Opening Statement: First of all, thank you all for coming out. I'd like the opening statement to be quick. As you guys get to know me, I'd like to spend as little time talking about myself and more time talking about the boys and the program and where we're going.
But as we start here, I do want to take a second and thank Boston College. It was an honor to be able to be a small part of that program. I hope we were able to leave that program in a better spot. Coach [Eddie] Pellagrini was a was a legend at Boston College and he used to teach everybody to leave the program better than you found it and I hope I was a small part of that.
Father [William P.] Leahy and Gene DeFilippo, who was the AD at the time, took a chance on on a young kid and gave me my first head coaching job. So I do want to thank Boston College, thank the entire community, for embracing myself, my family, and so many of the former players and along there, so that's something that's really important to me.
I will tell you about coming down here to Penn State, it is really, really easy to see why people fall in love with this place. I've been here for about a week now and this place is special. It is it's amazing the outpouring of support, I cannot thank [Dr.] Neeli [Bendapudi], [Dr.] Pat [Kraft], Vinnie [James], the entire crew of the Board of Trustees. who are part of this process to allow me the opportunity to move my family down here and to be part of Penn State. It's overwhelming, the support, the outreach, you know, and I think we all know this, people that fall in love with their alma mater, and the people that went to Penn State and the fans, the thing that makes a place special, the buildings here are beautiful and the facilities are beautiful, but the thing that makes a place special are the people. the relationships, the memories that you're able to make. I cannot tell you how excited I am to build those relationships and create those memories both with my family and with our former players and our alums, the fans and the people in this town and the people in the university. It's pretty special.
Just a quick note to our former players here at Penn State and the alums. It's an honor to be able to sit in this seat and to be a small part of now continuing to build this program. We're going to need your help, we want you back. We want you around the program. This is your program. So, thank you for everything that you have done for this program and thank you for everything that you will continue to do.
The investment that the university and Pat and Vinnie are going to make in this program is special. I'm really excited about these next couple years as we continue to do that.
Q: Coach, you recently signed a contract extension with Boston College, but then you took the job here at Penn State. Was there one thing that specifically led to your decision to change course and to come to Penn State?
A: Yeah, I mean, right off the bat, we knew, my wife and I knew how special this place; we believed we knew and then it's even exceeded our expectations. There were some family medical concerns in our family over the last couple of years that we were unsure if they were going to be able to be just anywhere, with anything, without getting too personal about it.
What Pat, Vinny and Neeli and what people here were, and I don't want to get too emotional about it, but were able to do to make sure that our family medical concerns were met, was unbelievable. So, to be honest with you, the job is the job, the place is going to be special, the investment's amazing. I love coaching baseball, as you guys get to know me, nothing is more important to me than my family. So. when those things, when they were able to address those, it changed the conversation and then it happened quickly.
Q: Coach, once you figured those things out, how did you discover and decide that you were a good fit for Penn State and Penn State was a good fit for you?
A: Well, I hope I'm a good fit for Penn State, I guess we'll know in a couple years, right. But to me, being able to continue to build something out, you know, there's a really good foundation here that's been laid, a really good plan, the start of a plan with Pat and Vinnie and what they want to do to build this out.
So to me, that's exciting to be part of, of building something out, it's really, really exciting. That's the first thing. The second thing is, when you do the research on this town and what it's like and what it can be like to raise a family, in this town, we found out really, really quickly. Then when you come visit it and when you're able to see, again, the buildings are the buildings, but when you're able to see the outpouring of support, you know, it's just, I guess the best way to say, like I said before, it's really easy to fall in love, right.
