University of Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne tries to keep an open mind during a coaching hunt. But sometimes when you meet the one, you just know.

It happened at Mississippi State when Byrne hired Dan Mullen. Then again with Nate Oats and Alabama men’s basketball in 2019. About five minutes into his conversation with Rob Vaughn a couple of weeks ago, Byrne felt it again. And on Monday, it was made official when Vaughn was announced as head baseball coach of the Crimson Tide.

If Byrne has his way, he’ll never need to find another.

“Anytime you hire a coach, there are no guarantees. Doesn’t matter who you hire,” Byrne told a group of reporters after Vaughn was introduced. ” … It’s something you take a calculated decision on the information you have at that time and I felt really good about what he would be running our program for next year, but he’s only 35. I’m 51. I hope I never have to hire a baseball coach again.

“To be honest, I thought about that with him. This is a guy that can be here 20 years, 25 years, which would be a heck of a run.”

When Alabama fired Brad Bohannon in May, Byrne and members of the department started gathering a list of names. Byrne admitted he does a bit of scoreboard watching and saw which programs have had success and turnarounds. When Byrne talked with evaluators and friends, Vaughn’s name came up multiple times.

The skipper had won 120 games the last three seasons at Maryland and Vaughn, a Texas native was enticed by the idea of moving closer to home in the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference. Vaughn went 24-30 in his first year as the Terrapins’ head coach in 2018, replacing longtime mentor John Szefc. Initially, Vaughn believed he had to mimic Szefc. But he learned to trust his own instincts and Byrne was impressed the growth Vaughn showed at a young age.

“We might have to be here for about three hours for me to walk through all my changes (after 2018). I think it just starts with I was a young coach,” Vaughn said. “I was 29 years old. I got handed the keys to the program and I was still kind of in a phase of still figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be as a coach. … I made a lot of mistakes. You’re trying to figure out how to utilize talent. How do I handle responsibilities? And I didn’t do a great job of that at the beginning because I didn’t know how I fit. … I need to do what I love doing. I need to be involved. I need to be hands-on. I’m not a CEO. You’re gonna see me on the field every day with these kids. I’m gonna be out in the field with them.”

Vaughn’s turnaround led to a pair of Big 10 regular season championships before he accepted the job in Tuscaloosa. He anticipated being active in the transfer portal, growing a national recruiting footprint and work to “knock down the games of Omaha” after this past season’s revelatory run to the Super Regional.

While a player at Kansas State in 2009, Vaughn was passed down a hitting philosophy that originated from Matt Deggs’ time at Texas A&M and spread to KSU hitting coach Andy Sawyers. A “pack mentality,” as Vaughn explained, is predicated on a lineup having multiple specialties whether it be making contact, utilizing speed or hitting for power.

“Every wolf in the pack has its job,” Vaughn said. “It’s no different than our offense. When you look at it, every hitter is built different. … We’re gonna find out, ‘Hey, what do you do well? How can we help you grow that?’ Because we don’t need 15 of the same guys. We need different pieces of the puzzle cause I’m telling you, if you’re gonna go beat a guy like (LSU ace) Paul Skenes on a Friday night you better have different ways to beat him.

“Hey, this isn’t broken here. So what are we doing well? What do we need to get better at? How do you keep building this thing to take the next step.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].