Joel Mangrum's Addition Made Riley Maddox's Return to Ole Miss a 'No-Brainer'

Riley Maddox is already learning a lot from new Ole Miss pitching coach Joel Mangrum.

Ole Miss starting pitcher Riley Maddox (2) throws his opening pitch in the SEC game against Southern Miss. baseball at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. | Sarah Warnock/Special to Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK

Riley Maddox is expected to be a big piece of Ole Miss baseball's starting rotation this season, and he is already learning a lot from new pitching coach Joel Mangrum. In fact, Mangrum's addition to the staff was a big reason Maddox elected to return for another year with the Rebels.

The reviews on Mangrum have been extremely positive from those around the Ole Miss program as the 2025 season draws near, and there were a few areas where Maddox wanted to focus in his development throughout the offseason. He spoke about those at Ole Miss baseball's media day earlier this week.

"In the fall, we met early, and we decided that I needed to throw harder," Maddox said. "What we did was raise my arm slot a little bit and change some mechanical things with the lower half and torso. With that, we added a four-seam fastball and tweaked some other pitches to make them a little better. I feel more confident as a pitcher.

"I've added a couple miles per hour here and there, but we're still trying to work on some things. My ceiling is probably a little higher than I think, and I think there's some room to improve too. Every day, we're out there just trying to get a little bit better."

Mangrum has a background in both college and professional baseball, and he has a lot of experience developing pitchers at the minor league level. Mangrum's usage of analytics and knowledge of the professional game played a large role in Maddox's decision to return to campus for another year.

"He's pretty much brought professional baseball to Ole Miss, which is great," Maddox said. "That was one of the reasons I wanted to come back after meeting him because that's what I was getting in pro ball if I went instead of staying here, so it was a no-brainer.

"He was a big reason I wanted to come back along with what Coach [Mike Bianco] said about having a chip on our shoulder and not wanting to leave the program the way we did."

Maddox will get start No. 2 this weekend for Ole Miss in the Shriners Children's College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. He will line up against the Texas Longhorns, and against this top 25 competition, Maddox isn't setting some specific goal for himself. He just wants to help his team win.

"I just want to compete one pitch at a time," Maddox said. "I really don't want to look at it like I need to get six innings and all these things. I just want to get outs and try to win and help this team out. Obviously with my stuff now, I think I'm confident that I can do that. Just try to go one pitch at a time, one batter at a time."

Ole Miss will open its season on Friday against the Arizona Wildcats in Arlington with a 3 p.m. CT first pitch. Maddox's action will start on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT.