Josh, I appreciate you Jordan, US tonight for all of our participants. My name is Mac Gerber. I’m the executive director of the Diamond Allegiance and really excited, welcome in. Truly one of the best in college baseball assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from LSU, Josh Jordan. Josh, appreciate you joining us tonight, brother
Matt, it’s an honor to be here. Our relationship goes back a long time and I kept seeing these pop up. I’m like, Hey man, you’re doing unbelievable work. When am I going to get the invite? So I’m excited and elated to have the opportunity to just provide some insight in an ever changing landscape of college recruiting.
Yeah, absolutely. And you said it right there, man, ever changing. And I think for coaches, for travel organizations, for parents, for players, things are tough right now, right? It’s really hard, especially at the high school level. And we’ll get into the recruiting in a little bit. I think one thing that I want to point out to everyone joining us and listening is Josh has got really interesting experiences having coached at the division two junior college, mid-major at the ACC and the SEC level, right? So you’ve seen it all. You’ve been to all the stops along the way. So when we get to those, obviously we’ll have some questions, I think about LSU specifically, but then maybe about recruiting in general. So I think first of all, obviously congratulations on the national title, had to have been an amazing, amazing feeling. I’d love to know for you that trip to Omaha, was there one or two things that really will stand out in your mind, the test of time, maybe one on the field, one off the field that you can share with us?
Yeah, for sure. First of all, thank you so much. I mean, what honestly, a dream come true. You talk about that trip to Omaha, that was my first trip to Omaha as a coach with a team. I was there in 2019 throwing in the college home run derby from Michael Rothenberg, whom I coached at Duke. But I had made a decision that I was never going to Omaha to see a complete game unless I went there as a coach with the team. And so to be honest with you, a very surreal moment for me. And I think two things that stood out to me. Number one off the field, what an unbelievable place to watch a baseball game. I mean, we’re blessed to have the most passionate college baseball fans in the country. I mean that championship series, I mean it was 22, 20 3000 tiger fans in that stadium.
And so the field, just seeing the response by our fan base of being there, and you’re talking about people who drove sometimes full days, 22, 23 hours just to be in Omaha, was something that I’ll never forget. And then on the field, just how you had those step up moments by guys that maybe weren’t necessarily always the star and that team never cared who got the credit. Obviously everyone knows the household names like a Dylan Cruz and the Paul schemes and so forth, but the way K Boso played that performance by Ty Floyd in game one of the championship series. And so just really the step up performances on the field by so many different people, and that’s what it takes to win a championship. Winning a national championship is very difficult to do. I know that sounds like an obvious, but it really, really is. And you have to have a group of people very committed to one another and committed to the mission and that can eliminate the distractions.
Sorry Josh. So that’s step up mentality that you’re talking about. What do you guys do at LSU to try to train for those moments and be ready for those step up moments? Is there anything you guys focus on?
Yeah, well I think Coach Johnson does an unbelievable job of really spearheading that we start that process on day one on campus. And Coach Johnson does an unbelievable job of continually talking about controlling yourself. Because if you can’t control yourself, you can’t control the outcome and being present, being in the moment and giving our guys tools on how to do that. And I think that that’s a tool that can be learned and developed that along with toughness. And it takes a level of toughness too, to have failure in Omaha. And I think the last game, I think 3.8 million people maybe watch that game. And if you remember game two didn’t necessarily go our way to say the least. And so you have to have a level of toughness and that doesn’t happen just because say all of a sudden we’re here in Omaha, we’re now going to be tough and bounce back.
That’s something that you started building in day one and there’s very much a process to it. And when you talk about development of student athletes, which is something we try to here at LSU hang our hat on, that’s also part of that developmental process because that process in itself along with the physical tools, prepares you just as much for professional baseball because it’s not always smooth going in professional baseball either. And you have to be able to manage that side of the baseball along with the physical side of things just as well. If you want to have a chance to play at the highest level, meaning the big leagues pitching Yankee Stadium have a chance to get a hit in Dodger Stadium. And so you have to be able to do that and learn how to do that. And I think LSU and the way we do it and Coach Johnson does it better than anybody.
I don’t want to steal any of Coach Johnson or yours special sauce or anything like that. But are there any things that you could recommend to the high school student athlete on the mental side that they can do to prepare themselves better when it comes to failure?
For sure, for sure. I think number one is just controlling the breath. Number one, it’s human nature. The heart rate goes up, the level of intensity starts to sweat a little bit. There’s just physiological responses to stress and being able to find a way for you to slow things down. Oftentimes it is through the breath. And the other thing too is I think guys should spend time not just in that moment collecting themselves. I think they should spend time leading into those moments, seeing themselves and those situations. So therefore when they get there, they’re not, oh, this is the time I go to my breath. No, you should be preparing yourself. And I think that’s something too that we do is it’s a routine. It’s every single day in terms of how you approach it and you can’t just turn it on when that moment when you need it in that moment, you have to be prepared. And again, no different than how you perfect your swing, no different than how you perfect your delivery of field in the ground ball. You’re perfecting that part of your game as well. And that takes time and it takes a level of commitment.
Absolutely. So let’s kind of change gears a little bit and talk recruiting. Let’s start with LSU centric. What are some of the key qualities and skills that you look for in a recruit, whether it’s a high school guy, a junior college guy, a portal guy? Obviously they’re all options now at the highest level, the SEC, but what qualities are you looking for and then what skills are you looking for?
Well, I think it’s a blend of things. Let’s start with kind of the obvious. The five tools are the five tools, and those are never going to change. The ability to hit, the ability to run, the ability to throw the build to defend, and then also hit for power. Those tools are always things we’re going to covet and always things we’re going to seek out Along those lines, however, we’re not just looking for a guy with a bunch of tools. We’re also looking for a guide with tools that can translate to winning and what works on the baseball field. And we always value guys that are able to control the zone. That’s something we hang our hat on is being able to stay and see a guy that can understand the stripe zone and how to control it. I think that’s really, really important. And on the other side, when we talk about controlling his zone, that also translates to the mound in terms of what you look for as a pitcher or in a pitcher, excuse me.
You want a guy that has a high strike percentage. You don’t want to have to try to teach a bunch of guys how to throw strikes. I know that sounds very simple, but just like power, I often think velocity comes and if you have a guy that, and we’ve all had guys in college baseball and recruiting where you find out a guy makes a jump and velocity wise and he turns it into a guy and you look and go, man, he used to throw this, but now he throws that and now look, he throws strikes. And so those guys are the highest performers at this level, and so you’re always looking for great athletes who have a ton of tools that really can blend into helping you win baseball games. We’re talking at this level and it should be that at any level it should be about winning baseball games and how to play a winning brand of baseball.
So how would you say, as a guy that’s obviously recruited a lot of levels, but at your previous stop at Duke, you were there for a long time and essentially were very instrumental along with obviously Coach Pollard and the rest of the staff, but really turning Duke from a basketball school to a basketball skill still, but really, really competitive on the baseball field. So obviously you’ve got an eye for talent, eye for winners when it comes to recruiting. It’s hard to get a lot of looks at guys. How do you really try to zone in and if you’ve got a board of five outfielders that all check the boxes, they all run the right 60, they all have all the right tools. How do you really kind of pair that down and decide that’s the guy that I want to recruit?
Well, you have to do an inordinate amount of research. You better know who you’re getting. And so you talk to a lot of people when you really kind of finalize it and start to narrow your focus in recruiting, I think you should be more like the sniper versus the guy with the shotgun, so to speak. And we truly try to say, okay, who fits us? What qualities are we looking for in him and who fits our philosophy? One of the things that goes hand in hand with that is you’re trying to look for a guy, you talk about athleticism, you have to have evidence of his athleticism and oftentimes the best way to really calculate that is does he play another sport? One of the things I always like to ask the guy, I’m like, Hey, it sounds like a random question. And it sparks a really good conversation that allows a young man to lead himself to tell you about his athleticism is Hey man, can you dunk?
Yeah, coach, I can dunk a volleyball or no, I’m two hand jammed. You’re starting to get an idea about him as an athlete and then you call his high school baseball coach. That’s still really important for us if he’s high school player, calling the high school baseball coach, including that gentleman in the process I think is really important. And obviously just doing as much research as you can, and oftentimes, to be honest with you, sometimes the best recommendations is, and I would say this to players, is oftentimes we other coaches that recommend a guy, I mean you’ve done that to me before Matt, where you’ve said, Hey, he’s not on our team, but we played so-and-so in pool play, and that guy’s pretty good. That carries a lot of weight. When the opponent’s coach tells you you’re pretty good, that means you played the game the right way and you stood out.
And so you’re doing an unbelievable amount of research. It’s more art than science. You’re taking everything and trying to blend it together and there’s no one way you can’t use someone else’s system. Sometimes that’s hard to, as a coach, to relay like, well, here’s what I do, but I chose to go that direction and talk to that guy based on what I heard here and you’re trying to navigate it. No different than parents and recruits are trying to navigate the recruiting process. We are too as coaches because it is very individualized. It should be your process.
Yeah, absolutely Josh. And I think one thing that you brought up there that parents might not and players might not realize is the importance of what other people think about you, not just the people that the coaches you’re playing for. And I’ve seen that time and time again and over my years in youth baseball, it is just what you explained is me seeing a kid and being like, man, did you guys see that dude the other night? He’s impressive. Or just the way he carried himself. So I think that’s a great tidbit for parents and players to think about is the way that you go about your business on a daily basis. Because I know for a fact, and I’m lucky enough to have been state of Florida guy, right? I’ve been around a long time. I get calls from guys like you or whoever it might be and say, Hey, what do you got on this kid? And just trying to do that research. So again,
Yeah, I mean I called you a few weeks ago about a guy that someone else’s parent had told me about and I said, you know what? I know who would know about that guy. So I reached out to, it’s just doing your research, doing your homework. And I encourage parents and I encourage recruits to do the same thing. You have social media in today’s age. You have technology and videos and data and all the things you can share with coaches, but word of mouth is still the best form of advertisement. And when I pick up the phone, I call Matt Gerber and ask about a guy who’s done this for a long time and you’ve done it over a long period of time very consistently and very well, then I know, hey, that’s where it goes to art. Excuse me, from science to art a little bit and okay, this guy knows what he’s talking about. He has some exposure to that student athlete.
Absolutely. I think relationships will never go out of vogue. We can have all the cool technology we never have, but the eyes and the relationships are always going to be important. So I’m going to skip around a little bit here. What do you think from a parent’s perspective, what can parents be doing to support their child’s journey towards playing college baseball? What are maybe two or three really important things for a parent to do?
Yeah, I think number one, be a good listener. I think anytime you’re in a leadership role, and ultimately that’s what parenting is, you’re trying to prepare a young man or a young lady for that matter, if it’s one those four, you’re trying to prepare that individual for success. And in order to do that, you better know who they are. It goes back to being a good listener and have an understanding of what they want and taking notes on that. And that may change. That’s why you can’t, there’s an ebb and flow to this. And so I think number one, being really a good listener, number two, I think being really encouraging our sport is very hard. Our game is very hard and you and I were talking just before we got on here live just about Dylan Cruz. Even for a guy that’s as talented as Dylan, the best player I’ve ever seen, there’s things that certain days he has bad days and it’s the way he’s very consistent. And so what I would say is whatever qualities a parent values and things that should be instilled in the process, they have to model If they want a consistent player, you have to be a consistent parent in terms of your time at the baseball field. If you want a positive energy player and you want a guy that plays hard, well, you have to also model that for that individual. And so I think being a good listener and obviously modeling a lot of the qualities that you value are huge and then ultimately understand something too.
You mentioned my resume and the stops I’ve made along the way, what I can tell you is having played division two coach, division two junior college and now the pinnacle of college baseball here at LSU, there’s great baseball players at every level. I mean, I coached Charlie Blackman at Young Harris Junior College. He’s a pretty good player. And so my point to that is there’s good baseball at every level. And so for parents to look at this, you should ask yourself, what are my goals? What are we trying to get out of this? And where does my young man, where’s he going to be happy? Where’s he going to grow and develop as a person and as a player? And ultimately, where’s he going to have some fun doing this because we only have a small window to play this game, even if you play at the highest level and you want to be able to enjoy the experience because it’s a game you want to be able to pass along to your kids one day when they’re become parents.
Absolutely. So we mentioned we had the name drop second overall pick Dylan Cruz. Obviously you guys had the first overall pick Paul Skees as well, first time in the history that the two teammates have gone one and two. I’m guessing a lot of the characteristics that they have are going to be what will answer this question, but in your experience, what distinguishes a player who really excels at the college baseball level from those who struggle to adapt to it?
