Tim Corbin's comments from Friday's press conference
Here are the excerpts from Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin's portion of the coaches' press conference at the College World Series on Friday.
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to Omaha, once again. These four guys, ready to get going on Sunday. Tim, give us an opening statement, please.
TIM CORBIN: Well, welcome. We're certainly glad to be back here again, especially with some familiar faces, too, with Dan [McDonnell] and [Chris Lemonis] and Butch and having played them during the course of the year. But certainly a good field. To get here is very difficult, as we all know. We got through our regional and played a very difficult super regional, but from the standpoint of the year, we've been consistent in how we've managed our conference and how we've managed the games in between.This year we have a little bit of an older group. We retained seven seniors from last year's team, and certainly that's been helpful in the harmony of the group and the locker room off the field and so on.I'm just glad that we could bring this particular group this year to get in this environment and play in it and try to enjoy the first few days and then get down to competition on Sunday.
THE MODERATOR: Can we get your starting pitchers?
TIM CORBIN: Drake Fellows.
DAN McDONNELL: Sophomore left-handed pitcher Reid Detmers.
CHRIS LEMONIS: Ethan Small.
BUTCH THOMPSON: Jack Owen.
Q. Tim, the seasons of each of these guys, each of these programs are defined whether or not you get to Omaha. Now that you're at Omaha, how do you -- do you reset the expectations? How do you keep the guys from just being appreciative that they got here as opposed to being hungry to get further into the bracket? How do you balance those things?TIM CORBIN: Well, I just think it's completely different than what you've gone through. It's a championship season, so it doesn't resemble what you've done up to this point. Some ways when you get here, you take a deep breath because it's such a struggle, as Dan and Butch alluded to in terms of getting here. But then once you get here, then you just kind of redefine what you do, and I think it's just about trying to play the best baseball you can in this environment. The game doesn't change. The outside, the ancillary components of the tournament change a little bit, but it still just becomes baseball.But where we're taking a group of guys that haven't been here before is unique in some ways, but everyone gets here at some point for the first time, and it's just really about settling in and just trying to center yourselves mentally and physically to play good baseball.
Q. Thoughts on your defense? The park plays big. Thoughts on your defense, shortstop, second base and thoughts on your arms and the outfield?TIM CORBIN: Yeah, they're okay. I don't know, it's three pretty good solid outfielders. I think we've got pretty good defensive skills. We played pretty good defense all year for the most part. Percentage wise statistically I think we're .981, but I'm always looking for better.I think when you get out here, it's so spacious, you just want to be able to cover the ground, and like Dan, we play on turf, so it's just managing the grass and dirt for the first time and the ball speeds. But no, I think we've handled ourselves pretty well from that standpoint, the arms in the outfield. I can't say the enemy is standing right next to me, so I don't want to say that. But no, it's fine. Our defense has been pretty good.
Q. For each of you, you all understand the demands of your profession. Can you imagine coaching at the age of 75, and if you can't win this whole thing, does a little piece of you hope Mike Martin does?
TIM CORBIN: All of them and I think that's the part that we all see and you respect so much. It will never be done again. It will never be done again. He's coached generations of players and adapted with each generation like no other, which is so difficult to do. You think of today's kid versus -- and it's not even the kids, it's just what surrounds the kids in order to change their behaviors. He's always adapted. He's a fantastic guy. He got to coach Mike Yastrzemski, Sr., and then I got to coach Mike Yastrzemski, Sr.'s, son and we played against Florida State in that super regional there in Tallahassee, and I'll never forget how he treated him in that entire situation.He's a gem. He's real. We're going to miss him. It's almost like when you're sitting next to him, you feel like he can't go anywhere. He's still vibrant and sharp, mind works quick. He's sharper than most. It's going to be unique not to have him around.
Q. Tim, Chris and Butch, SEC has four teams here, and they've had at least three three years in a row. What does that say about the depth and strength of the conference, and what kind of benefit do you get from playing that schedule every year in the regular season?
