Alabama’s Gaspard hopes to renew glory days

Jim Wells was Alabama baseball for the last 15 seasons.

New Crimson Tide coach Mitch Gaspard knows that better than anyone.

Wells was named the head coach at Alabama in 1995 and wasted little time building a winner. Gaspard was a part of that process as a young assistant coach on his staff.

Little did Gaspard know that years later he’d be the one in charge in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Wells flirted with retirement after the ’07 season. But after just a week off the job, he decided to return. He coached the ’08 and ’09 seasons. But with school in session and fall workouts nearing this past summer, Wells once again surprised everyone by announcing his retirement.

Only this time he was serious.

Just as quick as his retirement was announced, the Crimson Tide signed Gaspard to a three-year deal to coach the team.

Gaspard knew Wells was close to calling it a career, but even he was a bit surprised.

“Really it was unexpected. It wasn’t something we sat down and discussed at all,” Gaspard said. “I knew his time was coming, but wasn’t sure how long it would take. On one hand, I was surprised by his decision. On the other, though, I wasn’t surprised because I knew he was close to retirement.”

There are some who believe the Crimson Tide should’ve gone through a search process. But it’s also important to know that it wasn’t too long ago that Gaspard was one of the nation’s hottest young head coaches.

Before his latest stint on Alabama’s coaching staff, Gaspard spent six seasons as coach at Northwestern State. There, he amassed an impressive 211-128 (.622) record and established a reputation as a good salesman and an excellent coach. It was par the course for a NSU program that has pumped out a number of successful coaches.

Many coaches in Gaspard’s shoes at Northwestern State would’ve waited for an SEC, Big 12 or ACC job to open up. But Gaspard felt it was important to move to an SEC program as an assistant and learn the ropes.

Time will tell if that philosophy pays off.

“Big part of me going to Northwestern State in ’01 was to get prepared to get back to this level in college baseball,” Gaspard said. “You wear a lot of hats at an SLC school. You’re the coach, the office and in some cases, the academic side of things, too. You learn the ins and outs of coaching and I think that was pretty beneficial.”

Once he felt comfortable with his role at Northwestern State, Gaspard jumped back to Alabama two seasons ago. Not as the head coach, though.

“I felt like I was prepared, so it was a high risk and high reward situation to go to Alabama as an assistant coach,” Gaspard said. “There was nothing in writing when I came here saying I’d be the next coach after Jim [Wells] retired. I’m just grateful the administration here at Alabama now is giving me an opportunity to be the head coach.”

As with any coach that spends a significant amount of time as an assistant for a head coach, there are some familiar philosophies when comparing Wells and Gaspard. Gaspard, for instance, was with the program in the mid-to-late 90’s, and would love to restore the hard-nosed attitude those teams were known for. Some would describe that period of time as the glory days of Alabama baseball.

Also important is the program’s offensive philosophy. The past few seasons the Crimson Tide has been known for their power production. Last season, the Tide blasted 107 homers and enjoyed the services of outfielder Kent Matthes, who finished the campaign with 28 homers and 81 RBIs. Brandon May, who also has departed, finished the season with 18 doubles, 12 homers and 69 RBIs.

With Matthes and May out of the equation this fall, Gaspard is tweaking his offense to fit the personnel.

“We lost a lot of homers in the offseason and we’re not going to be as physical as we were last season. But our style also will be different,” he said. “We’re not going to roll out and steal 100 bases, but we’re going to pressure the defense and use the hit and run approach more often. I employed an aggressive style at Northwestern State and that’s what we’re also going to do at Alabama.”

While Gaspard leads the offense and crafts their style, he will count on new pitching coach Kyle Bunn to formulate the pitching staff. Bunn spent the last two seasons at Clemson and also spent six seasons as an assistant for coach Mike Bianco at Ole Miss.

The unit needs assistance after finishing last season with a 5.13 ERA.

“For our pitchers to have their own position coach is huge,” Gaspard said. “Bunn is young, innovative and very passionate about what he does. That makes for a good leader for our pitching staff.”

Off the field, Gaspard isn’t too worried about mastering the recruiting aspect of his program with Bunn and recruiting coordinator Dax Norris leading the way.

There is the facilities issue, though.

Alabama has one of the largest stadiums in the SEC. However, it is outdated and lacks the amenities of some of the newer ballparks at South Carolina, LSU and Ole Miss. Gaspard said the Crimson Tide is in the process of renovating meeting rooms at Sewell-Thomas Stadium. Other renovation projections may be on the way, too.

“The administration knows what we need in terms of renovations, but outside of the stadium, we have some pretty good academic and weight room facilities,” Gaspard said. “On the scale of the SEC, we know where we’re at. We can take care of some of these issues by simply winning in a big way.”

There are other reasons Gaspard isn’t worried about recruiting against other SEC programs with far superior stadiums.

“There aren’t too many schools in the country where you can turn it to CBS at 2:30 p.m. each week and see the school’s football team playing. We don’t make too many phone calls where recruits don’t know what we’re all about,” he said. “We have great tradition here and we have five active pitchers in Major League Baseball. It’s not arrogance or anything like that, but we’re proud to be Alabama. It’s definitely a selling point.”

Now it’s time to turn all this into wins on the field.

Gaspard has fond memories of watching the Crimson Tide record three of their five College World Series appearances in ’96, ’97 and ’99.

Alabama has a guy that will stop at nothing to restore the glory days.

In more ways than one, that attitude is refreshing.