NC State AHC Chris Hart met with the media to discuss Coach Avent's retirement, his promotion, the regional matchup with UCF, and much more!
NOTE: Click the video above to watch the full press conference!
Chris, do you think anybody in the country would have done for you what Elliott did for you when he gave you those responsibilities?
No, and that's what I told the team. I mean, when I talked to the team, whatever that was, on Friday, in that position, where I was at, especially at that time in college baseball, there was only one recruiting guy, one pitching coach. It was so hard to get in at all. First of all, he hired me; he's talking about it with Eddie Biedenbach. He hired me when I was 24 years old. At that time, I was taking anything, whatever you got, I didn't care. As the director of baseball operations back then, I was thinking, no one really had them, no one really knew what it was. It was basically a coach who didn't get paid much. Then they changed the rules, made it so that operations guys were in the office, not uniformed.
And I told him, I just can't do that. I don't want to be in the office sitting there all day. And as I said, at that time, it was just so hard to get into it; it was so hard to get a college job, because they would say, “You don't have any experience. You're like, well, how am I supposed to get it?” It was tough.
So basically, when that happened, and I can't even remember who left, but it might have been Coach Guzzo, it might have been Chris Roberts, I can't remember exactly. But basically, in the interim time, I just said, “Hey, I'm getting in the car, and I'm going.” And I just started driving around. I stayed in Atlanta for three weeks. I drove to Florida. I just started driving around the country recruiting. And I think everybody in our world, probably Ray Tanner included, probably told him, “Don't do it, can't do it, he doesn't have experience, you don't know if he's going to be able to recruit, you don't know.” And that was the theme in college baseball, as I said.
No, I don't think anybody would have necessarily made that move at that time, and he did. So it was probably a stupid move, to be honest with you. It turned out pretty good for our program in the long run, I guess, but most coaches in the country would not have done that when I was 26 years old with not a lot of experience. And I'll always know what he did for me, for sure.
And then the follow-up to that, sir, is what he did for you, I guess it was 2009 or 2010, when he gave you the responsibility. Would somebody in the country have done that?
Maybe. As I said, I was kind of a madman for those first, shoot, maybe 15 years, where it was, like I said, I just hit the road and would go. And during that time frame, I ended up getting Brett Austin, Trea, Carlos, and Jason Creasy didn't come here, and shoot, there were a lot of them. I think in that class, we were worried about Brett, Carlos, Trea, Jake Junis, and we had four other guys signed in that class that signed professionally out of high school that we weren't necessarily too worried about. We were worried about the big ones, and we spent a lot of time with those big guys.
But I think at some time after that class, when we had those guys committed, and we kind of realized, man, these guys are all really, really good, I don't even know if he officially told me, I think he just whispered in my ear, hey, you're the recruiting coordinator, that's what you are. So it kind of was, hey, it's yours, do whatever you want, offer whatever you want, I trust you, go, and it has kind of been like that since that time.
What about your status kept you here for 22 years?
Man, everything. One, like I told you, is what he did in that decision, and then constantly giving me more and more and more, delegating more and more and more to me to where it was, I felt like, we know a lot of people in this business, we talk to friends that are coaches at other places, and the grass isn't greener necessarily at other places. You hear tough stories a lot of times, and you're like, man, I got it pretty darn good, I like it here, I love Raleigh, I love NC State. I told the chancellor when he was in our dugout, and he came up to me and said, “Hey, I saw your chancellor this weekend, and I said, “Well, you're my chancellor. And that's how I feel about NC State.”
What are some of the things you want to keep the same once this is fully yours, and maybe what are some things that you might want to change or kind of put your own stamp on?
We'll definitely get into that after the season ends. Right now, we're 100% focused on now and this team, and winning in Auburn, and going down there, and we've been up there for the last, whatever, 24 plus hours. Trying to work on three teams that we've got to be ready for, and so we'll get into all that stuff, and I definitely have thoughts, and I am kind of going through it in my mind of what we're going to do. But as I said, right now, we're trying to focus as hard as we can on this team, and go and win a regional that's got three really good teams in it.
Yeah, I was gonna say, this job in general, what does it mean to you, and how important is it for you to finish this year strong with Coach Avent before you end up taking over?
Yeah, I mean, obviously, yesterday, we were all really happy. One, this team, I think, deserves it, right? The things this team has been through are nothing like I've ever seen in my life. And then to finish Coach off by having a big NCAA tournament was important, I think, to everybody in this whole building.
And like I said, we want to win, we're not going down there to have a celebratory regional for Coach Avent by any means. Our team believes we can go down there and win. We're going to go down there prepared and ready to go, and have our pitching lined up. And we haven't had our pitching lined up in, shoot, six weeks, I feel like. It's been a scratching and clawing effort, trying to get back to where we can get it lined up. And so we're finally rested, we're finally healthy and ready to go. We've got guys back healthy and ready to play, and as I said, we're going to go down there with everything we've got to try to win that regional.
