Texas Tech University Athletics
Quotes: Coach Tadlock Joins Big 12 Today
February 05, 2020 | Baseball
Big 12 Today is hosted by Holly Rowe and Gabe Ikard each day on SiriusXM
What is your expectation for this team coming into this season?
"I don't get too much into that stuff. More than anything, we try to prepare the right way, try to show up each day, try to go earn the right to win and try to put ourselves into a position to be where you want to be at the end of the year. Each year is different. Each year kind of evolves as you go. There's challenges within every year. As far as expectations go, we do expect our guys to prepare the right way and go about things the right way."
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Tell us about your pitching staff. You've got to feel good about it going into the season.
"Micah Dallas really stepped in last year. To be a homeschool kid - it was a cool thing to see. He stepped in and filled up the strike zone every Friday night. It gave us a chance to have some margin for error there on Fridays, go score some runs and play some defense behind him. (Clayton) Beeter showed some signs early that were really special. There were a number of times where he'd throw his inning, and people – whether it was the opposing hitter or the opposing coaches – would say hey 'that's a different type of 95' or 'that's a different type of stuff coming at us than everybody else.' Bonnin really continues to impress with his mound presence and his pitchability. At the end of the year, he was probably ahead of all those guys. He threw the ball the best. I don't know if that's because his stuff is so good or because he was executing pitches, or a combination of the two. Those guys are really fun, and then you add in Mason Montgomery and some of those other guys - Austin Becker - there's a number of guys in there that it's going to be really fun to watch them."
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Who are you most excited to return in the field?
"I would start with the guys that we lost. I'd start with Gabe Holt, Josh Jung and Cameron Warren. Anybody that knows anything about baseball knows that you have to do it collectively. Sometimes it's the guy in front of you winning pitches that puts you in a position to have success as the next guy up. Those guys that we lost did a great job of doing that. These guys we have – Braxton (Fulford), Dylan (Neuse), Brian Klein – those guys are excited, but at the same time they know we aren't going to go ask any of them to hit a bunch of home runs like Josh and Cam. Really just go out and be who they are, play the game the right way and do the best they can."
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How important is it to play a tough nonconference schedule?
"It's what the NCAA is asking us to do. They're asking everybody in the country to go play on the road and play teams that are in the top 50 of the RPI. I feel like the Big 12 Conference, our nine coaches within our league do a great job of putting a tough schedule in front of their team. That's how our schedule evolved this year and how it come together. We added some things late. The Mississippi State double-midweek was something we added late because we were at 54 games. There's definitely an advantage to it when you start talking about being on the road, building an RPI and preparing your team for conference play. At the same time, I would tell you that we are a week out from playing Houston Baptist and Northern Colorado. We have a number of guys on our staff that have coached and played at all levels of college baseball. I hadn't been at one yet where you didn't have to earn the right to win. It's one of those things where when the game starts, you've got to go out and execute and play good baseball. But, as far as the ability to go on the road, our guys enjoy that. We embrace that."
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You've had 48 players drafted in your tenure. Have you been more successful finding talent or developing it?
"I think it's a little bit of both. We're definitely getting guys that have the opportunity to sign out of high school and they pass on that opportunity and go to college. We've got a number of those guys that we feel very honored to coach. Their families have put a lot of faith in us to go develop their sons. That's something we take very seriously. It's one of the joys of coaching – coaching guys that want to be great, want to be big leaguers and have that drive each day. Then, there's some guys we're getting that are developing within our program – maybe they didn't (get drafted), maybe they were overlooked, maybe they're an average-sized guy – but they're getting an opportunity because they're playing good baseball in a great baseball league. When you start talking about Big 12 baseball and you go back and look at the history of it - even back with the old Southwest Conference or all of our leagues now - when a kid goes in and plays great as a freshman, it says a lot about how it all sets up for those guys down the road as far as pro baseball goes. Sometimes it happens for them as a freshman, sometimes it happens as a sophomore. I've got to mention our staff - J-Bob Thomas is doing a great job as is Matt Gardner on the recruiting side of things and also the developmental side."
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Who are a few guys that haven't gotten recognition that you're expecting big things from?
"This is one of those games where you have to play right where your feet are and can't get too far ahead of yourself. I've seen it where you go into a year and guys think that's going to be the guy and it ends up being another guy. I'm going to give you some guys that had good falls. Cole Stillwell had a really good fall. He was our backup catcher last year and has moved over to first base. Cal Conley is our shortstop. He is a freshman out of Ohio and a switch hitter. He seems to play with a really good heart rate and seems to be a guy that really knows baseball. Josh's little brother, Jace, is a guy that's beyond his years as far as separating balls and strikes. On the mound, there's a number of guys that jump out at you. Jakob Brustoski is a guy. Clayton Beeter is a guy that could take a really big jump. He's a guy that had Tommy John surgery in high school, and we threw him an inning at a time last year to get him in this spot for this year. Max Marusak is a guy that's a sophomore outfielder, who is probably the fastest guy in the country. He's going to be fun to watch and looks like he's ready to take off and go do his deal. There have been a number of guys who have come out and played good games and weekends, the difference is the guys who can show up for a season or year after year."
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What makes your program so successful at attracting fan support?
"We've always had the thinking that we want to put enough guys on the field, in the lineup and on the mound that were dynamic enough that you didn't want to leave your seat to get popcorn. That's part of our objective when it comes to recruiting. We try to put a good product on the field where people want to come to the games. Lubbock is a great baseball community. We've got over 1,000 people sitting on a waiting list for season tickets. We've got a beautiful stadium that holds about 5,000 people. We're very appreciate that we have some of the best fans in the country."
