WATCH: The scene when Link Jarrett tells Notre Dame players he's leaving for Florida State
The moment was captured forever. It wasn’t an easy one for anybody. Not for former Notre Dame baseball coach Link Jarrett. And certainly not for his now-former players.
Jarrett addressed the Fighting Irish baseball team three days after its last game of the season, a sobering 5-1 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies in a College World Series elimination game. That brought the Irish’s spirits down.
Friday’s address might have done even more damage.
It wasn’t supposed to, though. And it was administered as sincerely and as eloquently as Jarrett could. He stood before his men and told them why he decided to leave Notre Dame to assume the head coaching position at his alma mater, Florida State.
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Jarrett said the best thing that ever happened to him was getting the job at Notre Dame, and it was “not even close.” Getting the job for his hometown program, the one he played at, might have officially superseded that. Which is saying something considering how fond of Notre Dame Jarrett will remain.
“You guys impacted me, my family, my career,” Jarrett said before a brief pause. “And I’ll never, ever forget what it felt like.”
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Jarrett explained that Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swabrick “would have done everything in his power” to keep Jarrett in South Bend. Jarrett said going to Florida State was “not about money.” He’s set to make $875,000 in his first season at FSU and $1M in his fourth. Notre Dame is a private institution, so salaries of employees are not public information.
Jarrett said the departure was purely personal.
“I feel a responsibility to my parents and my wife’s parents who have nobody else around them to help them,” Jarrett said. “And ultimately, that was one overriding factor I felt like I had to do right now.”
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Swarbrick took to the front of the room to call Jarrett a “quintessential Notre Dame man.” He said he knows how difficult Friday must have been for the Irish players, but he also said he hoped they saw a “reason to celebrate.”
“I hope you see how special this family is that you’ve created,” Swarbrick said. “How cool it is for the person who has led you for three-plus years to make a difficult decision to leave his family because of an obligation his other family. That’s Notre Dame. That’s where we shape you.”
