Everything Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn said in introductory press conference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama introduced Rob Vaughn as its 33rd head baseball coach on Tuesday. After being introduced by Crimson Tide director of athletics Greg Byrne, Vaughn spoke to a crowd that gathered at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility. Below is everything the former Maryland coach said during his introductory press conference.

“Wow, I didn’t think I was gonna get emotional before we started right there. Like Greg did when he started this thing out, I wanna start out by thanking everybody involved in this process, starting with Greg. From our first conversation, it was very clear the type of person he was. I wanna thank his wife Regina for everything she’s done for my family and how she’s been through this process. Obviously, President Bell, he’s holding Beau. I walk in a minute ago and he’s holding my 8-9-month-old right there, so he’s already starting babysitting duties, so that’s fantastic. And obviously Chancellor St. John and the Board of Trustees. Just very thankful for this opportunity to be standing up here today.

“You’ll hear this from me a lot – I am a people person. I love people. I love relationships. I love building those relationships. My dad’s in the front row right here. I can’t even begin to express what he’s meant to me. He showed me from a very young age what hard work looks. He’s shown me, after 53 years of working in the oil field and doing different things, what it means to sacrifice for your family and to work hard, and for that, I’m extremely grateful.

“My mom right next to him. Mom and I spent a lot of time together. My whole life, dad worked two weeks on, two weeks off up in Alaska. So he would be at home in Texas with us for a couple weeks, then we’d go home. So what that meant was me and mom went through a lot of stuff together – good, bad or indifferent. And you talk about somebody that has sacrificed for her family, is probably more competitive than anybody sitting in this room, myself included. I saw her this last weekend at Wyatt’s little baseball game, he was in the championship game, and I saw her getting very frustrated at the other coach because he wasn’t following the rules properly. So very competitive, and I owe who I am to her.

“And then obviously my wife Kayleigh sitting here in front of us. You can’t do what we do without an unbelievable support system. Kayleigh grew up on a small dairy farm in Southeast Kansas, and I remember calling her mom to tell her, ‘Hey, I’m taking your little girl and we’re going halfway across the country. We’ve never been to the East Coast before, but we’re gonna figure it out.’ And for her to pick up, move to support me through the ups and downs of coaching, through the championships that Greg alluded to earlier but also some really tough times because that comes with the business. Her support is something that I just could not do what I do without her.

“And then I’ve got my two guys, my righthand man Wyatt. He’s already decked out in gear. He’s excited. And little Beau, who I’m sure you guys will see crawling around and all over the place. I’m very thankful for them. And then there is one person that’s not here with us today that when this happened was one of the first people I thought of outside of my family, and that’s Kayleigh’s mom, Cindy. She has supported me through ups and downs of coaching. She is the biggest fan. We had all of Iola, Kan., in Maryland baseball gear for a couple years. We lost Cindy last summer, and that’s been a trying time for my family. But I know she’s looking at us right now, very proud, very excited.

“As we look back, I’m nothing without the opportunity I had at Maryland. I was 29 years old, probably all ways, shapes and form was not prepared to be a head coach at the age of 29, and Kevin Anderson, the then-AD at the time, handed me the keys to that program. Damon Evans, AD currently, trusted me with that program through some ups and downs. We were bad Year 1. I promise we’re gonna try to not be 24-30 our first year like we were my first year there. But we went through some ups and downs, and I had the support of the administration, I had the support of players and that really warms my heart hearing my former guys talk about me like that because I think it’s one thing us as coaches really strive to do. We strive to develop relationships. You strive to build those things with those people, but you don’t know if it lands all the time. I’ve got kids that are working in real estate, I’ve got kids that are playing in the major leagues and I’ve got a kid that’s an Army Ranger now, serving his country and doing some pretty special things. So to hear that and see what they have become, I owe everything I am to my former players, and the ability of me standing up here is nothing without those guys.

“I owe my coaches. Brad Hill, former head coach at Kansas State University, just recently got the job at Emporia State out in Kansas. Brad Hill gave me my first job in coaching. I was out playing professional baseball, knew I wanted to kind of get out of that. Kayleigh and I were getting married and wanted to kind of step into that next role. He gave me my first opportunity, and we never really looked back from there. A guy named Andy Sawyers. Andy Sawyers is the head coach at Southeast Missouri State. Andy is the reason I am in coaching. I was an engineering student. I was studying mechanical engineering. Shoot, I was in a wind turbine class my senior, wanting nothing to do with wind turbines or anything and called Coach Sawyers afterwards. I’m like, ‘Coach, man, I wanna do what you do.’ He was a guy that had built trust in us. He believed in us, was one of the first coaches I ever had that came up and said, ‘You can be more than you think you’re capable of.’ He challenged me. He taught me what it looked like to be a man, and he taught me how to grow and to push myself beyond what I was comfortable with, and I owe everything in my career to me.

