TAMPA, Fla. — Discipline and togetherness.
Those are two words that University of South Florida baseball players used to describe the message that first-year head coach Mitch Hannahs is preaching.
Hannahs believes those intangibles add up to a winning style.
“The way he goes about his business, there is nothing fake, there is nothing sugar-coated,” USF first baseman Rafael Betancourt said.
There is nothing sweet about the last three seasons for the Bulls — three straight losing seasons.
Hannahs wants to change that. He comes from Indiana State, where the Sycamores had 11 consecutive winning records, including five trips to the NCAA Tournament.
“I think the biggest thing we’ve been working on since the fall is you have to come to practice mad,” Hannahs said. “Tom Brady played mad his entire career. I think for young player, until you learn to come to practice with the mentality you’re on a five-game losing streak, you don’t go at it as you need to to beat really good teams on your schedule.”
With a new coach comes new players, new staff and a fresh way of approaching the game.
“I feel like for a long time, they operated with the mindset of just staying within the rules and not getting in trouble,” Hannahs added. “That gets you in trouble as a team. We need guys with ambition that step outside and let it go and don’t feel like anybody is restraining them.”
Two of the team’s leaders, Betancourt, a preseason All-AAC team selection, and outfielder Marcus Brodil, both point to Hannahs’ team-first culture.
“The past years, we did have talent, but some people were just about themselves,” Brodil said. “They didn’t have that team impact. This year, everyone plays for the team and not themselves.”
“Whatever teams stay together the best are the ones that make it the furthest,” Betancourt added. “Talent can only take you so far, but if you aren’t playing together, then you think you have talent because you have individual stats but the team stats aren’t going to correlate.”
The Bulls open the season at home on Friday night against Iowa.
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