Sunday Sit-down with Mizzou baseball coach Kerrick Jackson

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones caught up Mizzou baseball coach Kerrick Jackson in this week's edition of Sunday Sit-down.

The pair previewed the 2026 season, which will begin on Friday against Mount Saint Mary's in Fort Meyers, Fla.

You can watch their full conversation on SportsZone at 10:30 on ABC 17. You can also find a full transcript of the interview below.

Nathalie Jones:  Welcome back everyone. As you can see, it's a special edition of Sunday Sit-down. We're joined by Mizzou baseball coach, Kerrick Jackson. Kerrick, how was the offseason? I mean, gosh, it's freezing right now. Can't wait for spring sports to get going. 

Kerrick Jackson:  Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, this is, you know, you finish the fall. Had a really good fall. Go into the break. Hope the kids are going to go home and do everything that they're supposed to do over the break, to come back prepared. And you know, this year, we're really excited about getting back and getting going. Like, as soon as they left, I was, I was ready for them to get back, because I'm really excited about this club. 

Nathalie:  Tell me about this year's team. What excites you about the group you have? 

Kerrick:  I just think there's a there's an energy there. There's a passion there. You know, we have kids that have now been with us for three years, and so they understand how we want to go about things. And then obviously we added some additions. But I just think, you know, when we talk to these guys about what are the things necessary to put us in a position to be successful, they understand that, and part of that is just going out and playing really good, clean baseball. We were able to add some depth. You know, last year we were just hammered with injuries, and so we didn't have the depth. And so this year we made sure that if that happened again, knock on wood, it doesn't. But we were prepared and going to be in a better position than we were last year. 

Nathalie:  How critical, when you talk about that vision of, well, you know, they're fired, I want to compete. How important are the guys who were here last year and those returners in that vision, and kind of communicating that to the guys who are doing the program here? 

Kerrick:  I think huge, because a lot of the guys that returned obviously, you know, we're in this portal age, right? Where, When things don't go well, people look to jump ship. And the kids that stay with us, who are some of our better players, you know, a Kaden peer and Mateo Serna, who guys that you know as freshmen, they had 100 over 100 at bats, they're committed to wanting to be here and seeing the vision that we put in place, to helping this program get back to where it needs to be. And so we're really excited about that, and they're kind of leading the charge. 

Nathalie:  Yeah, you mentioned some of those names who were some of theM. WHO are some of the guys you've been most impressed with that haVE stepped up and kind of taken on that, that leadership capacity for this team?

Kerrick:  Yeah, you know, you got Javyn Pimental, obviously, he got injured the year before, and, you know, a fifth year guy for us, coming off, Tommy John, really, really passionate about what we're doing. Ian Lohse, who's here for a sixth year, but he's one of those guys that has battled injuries throughout his career. And then, like I said, Mateo and Kaden and then Pierre seals, who transferred to us last year from Memphis, played for us here last year, came back again this year, had another year because of the Pavia rules. So we really able to benefit from that. And then when you look at some of the guys, at Josh McDevitt, who came in as a freshman with us, recruited by the previous staff, but decided to stay on board. He's really maturing and growing into his own. And so we've had a lot of those guys that have been here, like I said, with us, for a number of years now, that really understand how we want to go about things and the things that are important to put us in a position to be successful. 

Nathalie:  Curious for you, what do you feel like has been your biggest lessons? I guess you know, you coming up to the SEC in your first couple seasons. What do you feel like you learned the most since you've been in this job here? 

Kerrick:  I think the biggest thing here is, you know, again, I was here as an assistant, and went through that process of when we made that transition from the Big 12 to the SEC and understanding the depth. There's no off-weekends, you know, I think I looked it up last year. Obviously, we did not have a good year last year, historically, awful year, to be honest with you. And and we recognize that. I think the biggest thing is getting guys in that fit our system, that understand how we want to go about it. You know, not many teams in our league, very few teams, if any, build. they all reload, they get into the portal. And that was just something we chose not to do. You know, we brought in 26 guys this year. 15 of those guys were freshmen. That was kind of my thought process coming in, was that we were going to build this thing, and we're going to kind of start from the ground up. And you know, when you're building something, it's never pretty. You know, you look at the north end zone project right now and and all the construction that's been going on. it looked terrible. But when everybody shows up on game day next year, they're going to love what they see. And so that part for us is going through that building process, getting our kids to understand what that means, and those kids that have had the experience, and being able to help them, have them understand, hey, take the experience that you had, learn from the lessons that we had last year, and then move forward with those and put us in a position to be successful. 

