Episode 520

October 12, 2026

01:01:48

Skip Johnson - 2026 ABCA/ATEC NCAA Div. I Coach of the Year

Skip Johnson - 2026 ABCA/ATEC NCAA Div. I Coach of the Year
ABCA Podcast
Skip Johnson - 2026 ABCA/ATEC NCAA Div. I Coach of the Year

Oct 12 2026 | 01:01:48

/

Show Notes

Next up on the ABCA Podcast is ABCA/ATEC NCAA Div. I Coach of the Year, Oklahoma University head coach, Skip Johnson. Johnson is coming off a historic 2026 season in which he led the Sooners to their third National Championship in program history and their first since 1994.

Oklahoma put together an incredible postseason run, going 11-2 in the NCAA Tournament and becoming the first team in tournament history to defeat nine national seeds on its way to winning it all. The Sooners finished the season with a 43-23 record, capturing the national title with a 13-2 victory over North Carolina in the College World Series championship game.

Since taking over the Oklahoma program in 2018, Johnson has established the Sooners as a consistent national contender, leading the program to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, conference championships, and two trips to the College World Series championship finals, including a national runner-up finish in 2022.

Johnson spent 10 seasons at the University of Texas working alongside legendary head coach Augie Garrido, helping the Longhorns reach three College World Series while establishing himself as one of the top pitching coaches in the country. Prior to Texas, he spent 13 seasons as the head coach at Navarro College, where he accumulated 450 wins, nine conference championships, and four regional titles.

This episode is brought to you by Rapsodo Baseball. Great coaching starts with knowing what to work on next. Rapsodo gives coaches the objective data, video, and instant feedback they need to make every rep more purposeful. With 20+ hitting and pitching data points, Live-on-Live capabilities, Seam Orientation, Scripted Sessions, and more, Rapsodo’s PRO 2.0 and PRO 3.0 units help coaches dial in on player development for their athletes with pro-level data and ball-tracking technology. From establishing baselines to validating adjustments and tracking progress, Rapsodo takes the guesswork out of development. Measure what matters. Train with purpose. Learn more by emailing [email protected] or visit their website: Rapsodo.com/Baseball.

The ABCA Podcast is presented by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time, specializing in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, bp screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more.

Download & Subscribe to the Podcast:
https://abca.castos.com
https://www.abca.org/podcast

