Link Jarrett Addresses Future Options, Notre Dame Program Needs

OMAHA, Neb. – Link Jarrett has been a transcendent hire for Notre Dame baseball, Jack Swarbrick having pegged Jarrett’s unique blend of baseball acumen, analytics and relatability as an idea fit for the Fighting Irish program three years ago this summer.

A College World Series run that included a Knoxville Super Regional championship against NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed and consensus top-ranked Tennessee, as well as a CWS-opening dispatching of Texas and 2021’s outright Atlantic Coast Conference championship and South Bend Regional title were hallmarks in the onset of Jarrett’s Notre Dame career.

The school even awarded Jarrett with a new contract extension, and a raise, that it publicly announced last December and that was designed to keep Jarrett in South Bend, Indiana, through at least 2026.

Now, after an 86-32 run through those two full seasons and Jarrett’s truncated, COVID-abbreviated 11-2 2020 campaign, Jarrett has emerged as a hot commodity for other college programs – with either built-in talent advantages, natural resources or already visible commitments to their programs in the forms of facilities and salaries.

Specifically, after earlier being courted by Clemson, and having also been zeroed atop USC’s wish-list, sources told Irish Sports Daily, Jarrett has been linked now since June 10 for the vacancy at his alma mater, Florida State.

After his Notre Dame team’s magical College World Series run ended Tuesday inside Charles Schwab Stadium, Jarrett was asked about his future plans.

“Yeah, I’ve been dealing with that for a while,” Jarrett said, “and my mind has not gone to that place. I’m not going there with it right now.

“There’s things I told our coaches, after the first two games, write down everything you felt and sensed that helped us and hurt us.”

The Seminoles fired Jarrett’s former roommate and close friend, Mike Martin Jr., days after they were thoroughly outclassed and ousted in the Auburn Regional.

“The constant questions on it, whether it was Clemson or FSU or whatever,” Jarrett said. “Trying to completely keep my routine and my focus and leave the other people and questions that I get as far out of this as I can.”

It’s been, at least in various circles though not asked about in a press conference from June 10 until today – a constant topic of discussion in Jarrett’s conversations, he said.

“When we were in Knoxville that Friday and they made that maneuver, the focus to try to redirect, I’m sitting there with these guys who are the best,” Jarrett said. “They are a unique species of student-athletes. These are exceptional guys these are global leaders in the making, in the world of finance or whatever world they’ll end up. My focus was on them. I had to deal with it last year. When your program’s doing the right thing, you’re going to have those (situations arise about potential new job opportunities).

“I wanted to know when this thing ended with a trophy or not, (the Irish) were the focus of what I was doing. They’re just phenomenal, phenomenal human beings.”

Jarrett acknowledged a desire for a potentially expanded Frank Eck Stadium, but he downplayed Notre Dame’s other facilities needs. 

“I talk to JT (Jarrett, his son at N.C. State) every once in a while, and he’s like ‘Dad, I think sometimes you put a little more thought into facilities than the players,’” Jarrett said. “I said, ‘J.T., I think you’re right.’

“I just want our players to have the best, No. 1 opportunity to grow their craft and skills. This is going to be a profession for a lot of these guys. So I always focus on player-development stuff first and we’ve done some modifications. Then you look at to have the ability to host, so maybe you’re giving yourself a better chance to play some of the better series on campus. I don’t know if that came into the equation this season or not. Maybe it did. The financial piece when you can hold a lot of people, it adds up. Was that part of it this year? I don’t know. Jack (Swarbrick) and I have talked about it a little bit, in trying to maybe expand it a little bit. Because now you are in the discussion for those sort of things. And in fairness to them, the second part of what I always look at is first how can we make them better players and now is there anything we need to do just to increase the capacity.

“You’ve seen our place, it’s a little tricky of how you would do it. The indoor stuff is fine, Loftus is good, our cages are fine, our new bullpen is great.”

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