The Kansas baseball team is building a lot of excitement around the program. Their transfer class and junior college recruiting class were ranked among the top in the country.
Their junior college class was ranked number one in the nation and D1Baseball rated their transfer class ninth.
Now, KU head baseball coach Dan Fitzgerald said they need to turn that around into more wins.
“Recruiting classes are great, but they don't let you start with 20 wins because you have a good class,” Fitzgerald said. “So, we’ve got to put it together and play well. But nothing has really surprised me. There have been a lot of positive things where I walk away going, man, that's even better than I thought.”
Fitzgerald likes the transfer class because the Jayhawks finished in the Top 10 and he said they were surrounded by a lot of teams in the SEC, who has the strongest conference in the country.
“I think the transfer class, more than anything,” he said. “It validated that Kansas is awesome. That this place has so much to offer, that when you look at the full student athlete experience and the full academic experience and the full social experience and where parents want to send their kids and that you go, any part of this country and the Jayhawk is recognized. I think it just stamped that we can get in.
“If you look at the rest of the Top 10, it's the SEC and us. So, I think it showed we can swim in some really good waters and get guys because of what we're trying to do.”
Fitzgerald talked about the upcoming season as the Jayhawks open against Illinois-Chicago in a three-game series starting on February 16.
More from Fitzgerald on the upcoming season and recruiting
Opening comment:
Hard to believe we've been outside the last two days, which has been really nice because were not outside last week, but first pitch banquet coming up on the second. So it's upon us and three weeks from tomorrow we open. Love our team, love the guys, love the makeup and really excited about our recruiting class. Took some time to put it all together and wanted to announce it once we had everyone locked in. So just a quick second to brag on my staff. My coaching staff has just done an outstanding job. Brandon (Scott) and Tyler (Hancock), two elite evaluators, busted their tail and then Jon (Coyne), our recruiting coordinator is the best in the business and his ability to really guide the effort and put us in the right direction.
When we got here, we had a pretty clear idea of what we thought would be successful and we've had to take some turns along the way. But for the most part, we've stuck to the script and we did the same thing this year that we did last year. Part of when we got here was we kind of missed the cycle of 23 and 24, those high school classes, and to put into perspective, the summer of 21 would have been the summer that you're really attacking the 24 class. So it's just such an early process with the high school kids. So we jumped in, put a team together and I said this last year, but the good news is we put a good team together. The bad news is we had to replace guys like Cole Elvis and Collin Baumgartner right away.
And it's a lot of the same this year. We have 13 seniors we have to replace. So we've been really aggressive in junior college, in the portal, and aggressive in high school, too, but just with the state of college baseball, to be a high school kid, kind of our benchmark has been you got to compete as a freshman at kind of that mindset and talent level. So that really closes the gap on a high school kid.
How different has it felt going through the whole offseason cycle a second time around with players who are already accustomed to your system and have a knowledge of what the season is going to be like and all that?
Just awesome. The thing I am most proud of from last year is we stuck together from day one to the last pitch. Like we're down in our last game, and there was full belief that we're going to score. I mean, we're down and there was full belief that were going to come back and win that thing. So the culture piece, the belief, the togetherness, that thing has been really special and to not have to start over with that, there's certainly a reintroduction in accountability and a reengagement in that, but having the guys that have been through it kind of bring the younger guys up and show them how we do certain things has been. I feel like we started at step 50 rather than step zero.
And then what does your leadership look like? I'm sure it's a bunch of those names you just mentioned, but are you pretty pleased with the leaders that you have:
It's different in that Cole is gone. You guys heard me say it a million times last year. He's the best leader I've ever coached. So, it's different. And we're still in the process of figuring that out. I think some guys are still trying to find their voice and trying to find their spots to be comfortable.
We haven't faced much adversity yet either. And I think a lot of that leadership comes out of the adversity that you face. And we talk about it every day, if we get through the first inning of game one without adversity, it would be amazing. So, we'll hit something early on that'll test us and I think that's when you see the guys that really want to lead.
- OLB
- PRO
- APB
- WR
- ATH
- RB
- WDE
- CB
- ATH
- WR