To be honest with you, I think he used a word that I would use a lot of times adapt. And I think the interesting thing is you mentioned one and two and Paul Schemes and Dylan Cruz, those guys didn’t arrive when they showed up on the college campus. Dylan over the course of his career continue to make adjustments. Heck, he was still making adjustments in the springtime, working through things and making sure that he was perfecting his craft offensively even as good as he was. Same thing with Paul skiing. Paul skiing steps foot on the Air force and then makes the decision to come here to LSU, meaning he went from being a two-way player to pitcher only and saw what that did for his career. And so as you set foot on a college campus, you have to be adaptable as an athlete. You may hear something that, and it doesn’t mean the facility guy that you worked with was wrong, doesn’t mean your high school baseball coach was wrong.
It may just been the information they were giving you what was right at the time. But as you grow and develop and get stronger and more explosive as an athlete on the mound and at the plate, there may be need to be adjustments. And so you have to use the phrase that be that lifelong learner and continue to grow your game and say, okay, that doesn’t mean you tinker. You have to have a formula and a plan, but you need to always be seeking out how can you improve your game. I mean the best do that they do at the highest level, they continue to grow and develop. And sometimes I think young athletes feel like, well, if he’s asking me to do something that means I’m a bad player. No, it’s actually quite the contrary. Coaches that take time to help guys make adjustments and try to provide why they’re making that adjustment, not just throwing things against the wall and make sure they stick. If they have a why and why they’re asking you to do that, it’s probably a good thing to listen to and see if it works for you because again, that’s part of making the adjustment to this level and the speed of the game.
Yeah, absolutely. So speed of the game. One thing I’ve personally noticed, and I will give a plug for travel baseball is back when you and I played, we were lucky every once in a while in Legion to see a guy throwing 90 miles an hour. So how important would you say playing that high level travel baseball is to recruits at any level, right? Whether it’s guys that are trying to be division two players or mid-major guys or obviously play at the Apex. What’s your take on travel baseball and the importance of it? So one A player’s development and two to their recruitment?
Well, I think I would be the first to tell you I’m not an anti travel baseball person because I’m not an anti baseball person. Any chance you get to play baseball in any capacity, I would say take the opportunity to do so. But also with the understanding that you have to listen to your body. There’s times of the year where you need to play, there’s times of the year where you need to develop and so you have to listen and a lot of that determines where you’re from, what teams are even available to you, is there a particular coach that you feel like gets the most out of you and he’s on this team, but you know what, I have to go somewhere else in the fall because she coaches high school football. So you always just go into it looking, going, okay, playing this game is never a bad thing. That being said, I have to be smart about how I go about it and I think it’s really important guys nowadays have a better understanding of their body nutrition and really what they need to do to get better than ever before you and I would you look back to when you and I were in college, you know what it was like a lot of fast food, this and that and you just played and now our student athletes are way more educated, they have way more information, but just because you have that information doesn’t mean you’re wiser.
So you have to step back and go, okay, what is the wise decision here? Do I go play in this tournament for five straight weeks or do I need a break and do I need a week to get home and sleep, rest and recover and hydrate, eat and to make sure I maintain weight? So just because you have a lot of information doesn’t mean you are wiser about what you’re doing. And that’s really ultimately what I’m saying, try to make a sound decision. And I’m not anti travel baseball, I’m not anti high school baseball. I’m pro any baseball with the understanding that it’s a time that allows the student athlete get the most out of it. And then same thing goes with recruiting and how that plays into it. Prepare yourself to show your best in front of the most people you possibly can. So if that means playing in a tournament or setting out a tournament, that’s an individual thing.