Online: https://www.abca.org

ABCA Member Benefits: https://www.abca.org/benefits

Become a Member: https://www.abca.org/apply

X/Twitter: https://x.com/abca1945

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abca1945

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABCA1945

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/abca1945

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Welcome to the abca's podcast. I'm your host ryan brownlee. This episode is brought to you by Rapsodo Baseball. Great coaching starts with knowing what to work on next. Rapsodo gives coaches the objective data, video and instant feedback they need to make every rep more purposeful with 20 plus hitting and pitching data points, live on live capabilities, seam orientation, scripted sessions and more. Rapsodo's Pro 2.0 and Pro 3.0 units help coaches dial in on player development for their athletes with pro level data and ball tracking technology. From establishing baselines to validating adjustments and tracking progress, Rapsoda takes the guesswork out of development. Measure what matters, train with purpose. Learn more by emailing salespsodo.com or visit their website rapsodo.com baseball this episode is sponsored by Netting Pros. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time Netting Professionals specializes in the design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for backstops, batting cages, dugouts, BP screens and ball carts. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, dugout cubbies and more. Netting Professionals is an official partner of the ABCA and continues to provide quality products and services to many high school, college and professional fields, facilities and stadiums throughout the country. Netting Professionals are improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or infoottingpros.com, visit them online at www.nettingpros.com or check out Netting Pros on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Make sure to let CEO Will Minor know that the ABCA sent you. Now onto the podcast. Next up on the ABCA podcast is ABCA ATEC NCAA Division I Coach of the Year Oklahoma University Head Coach Skip Johnson. Johnson's coming off a historic 2026 season in which he led the Sooners of their third national championship in program history. In the first since 1994, Oklahoma put together an incredible postseason run, going 112 in the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first team in tournament history to defeat nine national seeds on its way to winning it all. Sooners finished the season with a 4323 record, capturing the national title with a 132 victory over North Carolina in the College World Series Championship game. Since taking over the Oklahoma program in 2018, Johnson has established the Sooners as a consistent national contender, leading the program to multiple NCAA Tournament appearances, conference championships and two trips College World Series Championship finals, including a national runner up finish in 2022. Johnson spent 10 seasons at the University of Texas, working alongside legendary head coach Augie Garrido, helping the Longhorns reach three College World Series while establishing himself as one of the top pitching coaches in the country. Prior to Texas, he spent 13 seasons as the head coach at Navarro College, where he accumulated 450 wins, nine conference championships and four regional titles. Let's welcome Skip Johnson to the podcast here with Skip Johnson, head coach at ou. ABCA ATEC Coach of the Year national champs. Also played for the champion in the championship series in 2022, but over 300 wins now in nine seasons at OU. So, Skip, thanks for jumping on with me. [00:03:59] Speaker B: You bet. Thanks for the opportunity. [00:04:01] Speaker A: Hey, at what point last fall did you feel like the team was going to be able to make this type of impact or did you feel like it coming out of the fall? [00:04:09] Speaker B: Well, you really never know in the fall. I think the fall is really. It's a bad situation, really, in the fall, because what happens is there's, I think there's four seasons, there's an evaluation season, there's an off season, there's a conditioning season, and there's a competition season. So in the fall, you're wanting to give them off because they've been playing summer baseball, some of them, you're wanting to evaluate some of them because they're new. Then you're wanting to condition them. So they're doing three things at once. You don't get to spend enough time with them. Our rules only allow us so much time we can spend with them. And I think that's the. Like, going into last year, it was hard to tell. I knew this. I knew that they really loved to practice and they love to be there, and they love to be around each other. You could tell that. And if you kind of can see that as we, as you go through it. And I make them. I make them make their bed and send me a picture of every morning. Right. And they did a really good job with that, which is a good sign. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Did you pick that up at UT? Because that was Admiral McRaven. That was his. That was his commencement speech at UT. That video that came out about making your bed every morning. [00:05:30] Speaker B: No, I mean, it was. I didn't pick it up there. Somebody had told me about it. And I try to separate ourselves from everybody else. And I wanted to try something different to get those guys to do something different. And the one guy that did it every day, even through Christmas, all the way till the spring, all the way through spring, all the way to the World Series was Trey Gamble. And that same guy also won the academic Heisman trophy award for the best student in college baseball. [00:06:07] Speaker A: How do you keep it together in the spring with the type of schedule that you guys play? [00:06:11] Speaker B: I don't. I go. I go every Monday. I go to Phil Feeders and Turkey, and I get away from it, you know, I mean, it's really hard. I mean, it's difficult. And you got to really just trust the process, man. One pitch at a time and making sure. I don't know if we'd have done it without the coaches and. And the support staff that we had, you know, is really incredible. And what we've done since we've been here with our coaches, our coaches did an unbelievable job. You know, I kind of let those guys do what they want to do. You know, I don't want to ever get blindsided. I let those guys do what they do, and that's what makes them also good head coaches, and it makes them great men and great leaders. I mean, we're. We're servants of each other. That's what we try to be. [00:07:04] Speaker A: When did you figure that out? That, hey, I need to probably take a day. Like, I need to get away from it? Because I think as coaches, a lot of us, we would just keep going. Like, you have a bad weekend, you're just gonna pound away on Monday. How long did it take you to figure out that I need to get away from it and then get back to it on Tuesday? [00:07:20] Speaker B: Probably my third. Third year at the University of Texas. I mean, they were screaming at me. And at Texas, every time you go the mad. You give up runs, you know, and I'm like, whoa, something's going on, man. I got. I had to really work on a mental game. And at that time, we had Ken Riviza. You know, that guy was the icon of mental game. And that's where I learned a lot of what I do with. Was with Ken. And so I'm really, really fortunate to be there and be around him, be around Coach Corrido and Coach Harmon. Really fortunate and understanding what that expectation is. And, you know, that's kind of where I started having to. To get away from it, you know, and it probably hunting and fishing probably saved my life, you know, I mean, really. So I could get away from it. [00:08:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And reviews. It was so good about trying to sell, especially dealing with players, but coaches, too, like, separating the baseball player, the baseball coach away from the person. [00:08:16] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. I mean, he was probably the very best at that of teaching us how to deal with that. I mean, just having a good shitty day, you know? [00:08:26] Speaker A: Do you like the one and done format in SEC tournament now? [00:08:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I think it's awesome. [00:08:31] Speaker A: It's good, isn't it? [00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I love it. I love it. I think it's good. I mean, you get the taste of it. You get the taste of it because it's like a little Omaha, you know, I could see us breaking away from everybody else and for all the four conferences and having Omaha there, you know what I mean? And I could see that one day, I mean, might not be in my lifetime, which, it doesn't matter to me, but I could see that. I mean, the community is really good. The people are really good. The weather kind of. Is kind of not good, but yeah, it's hot, humid, you know, it's what they, they just roll the red carpet out for you. They do a great job. The SEC does a great job. The leadership that they have is, is incredible with, with Matt Bowyer and Sankey. It's just incredible. It really is. I mean, from, from all the way down. I mean, it's. It's really good. The coaches are hard to coach against. They're really, they're really talented coaches. And it kind of mowed you for what we did last year. Our, our league mowed whoever usually comes out of it, you know. They mowed you for that. