Tennessee Baseball won’t be travelling to Arlington’s Globe Life Field until the end of February for the playing of the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series but the coaches taking part in then showcase – including Josh Elander – took part in a joint press conference Thursday morning.   

Elander was joined by UCLA head coach John Savage and Virginia Tech head coach John Szefc during his assigned 30-minute Zoom availability.

The following is a written transcript of the Josh Elander portion of Thursday’s press conference.

On how he’s gone about taking over the program and implementing his tweaks…

“Obviously, we’re very happy with how things have gone over the years over here. We always want to continue to get a little bit better in every facet. So, we’re not trying to go in here and try to redo this thing, or, “Hey, we have some new staff members.” We’re confident with the people and the players we have on the roster – not really any kind of major changes. Just making sure we’re over-communicating with the players if there is a change, but for the most part, just kind of sticking with what has worked for us over the years.”

On how the weather has affected preseason work…

“We’ve definitely had to deal with more cold here than we have. Usually we’re pretty fortunate where it’s never really too cold or never really too hot. But we’re very fortunate to have great facilities. We’ve had to share the indoor facility with softball, so it’s been cool to see some of the other sports getting after it as well. We’ve been a little careful on the pitching side. We’re looking at the real feel of temp. Coach Szefc (Virginia Tech coach John Szefc) probably knows well better than me, but I used to never look at the weather app as an assistant. I’ve probably got it the number one app I’ve looked at over the last two or three weeks now. But we can look at it one way, where we can make excuses. We’re not getting outside enough. What our guys have done is really getting after it in the indoor and it’s going to be a little chilly today, and we’ll get outside. We want to get on the field as much as we can as we get a little bit closer to opening day.”

On if there’s any injury updates on Blake Grimmer and Garrett Wright…

“Garrett obviously had the hamate surgery. He is about two weeks out now. He got his sutures out. So it is a pain tolerance deal. But obviously being a catcher, too, that adds another element to it as he comes back to hitting as well.”

“Grimm has still been day to day. Been playing it very safe with him. Very confident in what his abilities are and what he is able to do for us. There will be no rush as he comes back from a little bit of a sore back. We will play it safe there with Grimm.”

On the starting pitching outlook and if anyone has been limited…

“We feel good about where we’re at. Coach (Josh) Reynolds has done a phenomenal job with the guys. When I say careful, again, we’ve been on track with pitch counts and everything we need. If that real feel temp is lower, obviously we’re going inside to keep those guys safe. We put a big point of emphasis on this weekend coming up, make it a big competitive series for the guys and we’ve got some head-to-head competition going. Regardless of how we go opening weekend, just looking at it over the years, the rotation is never the same the first weekend as is the middle or then obviously the end of the year as well. So, that competition will continue throughout the entire year, but confident we’ll be able to match them up. We’ll see what’s best for the team next weekend.”

On what injury Blake Grimmer is dealing with…

“With Grimm, he’s just got some lower back soreness that he’s working through. Again, but we just want to be able to stack like consecutive days. That’s been the biggest challenge for him so far, is balancing all the reps and fighting the cold weather a little bit. So we got a great training staff and people that are right on top of that. But, again, with Grimm, like we want to go bird’s eye view. Again, we’re all excited for opening day, but you got to keep the big picture in mind this time of year with a talent like Grimm. So we’ll keep you guys posted on that.”

On Blaine Brown’s talent as a two-way player…

“And then Blaine, again, was a huge win for us in the portal. Just obviously elite athlete, elite makeup, but he’s really integrated incredibly well in the locker room. Which is, as we all know as coaches, can be a little bit tricky at times when you’re bringing some guys in, but a perfect match. But, again, I think he’s got a chance to hit 20 homers in this league for a couple years, and then he can get up on the mound and run up to 95-98 from the left side. And again, we’ve been kind of blending the two in the fall. When Frank (Anderson) was here, we were kind of stretching him out a little bit. We’ve kind of condensed that a little bit because I think he’s going to be that special offensively, but it’s a premier talent, and we’re thankful he’s wearing the orange this year.”

On the competition in the middle infield, how shortstop battle could impact other spots…

“Definitely could be a domino effect. I think on the position side we have more versatility than we have in the past where traditionally we’ve had kind of some bombers right and we’d work around and be a little bit more stationary. But with this group, I think we have a lot more confidence going into mix and match. Right-handed, left-handed, some guys that have maybe a little more defensive prowess, but have closed the gap offensively. So it’s as much competition behind the plate, and then also on the dirt that we’ve ever had this year. So again, the last few weeks down the stretch here, I’ve told them very simply, like, ‘hey, force us to put you in there, right?’ And I think our guys have taken advantage of that, and they’re competing well. But again, that’ll be a deal. I don’t know how we’ll run opening weekend yet, but we’re capable of running three or four different infields, but I would like to quicker, rather than later, kind of get those guys in the spot and give them some ABs and let them run and settle in and see what they can do.”

If he likes playing eight straight games at home to open the season before traveling to Texas to face No. 1 UCLA, Arizona State and Virginia Tech…

“I know last time we went down to the event, I think we opened up and played a really good Texas Tech team, and AJ Russell really threw the ball well. It’s just a great event, right? A major league stadium. I think the guys get really excited for it, and it’s just run at a very high level, where even just the length of practice time or the pregame, we’re able to get everything done throughout the course of the deal.

“But, yeah, I mean, with the schedule, we want to play at home as much as we can. You know, we’ve invested a lot of money with our administration and what our players have been able to accomplish in a fantastic facility. We’re really excited to open that deal up. But, you know, from a development standpoint, we talk about all the time, you have a little bit more control of your day when you’re at home, when you’re not wasting time on the bus or whatever it may be. We play a little bit earlier in the year, instead of the 6:00, we’ll go 3:00 or 4:00. But again, it’s really a developmental period for us early in the year. 

“But there’s no doubt. I mean, this is incredible competition we’re walking into where we got our hands full and excited for the challenge, but thankful we’re going to be able to play at Lindsey Nelson a lot this year.”

On the team playing in Chattanooga the week before Tony Vitello left for the San Francisco Giants, where the team has grown the furthest since then…

“I just think there’s more stability. There was so much unknown there. I mean, it was obviously an odd time, and obviously incredibly excited for Tony. What an incredible experience. And, you know, I think I’ve spent as a player or coach, probably a dozen years in the dugout with V in different capacities, right? But our players have done a phenomenal job with everything going on with, like Coach John Savage referenced with the social media, that was probably the biggest challenge, was everything, all the riffraff around the scenes. But I think as we’ve gotten further away from the Christmas period, and I love how the NCAA has opened it up a little bit more, so we can get practice going a little bit earlier. As we get further from that, the focus has clearly been on, hey, let’s get to opening day and stack days in the meantime.”

On his emotions as he prepares for his first weekend as the head coach of Tennessee baseball…

“We’re excited. I know our guys are ready to play, but we’re going to take advantage of, we got another week, or whatever it may be, till we get rocking and rolling. So again, kind of reference the competition, how it shakes out on the mound. We got some guys going head to head this weekend. We stacked it up instead of kind of going consecutive days. But also there’s so much competition and versatility on the roster, I think really Opening Day will be the first lineup, and there’ll be changes from there. But I think at this point, we all maybe have those thoughts where we want a little bit more practice time, but I know our players are getting to the point where they want to play a different uniform across the way. So, looking forward to that.”