Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Coaches Check-In Episode 11: Jeff Breeden
7/31/2023 6:49:00 AM | Softball
The Blue Raider softball coach talks the program’s big plans after a big run in the postseason this spring
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Head Softball Coach Jeff Breeden joins GoBlueRaiders.com Staff Writer for the penultimate episode of the Coaches Check-In Podcast for the summer of 2023.
Fresh off an exhilarating run to the Tuscaloosa Regional final after winning this year's CUSA Tournament, Breeden chats about the memories and lessons from the postseason run, how that performance in the clutch has changed the game for the program on the recruiting trail, before diving into his incoming roster and upcoming fall season at Blue Raider Softball Field.
You can find excerpts of the podcast below, lightly edited for grammar, clarity and flow. The full episode is available for download or to stream at the link above, or by visiting the "Podcasts" tab under "Multimedia" on GoBlueRaiders.com.
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All of MTSU's coaches are busy in the summer recruiting, but I've noticed softball goes the extra mile, often spending a whole week rather than just a weekend at tournaments. What is the summer recruiting scene like for softball?
It's tiresome. For example, the first weekend out (associate head coach Helen Peña) went to California, I went to Florida. The next weekend, I'm gone to Birmingham, she's gone to Las Vegas. I came back, I went to Colorado basically for two weeks, the whole time. And Colorado is a different animal all amongst itself. There was three tournaments up there, from the international tournament, to the triple crown, to the IDT in Boulder. And it's all over the entire state. You just travel and travel and travel while you're up there. But there's 2000 teams up there. Basically, the softball world shuts down and moves to Colorado the last week of June and first week of July. That's what we did as well.
We try to find the best players that we can to fit the culture that we've got set. And just to be honest with you, for us to take the next step up and try to make a super regional, our pool of players has gotten a lot smaller. Because we're going to have to be able to beat the Alabama's of the world twice in one day now to take the next step. We're recruiting against the University of Tennessees of the world, the Auburns, the Alabamas, the UCLAs. Our job has gotten much harder to take that next step to the super regional, which is what we all want to do.
The subhead I have on my list of questions is "catching your breath after the run to the regional final in 2023". Having had the chance to catch your breath, how quickly did y'all determine the next step was "We need to make moves to be able to make a run to the Super Regionals"?
We had a great run at the end of the season. We win the conference championship. I told the kids when you win the conference championship, there's no other feeling you've had like coming home and the next couple of days before the NCAA announcement show. Those couple of days, you're just so energized, you're having so much fun with that. And then you turn right around and go to whatever region you're assigned to and you start playing again. And you've got a whole lot of energy there.
When we beat Alabama, and now we're a legitimate force to get into the finals, I never envisioned that we could get this thing to the super regional. But we beat Alabama in the first final game and immediately it goes through my mind, 'We're close to a super regional.' All we've got to do is play one more game and we're taking this thing to the next level and we're going to be in the top 16 teams in the country. Not the top 16 mid-majors in the country, the top 16 TEAMS in the country.
That hit me just immediately when we won the first one. And we're going through that last game with Alabama, the if game, and I'm hoping we're going to be the one to hit that home run. Kamryn Carcich just pitched her butt off, we keep playing and playing, we get base runners, but it just doesn't happen. We don't get that timely hit and that's what you've got to do. You've got to get that timely hit to score some runs and we didn't do that.
But that does not deter from the run we made. It was just wonderful. But immediately on the bus ride out of Tuscaloosa, I'm thinking about what we've got to do this to be playing next week. Well, we've got to recruit just a little bit better, work a little bit harder, score a few more runs, it's got to all come together. And there's just all kinds of pieces of the puzzle and all those pieces have to interact and flow together. We had all those pieces come together at the right time for us and we've just to keep working at it.
If you get to that point enough, you're going to be able to kick that door down and go to the next level. That's what we're going to try to do.
Have you had much time to reflect on how quickly that run came together? Because I'm still wrapping my head around it all months later.
We've had time to reflect on it now and all. Of course, as we've been out recruiting this summer, everybody has said, 'Hey, we were watching the game,' or 'Here's where we were.' We've had some JuCo players say, 'Hey, we just go through our tournament, we were on the bus.' The whole bus, Walters State was coming back home from their nationals and they were watching us. Time and time again, people are telling you, 'Hey, we were pulling for you.'
I guess the best compliment I think I've gotten is that I got a couple of emails when we got back the next week from Alabama fans. There was a gentleman in Birmingham that shot me an email and said, 'Look, I've been a season ticket holder at Alabama ever since they opened the stadium. After this weekend, I am an Alabama fan, but I'm also a Middle Tennessee State fan.'
I told my kids that, because I think one of things we're always after in everything that we do is that we're after our fans getting a good fan experience. I want our fans to walk away saying, 'That team is passionate about what they do.' To have a Power 5, Alabama, and I think their facility and their fan base is as good as any in America. They're avid. People don't understand unless you're in it at the time. For us to capture fans is what we try to do all the time and to capture some of their fans is just a tremendous feat for our players.