There’s no right way to answer that for every single guy. It’s too broad of a brush we’d be painting with if we just said, well, don’t play in the fall. You need to use that time to lift and train. Don’t do this. I think that’s just too broad and I think just listen to your body. And one of the things I would tell you goes back to you mentioned having guys adjust to college well is young players need to understand that coaching and critiquing is not criticism. We’re not criticizing you as the individual. We’re critiquing and evaluating what you’re doing and how we can help make you better. And so therefore we’re making suggestions and recommendations on how to grow and develop. And so many times a young athlete now thinks of coaching and how you’re critiquing them as criticism, and that’s most of the time not the case. If a coach is taking time to tell you something, he probably has a good intention behind it. I tell guys all the time, the worst feeling in the world is when a coach or you should feel like the worst feeling in the world is when a coach stops talking to you. That’s the worst feeling in the world when you stop getting coached
When you pack up your bags and go somewhere else. So kind of parlay into taking this knowledge that players do have now and we do see it, right? Better athletes taking care of their better bodies, taking care of their bodies better at a younger age. I do see that. I think we all see that across the landscape, but when you get to college, it’s a different animal and you can tell people, you can prepare, you can prepare, you can prepare. But when you get there and it’s day one, what does it look like? What am I as a player? What am I as a player? What does my day really look like as part of the LSU baseball program?
Yeah, well I think number one, all high school players are bad college freshmen. And the reason I say that is because what you don’t know, you don’t know. And oftentimes you step in and you think the game is fast and you realize, geez, it’s really fast and I’m going to stop talking about velocity. I’m talking about the pace of play, the pace in which we do things, the way we transition in a practice setting, the way we execute, even the rundown in the pickoff, you look, geez, that’s a lot faster. Things are happening faster for, so I think the minute you said put on college campus, everything looks fast because you’re typically in a new area, you’re not at home, you’re in a new area, you’re around new people, even though you have some relationships maybe prior to, it’s still, it’s not like being with him every day and obviously you’re going to a different classroom setting in a different place and then ultimately the baseball’s faster so you feel like you’re drinking through a fire hose at that point.
So that’s what it’s going to look like and that’s very normal and that’s kind of for us here at LSU, coach Johnson does an unbelievable job of making sure that we go slow. Our first week of the fall ball season is the first week of October. So we started the class third week of August here and it’s been a constant in individual times teaching the fundamentals. That’s not coach speak. We’re talking from everything literally. The day one for us here was how to set up the field and break down the field, how to turn on the lights, how to properly lock up the Marucci center in case guys want to hit extra. Just simple things like that. We’re teaching you that and that’s a fundamental of how to work and work properly. And so in programs that really develop guys, they move slow and they teach the fundamentals.
They don’t assume anything. And even if you’ve been in this program as a senior and whatever, it doesn’t matter. Those reinforcement of what’s important is always productive for our student athletes. And so right now, this time of year, it’s an individual and individual time and our guys have pockets of the day where they’re doing stuff from a baseball standpoint that coincides with their classroom schedule. And then when we roll over to the fall ball season that first week of October, then it looks more like a traditional practice and maybe what the people would recognize as a troop kind of practice. But even here, we don’t use the word practice. I say practice because I think that’s how most people that will be watching this or tuning in with us tonight would assume what it looks like. But we talk about training. That’s the other thing I think for freshmen that it’s sometimes a major shock is they’re used to practicing. When you get into college, you’re training and training is what you do every day, every minute. That’s how you sleep, that’s how you hydrate, that’s how you eat. And obviously that’s how you work on your skills.
And even you mentioned the mental side of it. If you’re not taking time daily to practice the mental game for yourself and whatever tools that you need, and we here at LSU try to provide all of our student athletes with a lot of tools because not one thing works for everybody. Then basically you’re looking at that going, if you’re not spending time doing that, well then even that hitting session that you did that day that you felt really good about may not work with basic loaded in Omaha. And so you have to put all that together and that truly is training.
I love it. Honestly, Josh, first time I’ve ever heard that, and I think it’s a really, really good analogy. It’s something that players can really conceptualize and focus on that every day is a training day and whether that means you’re lifting or that means you’re working on your swing or whatever it is, every day is a training day practice.
One of the things I remember vividly, things that stick out to you when Coach Johnson first handed me the fall schedule last fall as a college coach, you’ve done this 20 years, you’re looking at going, okay, what are some things you’re looking at? And I looked at it and this is our mindset here. I mean, I walked in, I said, coach, I was looking at the schedule. When is our scout day? And Coach Johnson goes every day Scout day here. And so that’s a really, really great way to think about it. And so I loved it and that will always stick with me because I thought it was brilliant when you said that.
So a little bit off script here. I’d love to know from your perspective, what is it like being the third base coaching box at Alex Box Stadium? Right. I mean that’s got to be just incredible.