“And finally John Szefc. John Szefc gave me my first break. I was at Kansas State as a volunteer assistant coach, getting ready to go to Pratt Community College right outside of Wichita to become their hitting coach, and I got a call from Coach Szefc. He said, ‘Rob, I wanna fly you and Kayleigh out to Maryland and check things out.’ I said, ‘Hang on, Coach. One of two things. No. 1, are you offering me the job? Or am I interviewing? If I’m interviewing, I’ll be on a plane tomorrow. We’ll come out, we’ll check things out.’ He said, ‘Nah, the job’s yours. I just wanna make sure you and Kayleigh are good with this.’ I said, ‘Coach, say no more. I guarantee you whatever is in Maryland is better than what’s in Pratt, Kan. I’ll get in my truck, and I’ll be there tomorrow.’ So Coach Szefc believed in me. I was 25. I had never recruited before, I had never done that, and he made me the recruiting coordinator in the ACC and got a chance to start building what we did over the last 11 years there. So very, very grateful for the people that have done that.

“As this process unfolded, we started having a lot of conversations, and very honestly, one of the people I’m the biggest fan of in this room – and I know Greg already alluded to him – (Jason Jackson) and what he did. The biggest thing that drew me to Alabama, outside of the prestige, outside of all those things, is the people. It started with Greg from that first conversation. I was in my basement, I walk upstairs afterwards and Kayleigh was like, ‘Hey, how did it go?’ I’m like, ‘Gosh, if I didn’t have interest then, I certainly do now because that was an unbelievable conversation.’ And then I start watching the 2023 team, I start watching how they faced adversity and remember that Friday night against Vanderbilt and not thinking that team had a chance to come out and compete at a high level. And good gracious, not only did they do that, they went on a magical run and made it a heck of a ride. I was convinced they were going to Omaha. I was convinced we were gonna have to wait a couple of weeks to have this conversation, and I would have been really happy for that. But what a special group of young men, what a special group of coaches to lead them through a very challenging time. So very, very, very thankful for them and excited about them.

“As I look at Alabama, you think why Alabama? Well, obviously, you have the easy stuff. You have the SEC, and obviously, this is the most competitive brand of baseball there is. This is something as a young kid, you always aspire to play in, as a young coach, you always aspire to coach in. And to have the opportunity to stand here, to be a part of this and to get to coach these young people moving forward is something that we are so excited about. We understand what comes with that. There’s pressures, there’s a lot of expectation, especially based on what the 2023 team just did, but that’s what we want. That’s what we’re built for, and we want guys to understand that and be able to go win that.

“I look at the tradition here and the former coaches. Coach Sewell, Coach Shollenberger, Coach Wells and obviously JJ and what he’s provided, just an unbelievable group of that. And you start looking at it, and I hear people say all the time, ‘Here’s the advantages. Here’s what’s great about this place. Here’s what’s not great – you can’t win here, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ But I look at a couple things: 1) 16 All-Americans. That’ll play. One hundred and 64 draft picks and 69 big-leaguers. You can do it here. Twenty-seven hundred wins, 14 SEC championships, seven SEC Tournament titles, and the list goes on of what this program is capavble of, and I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and get to work.

“This is the part that is exciting. There’s a lot of excitement around your first few days on campus, but I’ve got the opportunity to spend the last day and a half, about the last 20 hours around the young people from the 2023 team, around JJ and the rest of the coaching staff and just getting to be a fly on the wall and listen to the way they communicate. And as you do that, it becomes very, very evident, very clear how they were able to do what they did, and I’m so proud to get to be a small part of that.

“I look around at the other teams here. I look at the other coaching staffs here and see what they do. Obviously – my wife laughs at me – I got to meet Coach Saban yesterday. I almost passed out in there. That was one of the more intimidating things I’ve ever been a part of, but what a special thing here. You have the best coach of all-time right down the street from us right here. Obviously, watching Coach Oats and what he’s developed on the basketball court and seeing how they’ve done that. Shoot, from afar, we’ve followed from Maryland and we’ve watched those things and we’ve seen the way he’s developed that and how special of an organization he has. Coach Murphy, elite-level softball coach. Good gracious, the best, if not one of the best softball coaches in the country. … But why Alabama? You look at that and you see elite-level coaches. You see the ability to win. You see the ability for these young people to get drafted and be everything that they wanna be a part of. That’s why my family is here, that’s why we’re here and that’s why we’re so excited to be a part of this family.

