Brad Bohannon Shares His Plan for Alabama Baseball [Audio]

One week ago, former Auburn and Kentucky assistant baseball coach Brad Bohannon was introduced as the head baseball coach for the University of Alabama.

While Bohannon’s head coaching debut is approximately eight months away, the ground work for rebuilding Alabama baseball is already underway.

Bohannon announced the hiring of his first assistant coach with the Crimson Tide in veteran assistant coach Jerry Zulli.

During Monday’s edition of The Gary Harris Show, Bohannon talked about Zulli’s addition to the coaching staff.

“I love Jerry Zulli and I was so fired up to get him on staff. He’s one of the best in the business.” Bohannon said.

As Alabama’s new head baseball coach assembles his staff, Bohannon also mentioned the general philosophy that he wants to utilize in recruiting.

“I think no matter where you are that you want to work from the inside-out. Kids in your state, generally, they want to be at your school. The state of Alabama loves the University of Alabama and its athletics programs. So we’ll work from the inside-out.” Bohannon said.

A primary obstacle for Alabama and Auburn baseball has been the disparity in the number of scholarships that the Crimson Tide and Tigers can offer compared to other SEC schools. Bohannon touched on the scholarship challenges and his experience with the 11.7 scholarship limit.

“I think that’s something a lot of people that aren’t truly involved in college baseball don’t realize that we have 11.7 baseball scholarships, but every school has access to different amounts of financial aid, academic aid, state lottery money, and our school doesn’t have a lot of that.” Bohannon said.

As Bohannon acknowledged the challenges of the scholarship situation, he also mentioned his experience navigating the scholarship limits for baseball.

“With that being said, I’ve never had much extra aid being at Kentucky and Auburn. I mean Eleven (point) seven (scholarships) is kind of all I know.” Bohannon said.

Bohannon pivoted from the scholarship challenges to the advantages that Alabama can offer to prospects in recruiting.

“Like I said in the press conference, I’m not going to talk about what we don’t have. I’m going to talk about what we do have, and we have a top five stadium in college baseball. We have the Alabama football experience. We have a tremendous university. We have the SEC baseball experience. We have so much to sell that we’re going to be just fine.” Bohannon said.

Alabama’s recently hired head baseball coach laid down the fundamental areas that he believes can lay the groundwork for success in Tuscaloosa.

“It’s all going to come down to recruiting and player development and team culture. Those are the three things that we’re never going to be distracted from.” Bohannon said. “If you get the right people in your program, you do everything you can to help them become the best version of themselves as a baseball player, and you have a group of people all tugging in the same direction and playing for each other, then we can do some big things.”

The Gary Harris Show airs every weekday from 9-11 AM on Tide 102.9/100.9 and the radioPup app.