Link Jarrett says motivation of making ACC Tournament is 'huge'

It’s been a long and challenging first season for Link Jarrett at Florida State. However, with eight regular season games and potentially ACC Tournament remaining, there is still time for the Seminoles to go out on a high note.

As Jarrett explained, making the ACC Tournament is going to be a huge motivation for the Seminoles.

“Well, it’s huge,” Link Jarrett said. “To be in the discussion of not is clearly the opposite of what you would think you’re talking about. So, to have a chance to keep fighting and clawing to get in there is great.”

Only 12 teams make the ACC Tournament at the end of the season. With 14 teams in the conference, there are going to be multiple teams that don’t make the tournament at the end of the season. At 6-18 in ACC play, the Seminoles are in last place.

Still, Florida State hasn’t been eliminated yet. So, until they are, the Seminoles have a chance. From Link Jarrett’s perspective, this is also going to give the team valuable experience moving forward.

“We’ve talked about it for a while. Every one of these games is critical. There’s must-win games that are really enjoyable at the end of the year, like if you’re winning to win a Super Regional and a Regional and the national championship, that’s one thing, and we’re having to go through must-win games essentially every time we step on the field. So, as hard as that is to realize and deal with like it’s a reality right now,” Jarrett said.

“So, some of those bumps over time build some callousing and teach you what it’s like to play in must-win games. These are not the type that you want but in essence, you learn from them.”

Florida State has six conference games remaining. That’s two three-game series. The first is going to be tough, against Wake Forest. The other is much more winnable and incredibly important if Florida State is going to make the ACC Tournament, against Louisville. At 9-15 in ACC play, the Cardinals are within reach for the Seminoles.

Link Jarrett praised Florida State’s pitching

Despite struggling for large parts of the season, Florida State’s starting pitching thrived last weekend during a sweep against Mercer. As Link Jarrett explained following the series, this gave the Seminoles a chance to use their bullpen the way that they’ve wanted to all season long.

“It’s great. You know, it gives some of these guys a chance to catch their breath a little bit in the bullpen and that’s the idea with starting pitching, to be honest, is you really extend, and then your bullpen becomes matchups and how things feel and look based on the score of the game,” Jarrett said.

“And we haven’t had a lot of opportunities to use the bullpen that way. There’s times we’re just trying to get somebody in there, somebody else to extend. So, that was great. And, again, that’s the concept with your starting pitchers is they can lengthen it out once a week, but that hasn’t always been the case with us. But this weekend it has been and it’s great and it gives some of those other guys a chance [Andrew Armstrong] and [Doug] Kirkland and some of those guys who have thrown a lot a chance to breathe a little bit.”