On this week’s episode of the ALL BEEF NO FILLER podcast, we are joined by the Wayne State Wildcats head coach Alex Koch. Coach Koch talks about the Wayne State program, what recruiting is like in the D2 world, and more.

You can read a sample of the interview below or listen to the entire episode on our website, Apple Podcast or Spotify. 

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Are you switching anything up this year for this fall to try and keep things fresh and make sure that motivation is there for the guys? 

We're changing things up a little bit. It used to be that old school fall where it's team practice, team practice, maybe an inter-squad, and then, with NCAA D2, we do get a few out-of-competition games. But we're kind of dedicating one day a week, which is Tuesdays, to more of a training-type atmosphere for everybody. And so more small group work, one day a week to really just train, and then getting into team practices and inter-squads. We still love to inter-squad — we inter-squad at least twice a week. Just keeps things competitive, splitting the guys up, getting after it. Really to see what a lot of these new guys got, too, especially on the mound. Giving guys at least an inning or two to get out there and to compete against our guys twice a week is really key to see what these new guys will bring to us on the mound. 

What does small group training look like to you guys? 

With pitchers, it gets more individualized on things that they need to work on, whether it's a velo program, whether it's mechanical. A little more individualized on the pitching side. On the hitting defense side, we've got a lot of new faces, so it's breaking down the swings, doing more video stuff. I'm more of a video guy outside of fall and spring seasons, so it just really gives them an opportunity to meet with me at least once a week on what the swing's feeling like, what it looks like on video.

And then when we get outside of the fall season, it's more, we're in the weight room every day. 

Right now, we're in the weight room three times a week. When we get out of our fall season, we're in there every day, building more strength, trying to become better as an individual, whether we're in a team atmosphere.

What is the recruiting landscape like for you guys at the moment? 

As with everybody, the transfer portal has become more prevalent really in the last three years. It's been around five or six years now. And as it came out, it was more of an out for kids that maybe wanted to change the scenery, weren't playing very much in your program. But now, with the way the rules are, it's really given the opportunity to develop kids at the D2 level and then send them on.

And it's become easier for kids to do that. As a coach, you had to step back and say, are you going to embrace this, or are you going to hit it head on and really not buy into any of this? And I think, at our level, when you can develop somebody and make them good enough to send them on, that can kind of be a pat on the back. And so, as our program, we've kind of embraced it, especially in the last year.

You get kids, they start talking to scouts. And the number one thing scouts are telling our guys, especially, you can go Division I, and you do have a better opportunity to be seen and to get drafted out of Division I. We had two arms last year. Our number three transferred to Creighton.

Our number one transferred to Utah Valley, and our starting catcher transferred to the University of Virginia. Those are guys that you're supposed to, two of them were high school kids that you're like, oh, we'll have four to five years. The other one was a JUCO transfer, where you're like, oh, we'll have them for two.

It just kind of changes how you recruit. 

Obviously, on the flip side, you know, we can then get kids. We got a Husker transfer this year, Ohio transfer this year. It works both ways. Our philosophy here is like, we can't just take kids' dreams and tell them, hey, you're sticking here, or we're doing this and that. The portal has given the guys the freedom to leave.

And so, we've had to embrace that and I actually enjoy helping the guys.

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