So once those things, you know, those other things we talked about, once those were covered, to see that this is a place that we want to be in, a program that we believe in. I will tell you this, you know, the state of Pennsylvania has great baseball, the high school baseball in the state and the players in the state are unbelievable. So, the ability to come down here and recruit the state and recruit the state hard is really, really appealing. You know, we have, in the past, spent a lot of time recruiting in the Northeast and, you know, in Pennsylvania, kids are similar to who we have spent our time and energy recruiting; tough, competitive, hard-nosed kids, I want to win, right. And so now you come down and get a chance to live in this town, be part of a huge investment into a baseball program and recruit this state. The other thing that I've learned and I sort of thought this, but even within a week, this town loves baseball. You see it with the [State College] Spikes, and I'm excited about the partnership with the Spikes. You know, but to have our program tied in with the university, tied in with the town, tied in with the fans here and my family tied in with the university and the fans and the town and built up to me, this I think it could be a lot of fun here. I think it could be really, really special.
Q: What role did your relationship with Pat play in getting offered this job and deciding to come here? How would you describe the relationship that you have with him?
A: Yeah, one of the things that you know, normally, and I historically have not spent time looking at jobs, it's not right. What you have to do is, you have to figure out who you're going to work for, but with Pat, Vinnie and Adam [Miller] coming down here, I instantly already had relationships and knew what they're all about. I know how much Pat wants to win. I know how aggressive he is and, and same thing with Vinnie, you know, Vinnie spent a lot of time around our program when they were when he was at BC. We talked about a lot of plans and stuff. So you know, when the process and it happened pretty quickly, you know, after those medical concerns were taken care of, there didn't need to be a lot of questions as the familiarity and we had a great relationship up there and we were doing things.
So when they come down here and they know me and I know them, then you can go pretty quickly. So, my relationship with Pat, I believe and I'll talk to my players, I will talk to our players about this, but as you learn how to be a good leader, and I hopefully continue to grow as a leader, but part of being a leader is learning how to be a good follower. You know, I know that Pat is somebody that would like to follow and be a great follower, just like Neeli, I mean, what an amazing leader she is. So, to be able to learn from people like that and follow them, and then continue to build this program out, it's a great opportunity.
Q: I know growing some of these sports, like baseball, is a priority right now for Dr. Kraft. Have you guys discussed a strategy in how you guys will grow baseball here in Happy Valley?
A: Yes. You know, a lot of these investments and plans will be coming out over the next, I guess, maybe six, eight months to a year. But there is a great strategy in place, investing in this program, from staffing to resources to facilities. To be part of growing and building that plan is really, really fun and special. Some of those plans are in place and then in growing out.
Then as far as the baseball side, number one is the state, we want to recruit the state hard. We want to be everywhere in the state. We want to make it really hard for any kid in the state to leave. It's got to be the right kids, it's got to be kids that believe in what we're doing here. Do they have to have grown up a Penn State fan? Well, I kind of feel like everybody in the state already is a Penn State fan, so that feels like it's kind of easy, but they do have to believe in this idea of success with honor, it's going to be important in our program.
I want kids that want to win. I want kids that want to put the team first. I want kids that want to play in the big leagues. But I also want kids that care about and value this degree and care about representing the alumni, the school, the logo, representing it well.
There is a plan starting to be put in place and I'm excited to be part of rolling that out over the next couple of years.
Q: NIL has become huge in all college sports. What are your general thoughts on NIL when it comes to college baseball, specifically? What are some early plans you have of using that to help Penn State baseball get to where you want it to go?
A: It's a good question. You know, it's funny, in the last, whatever it was, 18 months, two years, since NIL has gone from not a thing to the thing, it feels like as soon as you start to wrap your hands around something, it changes, wrap your head around something, right. We're waiting on some court cases, we're waiting on some federal legislation, potentially. So it's weird, you know, I am generally a planner, sometimes much to my wife's dismay. You know, I like to think about five-year plans and 10-year plans. With NIL, you're kind of thinking year to year, because things could change in six months, right?
So initially, NIL is going to have to be part of what we do this summer, it's going to have to be as we have started to already and hit the transfer portal. You know, it's funny because there's I think all of us, there's a part of us that looked back at what college athletics was five, 10, 15 years ago and say, you know, kind of call it the good old days and we sort of miss that.
