EXCLUSIVE: Early Top Five Rankings Mean NOTHING for Auburn Baseball

0:00Auburn baseball season starts on Friday and they've got a chance to be pretty good. You are locked on Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, welcome on into Lockdown Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers podcast and your host Zach Blackberry. Thank you so much for making locked on Auburn, your first lesson every single day. Today's show features a conversation that we had last week with Auburn hitting coach Gabe Gross. Yes, the Auburn legend himself. We discuss what it means to have such a high ranking going into the season. Spoiler, he doesn't think it means much of anything, as well as certain guys to focus on. If you're an Auburn fan, getting ready for this opening series this weekend, I guess, Youngstown State, here's that conversation. We're now joined by Auburn hitting coach Gabe Gross, coach going into the season. I mean, you guys are respected

1:04across the board, top five, top ten, depending on which poll you look at. Does that change the approach this time of year as the season gets closer and closer? No, and I know a lot of people make a lot of good livens on it, but there's nothing more worthless on the face of the earth than a preseason poll. They're just absolutely is not. I think two years ago, we had a rough year and we were very highly thought of last year. We weren't in any polls to be found whatsoever. It turned out to be a pretty good year and it just, you got to approach it the same way. You got to go on it every single day and that's kind of the mindset right now. Yeah, seems like a lot of fans are really excited about Chris Rembert and his return. Talk about him potentially leading off. From your perspective, what do you see in a guy like Chris Rembert and what can he do this year? Yeah, you know, Chris, you know, whether he's leading off or hitting him, he's going to be somewhere in the front of the line up and maybe hitting lead off. Chris is just a tough out. I thought last year his ability to get very comfortable,

2:11quiet. If that's the right word to use with two strikes, sea pitches, not chase, four skies back into the zone and then still been able to do damage. It opened the game up with a very, very tough at bat off the gate and his influence over his teammates as well. Chris is not a huge vocal leader, but it's hard to find somebody that's more respected and to have out there early in our lineup is a weapon. Coach, obviously, the transfer portal has changed everything about college athletics. When you're dealing with somebody that you're bringing up through the high school ranks and you guys develop them and you know, the specific approach that you guys want each individual player to have. Yeah. How did it change coaching guys like that versus guys who have played baseball at the college level elsewhere and they come in and maybe the approach that they had of their previous stop was a little bit different than what you guys want them to do. What does that look like from your point? Yeah, I'm always of a mindset as a hitting coach. I'm trying to work with what makes the player really good and not take it away from

3:14him. And so, you know, there's certain standards that we're going to uphold no matter who you are, which is transfer or freshmen or how long you've been in our program, but hitting is very unique. I don't think you would try to make, you know, Freddie Freeman be like Mike Trout and you wouldn't try to make, you know, Mike Trout be like whoever else you want to put up. I mean, it's always a little bit of a uniqueness to what they're doing. And a little bit, you know, for the most part, there may be a few more adjustments to be made as freshmen come in mechanically and making sure their brains are working in the right way. And usually a guy, you know, take a Thai clay that's coming in from UAB. Man, it's trying to learn him. What does he do well? What does he have success with? Is there just a way or two that either a small thing within his mechanic and more likely, just an approach adjustment or the way we attack pitchers to help him get better in small ways and not try to overhaul the same thing with a guy that's had success in two or three years of college baseball? Do you guys sit down with these players when they come in or at least during the recruiting

4:19process at any point and say like, okay, what do you think in this situation? Like are you picking each other's brains? Are you trying to figure out what their approach already is? Like how detailed is that conversation? Or do you just kind of deal with it and talk them through as, you know, practice goes on and, you know, all these different offseason trainings go on? Yeah, it's a little bit of both. Sure. It's a little bit about the recruiting process, you know, part of it's just finding out who he is and let him find out who we are. I mean, this is this is what we do. This is what we believe in and you either like it or you don't, you know, I'm not trying to hide what I teach. I'm not trying to hide how I teach. I'm trying to get it out there. It's kind of like, oh, you know, saw your brown song, you know, some girls don't like boys like me, but some girls do, you know, I mean, it just, you know, it's got to be the right fit and then as they get here, it is a constant conversation about hitting. What works and what doesn't? A guy that's got right. How do you go about hitting him as an individual, you know, and you take a good swing.

5:20What were you thinking on that swing? Because what what I can Irish and what Chris Brembert and what Bob and what Todd Clay, what they all think to hit the same pitch might be a little bit different. And as a hitting coach, I need to know that. So when they get off a little bit, I can help bring them back to center. We continue our conversation with coach Gabe Gross in just a moment right here unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Fandall. Fandall is America's number one sports book, The Winter Games are officially here. And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for the events you can only see on the biggest stage every four years, curling folks. We all love curling in the winter games. That's why following the winter games on Fandall, it just makes sense from metal counts to individual events, defining your angle on the sports you care most about. Fandall gives you more ways to stay connected on the action. The winter games are on and there's no better way to follow them than with Fandall. Fandall, play your game. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at WayFair. The new year is here