Obviously I mentioned we have the most passionate fan base in the country and I coach it and I’m human, I’ll be the first to tell you I make mistakes. I say coaching third base to me is even harder than being an offensive coordinator in football. That’s my opinion because I’m having to digest the information and do it most of the times really make that decision. And a lot of times really less than a second, but coaching third base in Mont Stadium is the best place to coach third base because you have a passionate fan base. It’s probably not once a game where I don’t look up, no man, this is really stinking cool, probably the second best place to coach. Third base is Omaha. But this place is awesome, man. And I love, and again, that doesn’t mean I’m flawless, coach, trust me, I get coached at coaching third base every day and that’s okay because I need it and I welcome it.
But making those decisions, there’s a lot of pressure sometimes with no doubt about. But Randy, what I will tell you from the base running standpoint, I always tell guys the best Baserunners really don’t need me. I remember Dylan hitting that triple in Omaha there where everyone saw ’em get up and do the ring thing and I’m standing beside him. I think that’s even the photo used for here tonight. But the ball’s in front of him, that’s his decision. And literally I’ve seen how hard he hit it and it’s going in that gap, which is huge. He’s rounding first, but in my mind, and then finally I’ve started verbalizing like balls in front, balls in front because I did not want him to look at me, make that decision to keep going. And the best baserunners really don’t need their coaches or they force me to wave them because their plan was such a level of intensity and they get great reads off the bat that they don’t need me. Decisions actually easy. It’s that hesitation and reservation on the part of the baserunner that sometimes makes my job difficult.
That is the worst. You get that base hit in the building, gets a little bit of a bad jump and you’re like, and
You’re screaming and yelling, then you’re having to make a tough decision. You’re having to start to evaluate arm strength from the fielder. How’s he accurate? Is he with the throw? And then yeah, it makes it tough.
So I’m a high school baseball player, I’m out on the circuit no matter what age I am freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, looking for a place to play. What are some things that I can control that I can do on a daily basis to catch the eye of somebody that is there to watch?
Well, the easy answer to that is they have an opportunity to control all of those. Playing baseball in the SEC and playing baseball at LSU, it’s a physical game and granted, there’s no contact involved like per se, SEC football, but to play in this league, there’s a level of physicality to it that doesn’t have anything to do with stature. That being said, you still have to be strong and explosive. And so the controllables, like I always said, how’s that guy look on the hook so to speak? He look, when he walks out on the field, does he look like an SEC guy? Is Coach Johnson when he gets to campus going to look at me and go, okay, that guy looks like he belongs here. And again, how you eat, how you sleep, how you hydrate, how you train and all those things play a role in and all those things you control as a player you do. I think the one thing too that a lot of guys don’t recognize about playing at this level is just the raw arm strength and developing the arm. And that too for me, when I see a guy with a strong arm that tells me he’s put time into it
And that he values the defensive side of the baseball, maybe there’s something with his hands and his feet that we might have to adjust. But I mean I watched our arm filters the other day through baseballs across the infield as I was hitting to him and Coach Johnson was out coaching him. I mean the arm strength was impressive. And so I think the physicality piece and I think the arm strength and for me, anytime you can improve your speed the better you are. It’s like these showcases. What’s the first thing you do when you show up at a showcase? Well you run. So that should probably tell you a little bit about how important it’s to a certain degree to the teams at the highest level. And I do think athletes now don’t run. They used to, I will tell you, the foot speed guy, the guy can really motor and really get down the line and can really score from first on a double. Those are becoming fewer and fewer because I don’t think guys train it that way. And so if you want to stand out, be physical, be explosive, and be able to run with some arm strength, and I think those to me are the obvious Now the hit tool and those things from a positional side of it, that takes time.
This takes time, but a big physical guy can really run, we’re going to give you some time and we’re
Try to evaluate. You’re going to show up even if it’s an oh for four day, right, exactly. You’re you’re going to give that guy that extra look and extra time. So for sure, great piece of advice. So this one might be a little bit tougher, but I want go here. Obviously NIL is a big thing in big time college sports. Now recruiting has changed. It’s not just the high school kid having to recruit your own team every year. I think the job of the college coach, a lot of people want to talk about what the kids are having to go through, but at the same time, you guys got a ton on your plate. You got to recruit your own team again every year. You got to recruit the portal, you got to recruit junior college, you got to recruit high school kids. So I guess my overall question is with all the changes that are occurring with the audience that we’re talking to tonight, mostly high school parents and high school players, what are these rule changes going to do? What does NIL do? What does the new recruiting rule against contact with younger players do? How do these affect the players of today?
