Texas A&M told Rob Vaughn he 'wasn't good enough': How it shapes Alabama baseball today

Yahoo

21-05-2025

Long before he finished sentences with "Roll Tide," Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn grew up saying "Gig 'Em."
Earl Vaughn, now 78, played baseball at Texas A&M in 1967 and 1968, so like any son whose favorite superhero was dad instead of Iron Man, little "Robby" wanted to suit up for the Aggies.
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Vaughn's earliest memories of football were made in the Home of the 12th Man. Hour-and-a half long car rides to Blue Ball Park followed suit in the spring. Once he knew he had the potential to play at the next level, he set his sights on College Station, a little over 90 miles from his native Humble, Texas.
Only Texas A&M had different plans for the backyard legacy.
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"My senior year, I went there, and I played great. I'm thinking, 'Alright, I played really good. I think I'm getting an offer." Vaughn told the Tuscaloosa News.
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"Literally, their words were, 'You're not 6-foot, 200 pounds.' "
Vaughn was listed at 5-foot-11, 160 pounds on his last high school scouting report. Perfect Game evaluators said he had an "advanced bat" and ran well "for a catcher," but then came the inevitable criticism:
"He's not big in size."
Vaughn never forgot those words from A&M, but his mindset has shifted since the initial sting of rejection. Being able to say he had a successful career at Kansas State, where he found his wife, Kayleigh, and helped the Wildcats to their first ever NCAA Tournament, before getting drafted to the White Sox in 2009, doesn't hurt.
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"That was the best thing that ever happened to me was Texas A&M's crew saying, 'Sorry, Rob, you're not good enough to play here,' because it draws me to those kind of kids," Vaughn said.
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The Crimson Tide added 13 transfers to its 2025 roster.
About half of them have come through the JUCO system at some point in their career, including starters Bryce Fowler and Richie Bonomolo Jr., who were plucked straight from standout seasons at community college.
"If you look around our team, there's a reason there's a heavy JUCO influence," Vaughn said. "Those kids were all, at some point, told they weren't good enough, and they had a choice to feel bad for themselves. But if you're going to go to JUCO and play baseball, it's because you want to be a lead baseball player, not for the glitz and the glamour of it."
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"It's not sexy to say you're going to Wallace Dothan to play community college baseball, leaving Auburn, but you do it because you want to turn yourself into a guy," Vaughn said, referencing second-year member of the Crimson Tide Kade Snell.
"That's what these kids did because they want to be good at baseball. They care. It's important to them to be good. And that's really what grit is."
Vaughn finds the trials and tribulations that some Alabama players have faced are the reasons they're mentally battle-tested enough to take a run-rule on the chin in the opener and bounce back for a series win against Georgia.
Or why Vaughn would be able to return as a coach to the same school he "wasn't good enough" to catch for and lead the Crimson Tide to sweep the Aggies, who have fallen from their status as the No. 1 team in the nation entering the season to standing as the 14th seed in the SEC Tournament.
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No. 9 seed Alabama kicks off the week of tournament play in Hoover against No. 16 seed Missouri at 9:30 a.m. CT on SEC Network before A&M wraps up the first round against No. 11 seed Mississippi State later on Tuesday evening.
Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn watches his team from the dugout during the game wtih Mississippi State at Sewell-Thomas Stadium in Tuscaloosa Friday, April 11, 2025.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Texas A&M told Alabama baseball coach Rob Vaughn he 'wasn't good enough'