It’s said that teams can take on the personality of their coach. Alabama coach Rob Vaughn seems to think that’s the case for his Crimson Tide squad heading into 2025.
Vaughn, a Texas native, once dreamt of playing baseball for Texas A&M. That interest was not reciprocated and Vaughn wound up playing at Kansas State—a program that had little baseball tradition, but one that Vaughn helped take to its first NCAA tournament in a four-year career (2006-09) during which he was the Wildcats’ primary catcher for three years, before then embarking on a brief Minor-League career after the White Sox took him in Round 30 of the 2009 MLB Draft.
“And calling it what it is, we have a lot of guys on this team that other people have said aren’t good enough, whether it’s other teams in our league, whether it’s kids that came out of JUCO,” Vaughn says. “Those are the kinds of kids I love coaching. I love coaching kids that a some point have been (told), ‘You ain’t good enough to play there,’ because that was me.”
Just being himself has been good enough for Vaughn so far. His career arc has taken him to places where baseball is an afterthought such as Maryland, where Vaughn was an assistant under Eric Bakich, taking Bakich’s job when the latter left to become Clemson’s head coach. Vaughn went to three NCAA tournaments in College Park before coming to Alabama, where baseball is a distant third behind football and basketball.
On paper, taking the Alabama head coaching job wasn’t a slam-dunk of a career move. Head coach Brad Bohanan had been removed from that role mid-season following a gambling scandal that broke in the spring of 2023. To Bohanan’s credit, in 2021, he’d just taken the Crimson Tide to their first NCAA regional since 2014, and while Vaughn didn’t know exactly what he was walking into when athletic director Greg Byrne hired him, he found out things could have been worse.
“I’ll give the previous staff credit. I know there were some things that happened there but the cupboard wasn’t bare. Justin Lebron being on the roster, Zane Adams coming in on the roster, but unproven but both very elite players. Riley Quick being on the roster, Ben Hess bingo on the roster. There were some veterans in there that had done it in this league.”
Hess is gone, but the other three are back to form the backbone of this year’s Alabama squad. And of course, Vaughn spent the off-season looking for the kind of hungry, undervalued players he’d once been. But he also landed plenty of other players—among them, LSU transfer Brady Neal and Penn’s Carson Ozmer—that plenty of other schools wanted.
Still, Alabama baseball will be built more in Vaughn’s image and not like a fantasy baseball squad.
“I think I coach these kids well because I am one of those guys. And so we have a team full of that. … We have a sign that hangs up and it says, ‘Just be tougher than them,’” Vaughn says.
And Vaughn seems optimistic he’s built upon that on the heels of a 33-24 season that ended in a regional last year.
“I think the leadership on this team is good, and it’s going to be put to the test here quick… But excited to get this going and excited where we’re at right now,” he says.
THE LINEUP
The Crimson Tide’s lineup will field a mix of quality transfers built around one returning superstar. Vaughn believes it’s an improved bunch in some ways from a year ago.
“I think we have a little bit more of an athletic lineup. I think we’re going to still be able to hit for some power but I think we’re going to be able to create and do some different things there,” he says.
Shortstop Justin Lebron, a first-team freshman all-American last season, is the league’s best shortstop and one of the country’s best. He hit .342/.410/.500 with five home runs in SEC regular-season games last season.
“I think it’s just a super athletic, twitch shortstop. … It’s plus-plus makeup,” Vaughn says.
Vaughn adds that Lebron’s fantastic freshman campaign didn’t go to his head.
“You wonder, coming back into Year 2, does he start to think he’s figured this thing out and start to think, ‘Man, I’m the man, I’m really good!” And you see that decline. And it was really the opposite with him. He’s an even better teammate and I’ve seen him grow in leadership.”
Veteran Will Hodo returns to start at first. He’s a career .270/.396/.458 hitter at Alabama who hit .274/.386/.538 in the league with seven home runs, which tied for the team lead.
Transfers Brennen Norton (Jacksonville State) and Garrett Staton (Samford) may be the other two infield starters.
Norton hit .307/.382/.510, with 25 home runs, in 637 career plate appearances at JSU.
“Man it’s real power. … He played a lot of third at Jacksonville state, we’ve had him more over at second,” Vaughn says.
Staton played second at Samford but can also play third. He was a career .292/.385/.511 hitter, with 32 home runs and 26 steals in 36 tries over 748 plate appearances, at his previous stop.
“It’s power out of him, but it’s (also his) hit tool,” Vaughn says. “And he’s a way better athlete than anybody gives him credit for. … He can run the bases, he can stay bases.”