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Matt Boyer, he's awesome. People that probably don't know him from the outside, but he ran the Summit League baseball when I was at Western Illinois. But you could tell, like, he wasn't going to be there very long. Like you knew he was going to be somewhere big. And, and he's like, hey, I'm leaving to go to the sec. I'm like, that makes sense to me. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:02] Speaker A: He's just good, really good, good person. But. But gets it too, especially from the coach's perspective. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Amen. I mean, he's listens to you and he's all for the. He's all about the right stuff, for sure. [00:10:14] Speaker A: Did your prep change then after the SEC tournament? Did you give them some time off before, before you practice before the regionals? [00:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, we, we gave them a couple days off and. And then we came in and we had five by seven note card. I told them. [00:10:31] Speaker A: Right. [00:10:31] Speaker B: All the negative thoughts they had down on the five by seven note card. Right. And take it out there. We took it up PDA and we had a funeral and buried them. And then we came in and we did individuals that Morning we ate chicken, ate biscuits at midday, didn't care what people thought. Let's kind of just break bread together and then go inter squad. And it was probably one of our better intersquads going into it. And I think that's what really. It's kind of got to go a little bit. We didn't do much things different. We practice game like, which is what our coaches do. It's maybe different than everybody else. I don't know that and I don't really care. I mean, be honest with you, with [00:11:14] Speaker A: the type of offense you guys had, did you feel good about going into Georgia Tech? Man, I loved your guys offense. It's a throwback offense. It was an unselfish throwback offense. Did you feel good about going into Georgia Tech? [00:11:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel good about anybody we play. I don't, I don't dwell on, hey, man, oh, we're playing these guys. Oh, my gosh. They're. They're like. I don't. I've never thought that. I mean, I have never thought that. I just, I know if we do what we do and take control of what we do, I learned that process. I don't think anybody's been any better than anybody else. I don't. I've never. You know what I mean? I mean, just because you got more money or just because you're bigger and stronger don't mean you're tougher or meaner. I can tell you that right now. And so I love our offense. I think it's. What we do is it's a high pressure offense and we put pressure on people. And I think the hardest thing in baseball is we're, we're all, is all geared to offense, you know, I mean, we're making a bag bigger. You don't get to release pitches. It's. Everything's faster. You make more mistakes when you're faster. Just think if, Just think if they're making cars today and they had a shot clock on them and they're making cars, how bad would the cars be? I mean, that nobody gets that, you know? You know, if you don't. If you don't want to watch it, don't, don't watch it. Nobody, Nobody's forcing you to watch it. But baseball is great, man. It's. That's what's great about it because you can go four for four and oh, for four and, and. But you get to feel what the player feels when he's out there. You know what I mean? That's when you really get the True respect of it. I can remember watching Pete Rose and him getting the third out and slamming a ball down. You know, you're like, wow, man, that's our sprint in the first base. Or Nolan Ryan walking off the mound. I was at a game one time, Ryan, it was incredible. Nolan Ryan's pitching, right, and it's a 7:35 game and it's like 7:40. He didn't out there yet. And the umpires are kind of looking around and he comes sprinting out and. And out of the dugout to the mound. They get, they go, you got to play. You got to have an ace in the hole. And I thought, oh my gosh, this guy is like, this is like the power of God in the church. You know, you feel the conviction. Like, that's. It was pretty cool. And that's what I look at more. More. So you pay play with your passion, you play with art and, and stuff like that. So. I know I got off on a tangent, but. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah, but you guys were great on the pitching side too. And defensively, I mean, you guys were a complete team. [00:13:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think Russell Raley, he's a young coach. Like, he's not really a young coach, but he's really good at what he does. He has a great system of them practicing game like, and playing really good catch. He does an incredible job. Really fortunate to have him. And Rip Bono helps me with the pitchers. And so, yeah, just trying to figure out what we try to do to teach them the process and, you know, and looking at how we go about the pitching, I mean, how do you [00:14:31] Speaker A: get this generation of players to buy into something larger than themselves? I think you've done a great job with that, with your teams. How do you bottle that up every year? [00:14:41] Speaker B: I think you got to keep talking to them and, and you got to keep talking to them about stuff like that. I mean, you can't do it once. You got to do it daily. A little. Little is a lot. And it is also recruiting the right people, you know, recruiting the right people, getting the right character that fits what we do. I think that has a lot to do with it as well. And I mean, there's no secret sauce. I mean, you know, there's not. There's not. It's just, hey, man, this is our. This is our culture. It's compete clause in our culture. C stands for championship standard. O stands for Oklahoma before you. M stands for mentality. P stands for process. E is engage. T is toughness. And E is energy. And it's it's formatted. It's formatted. To be. Really make you present on one pitch. You have to be present to be. To be. To be. To learn things. And you got to get these young men in here and get them comfortable as fast as you can. And the more time you spend with them and talk to them, the more comfortable they get. I'd like to take somebody that makes the rules of. From the NCAA and bring them into something and make them rush to it and they don't get to spend time with them and see how they really feel because they wouldn't feel good. You know, I mean, you're asking these young men to. They're going to be on TV and they're making. We're making how much? 80, $90 million on a TV deal a year, right? Or maybe more than that. Hell, I don't know. But ask them. They can only spend so much time and they got to go out, entertain the world. The product is. We've got to continue to work on the product. And there's not going to be. There's nobody in the sec, nobody in the world that's going to go, hey, you know, we're going to practice for 90 hours a week. You know, that ain't going to happen, man. Because they understand what the limitations of kids today. I mean, you, you got to make sure you give them day off. You got to make sure that they get their nutrition, make sure they get their weightlifting, make sure they get their rest. You got you. I mean, it's all. I mean, it's gotten so specific. It's incredible. [00:17:01] Speaker A: And then you flip the script. Everybody talks about how old rosters are, and then you pull the trigger on just rolling freshmen out at the end of the year, I mean, which is great. Like. But those of us have been around it. They're not freshmen anymore. You've been through a whole season of, of Division 1 baseball. They're technically not freshmen anymore, but a lot of guys wouldn't have pulled the trigger on that. [00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that was just making sure that. Knowing and trusting your process more so than anything, you know, Cora through every Sunday. And when I went into it, I told all the coaches, I met with the coaches, hey, man, we're