Well, the easy and short answer is I don’t think anyone knows Matt, you’re talking about and LS U’S team last year is a great example of that. You have some really talented high school players that like a Dylan Cruz who came to campus and made decision to grow and develop here and bet on himself and it paid off as as well as anybody. Then you have some transfer guys, it’s part of the process now. And then granted, we only brought in five guys in the transfer portal. I think we lost six in the draft. And so we didn’t even bring in as many as we lost in the draft. And so it’s not like a lot, but you brought in some guys and that’ll lead me to my next point. The two types of recruiting are never going to change in college athletics. There’s two types of proactive and reactive.
Proactive recruiting is when you are able to recognize on your roster where you need and to make some adjustments to give yourself a chance to win a championship that’s proactive. And oftentimes the proactive piece is you’re looking far down the road and saying, okay, in three years when this freshman heres now is a really good player, he’s here on campus now, but in three years we’re going to need to identify who that is. That is the next guy is that’s proactive recruiting. Reactive recruiting is when all of a sudden you look up and what we have a lot of now is, well, okay, this guy signs this guy didn’t make grades, this guy decided he is moving on and now we have to react to that instance that we had no control over and go out and fill that because the expectation at every level, every coach, because we’re all competitors, even at the junior college level when I was there, we wanted to win at Young Harris Junior College.
So we went out and tried to fill that void with the best possible player we can. That’s always our job because we owe it to the other players. I feel like now that as a player here, coach Johnson in my opinion, owed it to Dylan Cruz to go out and recruit a guy like Paul Scheme, a guy that Dylan Cruz would poured his heart and soul in the LSU baseball and if Paul schemes is available in the portal and that’s a guy can obviously help us win the championship. And so other players or other great players want to be surrounded by other great players and that’s never going to change. And so the long answer of it may be is we really don’t know. Last year’s team is a great example of that. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future with the new rules and all the things the portal and NIL and all those things.
We don’t have a big enough sample size to make an educated guess on it. And I’m really not sidestepping in the question as much as last roster’s a great example of that. I mean K Boso fifth year guy, Gavin Dugas, fifth year guy, you look, okay, well you put those on that team and they were so instrumental down the stretch force and so you look and go, we really don’t know. And I think that’s the difficult part also for the families, the same stress that sometimes I think they feel about the recruiting process. We also are coaches are sitting in the office going, okay, how do we make this work no different than the families, but what I do know is this, regardless of whatever landscape we’re working within as coaches, this is the people business. And if you keep the focus on the student athlete and keep them the priority and having them be the main thing in the process and not get away from the main thing, you’re probably going to find yourself on the positive side of it more often than not.
Because ultimately that’s what this business is about is developing young men and giving them an opportunity to live out the dream of playing professional baseball and while doing that, winning a championship at the highest level, that’s what we strive for and talk about here at LSU. And so at the end of the day, all those things, it’s really simply a people business. And do people do things you don’t expect? Sure they do. They transfer, do people do things they don’t expect? Sure they don’t make grades or sure they sign the draft. That’s just part of the business. And so if you keep the individual at the forefront, you’re probably going to find yourself in an instance where you’re going to be on the positive.
Yeah. How about specifically, can you talk a little bit about the new rule change with contact with younger players and how has that affected you? Obviously it’s really new, so it might be the same answer, right? We’re still trying to figure it out.
There’s some of it. Yeah, there’s some of it because again, there’s no question about it. You’re in an age where guys are committed to programs before the new rule, the new rule comes in, they can’t talk to the coach. That presents a stressor. And then you have the other guys that look and say, well, I’m not committed. What does that mean for me? And again, I don’t think you really know Matt, I really don’t. I do think what it does is if you really value development and we spent the first half of this call I guess talking about developing the player and what they need to do to have a chance to play at this level, now they can focus on that. They don’t have to worry about that. They can really develop a great routine with everything that evolves, becomes an opportunity.