Vaughn got a blue-chip catcher in LSU transfer Brady Neal, who nearly picked Alabama out of high school. Neal was a 17th-round pick of the Brewers out of high school in 2022, when he was ranked the No. 29 overall high school prospect by Perfect Game.
“I love the man,” Vaughn says. “Mature, understands what he’s wanting, comes from an awesome family. And the thing I love about Brady is, he’s gonna be a guy behind the plate, no question, he can really do it. But he might be one of the best athletes on the field at any given time. He might be our second- or third-best infielder if we needed to. He might be our second- or third-best outfielder if we needed him to.”
Vaughn adds that Neal improved his framing skills over the fall and would slot at second base or left field if moved.
Miami transfer Jason Torres could play first or third, or could DH. After struggling in the fall coming off injury. he’s hit fourth in the lineup in January scrimmages and reminds Vaughn of last year’s star third baseman, Gage Miller. Torres hit .358/.406/.591 over 212 plate appearances in two seasons in Coral Gables.
“The hit tool is real,” Vaughn says. “I mean, he hits balls hard. Like, hard, hard. The at-bats are professional. We’ll see what it is.”
Vaughn wasn’t happy with Alabama’s outfield athleticism last year and believes he upgraded it with JUCO recruits Richie Bonomolo Jr. and Bryce Fowler.
Bonomolo Jr. hit .431/.529/.697 over 436 at-bats, stealing successfully on 105 of 111 tries in two seasons.
“He’s a true center fielder. He can really go get it,” Vaughn says.
Vaughn originally saw Fowler when he went to scout a JUCO pitcher. Fowler was committed to Campbell, but when coach Justin Haire left that job for Ohio State, Vaughn grabbed him on the rebound.
Vaughn deems both “plus throwers” and believes they’ll occupy center and right.
Team captain Kade Snell, who hit .343/.393/.539 in SEC regular-season games last season, returns to play left.
“He ain’t afraid of anything,” Vaughn says. “I feel like that guy will go full Superman on stuff. He’s been a breath of fresh air out there.”
Vaughn’s ties to the Northeast in his stint at Maryland left him with recruiting roots there, which helped him nab New Jersey’s Jon Young Jr., who figures to have a role somewhere. Vaughn considers him Alabama’s shortstop of the future.
THE PITCHING
The Crimson Tide return 11 players who threw innings for them a year ago, and added other key arms through the portal. That includes two big-time arms who were in Alabama’s rotation last year.
“Obviously getting Riley Quick back healthy is huge for us,” Vaughn says. “With him coming back and Zane Adams and some other veterans in that bullpen, I like where we are at this time of year.
Unfortunately, Quick threw just three innings after getting hurt in Alabama’s opening weekend against Manhattan last year undergoing Tommy John surgery days later. In an era of mass transfers, agents and NIL money, nobody is questioning the 6-foot-6, 255-pounder’s loyalty to the program.
And because of Quick’s diligence, Vaughn believes he’s poised to throw 16-17 starts and can manage 85-90 pitches in those in time.
“He’s attacked his rehab like you knew he would,” Vaughn says. “I mean, he’s an Alabama guy, it’s an Alabama family. We cannot give him recruits on Alabama football games at time because if Alabama football goes not play good, Riley goes into a dark place. And so we have to be careful with him with recruits there.”
Vaughn threw his fastball between 97-99 in his lone outing last year, right at the range Vaughn expects this year.
“It’s going to be 97 to 100 this year. He is a draft pick this year. … So he’s attacked his rehab, he’s attacked his nutrition. He’s in great shape. He looks awesome. And we keep having to pull the reins back on him because he felt good. We’re like, ‘Dude, we don’t need you cutting 96 out yet. He threw one inning in our (mid-January) scrimmage. … I think his average fastball was 98, 97 in that game. He got six outs on 17 pitches and was efficient. The slider’s tight. He’s throwing the change-up well.”
Vaughn also believes Quick will benefit from the year off.
“I think Riley’s going to look up after his fifth year in the Big Leagues and say, the best thing that ever happened to me was having TJ and having to kind of sit on the side for a year because he was with me every day,” Vaughn says. “He literally stood right next to me in the dugout every single day. … He was able to watch the game and watch it through a little bit of a different lens and see what the super-successful guys do, see when the successful guys struggled, how they responded and what they did, good or bad.”
Vaughn had to re-recruit Adams—the former staff’s recruit—upon his arrival. But it turned out that wasn’t as tough a task as expected.
“One of the first places I flew was to Porter, Texas, to go sit in Zand Adams’ house,” Vaughn says. “So I knock on the door and go in there. The lady answers the door and her name’s Amanda Zane. Zane’s mom and I went to high school together and I did not realize that was who that was until we walked in.”
