Episode 452: Lets Talk About It with OU Head Baseball Coach, Skip Johnson

Lets Talk About It with OU Head Baseball Coach, Skip Johnson. 

This is Skip's 8th season at OU. His team won 40-games in '24 and played for the CWS title in '22.

He and his Sooners are part of the 4-team, Karbach Classic at Dell Diamond in Round Rock

Episode 452 is brought to you by Honest Plumbing & Air
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

You know most college baseball programs they head south in the month of February, sometimes early March, to get away from the cold in places like Norman Oklahoma. But as we're doing this interview it feels like temperature is like 19. Is this what you expected in Round Rock Texas? Not really. I mean long. As we're getting to play ball, I guess it's good, especially this time of year, I mean early. It's always good to kind of see the Broncos, especially in an event like what happened here. If they can win something, you can play in Minnesota, oregon State, virginia. It's a really good baseball team. They're very well coached and you can't have them for a better event. But the sponsorship system just in my room is really big.

Speaker 1: 1:02

You think about all these programs and I know it's so early and I guess for fans who are watching you, who watch the coach win hockey, most teams, you really don't know the identity until about what in April. Yeah, usually around April you kind of get going, uh, you try to set some. Uh, you know who's gonna throw what, any in the bullpen, who's gonna play. But you know, in the 22 we played for the national championship. I mean, I totally lie, we played for freshmen too. So you never know. You always tell them at the beginning. I remember Coach Doritos said everybody's my friend right now we're playing here. Everybody's good to play, but your role is to pull your teammates if you're not good to play. So you get to really see guys that learn how to be good teammates and understand the roles. Like last week we had three or four guys come off the bench and we did so. They were paying attention to the game and that's a good sign moving forward.

Speaker 1: 1:51

When you think about what all has changed since the first year in the SEC, you've seen changes at El Del Metro Park, and for the better. But do you see the growth, the improvement of Cal State? Yeah, I do, with the pitch clock and all the things that are happening with it, with, you know, going to SEC. Big 12 is a good place. There's no doubt about that. I mean we were there for a long time. Moving forward, I mean there's two sports in the SEC it's football and baseball, and you know it's a football atmosphere and a baseball arena in the SEC. So we're looking forward to that and just trying to play good baseball play against the ball, not really against the opponent, and go out there and get at them.

Speaker 1: 2:38

Everyone you've had an influence on, whether it be in Texas, oklahoma or in the Barrow. Everyone says the three words that you always say trust the process. Well, it's all about the process. I mean you always say trust the process Well, it's all about the process. And you live your life with the process. I mean you wake up with a routine every day, you go about your business with a routine. I think that's the biggest thing that we can teach guys. I love to win and but it's really not about winning, it's about teaching a guy to be a good father, a good husband, and that's the process of what baseball can teach them through the life lessons they learn. And really that's what makes me tick today more than anything Getting a phone call in December from two guys that play for me at OU.

Speaker 1: 3:20

They graduated, played pro ball, they graduated. It made me really like man, this guy graduated, you know, exciting. It's cold. Where's your mind? Wait, outside of baseball, what are you doing? I'm just sitting in a deer stand hunting deer. So, being in a deer camp, you know, getting ready, going out, picking corn on the road and getting ready to hunt. You know it's this time of year when you feel this cold weather. You know the bucks are going to start running, big deer are going to move. Brother, you're now an official alumni member of our VIP alumni. I appreciate that. Thank you for having me. Good luck to Skip and Sue.