seth Etherton, Rik Currier and eventual American League Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito. Ultimately, Savage helped guide Etherton to the 1998 Sporting News National Player of the Year award and was instrumental in his nomination as a Golden Spikes Award finalist. Also under his mentorship was current San Diego Padres right-hander Mark Prior.
As recruiting coordinator, Savage helped facilitate the Trojans' top-ranked recruiting class (Collegiate Baseball) during the 1999-2000 season and served as an assistant to Mike Gillespie for the USA Baseball National Team of collegiate all-stars in the summer of 2000. That summer, the U.S. National Team tallied a 27-3-1 record and won the gold medal at the Haarlem Baseball Week Tournament in the Netherlands.
Two years prior, Savage earned Collegiate Baseball's Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 1998 after his coaching talents helped USC capture the 1998 College World Series Championship. He also helped guide USC to an NCAA Regional title in 1999 and the NCAA Super Regional at Georgia Tech in 2000.
Savage coached at the University of Nevada from 1992 to 1996, helping the Wolf Pack compile a 177-82 record in five seasons. Throughout his tenure at Nevada, the baseball program won the 1994 Big West Conference title and strung together its first back-to-back 35-win seasons in school history. During Savage's years at Nevada, 24 Wolf Pack players signed professional contracts.
Savage began his coaching career as the pitching coach for Reno (NV) High School during the 1988-1989 school year.
Savage was a sixth-round draft choice of the New York Yankees in 1983, following his senior season at Reno High, but chose to attend Santa Clara University, where he pitched for three seasons. In 1986, the Cincinnati Reds selected Savage in the 16th round. Savage played two seasons in the Reds' organization before moving on to help the independent league Salt Lake City Trappers set a professional baseball record with 29 consecutive victories in 1987.
Following his professional career, Savage earned his bachelor's degree in secondary education, with an emphasis in physical education and history, from Nevada in 1991.
Savage, 44, and his wife, Lisa, have four children: Julia (12), Jack (10), Ryan (8) and Gabrielle (6).
| John Savage's Year-by-Year Head Coaching Record | ||||||
| Year | School | Record | Pct. | Conf. Record | Conf. Finish | Postseason |
| 2002 | UC Irvine | 33-26 | .559 | 14-10 | t-4th (Big West) | none |
| 2003 | UC Irvine | 21-35 | .375 | 8-13 | t-5th (Big West) | none |
| 2004 | UC Irvine | 34-23-1 | .595 | 10-11 | t-4th (Big West) | Midwest Regional |
| 2005 | UCLA | 15-41 | .260 | 4-20 | 8th (Pac-10) | none |
| 2006 | UCLA | 33-25 | .560 | 13-10 | 3rd (Pac-10) | Malibu Regional |
| 2007 | UCLA | 33-28 | .540 | 14-10 | 3rd (Pac-10) | Fullerton Super Regional |
| 2008 | UCLA | 33-27 | .547 | 13-11 | 3rd (Pac-10) | Fullerton Regional |
| 2009 | UCLA | 27-29 | .482 | 15-12 | 3rd (Pac-10) | none |
| 8 Years | Overall | 229-234-1 | .495 | 91-97 | .484 | 4 Regionals, 1 Super Reg. |
| 3 Years | at UC Irvine | 88-84-1 | .509 | 32-34 | .485 | 1 Regional |
| 5 Years | at UCLA | 141-150 | .485 | 59-63 | .484 | 3 Regionals, 1 Super Reg. |
