Rob Vaughn's Alabama Clubhouse: It's Going to be Fun

New Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn's clubhouse is going to feature players who have fun with the game of baseball.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— The fall season means a lot of things, and for the Alabama baseball program, the fall is a time to get off and running with some of the big changes following the spring campaign. The biggest change is at head coach, where Rob Vaughn has finally begun to implement his vision from an on-field standpoint over the past several weeks. Fall practice is officially underway.

Vaughn was hired in June at the close of last season. He's put his stamp on the diamond by assembling a largely new staff and bringing in a number of new faces. He's also navigating the prospect of establishing clubhouse culture at a new destination, but he wants his players to have fellowship and fun together.

"The resources we have at Alabama have been a game changer for some different things," Vaughn said. "The dining hall right across the street [from Sewell-Thomas Stadium] is one of the biggest things for us... I think fellowship matters. Being together matters." The Crimson Tide players have all been sitting together at big tables during meals.

Vaughn said togetherness was important in large part because of the different faces coming in, some of whom are young freshmen who may be coming into a different program than the one they committed to originally, considering the rollercoaster the last several months have been. He supplemented that by giving credit to his coaching staff for assembling personnel that mesh together. The term Vaughn used was synergy. "Synergy in personality, synergy in the way they go about their business, when you plug those guys in there and create the right environment, those guys mesh really close really quickly."

That environment is going to be one that features players having fun: having fun being together, having fun practicing and having fun playing ball games.

"We like to have fun, I'll tell you that," Vaughn said, having just left a field where 1990s-era hip hop music was playing. "This game is hard. I don't think this game is meant to be played tight. They're not gonna feel that from me, I can promise you... We're gonna be locked in on what we're doing, but we're gonna be so prepared that when we step on the field, those guys can go out there and have fun playing the game at warp speed." Vaughn also articulated the difference between playing with emotion and playing emotional and the importance of staying on the right side of that.

He described a series against Illinois from his time at Maryland where he was upset with one of his players for watching a home run one day after losing 19-1. "I turned to our dugout, and I said, 'Alright boys, when you get beat 19-1 on Friday, you don't go admire home runs the next day.'" 

"Well, coach, we're up 3-1 today," the team's second baseman had told Vaughn. That was the mentality, flushing bad results and showing up each day with a clean slate. That's the same mindset Vaughn expects from his players in Tuscaloosa.

"Our group's pretty fun to play with," he said. "They push each other, they're working together, they're pulling for each other. It's been fun to coach them, I'll tell you what, for the first month."

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New Alabama Baseball Coach Rob Vaughn His Own Man in Tuscaloosa