In addition to what was said above, I would say he brings West Coast, Pitching, and Experience:

• Pitching is the easy one. Sean has covered that.
• He's a west coast guy -- born, raised. and played in Cali. Having those connections is really good for recruiting as Cali still dominates the prep baseball scene. I don't remember the exact number but I read recently that there are more prospects in #1 CA than (2, 3, 4 TX FL GA combined). Something like that anyway.
• He's a little older than Earley (upper 40s). He's been around a couple of pretty good historical programs, and he's now run a P5 program himself. He's no doubt seen stuff that Earley hasn't, so I'm all for having a little more age on the staff. (Same reason I thought we could do a lot worse than sip Pierce here (age + pitching)...

Pulling some thoughts from tigerdropings… it puts some context into his time at LSU. Generally favorable opinion.
https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/lsu-sports/is-jason-kelly-legit/102813762/
https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/lsu-sports/jay-got-burned-on-yeskie/112912152/

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I miss Jason Kelly

He did a lot with a little that year.

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Either him or Johnson took ****e and made it into one of the best staffs from an ERA perspective in the conference by HOW THEY frickING MANAGED THEIR PITCHERS. They did that with a defense that was miserable and cost them 5 wins or so which made a huge difference in not having a regional at home.

C- MY arse.

A+ with how they were able to navigate this conference and win 17 games not having Marceaux or Coleman.

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I thought CJJ-Kelly did a good job with the staff. IMO, they realized early on they didn't have plug-n-play talent for starters. Yet, they cobbled together a very respectable staff.

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Jason Kelly deserves a medal for what he got out of this bullpen with no SEC starters except 1. Remember when our starters only pitched about 5 innings in the Alabama series? Yeah that was good coaching. Our bullpen kept us in games all season.

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How can yall not see the improvement from when we had Dunn? Lots of our guys finally developed secondary pitches.

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I agree with the trust aspect of this hire.

I had a situation once starting a business and there were severe trust issues among ownership. The facility was sized to produce 50,000 units annually. Our team was able to innovate and make 68,000 units in 2020 (year 4 of production) before I left. In 3 proceeding years it fell back to 58,000.

My business partner got fed up from seeing consistent growth turn into consistent shrinkage and called me. I told him I would only work with people I trust and would only return if he fired his dad and gave me the keys to the company and allowed me to build a team. We agreed and 6 months later we are on pace for 85,000 units in 2024 and will produce 92,000+ in 2025 using the same original equipment. The people I promoted to backfill the cancer are not more capable than those they replaced, they technically have less skills than their predecessors. But we all trust each other implicitly and are working towards a common goal relentlessly.

The kids trust Earley and if he trusts this pitching coach with the kids, then that is good enough for me. If the guy is humble enough to take a step back from HC that speaks volumes to his maturity and respect for Earley. I can't see our previous head coach having that self awareness.

These guys seem to be humble and UNselfish, that is refreshing to this old Ag

Eric Forman said:

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Not gonna lie, I have no idea why a HC would take a demotion for a rookie HC.

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It's cold in Washington State.

Eric Forman said:

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Not gonna lie, I have no idea why a HC would take a demotion for a rookie HC.

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The SEC is where you come to make fame and fortune. This is the league to make a name for yourself. And these schools are passionate enough about baseball that they pay you well.