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"I don't get too much into that stuff. More than anything, we try to prepare the right way, try to show up each day, try to go earn the right to win and try to put ourselves into a position to be where you want to be at the end of the year. Each year is different. Each year kind of evolves as you go. There's challenges within every year. As far as expectations go, we do expect our guys to prepare the right way and go about things the right way."
Â
Tell us about your pitching staff. You've got to feel good about it going into the season.
"Micah Dallas really stepped in last year. To be a homeschool kid - it was a cool thing to see. He stepped in and filled up the strike zone every Friday night. It gave us a chance to have some margin for error there on Fridays, go score some runs and play some defense behind him. (Clayton) Beeter showed some signs early that were really special. There were a number of times where he'd throw his inning, and people – whether it was the opposing hitter or the opposing coaches – would say hey 'that's a different type of 95' or 'that's a different type of stuff coming at us than everybody else.' Bonnin really continues to impress with his mound presence and his pitchability. At the end of the year, he was probably ahead of all those guys. He threw the ball the best. I don't know if that's because his stuff is so good or because he was executing pitches, or a combination of the two. Those guys are really fun, and then you add in Mason Montgomery and some of those other guys - Austin Becker - there's a number of guys in there that it's going to be really fun to watch them."
Â
Who are you most excited to return in the field?
"I would start with the guys that we lost. I'd start with Gabe Holt, Josh Jung and Cameron Warren. Anybody that knows anything about baseball knows that you have to do it collectively. Sometimes it's the guy in front of you winning pitches that puts you in a position to have success as the next guy up. Those guys that we lost did a great job of doing that. These guys we have – Braxton (Fulford), Dylan (Neuse), Brian Klein – those guys are excited, but at the same time they know we aren't going to go ask any of them to hit a bunch of home runs like Josh and Cam. Really just go out and be who they are, play the game the right way and do the best they can."
Â
How important is it to play a tough nonconference schedule?
"It's what the NCAA is asking us to do. They're asking everybody in the country to go play on the road and play teams that are in the top 50 of the RPI. I feel like the Big 12 Conference, our nine coaches within our league do a great job of putting a tough schedule in front of their team. That's how our schedule evolved this year and how it come together. We added some things late. The Mississippi State double-midweek was something we added late because we were at 54 games. There's definitely an advantage to it when you start talking about being on the road, building an RPI and preparing your team for conference play. At the same time, I would tell you that we are a week out from playing Houston Baptist and Northern Colorado. We have a number of guys on our staff that have coached and played at all levels of college baseball. I hadn't been at one yet where you didn't have to earn the right to win. It's one of those things where when the game starts, you've got to go out and execute and play good baseball. But, as far as the ability to go on the road, our guys enjoy that. We embrace that."
Â
You've had 48 players drafted in your tenure. Have you been more successful finding talent or developing it?
"I think it's a little bit of both. We're definitely getting guys that have the opportunity to sign out of high school and they pass on that opportunity and go to college. We've got a number of those guys that we feel very honored to coach. Their families have put a lot of faith in us to go develop their sons. That's something we take very seriously. It's one of the joys of coaching – coaching guys that want to be great, want to be big leaguers and have that drive each day. Then, there's some guys we're getting that are developing within our program – maybe they didn't (get drafted), maybe they were overlooked, maybe they're an average-sized guy – but they're getting an opportunity because they're playing good baseball in a great baseball league. When you start talking about Big 12 baseball and you go back and look at the history of it - even back with the old Southwest Conference or all of our leagues now - when a kid goes in and plays great as a freshman, it says a lot about how it all sets up for those guys down the road as far as pro baseball goes. Sometimes it happens for them as a freshman, sometimes it happens as a sophomore. I've got to mention our staff - J-Bob Thomas is doing a great job as is Matt Gardner on the recruiting side of things and also the developmental side."
Â
Who are a few guys that haven't gotten recognition that you're expecting big things from?
"This is one of those games where you have to play right where your feet are and can't get too far ahead of yourself. I've seen it where you go into a year and guys think that's going to be the guy and it ends up being another guy. I'm going to give you some guys that had good falls. Cole Stillwell had a really good fall. He was our backup catcher last year and has moved over to first base. Cal Conley is our shortstop. He is a freshman out of Ohio and a switch hitter. He seems to play with a really good heart rate and seems to be a guy that really knows baseball. Josh's little brother, Jace, is a guy that's beyond his years as far as separating balls and strikes. On the mound, there's a number of guys that jump out at you. Jakob Brustoski is a guy. Clayton Beeter is a guy that could take a really big jump. He's a guy that had Tommy John surgery in high school, and we threw him an inning at a time last year to get him in this spot for this year. Max Marusak is a guy that's a sophomore outfielder, who is probably the fastest guy in the country. He's going to be fun to watch and looks like he's ready to take off and go do his deal. There have been a number of guys who have come out and played good games and weekends, the difference is the guys who can show up for a season or year after year."
Â
What makes your program so successful at attracting fan support?
"We've always had the thinking that we want to put enough guys on the field, in the lineup and on the mound that were dynamic enough that you didn't want to leave your seat to get popcorn. That's part of our objective when it comes to recruiting. We try to put a good product on the field where people want to come to the games. Lubbock is a great baseball community. We've got over 1,000 people sitting on a waiting list for season tickets. We've got a beautiful stadium that holds about 5,000 people. We're very appreciate that we have some of the best fans in the country."
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