going to do this, you know, and what's, what's incredible is we always played offense when those guys pitched, you know, and it was like something that, hey, man, we play pretty good offense. I still think Cam Johnson's going to be special, Ryan. I really believe that. I mean, if you, if you were to sit in a bullpen with me and watch that guy throw a bullpen. You would. You would be good. You would go, wow. And I told him, the last game he threw against Georgia Tech, he walked a guy, hit a guy, and homer. I walked down and I hugged his neck, man. And it's really building relationships and say, hey, man, if you keep persevering, they're going to want to talk to you. You know, you got to. You got to build relationships in the time even if they leave you. I mean, you know, I mean, I had a young man that's not coming here the other day called me. It's like, hey, coach, you know, I'm going to stay around here. I'm going to go to school here. And I said, hey, if you need my help, just call. And it's just building relationships. And if you're not ready to be a servant and then you don't need to be coaching. Really. [00:18:43] Speaker A: What type of adjustment will you make with those guys this fall? Because you see a kid has a really good freshman year, and then scuffles. Not scuffles, but everybody's got the book on you that second year. But then you have also the other reverse where a kid maybe struggles as a freshman, works their tail off, and then has a great sophomore year. I think it's hard to get two good years out of. Out of freshmen, especially freshman. Sophomore year. How do you keep on those guys this fall as far as getting better? [00:19:11] Speaker B: Well, if you think about that, that'll happen. Yeah. If you think about what you want to happen, it'll happen. If you think about what you don't want to happen, that'll happen. So you got to make sure you think about what you want to happen. You got to stay hungry. You got to keep those guys hungry. You gotta do. What are we gonna do to make you a little bit better? You. I mean, I'm still learning. I'm 59 years old and been in it 36 years. I'm still learning. And when I stop learning, I'm just gonna be done. You know, I really still like building the relationship. I still like learning from, like, we got Nuke Force this year. Wow, dude. I mean, I'm telling you, like, wow. It was incredible. I mean, I was like, holy smokes. I mean, this is the things that you can learn from that, you know what I mean? But you still pitch with your head and your heart, you know what I mean? You can have all these gadgets you want, but you still picture your head in your heart, man. You Know, those things help us, though. I mean, it. I learned. I've learned a lot in the last month with Nuke Force. [00:20:22] Speaker A: What are the biggest things you picked up with that? [00:20:25] Speaker B: Really, the making sure. The timing of the force as much as anything, you know, trying to. Trying to keep making a guy a little bit better. His front side might be a little bit weak. He might be leaking. He might. In the. In the delivery. And it really helps their timing. The timing of the force to get to the ball, to get to the target, and they can really sit. The motion cap stuff, they can really see themselves go right or left. You know, we use. We also use S2 recognition, and that's probably one of the best things that. It's kind of funny story, Ryan, we. We started using S2 recognition, and we did it in October. We. I call Ryan Phillips and Paul Phillips, and. And I say, can you go through this stuff with us? And he goes through it with us. And everything that he was talking about. Everything he was talking about, I was like, how do you know that he could tell by the, you know, the S2 cognition stuff. He could tell. And I was like. I was just dumbfounded. And so we started doing it before they got here. And it's helped us, you know, helped us on guys that can learn. They're instinctive learners, guys that their rhythm is a little bit off, their motor learning is a little bit off. You can get. I mean, I've used. I've used music. I've used Metro Dome. I mean, I've. I've done it all. [00:21:49] Speaker A: You have used a metronome before? [00:21:51] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:21:52] Speaker A: Hitting and pitching? [00:21:53] Speaker B: Nope, just pitching. [00:21:55] Speaker A: It does make sense, though. [00:21:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it does. It does. You just got to make sure. You got to get it going where it goes instead of going. Yeah, because you got a guy going like that, you're. You're in there playing shortstop, and you're, like, falling asleep, you know, so. And a lot of guys want to go like this. [00:22:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:14] Speaker B: And then they go, you know, and so it's just trying to stay in rhythm. [00:22:21] Speaker A: What's the art of that, though? Trying to help pitchers find their rhythm. And hitters, too. Like, everybody's rhythm's a little bit different. And I think. Go ahead. [00:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I think the rhythm and the confidence is. Deal is what they try to do is you try to figure out if they're fast movers or if they're slow movers, if they're sprinters, if they're diesel engines, you know, and so you try to figure that, number one, number Two is their confidence. I think it goes hand in hand. If you remove the re. The result. If you remove the result and just talk about the process of. Hey man, first pitch strikes, hey one, one strikes. Execute the two strike pitch. You know, that's what it's about. What, what, what I think happens is everybody grits their teeth. Usain Boat didn't grit his teeth and gr when he run 100 yard dash, did he? No. So is, is trying to stay smooth and removing the, removing the result and just throwing the ball the target. That's, that's, that's the only thing you can control. And I think it's selfish, you trying to strike people out because you don't let the guys behind you play. [00:23:36] Speaker A: You still using any old school stuff? Using strings and. Oh yeah, you brought with you forever. [00:23:42] Speaker B: Oh yeah, for sure. We still, we still. We. I still do that. I, I have a, like I have a bat that I teach them to use their front side with. I have the strings. I have uphill downhill. I have the two by eight. You know, I was talking to some guys with the pro team the other day. They're asking me, I got this guy that throws 103 miles an hour. So would you put his ass on a 2 by 8 and make him go from 60, 70, 80 with a catcher down. He's going to stay, he's going to stay connected. You know, you got to do it on flat ground. I mean that's where I've had. I'm not the best pitching coach in the world. Never claimed to be. [00:24:21] Speaker A: Come on now. [00:24:21] Speaker B: But, but I'm not. But I just have a unique style of teaching and it's really just about, it's really, it's really about building a relationship and, and somebody believing in you. You know, that's really what it's about. [00:24:35] Speaker A: And coaching still matters. I don't care. Coaching is always going to matter. It still matters. And I think it matters more now than it ever has because we don't have as much of it. It matters more now than it ever has with coaching. [00:24:45] Speaker B: Hey man, I totally agree with you. You got to have coaching and you. And right now they're thirsty for it. They have no clue. And if they can't take a butt chewing and they can't, they can't be loved on and you don't have enough pride to what you have too much pride and you think it's social that you don't, can't go up and hu kid and tell him you love him. Then you need to Quit. You need to get out of coaching and you need to do something else. You need to be in a one leg, one legged ass kicking contest, you know? [00:25:18] Speaker A: Is this your first opportunity to coach with Tyler? [00:25:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:25:21] Speaker A: Is it? I was thinking about that when you and I talked. I'm like, I think. I don't think they've coached together yet. [00:25:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he told me no, Ryan. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I wouldn't if my dad went back. I was just. I had to. In the beginning, I had to work for free, so I had to coach with my dad. I think if it was. I was in the same shoes, I probably would have said no too, later on. [00:25:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he told me no. And. And really the impact that he. He's had on Ryan and Reggie, and Reggie's a great coach and Ryan Gaines, our. Our chief of staff is incredible. And it's really not about. It's just about a relationship, you know, it's. That's what, that's what it's really about. I know he's really good. I've watched him work with catchers. Wow. I've watched him recruit. He's relentless. He's not afraid to have a conversation. He's articulate. He cares about people. He loves Jesus. I mean, it's crazy. It's really, it's. I'm so proud of, of him and my other son. I mean, I wouldn't. I mean, I was recruiting 27 straight days in a row. You know, I mean, my wife raised them well. [00:26:37] Speaker A: Yep. Mine too. [00:26:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Crazy. [00:26:40] Speaker A: Did you ever think you would leave Navarro? [00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought I would leave Navarro, but I thought I would go into professional baseball. And, you know, getting that phone call from Coach Carrito at that time, it was on July, July 2nd or 3rd, and had a meeting on the 5th, and. And I actually was going to tell them no. And. Because I love Navarro, man, it was. My kids were raised there. The community was incredible. They supported us, they cared about us. The schools were good. It was small. And, you know, and I walked out and I was like, man, if I don't do this deal, I never wanted to be a Division 1 head coach. I never inspired to be a Division 1, a goat. I think I've been a leader all my life. I've helped people try to get where they're at. And I think I've been a leader all my life. And so I've been blessed to be around a great high school coach, great junior college Coach, great Division 1 coach. And in all assistant coaches they had. I've been blessed to be around those people and build all those relationships to the state of Texas. I can't thank those people enough. I got a lot of text, man. The most texts I got all of the whole thing. We're playing in the second game against Georgia, and, man, it's like people are going crazier in the dugout, and I forget the lady's name. I mean, she's a sweetheart. She. She goes, hey, what's going on? You know, And I go, well, I'm just waiting on Max Paxton to show up. You know, everybody goes. I got probably more text that day than any. You know, that was pretty crazy. [00:28:31] Speaker A: Was that an adjustment for you being a head coach for all those years at Navarro and then going to be an assistant, or was it pretty seamless because you're going to work for Augie Garrido? [00:28:40] Speaker B: No, it was pretty seamless because I was the head coach of a pitching staff. He didn't. He, you know, he never said. [00:28:46] Speaker A: Great guy to work for on that respect. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, hard guy to work for on that respect. Really hard. Now you go into that. [00:28:55] Speaker A: Go into that hard. [00:28:57] Speaker B: You had to earn. You had to earn his respect because he's a defensive minded person. He was a defensive minded person and he wanted strikes and he wanted everybody to be in. In rhythm with them. You know, He. That was who he was. I can remember this story as we're at Kansas and I got three stories. We're at Kansas and the catchers are blocking balls on the first night, and they're going 25ft and they're taking extra bases, and it's like 15 degrees outside, right? And we get beaten. He used to skip, meet me in my hotel room, and he could chew your rear end out and pat his foot at the same time, you know, And I was like, yes, sir. The catchers and pitchers are, you know, are off rhythm, you know. And the next day I go out there, the equipment manager walks up to me and says, hey, look, feel this chest protector. It was frozen. You know, hey, remember they used to have the gel chestors? I said, it was frozen. I was like, dude, take it over to the heater. And so take it over the heater. And we end up winning two games. But that's who he was. Like, he was a rhythm guy. The next one was, we just got beat on a Tuesday night. And he's like, screaming, what am I going to tell the media about batter pitching this? Because we had four freshmen. Brandon Workman, he's won two. He won two World Series championships. Chance Ruffin he was a first team All American and first rounder. Cole Green, first team all American and third rounder. And then Staten Thomas, which is like an eighth or ninth rounder. Those guys had to pitch as freshmen, right? So I'm going down there working my rear end off on all of them and, and all of a sudden, all of a sudden he can, what am I going to tell the media? I said, well, and I'm mad. I'm from Texas. So I got a. I had a bad temper too, right. And he's kept yelling at me and I was like, I had a box in my locker. If I want to walk away from In 30 seconds, I can just pick. That's what my dad taught me. I'm gonna put my stuff in that box and I'm walking away and I looked at that box and I go, well, just tell the media I don't have a joystick. I can't make them, I can't make them swing and miss, man. I can just do what I do down there and work. And he goes, starts laughing. He goes, that's what I'm going to tell him. And then there one time he goes, I can't believe we kept giving up O2 hits. I said, you're the one that sent me the article on three pitches or less. Like, you know, like, like, you know, that, that was, I mean, he is one of those guys to be in rhythm and he wanted, I think what Coach Dorito hated more, more than anything in the world was what the game did to him. What the game made the, the player feel, you know what I mean? He hated that. He hated that. It made him feel like they're not good. He. And it kind of drives me nuts too, you know, I want to reward them. I don't, I want to. You have to reward yourself for making a good pitch. Even though they get a hit on it. Reward yourself because you can throw a ball in the black right now. Guys can hit it hard, you know, [00:32:14] Speaker A: by the way, we saw the, the fruits of your labor in 2010. So that team. Workman was your number three. By the way, I'm coaching at Iowa. We schedule a four game series. Taylor Youngman's your Friday guy. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:26] Speaker A: And workman was Big 12 pitcher of the year. Was your number three on that staff? [00:32:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:31] Speaker A: I'm like, what's going on here? [00:32:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he was pretty good. Where would we go? He'd walk the leadoff hitter every Sunday, first inning, he'd walk the lead off hitter. And I'm like, and I have to go, the man, Coach Burrito, have somebody up. And he'd go, why is that old man go out there? And I go, why does that old man keep telling me, you know? And I'm like, hey, dude, just relax. Don't walk the lead off hitter. [00:32:56] Speaker A: Hey, when you got to take over at OU as head coach, what was the decision to stay with? I give you a lot of credit because you stayed with your strengths. Because not a lot of guys do that. I see that as a pitfall for some guys. They get a head coaching job and they, they switch some things around. But you've stayed with your strengths, which I think is an important, important point for a lot of coaches that listen into this, like, whatever you're good at, stay with that. Let guys work around you. But I think you've done a really good job of staying with your strengths. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate that. I think the biggest thing for me is if. I mean, there, I've contemplated on bringing somebody in that I've trusted for a long time that. But I'm always going to oversee it, you know, And I think that's the biggest thing for me, for me as a leader. I want to give those guys room. I want to give Reggie room. I want to give Tyler room. I want to give Ken can room to do it. I want to give Russell Rayleigh, Brit Bono, and give those guys room to grow Ken Guthrie. I want to give those guys room to grow and let them do their job. You know, let them do their job. And if they have questions, I'll, I'll help. I mean, you know, I don't want to get involved in their business. I might, but if I see a guy, I tell them, if I see a guy, I'm going to say something. If I think he's, he's late on the fastball or he's going around the ball, if I think I can help him with something, he, you know, he's not getting around the ball or whatever it may be, or I'm going to. And those guys know more than I do on it. And they're around them every day. Just don't show them how much you know before you show them how much you care. I think that's what we do best, and I think that's what our guys do best. [00:34:43] Speaker A: You also have a lot of experience too, though, and that your eyes, your eyes have seen a lot more baseball and a lot more players than some other eyes have. [00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been blessed like that. I mean, I would go watch, you know, High school games to little