Listen to the full podcast
Fresh off an exhilarating run to the Tuscaloosa Regional final after winning this year's CUSA Tournament, Breeden chats about the memories and lessons from the postseason run, how that performance in the clutch has changed the game for the program on the recruiting trail, before diving into his incoming roster and upcoming fall season at Blue Raider Softball Field.
You can find excerpts of the podcast below, lightly edited for grammar, clarity and flow. The full episode is available for download or to stream at the link above, or by visiting the "Podcasts" tab under "Multimedia" on GoBlueRaiders.com.
---
All of MTSU's coaches are busy in the summer recruiting, but I've noticed softball goes the extra mile, often spending a whole week rather than just a weekend at tournaments. What is the summer recruiting scene like for softball?
It's tiresome. For example, the first weekend out (associate head coach Helen Peña) went to California, I went to Florida. The next weekend, I'm gone to Birmingham, she's gone to Las Vegas. I came back, I went to Colorado basically for two weeks, the whole time. And Colorado is a different animal all amongst itself. There was three tournaments up there, from the international tournament, to the triple crown, to the IDT in Boulder. And it's all over the entire state. You just travel and travel and travel while you're up there. But there's 2000 teams up there. Basically, the softball world shuts down and moves to Colorado the last week of June and first week of July. That's what we did as well.
We try to find the best players that we can to fit the culture that we've got set. And just to be honest with you, for us to take the next step up and try to make a super regional, our pool of players has gotten a lot smaller. Because we're going to have to be able to beat the Alabama's of the world twice in one day now to take the next step. We're recruiting against the University of Tennessees of the world, the Auburns, the Alabamas, the UCLAs. Our job has gotten much harder to take that next step to the super regional, which is what we all want to do.
The subhead I have on my list of questions is "catching your breath after the run to the regional final in 2023". Having had the chance to catch your breath, how quickly did y'all determine the next step was "We need to make moves to be able to make a run to the Super Regionals"?
We had a great run at the end of the season. We win the conference championship. I told the kids when you win the conference championship, there's no other feeling you've had like coming home and the next couple of days before the NCAA announcement show. Those couple of days, you're just so energized, you're having so much fun with that. And then you turn right around and go to whatever region you're assigned to and you start playing again. And you've got a whole lot of energy there.
When we beat Alabama, and now we're a legitimate force to get into the finals, I never envisioned that we could get this thing to the super regional. But we beat Alabama in the first final game and immediately it goes through my mind, 'We're close to a super regional.' All we've got to do is play one more game and we're taking this thing to the next level and we're going to be in the top 16 teams in the country. Not the top 16 mid-majors in the country, the top 16 TEAMS in the country.
That hit me just immediately when we won the first one. And we're going through that last game with Alabama, the if game, and I'm hoping we're going to be the one to hit that home run. Kamryn Carcich just pitched her butt off, we keep playing and playing, we get base runners, but it just doesn't happen. We don't get that timely hit and that's what you've got to do. You've got to get that timely hit to score some runs and we didn't do that.
But that does not deter from the run we made. It was just wonderful. But immediately on the bus ride out of Tuscaloosa, I'm thinking about what we've got to do this to be playing next week. Well, we've got to recruit just a little bit better, work a little bit harder, score a few more runs, it's got to all come together. And there's just all kinds of pieces of the puzzle and all those pieces have to interact and flow together. We had all those pieces come together at the right time for us and we've just to keep working at it.
If you get to that point enough, you're going to be able to kick that door down and go to the next level. That's what we're going to try to do.
Have you had much time to reflect on how quickly that run came together? Because I'm still wrapping my head around it all months later.
We've had time to reflect on it now and all. Of course, as we've been out recruiting this summer, everybody has said, 'Hey, we were watching the game,' or 'Here's where we were.' We've had some JuCo players say, 'Hey, we just go through our tournament, we were on the bus.' The whole bus, Walters State was coming back home from their nationals and they were watching us. Time and time again, people are telling you, 'Hey, we were pulling for you.'
I guess the best compliment I think I've gotten is that I got a couple of emails when we got back the next week from Alabama fans. There was a gentleman in Birmingham that shot me an email and said, 'Look, I've been a season ticket holder at Alabama ever since they opened the stadium. After this weekend, I am an Alabama fan, but I'm also a Middle Tennessee State fan.'
I told my kids that, because I think one of things we're always after in everything that we do is that we're after our fans getting a good fan experience. I want our fans to walk away saying, 'That team is passionate about what they do.' To have a Power 5, Alabama, and I think their facility and their fan base is as good as any in America. They're avid. People don't understand unless you're in it at the time. For us to capture fans is what we try to do all the time and to capture some of their fans is just a tremendous feat for our players.
Listen to the full podcast
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