Texas A&M baseball assistants Longley, Fox and Kelly join TexAgs Live

Texas A&M baseball assistant coaches Caleb Longley, Will Fox and Jason Kelly joined Thursday's edition of TexAgs Live as fall ball continues in Aggieland. The roundtable spoke on A&M's exhibition vs. Houston Christian, a new initiative to support the program and more.

Click HERE to learn more about Twelve for 12

Key notes from Caleb Longley interview

• The fall ball crowd, I expected it to be huge, but not that big. I was completely impressed. It's a lot better being in the home dugout than the visitors that I have been in before. It was a ton of fun. Fans seem to enjoy it. It was awesome.
   
• I think taking on the job of recruiting coordinator has been the easiest job in the world. I am recruiting for coach Michael Earley, who every player loves — former, future and present — and coach Jason Kelly on the pitching side. At the end of the day, the atmosphere with the 12th Man makes it the easiest job in the country. It's the easiest place to recruit. We really have a good idea of who we want and want to make sure we get the right guys. We have a lot of options. It's pretty easy at his place with all the people around us.
   
• Coach Earley, myself and coach Will Fox are in the cages, grinding every day. One guy might have a different voice for a separate player, but we have a lot of good offensive players. They are bouncing things off of all three of us.
   
• We get a great look at things in practice every. Our pitching staff has gotten a lot better over the course of the fall, so we get to see great pitching day in and day out.
   
• I didn't know a ton about Blake Binderup when I got here. The first couple of days, I asked Earley, "Who is this guy?” He looks like the real deal. All he has done all fall is rake. It's been very minimal adjustments here and there. We are working on the low pitch a little bit. All he has done this fall is hit every ball hard from the cage to batting practice to the game. 
   
• Twelve for 12. There is a great community of fans that surround us that want more access to this program. There are a lot of people that want to help, but maybe they can't do it at a $10,000 or $25,000 clip. With the help of Texas Aggies United, we started a new initiative.
   
• If we can get 1,200 people to give $1,200 a year, a $100 a month... It's no secret that the landscape of college baseball has changed. Our kids work really hard. A lot of this money goes to help there tuition fees, apartments, food, etc. We are excited that there is more access and different tiers of things to get involved with these great fans. You can find it HERE.

Key notes from Will Fox interview

• I expected a smaller crowd than we got on Friday, but we definitely expected a big one. I tried to warn these guys about what the 12th Man is all about, and they really showed out.
   
• I've seen myself grow as a coach. My voice has changed a little bit, but I'm still in the cage with them every day. We get in the cage, go to work and have fun doing it. On the field, it's different with the infielders. My voice has changed there. I love it. It's what I'm best at. I like to get out there and mix it up with them, too.
   
• We played Friday with no errors. It was clean baseball. We have a solid group of defenders on the dirt. Every guy plays at a different position. Kaeden Kent is an unbelievable shortstop, but he played third base, second base and first base last year. We have them work at every position, which helps when you boil it all down.
   
• This new class is really good. Sawyer Farr has been out some this fall, so I haven't gotten to work with him every day. To see him in that environment is really special. With Terrence Kiel Jr., we haven't seen that during our practices. He's such a gamer. He made me make a decision on whether to send him home on a pickoff because he's so fast.

Key notes from Jason Kelly interview

• The drive from Seattle to College Station wasn't that bad. The reason we did it is because we have three dogs, and two of them won't fly. My wife's rule is that we have to have the dogs. We went from Seattle to Boise to Laramie to Childress, Texas, to here. We didn't get a lot of New Mexico on the drive, but we got some. It was a normal couple of days in the life of the kids because they had wifi in the car.
   
• There was a reason to give Myles Patton that start in front of that many people. To see him handle that effortlessly without being flustered was impressive. To see Ty Baker, Luke Jackson and Jackson Brasseaux do what they did was cool to see because they've been working their tails off. You never know until you get in that environment, but they handled it really well.
   
• I'm incredibly excited about our pitching staff. The game is different than it has ever been, and the bullpen is going to win you games. We have guys that are constantly improving themselves. They're seeing results, so hopefully, that snowball continues rolling down that mountain.
   
• I'm paying attention as much as I can to the position players. I didn't know much about Jamal George, but he brings great energy to the field and the dugout. I've really enjoyed watching him play. Caden Sorrell has always impressed me. Michael Earley has said Sorrell might the best of them all, which sounds insane when you see Jace LaViolette, Gavin Grahovac and them. Gavin Kash has been really good. We got to see Terrence Kiel Jr. really run the bases for the first time on Friday. We're going to be a problem offensively.
   
• Working with Jack Mahala on the analytics side has been a three- or four-headed monster with Jack, Jason Hutchins and Jace Hutchins. Jack is at the top of the analytic department for our guys. He explains it to our guys. He does a good job of breaking it down to where they can understand it. He does a great job of making sure our players are really prepared. They have a clear, defined goal on how to attack hitters, and our hitters have the same thing for how to attack pitchers.
   
• You'll see some of the same arms vs. Houston, but we're starting to shut some guys down because they've gotten to their fall limits. We'll get some freshmen in there to get their feet wet.
   
• I thought Gavin Lyons was great. He's a low-heartbeat kid. He got in there vs. Houston Christian and did great.