league games. I've watched all of them. I was, I was into it. I'm still into it. I love it. I mean, I can. Like last night, watching the World Series game, it was, it was awesome. It was incredible, you know, of watching White Oats come out of the bullpen for Boston and I, you know, he pitched here, Jake Bennett in a big. I mean, those guys pitched here. And just watching those guys and how they respond, you know, they're bunting a lot more. [00:35:23] Speaker A: And fake button steel, by the way, last night. [00:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. [00:35:26] Speaker A: Broke that game open four to three. Fake bunt, double steal and then a three run home run. Everybody's going to focus on the three run home run. But yeah, there's a big bunt double steal. Finally you can. [00:35:37] Speaker B: Amen. [00:35:37] Speaker A: It still works. [00:35:38] Speaker B: Amen. [00:35:39] Speaker A: Third baseman had no idea what to do. [00:35:41] Speaker B: They had know what to do. Didn't have a clue. That's right. [00:35:44] Speaker A: Your guys that have made it, what separated the ones that have made it and the ones that haven't outside of talent, but the ones that have ultimately made it, what's been. [00:35:54] Speaker B: I think they're, they're, they're, they're Makeup. Their makeup, you know, their makeup's. What does it rhyme more so than anything? I mean, they're just makeup. [00:36:06] Speaker A: What, what that can mean a lot of different things, makeup. [00:36:09] Speaker B: As far, they're tough. They don't care what people think of them. They're not. So it's not a social environment, it's a competitive environment. They're not prospects, they're baseball players. That's the guys that, that end up making it. And there's some talented ones that's made it. There's no doubt about that. And they all, every one of them that made it, love to compete and love teammates and love to practice. Every one of them. [00:36:37] Speaker A: And you've sent a lot of guys that next level, what's that fine line for a player of listening to coaching but also understanding what their strengths are too? [00:36:45] Speaker B: Well, I have a. [00:36:46] Speaker A: Not every coach is going to be right on what he tells you, what you should be doing. [00:36:49] Speaker B: Just do what you do. Do what you do. I think our job as coaches in Division 1 is to try to get them through another level, you know, to skip a level of baseball. You know, they go, hey, division ones like Double A. Well, I'm. If they've watched Double A too much, because those guys in Double A are pretty damn good, man. I mean, those guys are good. They're really good. I mean, there's guys that throw hard and they can have, they command the ball. I don't know if we're not looking at that right. I mean, it's, it's still a ball and. But I think the biggest thing, our job is to teach them to be respectful of the game number one. I don't think we do a very good job of doing that. I think the next thing is we've got to teach them how to show up in appointments, you know, be on time for workouts. When you walk to the field, don't walk to the field. Walk like you're going to be a big leaguer. You know, you're putting a Superman cape on when you're putting that uniform on and think that you're going to, you're going to outwork people. How you think that guy, you think that guy that's coming out of college is going to, should be going to double or in Triple A, when they got in Triple A. And a guy in a big Leagues has got 2,3000 more at bats than you do, you got to work double of what he works, you know, and so that's what, that's how I kind of look at it. [00:38:14] Speaker A: How are you keeping players accountable? They don't, they don't get too much of that anymore. But like, say a guy's late or whatever, they don't get too much of it. So those of us that, that still believe in it, people are going to fight you a little bit on that. How are you keeping guys accountable still? [00:38:29] Speaker B: Well, if they fight me on it, they won't be here. [00:38:30] Speaker A: I love it. Yes. [00:38:33] Speaker B: I mean, I ran a guy, I ran a guy out of. I had three phone calls by the academic coordinator other day and I ran his rear into the academics. I mean, I can only take so much. You know what I mean? Get your butt to academics. You're missing practice. I'm going to take it away from. If they love it and if they continue to miss practice or may they continue mispractice for academics, then I'll get rid of them. I don't care how good they are. I just don't. I don't, I don't. I'd rather lose than, than let the prisoners run to prison. [00:39:08] Speaker A: I was on somebody else's podcast and they asked that. I said, what should parents hear? I said, coaches are not here to babysit your kids. Like, if you're sending your child off to somebody to think, yes, there are going to be some things that they have to work on. But if you're expecting a coach to babysit your kid, like, that's not what this is about. [00:39:25] Speaker B: But what I'm. What I am going to do, Ryan. I'm going to be a father, a pastor. I'm going to. I'm going to teach them how to handle. I'm going to try to teach them how to be a man. Because I got through those three years or those four years, for however long I get to spend with them, I'm going to try to teach those guys to be a man and be accountable to each other. I think that's my job as a. As. As I got a size 11 and it can go in somebody's rear end in a hurry, as it should. Yeah, [00:39:58] Speaker A: just like coaching. That's never going to go away either. You have to keep people accountable. [00:40:02] Speaker B: That's right. You want guys. I want to. I want people that want to be coached hard. I don't yell and scream. I don't do that. I mean, you can see me on tv. I mean, I don't. I don't. Man. I do a lot of visualization. I mean, it's. The game's hard enough, man. It's going to beat them up. I've got to try to teach them how to deal with the game one pitch at a time. That's my. That's my role, is to teach them one pitch at a time. [00:40:28] Speaker A: How long did it take you to figure that piece out as far as staying even keel during the games? Because I'm. I'm sure what it looks like inside and what it looks like on the outside are too there. I think that's what the best of the best do is maybe what's going on in here is way different than what's being projected out. [00:40:45] Speaker B: Just being patient as much as anything. I was taught that at an early age. And how I've evolved, like with our mental coach, Tyler Pasik, is how I've evolved. As. As I. I think it's one thought and what equals one pitch. You had a good experience or bad experience on it, and I try to live that. It's easy for me to sit here and talk about it, but it is really hard because you want to get to the net. You want to go, dude, what about you not doing that on that pitch? Well, that pitch is over with, man. It's just. It's. You got to get rid of it. You can't go back. What you got to do is learn. If you want to go back, you bring them in and you go through the video stuff with them. And then it costs you time when you go to do that and you're trying to teach them to play. [00:41:36] Speaker A: Are you still heavily involved with the recruiting? You kind of. [00:41:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I'll go watch games. I'll go watch games, for sure. [00:41:44] Speaker A: You're still involved? [00:41:46] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:41:46] Speaker A: You have to be, right? You can't put that. That. I don't. The good ones. I don't think you ever get to put that down. [00:41:51] Speaker B: Well, I think the biggest thing for us is to get. We still have contacts, you know, contacts that we can help with to go through all that stuff. You know, I do. I want to be involved in recruiting. I just want to trust people that are around me that are going to look for the same quality of character in what we do, that somebody that's going to fit our offense, somebody that's going to fit our pitching staff. Our pitching staff is going to be able to throw two pitches for strikes, hold runners and fill their position. If they can't do that, don't bring them in here because if they're not tough, they're not going to. They won't make it here in the game. I mean, it is. Our business has changed. It's not very good. It's changed because of our scholarships, has changed. Our nil Rev shares change. All that stuff has changed. And it's going to change again with the College Sports Act. We can't control that. We can complain about it, we can grip about it. We just got to go with it. And the guys that don't, the guys that are more care about. More about getting better is the guys I want in our program. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Have you heard an incoming guy that couldn't spin the ball, that you actually taught how to spin the ball when they got to you? [00:43:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Corey Canable. [00:43:12] Speaker A: Really? [00:43:13] Speaker B: Yep. Jay. Brent Cox and me spent all our dude. And all of a sudden it was showed up, boom. Austin Hansen, he could spin the ball in high school and they took it away from him, from him before I got here. And then we started again and we figured it out and how we. How we did it is. It's a great story. Clay Van Hook played for me and he coached for me, right? And he got to coach with Wayne Graham. And we're sitting in there, practice is done. I'm still down there throwing a bullpen with Austin Hansen. Clay Van Hook, if you have too big of an ego, it's a great story for coaches. And Clay Van Hook goes, hey, you know, he goes, hey. He goes, spread his fingers like that. That's how, that's how Coach Graham, you should do it. And just stole the dog out of it, right? And that's what we did. And he fixed it. And he would been, hey Ryan, he was 88 to 91 and all of a sudden he fixed his curveball, he got his pitch back that he used to throw and he was 95, 97, made all the way to AAA, got hurt again. And it's a great story, but you can't have a bigger ego to say, hey man, don't talk to him. You, hey, I'm a pitching coach. I, Clay Van Hook wasn't a pitching coach. He played for me. But I listened to what Clay said. Hey, try it and work. You know, the game's hard, man. It is. You can't have an ego and say you think you know it all because you don't. [00:44:39] Speaker A: Do you feel much different after winning it? [00:44:42] Speaker B: No, man, you don't, do you? No, I don't. I love to teach. I think the biggest thing for me, I hadn't really sunk in too much, you know. Hadn't really sunk in too much. I just, I love to teach and I love the process. I love our conference, I love the coaches in the conference. I love college baseball. I wish you, I wish we could change it. I think our job as coaches is to change how is to respect the game of what it teaches you to keep be innovators and changing things. I mean I think we should go to wood bats. I do. We're recruiting all these kids. They've been 14 year old kids playing wood bats all the time. They actually hit with more with a wood bat than do aluminum bat. You know, it's, I think it's better [00:45:36] Speaker A: especially if they're going to keep cutting the draft down. [00:45:40] Speaker B: Amen. I mean, you know, they're, they can't. You, you walk in there and the guy hits 15 or 16 home runs in a wood bat league, he ain't gonna ask, he ain't gonna, he ain't gonna go, does he have power or not? They're not going to say that he has power. He's going to show it to you. You know, that's, you know, it's like those, it's like those deals. Can he really hit? I mean if he can hit, that would bat. That sweet spot's about that big on a wood bat, you know, about as big as your finger. [00:46:09] Speaker A: Has there been much difference between the SEC and the Big 12? I mean for me, I think the Big 12 is one of the most underrated Baseball conferences. I think the Big 12 got the love it deserves year in and year out. But is there much difference between the Big 12 and SEC? [00:46:24] Speaker B: The Big 12 is really good. There's a little, there's a lot of difference in. And probably the back end of the bullpen, not the coaches, probably the bullpens are a little bit different. You know, it ain't, hey, man, I was in Omaha on 14. There's three Big 12 teams there, you know, so it's not, it's not different. I mean, it's the, the environments are different. You're playing in front of big crowds, people spitting on you, people throwing stuff at you all the time. You know, you do that. [00:47:03] Speaker A: How do you allow your players to eliminate those distractions? Because it's got to be, it's tough, you know, not everybody can go in there and handle those type of distractions. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Game like practices, practice what you're going to go, you're going into. Make it game like as much as you can. It's hard, but that's what you have to do. You, you want to be really good at what you do. You want to be really good at what you do. I mean, you got to be able to get up and down out of the bunker. You got to be able to get out of the rough. You got to be able to do it. Whenever anything happens to you in that game, you've got to be able to do it, and you've got to practice. If we're asking that guy to take a breath at home plate and slow down, slow his mind down, we better practice it. If we don't practice it, then we're idiots. You know, that's kind of how I look at it. [00:47:54] Speaker A: Do you golf at all? You talk about fin. Yeah, yeah, I got, yeah, golf, golf analogies there. [00:48:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, golf is so similar to, to, to baseball. It's incredible. See it, feel it, trust it. You know, routines, those things are so big. [00:48:13] Speaker A: Do you think five for five is going to help? [00:48:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. I, I, I think it's going to really help. It's gonna, it kind of gives those guys an out where you don't have to register somebody. But here's what I think about that. I think our Tuesday games shouldn't count as RPI games. Then I think our portal would get 25 to 30% better. You could play all those freshmen not care about your record. All these people care about the records too much. And, and you want to play. You want to get retainment. It's about retainment. Can you retain them? You know what I mean? Can you retain them? And I'm going to take my ball and go somewhere else. You're going to do away with that because you're going to be able to play them on a Tuesday, you know, and I. And if it might hurt mid major schools, I get that too, man. But you know what? If mid major schools are going to make it into the tournament, they're going to make it anyway. And so I think the biggest thing for me is take, eliminate the RPI on Tuesday and Wednesday and you play their developmental games. [00:49:26] Speaker A: That's what I thought with five for five because you can give a kidnap bad pinch run here and there. That's where I felt like from a retainment standpoint, I think it gives you way more flexibility with getting guys in if. When you need to. [00:49:40] Speaker B: Yes. [00:49:42] Speaker A: All right. Do you have a fail forward moment, something you thought was going to set you back, but looking back now, it helped you move forward or might have even been one of the best things that happened, [00:49:53] Speaker B: probably being it being, you know, giving up 31 runs. I thought I was going to get set back, but it moved me forward as a pitching coach, you know, at, at Missouri one, one night, you know, and getting our brains beat in two, two days in a row, it actually made me better person and made me a better pitching coach. I started separating, separating things like Steve Foster, buddy of mine, that's a pitching coach. One of my best friends, pitching coach at Texas Tech for my best friend Tim Tadlock team, said, do you need to read Golf Sacred Journey and by David L. Cook and in the Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews. And so I did that and it made all the difference in the world. I mean, it made. I started practicing what they go through, you know, and that's what really, you know, I failed. But it made. Made me jump forward. And advertising does that to you? [00:50:50] Speaker A: Well, successful people handle it different, you know. You know, I call it a fail forward moment. But for me, successful people don't view those as failures. They, they learn from them, they move on and they get better from them. [00:51:00] Speaker B: Well, I think baseball only gives you an opportunity. I don't think it's a game of failure. All these guys that think they say that it's an idiot. It's an opportunity, man. It only gives you an opportunity. You can go take, take a thousand swings. It don't make you. You're going to go out in 4. 