TIM CORBIN: Well, I don't want to beat on the SEC chest here, but I think it's a difficult conference. I think in a lot of ways, it doesn't really matter if you're an SEC team how you get here. Once you get here, any one of those teams can perform at the end, kind of like we did. I think when I look at Butch's team, we're similar to them in a lot of ways. In 2014 we experienced a lot of ups and downs. But I think at the end of it, it hardened us, and I think if you can just survive the regular season and survive that tournament and then get into the postseason, then it's like new life. You just -- you have this team that just went through some tough spots, but it's hardened you and callused your kids' brains in order to survive these moments right here. It's a tough, tough conference, we're fortunate to be in it, and it's a great proving ground for getting into this tournament.
Q. Tim, Erik Bakich has taken Michigan back to the College World Series. You saw him up close and personal. How quickly did you see his coaching potential, and from your perspective, what kind of makes him stand out?
TIM CORBIN: Yeah, Erik is fantastic coach. I think like Dan with Lem, when you're around certain people that are assisting you along the way, you feel at some point in time when they're going to break away, they're going to be ready for it, and they're going to be good at what they do, and like Lem, Erik was that guy. He's just one of the more energetic, passionate people that I've been around, and through the time that he was at Vanderbilt, I look at Vanderbilt's success early, and a lot of it had to do with his recruiting, his energy for what was going on inside the program, and just his care level. His care level is through the roof for everything, for himself, for his family, for baseball, and he just -- he's just a great personality and a very good mentor for the kids.I think like Dan, when you get your buddy here and a guy you coached with, you're watching those other games besides your own and your attention is on your own regional and super regional, but at the same time you want it so bad for guys that you care a lot about and are so emotional about it. So when he got his team here, we were just very emotional about it, my wife and I, because we care so much about he and Jiffy. But he's here for the right reasons. It's not a surprise at all to me. His passion for what he's doing is 10 out of 10 scale.
Q. This is for anyone who wants to answer but really the three SEC coaches because you've seen him. Arkansas being back here after what happened last year with the foul ball that didn't get caught, just curious from where you guys sit, what did you think when you saw that, and how do you think that now that they're back here, positive or negative? Does it haunt them? Is it a motivator? How would you think from a coaching psychology perspective that that would work on them?
TIM CORBIN: No one is immune from those moments. It happens to everyone. Yeah, that equipped them for this. They're certainly a dangerous team. I think that in and of itself was a component to Arkansas's success moving forward.
Q. Tim, you played Louisville earlier in the year. I'm curious your thoughts on the balance they have offensively from the top of the lineup to the bottom because the bottom is hitting really well recently, as well.
TIM CORBIN: I can answer that just like I'd answer the Arkansas question. Louisville is Louisville. When you look at Dan's teams, always plenty of speed. You get to that point of the season when we play them, it's in May, and I always follow him from afar, but I never look at them statistically, and every time I look at the stats, I go, holy cow, they're running just as much as they did last year, and we certainly don't see their weekend pitching, but we're very familiar with it, and they don't see ours but they're very familiar with theirs and ours.But no, it's much like what we've seen in the past. I mean, we just play them the one time, but very observant of what he does. I say this about Dan, too, and he wouldn't want me to say this, but he's texting my wife when they get done, they get done before anyone, and he's texting my wife to make her feel good during our super regional, which was kind of him, and just telling her to hang in there.You know, it's more than -- I know our teams will just be playing one another, but we've become very close through the years, and if he continues texting her during our game, I guess it's good and bad. It's good that he's distracted, it's bad that there's something going on that I don't know about. (Laughter).
Q. Tim, I think the Wall Street Journal reported that high school players were drafted at a declining rate over the last seven years, and I just wonder from your perspective why you think that is, more college players being drafted?
TIM CORBIN: I think the front offices of Major League teams have changed a little bit. I say a little bit, probably a lot of bit, in the last 10 years. They're more collegiate in nature, and because of that, they've probably taken an approach to drafting college kids because they think they're more trustworthy, when you're 21, 22 years of age and you've experienced college or the ACC or the SEC or the Big 12 for a point in time and you've been successful at it, then there's a trust factor that goes into spending money on a young man, and they've got business to do, and if they're going to make an investment, their investment is more towards a nice stock of trustworthy stock, and I think that's what's happened.