There's also part of us that look at the new and exciting places that it's going and that we all don't really know where it's going, right. But NIL is here. We've already started this and what Penn State the brand, the reach, the network can do, and I'm learning this quickly, is overwhelming. I'm excited. We're already started having these conversations, it's going to be part of what we're doing this summer and it's gonna be a big part of the future.
Q: You already have familiarity with your boss coming in, but he sets a high bar here at Penn State. He's not talking just about Big Ten championships, but about national championships and what this program can do, you know, competitive across conferences. Do you like that, that's the standard he sets and that's the competitive edge that he wants to bring wherever he goes?
A: Well, yes, it's part of why I came. I think, again, just, when you look at Penn State, everybody knows Penn State football, obviously, right? It's an international brand. But if you talk about sort of iconic brands in college athletics, across the board, I mean, Penn State volleyball and Penn State wrestling are iconic across college athletics.
To be able to come into an athletic department, and we know what, you know what soccer has done here, and what field hockey is done here and lacrosse. To be around leaders like that and then to be following an athletic director that wants to win national championships, that's exciting.
I want people to talk about us going to the College World Series here, I do. It's something that I want to talk about and it's not just about going to Omaha for the Big Ten tournament. I understand that the Big Ten tournament is great and it's fun and I would like to take a shot at winning that thing for sure. But we want to go to the College World Series. I'm not going to hide behind that. I will tell you this, and I said this to the players in the first zoom, this place to put a regional, to host a regional at this place, and what I believe this town would do, just from the small amount of time that I've been here, but to have a regional at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, I think would be amazing.
So, I want to talk about hosting regionals, I want to talk about going to the College World Series. When Pat talks about those things, that gets me excited. I mean, it's what makes you get in the car and drive down here and check it out. It's what makes you talk about moving your family. Again, we were in a great situation and a place that I loved and our family loved it. This idea and this vision that Penn State can be in the College World Series is something that Pat believes in, that Vinnie believes in, that I believe in. I would like our players, our current players, our former players and our future players, to believe in that as well.
Q: Looking at your baseball team, what do you think will be the first things on your agenda here?
A: Well, I have a lot of respect for the staff that was here and there's good players here. There's a good foundation. I think there are some needs that we're going to address in the transfer portal, we've started to address.
Number one is continuing to round out this roster, right, and number two, for me, is now as we start worrying about player development, the first thing I got to do is, where are the baseballs? Where are the fungos? I'm sure we've got that all taken care of.
But you know, the number one thing that we're gonna address is, is the transfer portal and growing out this roster and adding to this roster. The thing that I've learned about this group, these boys want to win, they're hungry, they want to win, they love this place. For me to be around a young and hungry group like that, and the guys that we're going to add, it's really exciting.
Q: Jay Harry is one of those, I would say, top guys at Penn State. He was just drafted yesterday in the sixth round. How important do you think he is to this team?
A: So I've talked him a couple times and I'm tremendously happy for him and excited for him. The chance to coach him would have been unbelievable, and I think he's probably going to sign and be in a good spot, and I don't want to speak for him, by any means. He's tremendously important, you know, and having kids drafted out of here, you know, I'm not gonna hide behind the fact that I want kids that want to play in the big leagues. That's who we're recruiting. We want guys that want to get drafted. We want millionaires coming out of this program, right.
If you look back, you know, coming out of Boston College, we had six major league debuts in the last six years from the program at Boston College. I want Major League debuts, I want first round picks coming out of this program, right, so obviously getting the chance to coach Jay would be amazing, but I'm also happy for him and proud of him. You know what, he's always part of the Penn State baseball family and hopefully in a couple years, I'm you know, taking a drive or a flight wherever his major league debut is and hopefully try to be there when that happens.