4. But what it'll do is it'll protect you, the game will protect you. If you, if you attack it and you. You do it playing hard, it'll take care of you. If you're afraid of it and your fear of it, you're. You're afraid of it and you show that fear, it'll. It'll exploit you. And what else? The. The other team don't deserve your fear or your compassion. You got to go, you got to do what you have to do in that moment. It's got to be the most important thing on that one pitch in that moment. Now, I'm not saying it's not the most important thing in your life, God, family, but I'm just telling you on that pitch, it's going to be the most important thing in your life at that moment. [00:51:59] Speaker A: Tim Tadlock, he's another low pulse in game coach. [00:52:05] Speaker B: Well, we play for the same. [00:52:07] Speaker A: How he handles in game situations and being low pulse. [00:52:12] Speaker B: Yeah, we. We've been around. We grew up together and we've been around each other a long time and he's a really good coach. There's no doubt about that. [00:52:21] Speaker A: What other morning or evening routines do you have? Do you have any? I know you. [00:52:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:52:26] Speaker A: Hunting and fishing. But you got some. You can't do those every day. Well, maybe could, but. [00:52:30] Speaker B: Well, I think the biggest thing I do in the morning is I wake up, get some yogurt, coffee, read a Bible daily scripture every morning, and then ride the bike. Either the life cycle or my wife won't let me ride down our street anymore because somebody got ran over. So, you know, I try to do that. I know it doesn't look like I got a bowler's body, but, you know, is what it is. [00:52:59] Speaker A: How long you ride for? [00:53:01] Speaker B: About 45 to 57 minutes right around there. Depends on. Depends on. Depends on how it goes. When I was in Texas, I'd ride nine miles back, nine miles forward. [00:53:12] Speaker A: You know, with being at ou, you can. I mean, you can hire assistants and you've had some leave, too, you know, what are some of those keys with hiring the right people? It's relationships. [00:53:23] Speaker B: Correct. Amen. You got the answer. It's relationships building is relationships and understanding what they do, what they're really good at, and let them be good at what they do. Like Tyler, you know, we needed a catching coach. I mean, we've been really good at developing catchers, and two of them played for Tyler. Jimmy Crooks is in the big leagues. He played for Tyler. And Dayton Lachance, our. One of our best players last year played for Tyler and he's been. Been really good at him. We've had Renee, we had Lindsley, we had Jimmy, we had Easton Carmichael. And then now he had, you know, a Dayton, La Chance. Dating La Chance and Brock were. [00:54:11] Speaker A: I knew you're. I had a feeling you might win it. When Lachance gets dinged up there and like the first or second inning of the first game and he's like. You could tell he was getting like, now that kid ain't coming out. [00:54:23] Speaker B: Yeah. He goes, Somebody asked. Somebody asked him that day in that press conference. He says, 100%, I'm 100%. And they go, hey, what about throwing cord? They said, well, we think we can beat the Yankees when we throw cord. I said, easy, man. Don't talk about beating the. I mean, easy. Come on. That's just going a little too far. [00:54:47] Speaker A: Loved it. Just the whole. I just. Unbelievable. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:52] Speaker A: You got any tips for. Parents are sending their kids off to college for the first time? [00:54:57] Speaker B: I think the biggest thing for me is to make sure you teach them how to be comfortable and teach them to ask questions and not. You don't need to ask the question. The kid needs to ask the question. And be. Be frank. Ask the right questions. You know, don't be afraid to ask a question because it's real important and baseball's not fair and it doesn't care how you feel. That's the thing that you got to understand. But understand that you're there to not talk to them about baseball, but be their father and be their mother more so than anything, because what we try to do sometimes is we try to be their coach and let the coaches do their coaching. And I know it's hard, man. I mean, I had. I had a son that coached and I had a son that played, and it's hard and you gotta. But I learned, man. Hey, we're going to Ken Raviza. Tell me more than anybody, hey, let's go eat dinner and let him talk about it. Let him bring it up. Then you can kind of help and. And. And go through it. [00:56:03] Speaker A: You got preview for your ABCA convention talk. [00:56:07] Speaker B: You know, I don't know, really. I've been. I've gone down several different alleys. Probably the respect of the game as much as anything. Go through that. I'm going to talk a little bit about that. I'm going to talk about the How. Why the freshman pitched. You know, how do we do. How do we do that? Talk about our culture. I'd have to get my phone, because I take notes in my phone and then I start Putting it together. I'm not a big guy, PowerPoint guy. I'm gonna have to get Tyler or Vince, our video guy, to do that. I don't want to go to the ABCA to talk in front of. I'll talk in front of thousands of people. I don't mind talking in front of thousands of people. I don't mind that at all. But it's during the middle of. It's during January. That's the. That's the rut in South Texas. And that's a bit. That's when. Big deer. You shoot big deer. You know, I don't want to. I don't. I don't like doing it, man. I just don't. I mean, one thing. [00:57:07] Speaker A: I'll get you set up in Illinois. They got way bigger deer in Illinois. I'll get you. [00:57:10] Speaker B: Yeah, they do. [00:57:11] Speaker A: I'll get you set up just for coming to speak. You. You hit me up. I got. Being at Western Illinois all those years. I got in. [00:57:18] Speaker B: If. [00:57:18] Speaker A: If you want to shoot, like, big, big deer, let me know. [00:57:21] Speaker B: Oh, I'm talking about. I shoot big, big deer. I'll. I'll come up here, USA win. [00:57:25] Speaker A: I'll give you Illinois. [00:57:27] Speaker B: You know. You know, my. My family's from Effingham County. [00:57:31] Speaker A: Yep. [00:57:32] Speaker B: That's where my family's from. Effingham county in Illinois. [00:57:36] Speaker A: Derek Bronaker, he's an Effingham guy. One of the. [00:57:39] Speaker B: I know he is. [00:57:40] Speaker A: He's. Derek and I go way back. Derek's. [00:57:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I. I know he is. Yeah. [00:57:46] Speaker A: What. What do you love about Hun, man? Is it. [00:57:49] Speaker B: If you saw my notes, you would know. I want to write a book about tattoos, deer stands and deer camps. All of them have a story, you know, And I've started doing that on my phone. [00:58:01] Speaker A: That's a great title. I would buy that book. [00:58:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And all of them have a story. And so that's the. That's. I think you. The. The presence, the calm, the. You can sit up there. I can have. I can. I can watch. I can. I can write things that are going through in my mind down. I mean, mine. I have like 2000 notes in my phone. Like, my wife's like, you got to get more. You got to get more data. I go, absolutely, absolutely. You know, it's pretty cool. I love doing that. And bus. Also the relationship. Like, for an example, Chris Davis played for me and. And at Navarro, and we're. He's like a son to me, and. And so we bought a ranch together, and he's having those relationships and being around that campfire. I mean, that's what I. I'd like to have a campfire podcast with all. With great pitching coaches. I mean, it'd be incredible. I mean, you. You sit there and great pitchers, like, get Cavalli, get. You know, get those guys and have them start talking, and you just sit back and listen. Man, you. You learn so much, man. You'd learned. I mean, I learned a lot from Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens. I got to be around. I sat with Nolan Ryan watching a high school game one day, and I sat with. I mean, I recruited Casey and Cody. We signed them, and I get to be around Roger. Listen to him. I mean, those guys, their minds are incredible, man. They're. They're just. It's. It's amazing. [00:59:36] Speaker A: What are some final thoughts before I let you get back to work? [00:59:41] Speaker B: I don't have many thoughts. I just think that our game is. It's really good right now. I think we've got to do some. Make some changes in it. There's going to be changes. Baseball. You got to be able to make adjustments. It's a game of adjustments. And I think that we've got to keep being servants for each other versus, you know, being having this big ego and. And being somebody you're not. And I've never been. So I. I hope if I come off like that, I. I apologize, because I don't do that. [01:00:17] Speaker A: Never. Never. Not once. [01:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:20] Speaker A: Not at once. Appreciate your time, sir. Thank you. [01:00:22] Speaker B: You bet. Thank you. Huh. And you know that way Yep Wait [01:01:11] Speaker A: for another day [01:01:16] Speaker B: and the world will always return as your love is never for your name and you know that [01:01:27] Speaker A: way Wait for another [01:01:35] Speaker B: day.

Other Episodes