Yeah
I agree. This is a great opportunity for the young player, a young man that might be a 2026 or 20 27, 20 80. You’re looking just going now I heard Coach Jordan say, I’ve got to get a great routine. Well guess what? I’m committing this fall to just doing the small things well. And when I master that, then I’m going to move on to something else. The small things meaning how I hydrate, how I eat, how I train, and I’m not worried about what happens. And so I do think that gives the student athlete a chance to do that, which I think is a positive. We can’t talk about being a people business and not mention that or bring that up.
So at the high school level, do you see yourself more LSU more actually recruiting that I guess So it’d be sophomore summer going into junior year. What are you guys doing to identify the guys that you need to see and are you still spending time to go watch them play at a younger age or are you going to wait until they get older now?
I think it’s really a blend. I think you’re going to look and go, okay, it’s inevitable. You’re going to know who some of the better players are because you see things on social media, you see things that pop up in terms of videos on great organizations like Perfect Game or PBR and all those things. Well, you’re not going to just go, ah, he’s a 2027, I’m not going to watch his swing. That’s not it. You look, go, wow, that’s a good looking swing. What’s his name? Okay, got it. You may make a note, but to really proactively go after that guy, well you can’t number one according to the rules. And so you really just kind of put him there and you may say, you know what? Maybe when the time is right, we send him some camp information and he has a chance to come to campus and experience it, which I think is a positive hundred percent.
I think it’s a positive thing for a young man to be able to come to a camp on a campus and not worry about, well, am I going to get asked about the recruiting process while I’m there? Because that can’t happen now. He can just simply come with his family, be as good as he possibly can be, get in his car or on a plane and go home and say, man, okay, that was fun. Is that on my list or not on my list? So I think there’s an opportunity here for young players to really maximize the camp opportunities that are provided by programs in the off season and when it works with their schedule all being, going back to what I said earlier is having an understanding of what’s right for them and where they are in terms of their playing for that year.
Well, I’ve got one more question for you and I’ll let you go. We’re already over time and I certainly appreciate it.
I apologize.
No, you’re awesome brother. My last question is, I’m going to revert back to the national title last year. What was in your mind, what will Endure and Be the Crowning moment, right from your perspective, your eyes when you were watching that last game unfold or a game before that? What memory will always stick with you?
This one, one is really cool. I mentioned being in the people business. You’ll know this because when I say this you’re going to laugh. It was in Game one, game one and we were scoring and doing well and Dylan Cruz is at third base and he looks at me and says, would you’ve imagined in the recruiting process that you and I would be standing here at third base in Omaha? As you know, Dylan Cruz made a visit to Duke University when I was there. I do.
You guys were on ’em really early, if I remember right. We
Were and were. He was kind enough to make a visit and his family and they’re awesome people. And when he said that, I looked and said, that’s really cool. And then I said, Hey, we got to get back to work here. This is just game one. I literally turned back around like, Hey, we’re trying to win championship here, so lock in on this. But it was really a cool moment for me. I think I actually have a picture of it at home, like when photographers took a snapshot of it and he’s kind of got his arm around my shoulder. And that was a really cool moment because when you talk about it, you just never know where this game or baseball is going to take you and who you’re going to interact with. And so for me, outside of just getting a chance to hold the national Championship trophy and have my parents, me, my kids, touch it as a parent and my wife give you a hug and outside of all those things and which are all great, that moment for me, which is long before we ever thought about doing that, really resonated with me.
And again, meant a lot actually for Dylan to say that because again, he’s the best player I’ve ever seen. So that was one that always stick with me.
I appreciate it, Josh. And it’s a testament and just parents and kids out there, like these teams are built over years and years and years. And whether it’s a national championship team, an Omaha team, a successful team, the work and energy that goes into it, I know Josh as a former owner of a travel ball organization, I certainly appreciate guys like you that value relationships that worked their tails off. Parents that are joining this call, you’ve probably seen Josh walking around the fields before because if there’s a game, you’re there and I know that it’s appreciated and the effort level that you give definitely doesn’t go unnoticed. So again, I appreciate your time tonight, brother. It was really good catching up and I hope all of our listeners could glean something from our conversation tonight.
Matt, thank you so much. It was an honor, man, always good to see you again. I feel like our relationship’s going back a long time and I’m excited to get a chance to get on here and go Tigers. That’s all I got.
Appreciate you, brother. Thank.