Matt Hobbs has added another line to what’s already a strong coaching résumé.
The Arkansas pitching coach has been selected to serve on the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team staff. It’s a recognition that puts him among the top college baseball minds in the country this summer.
Hobbs will serve as pitching coach for the Stars Team during the Collegiate National Team Training Camp, one of two squads — Stars and Stripes — that’ll split up a 14-man coaching staff for exhibition play this month.
That slate of games runs from June 27 through July 4 at various venues across North Carolina and Virginia, including the Stars vs. Stripes series.
It doesn’t stop there for the Razorback staff member.
Hobbs is also one of six coaches tapped to represent the United States in the inaugural World Collegiate Baseball Championship in Taichung City, Taiwan, from July 11-15.
Illinois coach Dan Hartleb will manage Team USA in that tournament.
Rounding out the international staff alongside Hobbs are Bethune-Cookman coach Jonathan Hernandez, Michigan coach Tracy Smith, Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter and bullpen coach Carlos Muñoz.
Team USA will face Chinese Taipei, Japan and Korea during pool play at Taichung City Intercontinental Stadium before semifinals and a championship game wrap things up on July 15.
Hobbs wraps up his eighth season on the Fayetteville staff in 2026. He’s widely considered one of the premier pitching developers in college baseball, earning 2024 D1Baseball Assistant Coach of the Year award.
The list of talent he has shaped at Arkansas speaks for itself.
Since joining the Hogs, Hobbs has helped produce one Golden Spikes Award winner, one Dick Howser Trophy winner, 12 All-Americans, 12 All-SEC honorees, including two SEC pitchers of the year.
That goes along with 30 MLB draft picks, 22 of whom went in the top 10 rounds.
Two names stand out among that group. Kevin Kopps won both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy in 2021 under Hobbs’s watch. Hagen Smith was the unanimous national pitcher of the year in 2024.
What Hobbs has helped build in Fayetteville
The Razorbacks’ success over Hobbs’s tenure reflects well beyond individual awards.
The program has made three College World Series trips. In 2019, 2022 and 2025 the Hogs claimed two overall SEC championships. The Razorbacks won 2021 and 2023 and four SEC Western Division titles in 2019, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
That kind of sustained run is exactly what earns a coach a seat on a USA Baseball staff.
