Over the sound of street noise from my phone’s speaker, Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon confirmed the obvious.
“I’m in Atlanta,” he exclaimed excitedly. “I’m trying to find some baseball players.”
Bohannon’s cheerful demeanor is contagious. Combined with his positive nature and his strong character, you have what many high school graduates see in him: not only a solid recruiter, but also a real person.
I’m using the high-character modifier on purpose. If you listen to Bohannon talk about his baseball team for more than a few minutes, you’ll hear him use the same two words to describe the coaches and players on his program. It is this high quality of character that he seeks in recruits, and that goes for his employees in Alabama as well.
Bohannon trained as an assistant in Kentucky for 12 seasons before taking on the same position at Alabama’s arch-rival Auburn from 2016 to 2017. Bohannon’s hiring in the summer of 2017 raised some eyebrows, but his coaching family tree soon let those eyebrows rest.
Maroon athletics
Now Bohannon is heading into the off-season after advancing into his fourth season in 2021. The Crimson Tide reached its first SEC tournament since 2016 and made its first NCAA Regional since 2014, a huge leap forward for the burgeoning program.
With the improvement his team has shown this season, Bohannon’s task is again to build the team even stronger for the next year. In the 2021 MLB Draft, five of his most important players from last season went to the pros along with his top signer in the Crimson Tide.
Add assistant coach Jerry Zulli, who is retiring from baseball, and student assistant coach Kyle Cameron, who is leaving the program to work at Jacksonville State, and Bohannon has more on his plate than there was in an off-season is typical.
That being said, Bohannon knows what it takes to build a successful program. It starts with talented coaches who can recruit talented players.
“I feel like every college baseball program is based on that – you have to have talent,” said Bohannon. “You have to be able to get really talented players into the SEC, but you also have to train them really well. If you’re not really strong in either area, you’ll kick your butt quickly. “
With former volunteer assistant coach Matt Reida taking over the second assistant seat, Bohannon still needed a volunteer assistant. For this assistant job, Bohannon took advantage of a connection that most Crimson Tide fans would not willingly pursue.
Bohannon used his Auburn connection.
The current workforce in Alabama has quite a few Auburn ties. If you look at the program’s coaching staff, a total of five of the seven employees – including Bohannon – have ties to the Tigers.
This list includes the latest addition to the program and the new volunteer assistant coach, Hunter Morris.
“I got Hunter to say ‘Roll Tide’ a few times before I offered him the job,” joked Bohannon. “It had to roll on his tongue and he said it with conviction a few times before I made him the offer.”
Maroon athletics
Bohannon and Morris first met in 2005 when Bohannon was in Kentucky and Morris was a young high school candidate. While Morris ultimately chose to play for Auburn instead of playing for Kentucky and Alabama, Bohannon made quite an impression on him.
“My relationship with coach Bohannon dates back to around 2005 when he recruited me while he was an assistant in Kentucky,” said Morris. “Always had great respect for him – what he was able to build up in various positions in the recruiting area.”
Morris is a household name among Auburn baseball fans. When he played for the Tigers from 2008 to 2010, Morris burned his name into the top 10 of the program’s seven single-season records. His records of most home runs (23) and total bases (202) are still in place today.
After being named All-American and SEC Player of the Year in 2010, Morris left a year early after being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers. Unfortunately for the young first baseman, his career ended after five seasons due to injury.
After finishing his professional baseball career, Morris returned to Auburn in 2017 to complete his degree. There he worked as a student assistant and worked with – you guessed it – Bohannon.
“Honestly, [we] took it to a whole new level when we worked together at Auburn for a year, ”said Morris. “We see so much at eye level. Everything from recruiting and developing the players to the philosophy of hitting – he does a great job with the infielders – everything kind of fit together perfectly.
“Everything from personality to someone I enjoy working with, hopefully for a very long time here. Hopefully, in order to be on the same page on all of this, it will continue to add excitement and energy to this program. “
It’s not uncommon for coaches to hire assistants who see the game as they do. However, when speaking to Bohannon and Morris on two separate phone calls, the two sound almost like the same person, they are just speaking through two different mouths.
Like Bohannon, Morris has a cheerful nature that will even make you smile when you talk to him on the phone. While unable to recruit as a volunteer assistant, he hopes to return to these duties one day should his name be called to ascend in the coaching tree. That, or the NCAA, is passing laws that allow volunteer assistants to do this.
Both Bohannon and Morris place a high value on the recruitment and development of personalities of high character. Bohannon often emphasizes that while talent and skills are abundant on the Diamond, it is a little more difficult to find kids who fit into the shape of the team.
Fortunately, high quality skills and high quality character often go hand in hand. Both Bohannon and Morris share this philosophy.
“We share a lot of the same concepts, but it will be a different voice,” said Bohannon. “He’s going to go ahead and tweak and I believe in him and he’s going to do a great job.”
For now, Morris will have to postpone recruiting and focus his efforts on improving the Crimson Tide’s hit rate. After his year in Auburn and a year in Samford, Morris became an assistant at UT-Martin, where, in addition to recruiting, he dramatically improved the Skyhawks bats.
UT-Martin Athletics
In 2019, UT-Martin produced 48 home runs – the third most home runs in a single season in the history of the program at the time. The 2020 Skyhawks roster then hit 14 long balls in 16 games and were on track to top the 2019 total before the season was officially canceled due to COVID-19.
In 2021, Skyhawks picked up exactly where they left off, resuming that surge in electricity in 2021, hitting 58 home runs – the second most in a single season in program history.
With these results, there is no doubt that he has the experience needed to develop players in Alabama. But what about player development for their time after Tuscaloosa?
Morris is motivated to develop young players who can play baseball after they graduate from college. With a lot of enthusiasm in his voice, Morris excitedly explained his philosophy of increasing the potential of young players.
“I think any player at this level should have ambition and a desire to play beyond college baseball,” said Morris. “What kind of carrot is that you’re hunting? What is your motivational factor? Aside from just being a competitive person and being an athlete at that level, there has to be something else that you are working towards and working towards.
“Whatever I did to throw myself back when I somehow bumped into that wall in AAA there for the past three or four years and couldn’t get over that hump – apart from the injuries – how did I prepare for what might have can I do differently? and hopefully to help these guys not to make the same mistakes as me. “
Morris is clearly committed to one thing: transforming high-character players into high-quality baseball players. Bohannon saw these high-quality intangibles in Morris, and that alone should make Alabama fans see the impact he can have on Tuscaloosa.
Although Morris doesn’t have a background in Tuscaloosa, he and his family – his wife Macie and three children Tripp, Charlotte, and Ellie Kate – are happy to have returned to the state of Alabama. They may be on the geographic side, which is different from what they’re used to, but Morris insisted he was excited and ready to get to work.
And what does Morris think of swapping his “War Eagle” for “Roll Tide”?
“I’ve said ‘Roll Tide’ every day since I’ve been here,” “chuckled Morris. “And I’ll keep saying it.”
Comments are closed.