Nathalie:  For you and your vision, what does the next step look like? What's the next step for Mizzou? 

Kerrick:  I think, again, I think it's coming out and playing clean baseball. You know, we made a change and brought Drew Dickinson in, who's one of the top pitching coaches in the country, and he's come in here and really energized our guys, given our guys some identity. You know, he's a competitor. We've known each other for a long time. He's a Midwest guy. Had success as a player at Illinois, had success as a coach at Illinois, went on to Virginia and had success. And so that him bringing that into what we're doing here is also helpful to that. But just telling our guys the beauty about the game of baseball is you're not playing against the other team you're playing against the game itself.  

Nathalie:  Obviously, last year really felt like this team could put up the runs in big situations. Tell me about the pitching staff, though. I mean this, what did you kind of highlight this off season of, hey, this is where we need to take another step this year. 

Kerrick:  Obviously, the big thing is health, staying healthy. Last year, by the fourth weekend, we lost our entire starting rotation, and so as a result of that, there was guys like a Brady Kehlenbrink that had valuable experience. It was a tough lesson for him to learn, you know, with his feet in the fire, but being able to get those guys to understand that, and I said, when you look at Drew and what he's bringing to the table, it's it's about throwing strikes, it's about being relentless. It's about being competitive. And just that, right? Last year, we pitched to 11. We walked a lot of guys that's never going to give you an opportunity to win games. And as you pointed out, the first half of the season, we were averaging six runs a game, and all we needed was some zeros, and we go into L-S-U and we have a chance to beat them two out of three, but we just can't get over that hump. And so we were there, but then when those injuries hit and things just started to snowball on us, we didn't have the leadership in the clubhouse to be able to get those guys to understand, hey, just keep plugging along. And so again, with the experience that guys had last year and what we've been able to do with them this year, I think that's going to be the biggest difference for it. 

Nathalie:  How long does it take to kind of know if the guys kind of have that identity that you're looking for as a kid, you kind of have to play a few games. Can you find out in the off-season? Like, well, when do you kind of find out what kind of stuff this team has? 

Kerrick:  You get some idea during this time, but then you find out when the lights come on right, like, there's some players that are all-stars right now, and then lights come on, and then they go away a little bit. and then there's other guys that they don't do so well. And then when lights come on, they really, really perform. And so again, for me, it's what's going to happen when you get punched in the mouth, right. how are you going to respond when you have that first piece of adversity? Do you come out? Do you blow your chest? Are you committed to getting better, or do you start to blame and point fingers? And I think with this group, I think they've proven to be with the fall that we had and where we are early spring, a very resilient group. And as I told them, wanting to win and the will to win are two different things. Everybody wants to win, nobody wants to lose. But wanting something is not enough. You have to have the will to have it. And these guys are showing that they have the will to win. 

Nathalie:  Well, you brought in some, like you mentioned, good talents in the portal, some good freshmen. What are you kind of pitching to these guys, as far as what you're building here at Mizzou is like, this is the vision right now, and what have you been talking to them about? 

Kerrick:  So again, we still rest on the idea of now, right? No opportunity wasted. You have an opportunity to be in the SEC, play in the best conference in the country. What are you going to do with that opportunity? and really try to make it digestible for them with something as simple as if the goal is to win, which we know is an outcome-based goal, we've kind of used that acronym that's been thrown around with win is what's important now. So don't focus on the idea of the win. Focus on what's important right now to put us in a position to be successful. And then when you go down another layer from that, then you talk about, what is the essence of the game? What are the two most important things in the game, outs and runs. So you need to do everything you can to make sure that we're getting 27 outs. We're not giving away any outs, and we're stealing outs when we can. And then you're doing everything in your power to put us in a position to score runs, because college baseball offense is not about getting hits, it's about scoring runs. And so that means there's going to have to be some selfless at bats. You're going to have to wear some pitches. You’re going to have to be able to bunt guys over. You're going to have to sacrifice and shorten up and put the ball in play when the infield is back. Are you willing to do those things? And if you say Winning is important, then you are willing to do those things. 