As fr the stuff, Vaughn says Adams’s fastball now sits 93-95 from its 88-90 last season, while he’s added a cutter that Vaughn calls “a game changer” to the change-up and curve he already had.
Adams’s mental approach has helped him find success.
“Zane’s biggest attribute is really just a slow heartbeat,” Vaughn says. “The moment doesn’t get big. He’s the ultimate competitor. When he has all his stuff, he’s as tough as it gets. When he doesn’t, man, he just competes. … He understands, ‘this is what I’ve got today, I’ve got to go compete with that, and not compound mistakes. … and I think that’s just a byproduct of his demeanor. And man, he believes in his soul that he deserves success because of how he works and how he goes about his business.”
The third weekend starter is Tyler Fay, a redshirt sophomore from Nebraska who had a strong offseason.
“Heavy sinker, threw a lot out of the ‘pen for us last year,” Vaughn says. “I actually think he profiles a little more as a starter. Started in the Cape all summer, had a great summer up there.”
Vaughn will mix and match his relievers with a purpose.
Hagan Banks, who had season-ending surgery last March, could see starts if heathy. He owns a 3.76 career ERA with 56 strikeouts and just 15 walks over 52 2/3 innings in three years at Alabama.
The Crimson Tide also added Georgia Tech transfer Aeden Finateri, who made 16 starts for Georgia Tech last year and owned a career 5.81 ERA over 172 innings with 172 strikeouts and 63 walks, though home runs (36) were a problem.
“What I hate is facing different looks,” Vaughn says. “I hate the low-slot lefty and then you go to the low-slot righty. They you’ve got the over-the-top righty. Then you’ve got to change up. Those are the things that really mess up an offense. And I think this team has a little bit of different looks and can give you some of that out of the bullpen.
His end-game guy looks to be Penn transfer Carson Ozmer, who had a 2.98 career ERA over 87 2/3 innings with 92 strikeouts, 10 saves and just 32 walks.
“Mature as it gets. … There were times he would go out and throw four innings to finish the game, five innings to finish the game. … It’s a low-slot righty, 92, 93, he’ll come over the top with a mid-90s heater. … He’s tough and he’s mature and he Ian’t going to be afraid of the moment, which is what we love there,” Vaughn says.
JUCO transfer Beau Bryans was the kind of different-look arm that Vaughn was looking to add. Bryans had a 3.67 career ERA with 133 strikeouts over 83 1/2 innings at Jones Junior College.
“Kind of a low-slot lefty with plus stuff,” Vaughn says. “It’s every bit of 95 from a low slot with a good slider, good change-up. He’s going to be in the mix for that.”
Another JUCO transfer, Wallace State’s JT Blackwood, had a 3.17 career ERA with 116 strikeouts over 99 1/3 innings there.
“It’s a plus-plus secondary pitch,” Vaughn says. “He’ll be 92, 93 with some command. He can sink it. He can carry it. But the cutter is real.”
Righty returnee Braylon Myers was one of the SEC’s best relievers a season ago and had a 4.40 ERA in 14 1/3 league innings.
Lefty returnee Matthew Heiberger followed a solid freshman season with a good summer and figures to see time.
Vaughn expects bigger things from another returnee.
“Austin Morris is kind of a dark horse for us,” Vaughn says. “One of our better relievers towards the end of the year last year. I think profiles to be potentially in that kind of spot. So I think there’s some competition for that last role.”
Snell, who threw 23 1/3 innings last year, isn’t listed as a pitcher on this season’s roster.
POTENTIAL STRENGTHS
Vaughn won at Maryland—not a place that put a high value on baseball—and did well with a difficult situation last year at Alabama. A veteran infield headed by an all-American shortstop is a great start. Six guys had double-digit homers at a collegiate stop last year—that doesn’t include Neal, who hit nine—so perhaps power is an asset. The Crimson Tide have plenty of weekend-worthy arms if health isn’t an issue, as well as lots of guys who’ve pitched at a D1 level.
POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES
Health has been an issue for the staff, and there’s more “potential” than “proven” among the top-end arms, making that more of a question. Offensive depth could be a question behind the projected lineup. The league did Vaughn no favors, sending Alabama on road trips to Texas A&M, LSU, Vanderbilt, Florida and Auburn.
FINAL ANALYSIS
So many unknowns—how Quick will return, whether the offensive transfers will hit at this level, whether Fay can take on a bigger load—make the Crimson Tide tough to figure. But a regional berth doesn’t seem unreasonable given all the positives, plus Vaughn’s ability to get the most out of his players.