Link Jarrett redefines his big picture as ND baseball's profile rises
Twenty-four hours before coach Link Jarrett and his fourth-ranked Notre Dame baseball team were to board a Thursday evening flight from Chicago in a heavy snowstorm, he tried to refocus on the bigger picture and he needed some help doing so.
In the micro view of things, if everything went perfectly with the travel — and there was nothing to suggest that it would — the Irish would get to their hotel rooms in DeLand, Fla., around 1 in the morning Friday. And that meant no chance to stage a dress rehearsal on the field they’d open their 2022 season on Friday night (7 p.m.) against Manhattan in the Hatter Classic.
Jarrett told himself, in a moment of self-consolation, and told his wife too that the 2021 Irish team was able to shock the college baseball world, despite having to continually overcome those and even more formidable obstacles of being a northern team in a Sun Belt sport.
Jennifer Jarrett corrected him.
Their greatness, their magic, their deep postseason run was in large part BECAUSE of having to overcome odds, doubts and history and not despite them.
“She said, ‘There’s something about these players with you – like the style of what you’re doing and how they respond.’” the coach related. “She said, ‘You need to think long and hard about that, because look at what you did.’”
There was a pre-emptive motive in Jennifer Jarrett’s words. Perennial national power LSU came hard after Link Jarrett to fill its coaching vacancy, days after eventual national champ Mississippi State had edged Notre Dame out of its third-ever College World Series appearance last June.
The three-game Super Regional in Starkville, Miss., drew 40,140 fans — the most attended on-campus, three-game series in the history of college baseball. By all means, though, Notre Dame should have been hosting the super regional.
There’s a financial element to awarding seeding/hosting for the regional and super regional phases of the NCAA tourney, and Notre Dame wasn’t able to be competitive due to attendance (2,500 capacity) and lack of concessions (COVID restrictions in St. Joseph County, Ind.).
“We have looked at how we can add capacity, so we can present a better financial outlook with a bid,” Jarrett said. “But playing at home is significant. For us, it wasn’t the great Mississippi State crowd that was hanging over the field as much as it was the unfamiliar playing surface and park dimensions in a competitive situation where every single pitch mattered.”
Jennifer Jarrett’s takeaway was that if Notre Dame comes anywhere close to living up to that preseason ranking this season, suitors will be after Link Jarrett, trying to get him to do some soul searching about what Notre Dame baseball isn’t.
Their conversation reminded him of what Notre Dame baseball is at the moment and what it can be in the years ahead.
The Irish (34-13 overall, 25-10 ACC in 2021) begin to find out about their present this weekend in DeLand against the Jaspers (12-24), host Stetson (26-23), and Delaware (12-22) — Friday through Sunday. Senior lefty Aidan Tyrell (5-1, 2.70 ERA) gets Friday night’s starting assignment.
The defending ACC champs open up league play March 11 at 16th-ranked NC State, for which Jarrett’s son, J.T., is the starting second baseman.
As far as beyond the present?
“This place is phenomenal,” Jarrett said. “And the people here and the fit for me here with these guys and this school, it lines up so well. Their work habits and traits, I love it.
“Does that mean, are we going to do what we did last year every single year? That’s hard to do. My hope is that we’re in that conversation every year. I want to be competitive enough, and we’ve got to stay healthy and things have to go your way.
“We may not have the depth that the Mississippi States and the LSUs and the Arkansases have, with all their in-state scholarshipping and out-of-state waivers they have for bordering states. They’re so different. Still, we should be in the discussion to have years like we had last year, because of who these players are.”
Including the truncated 2020 season due to COVID, Jarrett is 45-15 at ND since coming from UNC-Greensboro, including 25-7 on the road. The Irish have yet to lose back-to-back games — home, road or neutral field — since he arrived.
Uncompromising fundamentals — the Irish led the nation in fielding percentage — player development and elite player evaluation has fueled ND’s baseball renaissance, reminiscent of the Paul Mainieri Era.
That includes a nice blend of incoming freshmen and astute projections from the transfer portal, 15 newcomers in all. Two of the key additions via transfer last season were starting pitcher John Michael Bertrand and reliever Tanner Kohlhepp.
Lefty Bertrand (8-2, 3.21 ERA) is back for a sixth college season and second at ND. The older brother of Irish linebacker JD Bertrand returns to the weekend rotation after being ND’s winningest pitcher last year.
Kohlhepp (7-2, 3.08), a multiple-inning reliever who was second on the team in wins and innings pitched (61 ⅓), is not. He was drafted in the fifth round last summer by the Detroit Tigers.
“He may pitch in the big leagues this year the way it’s going,” Jarrett said. “He’s that dynamic. Watched him throw the other day, and it got the attention of everybody.”
Austin Temple, a grad transfer from Jacksonville, is one of this offseason portal finds. He’ll start Sunday against Delaware.
“I think the supporting cast around him does factor into a pitcher’s capabilities,” Jarrett said of why the transfer pitchers tend to thrive at ND. “Their length of their starts. If you can turn some double plays and run down a ball in the gap, it can change an inning and thus change their numbers.
“We work very hard to put an athletic team on the field to help the pitching staff. The transfers are going to be treated properly. I think people do trust our coaching staff. That’s important.
“And then the degree. I’m not going to take the Notre Dame one-year master’s degree for granted in the recruitment. It’s a good product.”
The everyday lineup returns eight starters. The one who isn’t back is All-America first baseman Niko Kavadas, one of the premier power hitters in college baseball in 2021 and an 11th-round draft pick by the Boston Red Sox last June.
“The most important thing I hope to learn from this opening weekend is how our bullpen pieces line up,” Jarrett said. “We’ve got more options, but none of them is Tanner Kohlhepp.”
Included, but not limited to, among those options, is electric freshman Roman Kimball, Seton Hall grad transfer Ryan McLinskey, junior Liam Simon and sophomore third baseman/right-handed pitcher Jack Brannigan.
“Last week Brannigan threw five pitches at 100 miles an hour,” Jarrett said. “So we’re talking some exceptional electric stuff when it lines up and we can get him to contain it and keep his rhythm with his delivery and not get too amped up.
“With all these guys in the bullpen, there are things that excite you. But you just don’t know until you put these guys out in the fire a little bit how they’re going to react.”
On the plane ride home from Starkville last June, thoughts of the overwhelmingly positive way his Irish reacted to competition, to a growing bandwagon, spotlight and expectations last season peppered Jarrett’s predominant disappointment of falling one game short of the College World Series.
The pursuit of him by LSU prompted him to take inventory, an exercise he repeated this past week.
“When (athletic director) Jack (Swarbrick) hired me, he said, ‘Most of our programs compete for national championships,’” Jarrett shared. “‘Do you think you can do that at Notre Dame with your baseball program?’
“I said, ‘Absolutely,’ and I do feel that way. The presentation that Notre Dame offers the right student, they value what Notre Dame’s about, and that’s a great match for me. But when everything comes together and we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, things will come up and other programs will call.
“That doesn’t mean those places will be a fit. My wife nailed it. She could tell how much I enjoyed the coaching dynamic with this group. She said, ‘This is the right fit and these guys have responded to you. Don’t ever lose sight of that.’”
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