Brad Bohannon has a message to deliver, and it’s one he plans to stick to in his first few months and potentially in his first couple of seasons on the job as the new head coach of the University of Alabama baseball coach.
It’s all about the positives in his view, challenges, and there are plenty to be certain, remain on the back burner.
Bohannon inherits a mess of a program at the moment, one on its third coach in 12 months time, and a whale of a scholarship situation through which he must sort.
But negatives be darned. During a moment he’s dreamed of nearly his entire adult life, Bohannon rightfully focused on all that is good.
“I’m not going to talk about the challenges,” Bohannon said. “I’m going to talk about what we have, and we have a lot. OK? We have one of the best ball parks in the country. We have one of the best college experiences in the country. We get to take kids to Alabama football games, the SEC experience is second-to-none.
“So we have a lot to sell, and we’re going to talk about what we do have and not what we don’t have.”
The scholarship situation is murky at best at the moment and, without getting into specifics, it will take some maneuvering to make work. Behind building a staff, getting the team’s scholarship situation righted is Bohannon’s top job.
“I’ll get into that stuff in the next week or two,” Bohannon said. “I think the most important things are getting a staff in place and also starting to work through the roster stuff. I’ll gather as much information as I can and I’ll be fair and honest communicating (with players), but at the end of the day, there’s NCAA rules that are way above me that you have to deal with as far as numbers and we’ll work through all of that.”
Asked specifically about his staff, Bohannon again said he would get into that after finishing his duties as an Auburn assistant coach. What he did identify was qualities he’s for which he’s searching.
“I think it’s really important to get coaches that are really good at recruiting and really good at coaching, and at Alabama, you can get guys who are really good at both,” Bohannon said. “I’ll jump on the staff stuff this next week and a half, and I can just assure that we’ll put together an all-star coaching staff.”
The Rome, Ga., native exited Tuscaloosa to immediately return to Tallahassee to re-join the Tigers in the NCAA Regional championship game against Florida State. Auburn lost the regional final 6-0 to the Seminoles, freeing Bohannon to begin work immediately for the Crimson Tide.
Having conducted two press conferences since his decision to fire former UA baseball coach Greg Goff, Director of Athletics Greg Byrne continued to stress that what the program needs now more than perhaps any other thing is a solid foundation.
“I told him he will have a lot of patience from us,” Byrne said. “That’s critical. We have to have stability in our coaching staff. I really believe, people come to Alabama, they’re going to stay at Alabama. You want to be here at Alabama. I really believe with his plan, and we’re going to give him time to implement it, patience will be a key component of that.”
Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0229.
