The Role Sweet Tea and Grits Played in Keeping Jason Jackson on Alabama Baseball Staff

New head coach Rob Vaughn said it was a "no-brainer" to retain the interim head coach as he builds his new staff in Tuscaloosa.

Katie Windham | Jun 13, 2023

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Greg Byrne has certain things he's looking for in the hiring process of a new coach.

The Alabama athletic director likes to call the coach's former student athletes, watch the candidate coach a game in person and ask trusted experts around the given sport's industry. And the hiring of new Crimson Tide baseball head coach Rob Vaughn was no exception.

Byrne also has another piece of advice he likes to share with head coaches when it comes to building their staffs.

"You’ve got to have somebody on your staff that knows what sweet tea and grits are."

He used the line with basketball coach Nate Oats which led to the retention of Antoine Pettway as an assistant at the time in 2019. And Byrne used it again with Vaughn as part of keeping former pitching coach and interim head coach Jason Jackson on staff as the new associate head coach with a two-year contract.

"When I was talking to Rob and it was starting to get serious, I told him the same line— the sweet tea and grits line," Byrne told the media Tuesday after Vaughn's introductory press conference. "That helps you in this part of the country, just like it does anywhere, to have some familiarity with the surroundings. And he said to me, ‘I’d be really interested in having JJ be a part of the staff.'

"And I said, ‘Well, that's mutual. I think that'd be a really good thing.’ And so they ended up connecting a week and half two weeks ago for the first time, and they really ended up hitting it off right off the bat."

Vaughn joked that Byrne must have brought up the words "sweet tea and grits" 400 times throughout the interview process.

As someone who grew up in Texas, Vaughn himself is already familiar with sweet tea and grits himself, but keeping Jackson on the staff was a "no-brainer" for many other reasons behind just southern culture. He told Byrne that they had to do whatever necessary to keep Jackson as part of the staff.

The new Alabama head coach said he watched all of Jackson's press conferences after the Crimson Tide's games in Hoover at the SEC Tournament and was immediately impressed with the type of person Jackson was.

"I knew how talented he was as a pitching coach, but to look at the way he talked about his players, the way he communicated, how much he cared about them, how much he loved them," Vaughn said. "I just sat in those exit meetings, and every kid that left, he gave them a hug and told them he loved them. That makes JJ who he is."

Jackson took over as interim head coach after head coach Brad Bohannon was terminated in early May in relation to suspicious betting activity. Alabama did not lose a series after Jackson stepped into the interim role, and the Crimson Tide advanced to Supers for the first time since 2010.

Vaughn called himself a people person in his introductory press conference and talked about the importance of building relationships. Both Vaughn and Byrne made it clear that the players have great relationships with Jackson.

"I could tell when I was talking to Rob on the phone before I got in front of him in person that I thought the two of them would gel really well together," Byrne said of Vaughn and Jackson. "And that was the case. So it worked out really well.

"JJ’s a guy that has been in demand, will be in demand, and that’s why we wanted to offer him a multi-year contract to get him to come and stay here. And he has just been first class throughout this entire process.”

Vaughn played college baseball at Kansas State before spending a few years trying professional baseball. He got his first job in coaching at his alma mater in 2011 as an assistant for the Wildcats. He moved to Maryland in 2013 as an assistant until 2017 before taking over head coaching duties in 2018.

Vaughn made it clear that he and his family were thankful for their time in Maryland and enjoyed the community up there, but are happy to be down in the South.

When sitting in on the exit interviews with the players after the season ended, Vaughn felt right at home hearing the Crimson Tide players say "yes sir" and "no sir."

"Gosh, it’s good to be home," Vaughn said. "It’s good to be back down here.”

See also