Nathalie:  in the transfer portal era. I mean, obviously sometimes it's so rare to find the unselfish player like you're mentioning. You know, how lucky Have you been to kind of find the guys that kind of fit, fit the mold of what you just mentioned? 

Kerrick:  I think that's what we… we going… we're going out to be intentional to find the right fit, right. like, it's easy to see guys that put up really, really good numbers. You know, take Kam Durnin, for example, we know the background. We know the family makeup. He fielded .975 but he only hit .250. but we were able to look at the swing and look at some things and say, okay, the swing is good. There's balance There. we again, We know what the mindset is. And then we're able to get him on a visit and then talk some more about, Hey, why are we struggling offensively? We're able to talk to them about some things. Coach LeBlanc and him were able to sit down and talk about some things. They were to figure some things out, make some adjustments. And he goes off this summer, and he and he tears it up, and then he comes in here, and he gets stronger and he's more physical. And so that's what we have to do. We don't, we don't have the checkbook that everybody else in our league has, right, so with the resources that we do have, we have to make sure that we're making the right decisions and picking the right people to put us in a position to be successful. And so to this point, I think we're doing a good job being able to do that. And now it's time to put all those pieces together. 

Nathalie:  Yeah. I mean, you look around the S-E-C, obviously, the checkbooks are big. The teams you know, going to national champion. How hard is it to kind of compete top to bottom in just how tough this league is? I mean, I'm sure even since last time you were in it, it's grown a heck of a lot.

Kerrick:  with the portal, and what we're doing with NIL and rev share, it's completely different, right? And so again, that's the challenge. That's the part that I love about it. And again, that's the part where we're not going to make excuses because we don't have X, Y or Z, because, again, the beauty of the game is you're not playing against the other team, right? And so look at Murray State. I'm pretty sure Murray State's rev share and n-I-l budget and facilities aren't the best in the country, but they ended up in Omaha. Why? Because they went out and — when it was time to — play good baseball, they were playing their best baseball at the right time of the year. And so is Murray State going to be a perennial power? Probably not, but they've proven that they can do that. [Oral Roberts] a couple years. So there's all kinds of teams that the resources become irrelevant if you're playing the game the right way. And I think with us in this league, we're getting players that are good enough to be in this league. And now we have to understand, go out and play the game the right way, regardless of what everybody else has, regardless of what's on the front of somebody's jersey. Just go out and Play the game and compete, and we'll put ourselves in a really good spot. 

Nathalie:  What do you like about how the schedule lays out for you guys? I'm sure you're excited to get outside and maybe get a little bit of warmer weather to compete in as well. 

Kerrick:  Yes, yeah, we'll open up down in Fort Myers and play seven games while we're down there, and we play 17 games before we open up conference play. And we open up conference play at home this year. So you know, Auburn comes up here, so hopefully it's 35 degrees and and making them uncomfortable. But, yeah, no, really excited. You know that our conference schedule is obviously, every year, That's going to just be tough. We’ve common opponents with Oklahoma and Arkansas every year. We'll play those guys every year, but some of the other teams are going to play. itS quality teams, and that's what this league is, right? It's 30 games of a grind. There is no off days every weekend. Anybody can beat anybody if you're playing good baseball. 

Nathalie:  Well, Kerrick, I'm curious. Finally, what's your message to the fan base headed into another year here at Mizzou? 

Kerrick:  I think the biggest thing is, again, nobody likes the build because the build is not pretty. The only person that likes to build is the builder, right? But when it's a finished product, everybody likes what they see. And I think coming out and supporting our kids and supporting what they're doing and the time and effort that they're putting in will mean a lot, not only to me as a coach, but to alums, to the kids that are on the field, but just the community in general, I think we're going to have success. We're going to have success at a high level. And so for people to be able to come out and witness that, I think will be something really cool.

Nathalie:  Well, Kerrick, we're looking forward to the season. Thanks for hanging out with us. 

Kerrick:  Thank you. 

NATHALIE:  Thanks. for the rest you guys. We'll be right back after the break.