“As we look at this, I wanna engage the community. I love people. I got to watch how you guys packed that stadium this postseason. That was electric. I remember I came down with my team in 2016. I was an assistant coach at the University of Maryland. We opened up the new stadium in 2016, and a funny story, my wife with us with her mom, Cindy. Wyatt was in her belly. The first time she felt Wyatt kick was sitting in the stadium over here at The Joe, getting to see that. That was a little bit of a foreshadowing that one day, this was where he wanted to be. Pretty exciting to have that.

“But I want to continue to build on what this group has done so far. They’ve laid the foundation of what it looks like to be successful. They’ve laid the foundation of the expectation of everybody that walks through these doors. And it’s our job as a coaching staff to build on that. To not recreate, to look at the culture and say, ‘Hey, what’s working.’ Because you don’t do what that group of people just did without a strong culture because culture matters. Culture matters when things aren’t going well, and that group went through the fire, came out the other end and set records and rewrote the history book at Alabama, and that’s exciting. I want them to be able to bring their kids back 20 years from now after we’ve knocked down the gates of Omaha again, after we’ve done some of those things and say, ‘Yeah, that started with my group of people.’ That’s what I want for these guys.

“I want our program to be known about two things. The two most important things for me is culture and development. It’s what we’re all about. It’s what I care about as a coach. This sounds super cliche to everybody involved, but my goal is that this group of people that I get to coach, that we get to work alongside one day finish their time here and are equipped to be unbelievable dads one day, unbelievable husbands one day and unbelievable leaders. This isn’t popular, but I will tell everybody: this world doesn’t need another shortstop. Don’t worry, I will find good shortstops, and we will have those here. But this world’s gonna keep spinning without it, but what we desperately, desperately need is men and women that know how to lead, that lead their families, that are people of character, that know how to lead communities. That’s really what they need, and that’s what our program is gonna be built on, that’s what we’re gonna be all about. We’re gonna be about building those things.

“When we look at recruiting, the obvious question is I’m a Texas guy. I grew up in Houston, Texas. I’ve spent my last 11 years out in Maryland. I haven’t recruited the state of Alabama. We don’t usually get kids to come north. That’s a little bit of a challenge out there. So we’re gonna just jump into building relationships. It’s why having a guy like JJ here is so incredibly valuable to what we’re doing because we’re gonna build relationships. We’re gonna grow these things. We’re gonna recruit guys that it matters to wear the Alabama logo on their chest. That’s one thing that’s really important to me, and it was very easy sitting in those exit meanings. There’s some guys on that team that, good gracious, it means something to them, and when it means something like that, they’re willing to run through a brick wall for you. We are going to have guys in that program that that matters to and they really care about that.

“But at the same time, Alabama is a very national brand. Shoot, I’m up there recruiting guys up in Pennsylvania. Luke Holman, a prime example, recruiting guys up in Pennsylvania, and you see Alabama rolling around up there. ‘Hey, who are you talking to? Oh, we’re talking to Alabama.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, guys. Just stay in your neck of the woods down there so I can recruit these guys up here.’ But we’re gonna recruit nationally. We’re gonna find the players that wanna be a part of this team, that wanna be a part of this culture, that wanna get an elite-level education and grow to be the best people they can be.

“So for me, as we evaluate things, as we evaluate players, I say this all the time, and this is what I’ll say to you guys as we start to land the plane here a little bit. I don’t need to sell Alabama, I don’t. We as a staff are gonna tell you, ‘This is who we are. This is what we care about. This is how we’re gonna coach you. This is how we’re gonna make you the best version of who you can be. And from there, I believe in what’s called the law of attraction – like-minded people are drawn to like-minded people. I’m excited to get started. I’m excited to roll our sleeves up and work. Because the beauty of this thing is that cupboard is not bare, I can tell you that. There’s some really talented players on this roster. There’s some really talented players coming in. And I’m just excited to get to know them, I’m excited to come alongside them and I’m excited to put a staff together that’s gonna coach them to be the best version of who they can be.

“I’m very, very excited to be here. My wife is thrilled to be here. Wyatt is more stoked than anybody. We’re excited as a family to make Tuscaloosa home, and I think that’s one thing that we’re really excited about. This program has laid the foundation. Now, it’s time for us to knock down the gates of Omaha, and we’re gonna do this real soon. So thank you, and I’ve been waiting to say this all day: Roll Tide.”

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