6:23is the perfect time to reset your routine and refresh your space. If you're spending more time at home, you might as well love how it looks and feels. That's why you should turn to WayFair. Pretty much everything in our bedroom is from WayFair. Pretty much everything from our dining room in our house is from WayFair. Love the durability of the furniture too. I mean, some of the stuff we bought, like right after we got married with some, we got a lot of WayFair gift cards as a wedding gift. And like we bought our dining room table and like it's been with us for a long time. So several moves and I think that's great. So get organized, refreshed, and back on track. This new year for WayFair.com right now to shop all things home. W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. WayFair. Every style, every home. Yeah, several key pieces of the line up coming back. Bob Terrell, Kate Boulou, Bristol Carter, if you guys have already mentioned. What kind of growth have you seen

7:24from them this off season? What should we expect from them this year? You know, everybody's growing. You're always, you know, if you're not growing, you're dying. That's old adage a little bit. But, you know, I think Bristol, on the base paths, man, he has been tough for us to deal with defensively to keep him from stealing bases. I think his study of pictures, their moves, little idiosyncrasies within what they do to give him an advantage of when they're picking and when they're pitching, he has become really, really good at that. Kate Boulou's come done the same thing as well. You know, another thing that it's just reared his head a little bit, you know, Kate Boulou is so fast. You don't, he's so big and he hits them all the long way, but you don't realize how fast that guy is too, and his ability to maybe lay a butt down in situations and beat it out of base hit bond. And even when the guy's sack wants, he's so good at it. And so fast down the line, he can really, really create chaos. Of course, they're high, high level defenders in the outfield, both those guys. And those are the two names just taking my brain. Who else did you ask me about?

8:26Kate Boulou, Bob Terrell, and Bristol Carter. Yeah, Bob. And you know, in the outfield, it's funny. Bob's bumped into and played a little bit of first base. You may see him there at some point in the season, but all three of those guys really, really play in the outfield. Well, I think the, and I talked about Kate and Bristol a little bit. I think the thing that comes to my mind with Bob is just consistency. He is worth so hard at creating a consistent path with his swing consistent. When you saw him last year, it was a lot of really, really hot, really, really cold and, and trying to get to where he is the same guy every single day. And he's been, he's been really good at that so far this year. But, you know, nothing matters. What you've done and when February 13th starts, you got to go, you got to go do it when the lights are on. Yeah, last year you guys had so much talent and depth and somewhat of a rotation at catcher. That seems to be a similar scenario this year, even with some portal ads. Is the plan the same this year at the catcher spot? You know, the plan is going to start with chase

9:29freely. Trying to figure out ways when it's hard because it chases so good you will never seem not back there, but we do have some other options. But trying to maybe keep his legs under him a little bit by giving him a blow from catching every once in a while. Lucas Stil can jump back there looking for Giorgio and even, you know, a freshman, Bella Taylor Belzes is coming along. He was banged up a little bit in the fall. And so we're just getting a real good look at him at the catching position as well. But, you know, it's going to, it's going to start with chase Freilink. He's a, he's a bachelor definitely going to have a lineup every day. And he has grown into a really, really good defensive catcher. Yeah, coaches far as, I mean, you guys may not have been looking this far ahead. But as far as the, the schedule before you guys getting to SEC play, playing a lot of teams that played postseason baseball a year ago, I assume that's by design from, from, from you guys and coach Thompson. But what are you telling your team going into this pretty loaded schedule? Then it just gets even tougher when you look at the top 10. I know you say preseason polls are

10:33worth, but the SEC is good. And obviously, there's a lot of folks there. So, I mean, what's that discussion look like when you prep for the season that's just going to be brutal from, you know, day one till the end of it? Yeah, you just, you just don't respect the jersey. You don't, you don't respect one jersey over another jersey. And when you come out, your mindset's the same. If you can, you know, if you can win a game free to two, then you win a game free to two. If you can win a game 25 to two, then you win a 25 to two. You execute every single at bat, every pitch. You don't respect. If it's LSU or whoever it might be on the other end, it just, you have a certain standard of play that is required of you every time that you cross the white lines and you have a jersey on. Definitely in all of our jersey on. And hopefully that that follows those guys in the professional ranks too. Almost every one of our players have dreams of professional baseball and being a big leader in this like manner. You go in game 111 in July. You're going to not go out there and play with a certain standard, you know, in game 112 and then 113 and it just, it just keeps going and

11:37keeps going. And yeah, college baseball is a little bit different, but there's a, there's a level of the standard of focus and of concentration that every at bat requires, every defensive play requires, every pitch requires to be successful. And we're doing our Danish to train our guys to get there no matter what the team is and no matter what the score is. Coach, thank you so much for your time this morning. Best of luck this season. Great. Great stuff from coach Gabe Gross. Once again, a lot of you guys have been asking for moral Auburn baseball content. So here it is. Obviously this conversation had a little bit with Lindsey earlier today towards the end of the show. But someone, most of the time it will be me, sometimes solo, sometimes with Lindsey, sometimes with Darryl, but we will have post game shows for Auburn baseball starting, of course, after each and every game this series this weekend, I guess young sound state. So lock in folks. Lock in. You guys asked for more of this. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. So with love to see you there. Please like the video. Please subscribe for

12:38you tuned in on audio. Please subscribe and leave us a review there helps to show out a ton. We'll see you next time. This has been locked on Auburn.