The transcript of Travis Jewett's 14 1/2 minute introductory speech can be accessed here.
http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/news...vis-jewett-introductory-press-conference.aspx
Here's the transcript from his 15-minute conversation with reporters right after his introduction. EDITORIAL COMMENT: He and David Pierce are so different, with Pierce sticking to the point and never elaborating on anything while Jewett rambles a bit and gets passionate about what he is saying. There is no one way to be successful, but both guys are true to themselves.
You talked about using academics as a recruiting tool to Tulane. Can you elaborate on that, and how much will your experience at Vanderbilt help?
"I don't know if I can put a price tag on help much it's going to help. I understand the academic criteria. I understand the financial aid component. I love that. I do. I want to sell that to people. I want people that want that themselves. To me that's important. I think to get an educated kid and a family that wants education, you're already ahead of the game. You want to talk about a team? You have a bunch of guys that are motivated about something, and it's not always all about baseball, but that part of it will help us on the field. I promise you. There weren't many schools that I was leaving Vanderbilt for even though I wasn't the head coach. I wasn't. This is one of those schools."
What do you feel like Tulane needs to get to the College World Series?
"Me. No, I'm just kidding. Make sure you scratch that. Just a togetherness, an investment level that matches the expectations of the players. You can't lay around in bed all day if you want to hit .400, nor can you skip class if you want to get a 4.0. It's like what are you willing to do? I need to see an investment level from coaches, players, trainers, equipment managers. Everybody needs to be invested, and if we all invest at a level that's worth its return, then we'll have a shot, and if we don't, they'll be a lot of tears, speaking of crying because that's just what happens when you're emotional and you care about what you're around and what you're putting into it. Now, whether it hits the chalk line or not, I can't tell you about that, but that's what we need. And good pitching. I didn't say that either. And strike throwers and power sliders in the 9th inning."
As a hitting coach, what is your overriding philosophy about hitting?
"Overriding. Hit, hit versus anything. But I will tell you this, I'm not going to stand there and just hit and watch the guys stand on the mound and look vertically at me and not change his body position, which means put him in the stretch. It's not going to happen. If I'm just going into a game trying to just hit and he's not letting me just hit, then we're going to be multi-faceted where we can be able to turn that pitcher sideways, create some offense. I want to run. I want the kids to feel good about running. I want green lights. I want all that kind of stuff because good pitching is good pitching. Round balls and round bats in fair territory and good defenders, it's hard, so you have to have some different ways to do it. Now, if it's three-run homer, three-run homer, three-run homer, I'm Earl Weaver at his finest. I love it, but it's not always like that."
For all of Tulane's success the past two years, it broke school records for strikeouts in both seasons. How do you fix that, or what is your philosophy about that?
"Well, be careful when you say fix because sometimes you don't have to. Because if your DNA so to speak says strikeout but other strands of it say 75 home runs and a league championship and a regional berth and things like that, those strikeouts don't mean much. Now if it's last place, no regional, striking out and 22 home runs, you have a real problem. So fixing it is a little bit of a weird word, but I'm going to say this. I'm going to try to teach our guys to understand who they are as players, put them in what we call personnel groupings. I almost do something cool where we put them in football positions, so to speak, and then try to understand ball flights, who they are, runners, non-runners, power guys, non-power guys and then set up training regimens in their investment that says this: The guy with no power, I don't want him to strike out as much. The guy with power, I'm OK with him striking out and then the next time, three-run jack. I just am."
http://www.tulanegreenwave.com/news...vis-jewett-introductory-press-conference.aspx
Here's the transcript from his 15-minute conversation with reporters right after his introduction. EDITORIAL COMMENT: He and David Pierce are so different, with Pierce sticking to the point and never elaborating on anything while Jewett rambles a bit and gets passionate about what he is saying. There is no one way to be successful, but both guys are true to themselves.
You talked about using academics as a recruiting tool to Tulane. Can you elaborate on that, and how much will your experience at Vanderbilt help?
"I don't know if I can put a price tag on help much it's going to help. I understand the academic criteria. I understand the financial aid component. I love that. I do. I want to sell that to people. I want people that want that themselves. To me that's important. I think to get an educated kid and a family that wants education, you're already ahead of the game. You want to talk about a team? You have a bunch of guys that are motivated about something, and it's not always all about baseball, but that part of it will help us on the field. I promise you. There weren't many schools that I was leaving Vanderbilt for even though I wasn't the head coach. I wasn't. This is one of those schools."
What do you feel like Tulane needs to get to the College World Series?
"Me. No, I'm just kidding. Make sure you scratch that. Just a togetherness, an investment level that matches the expectations of the players. You can't lay around in bed all day if you want to hit .400, nor can you skip class if you want to get a 4.0. It's like what are you willing to do? I need to see an investment level from coaches, players, trainers, equipment managers. Everybody needs to be invested, and if we all invest at a level that's worth its return, then we'll have a shot, and if we don't, they'll be a lot of tears, speaking of crying because that's just what happens when you're emotional and you care about what you're around and what you're putting into it. Now, whether it hits the chalk line or not, I can't tell you about that, but that's what we need. And good pitching. I didn't say that either. And strike throwers and power sliders in the 9th inning."
As a hitting coach, what is your overriding philosophy about hitting?
"Overriding. Hit, hit versus anything. But I will tell you this, I'm not going to stand there and just hit and watch the guys stand on the mound and look vertically at me and not change his body position, which means put him in the stretch. It's not going to happen. If I'm just going into a game trying to just hit and he's not letting me just hit, then we're going to be multi-faceted where we can be able to turn that pitcher sideways, create some offense. I want to run. I want the kids to feel good about running. I want green lights. I want all that kind of stuff because good pitching is good pitching. Round balls and round bats in fair territory and good defenders, it's hard, so you have to have some different ways to do it. Now, if it's three-run homer, three-run homer, three-run homer, I'm Earl Weaver at his finest. I love it, but it's not always like that."
For all of Tulane's success the past two years, it broke school records for strikeouts in both seasons. How do you fix that, or what is your philosophy about that?
"Well, be careful when you say fix because sometimes you don't have to. Because if your DNA so to speak says strikeout but other strands of it say 75 home runs and a league championship and a regional berth and things like that, those strikeouts don't mean much. Now if it's last place, no regional, striking out and 22 home runs, you have a real problem. So fixing it is a little bit of a weird word, but I'm going to say this. I'm going to try to teach our guys to understand who they are as players, put them in what we call personnel groupings. I almost do something cool where we put them in football positions, so to speak, and then try to understand ball flights, who they are, runners, non-runners, power guys, non-power guys and then set up training regimens in their investment that says this: The guy with no power, I don't want him to strike out as much. The guy with power, I'm OK with him striking out and then the next time, three-run jack. I just am."