With the crazy GT news weekend with commitments, portal entries and coach retirements and driving back and forth from Atlanta to Nashville, I completely forgot about the Danny Hall quotes he gave us on Friday night about the decision to "step away" after the season. I'm just going to put them all down below instead of writing a full feature on it since it's been three days now and I'll have plenty of other "farewell tour" feature opportunities the rest of this season. You guys can read the quotes and make your own observations on the decision. It sounds to me like he truly came to the decision himself and wasn't forced to by GT or his family or whoever. But he does say he gave J Batt his opinion on what should be next (I assume next head coach), and J Batt didn't really tell him one way or the other if he would grant his wishes. That's the way I took it at least. Judge for yourselves. It's all below.
On the decision being made and why now...
"I would say I've thought long and hard about it. I'd say it like that. And I didn't want whether I was coming back or not lingering. I didn't want any chatter kind of behind the scenes that I thought would might affect my team. That was the biggest thing that went into my decision was the timing of it. Because of my team, I never want to be a distraction to the team. But I think it was best for me to just put it out. I've had a great run, and I think it's best for our team to know it. It's best for J Batt and the administration here to know it because it's just a different world now that we're in with transfer portal, NIL and a lot of decisions will need to be made quickly at the end of the year. So I felt like I knew where I was at, and I felt like it was important that J Batt and the administration knew that so that they could have, and they will, a great plan in place that whenever our season ends, and I hope it's not until mid-June, that they're ready to roll."
On J Batt's reaction during the conversation...
"He's been great with me. He's been great. And (he) totally understood it. Like I don't like a lot of attention, I'll just be honest, on me. It was great to see all the ex-players here tonight, and that was on of J's things. He's like 'I want to celebrate you if these are the last couple months.' So to see all our ex-players there before the game, that means a lot. And I think their will probably be one more opportunity to where we'll get a lot of those ex-players back. And I think that's the message. Man, I've had great players, and you don't stay some place for 32 years unless you have great players that play great."
On how his wife and kids took the news...
"So we kind of talked about it a week ago. We went to dinner, and so we just kind of talked it out. My wife I think was okay with it. The boys understood. They understood kind of where I was at. Then I'll just tell kind of a funny story. So we were playing Tuesday against Kennesaw State, and my wife didn't go to the game. For some reason she didn't want to go to Southern Poly Tech. But she didn't. She watched it on TV, and Colin called her and said 'hey, there's nothing wrong with dad, right? He's in good health? And you'll tell me if he's not in good health?' And she said 'No, there's nothing wrong with him.' So I think they understood it so we're all good with it."
On if his wife will be taking care of his calendar now that he won't be coaching...
"I don't know. I don't know. You know I'll probably be taking care of her calendar is probably the way that's going to work. For 32 years she's had to go off of my calendar so I think it's probably my time to take care of hers."
On the phrasing in the announcement of "step away" and not retirement and if he would go coach somewhere else or have some kind of administrative role...
"No, I'll be honest, J has offered and said 'hey, would you want to stick around and be a special assistant?' And I think that's definitely something that I'll think about. But I'm probably not just going to go dead and just not do anything, but that coaching question, I'm not so sure about that one. But I could see myself staying in baseball in some capacity. And I don't have anything in the books, but I enjoy being around the game. I talked to my mom yesterday, and I've been able to wear a baseball uniform for 62 straight years. Started playing when I was eight, and so that's a pretty good run. So to just go cold turkey and step away from, in whatever capacity that may be, of not being involved somehow with baseball...I can assure you this, I'm not into working 60-80 hours a week and working every weekend. But if there's something somewhere where I can help and not have to work all the time I might be interested in it...if that makes sense."
On if he has talked to J Batt about the future of the program or how they want to move forward...
"I've given him my opinion, and his comment was 'I really value your opinion.' But I don't think he's there yet. He didn't tell me he's there. But it's his decision. I'm sure he'll lean on me when that time comes if he needs to make that."
On the rest of the season and everything being his "last time" doing it...
"I'm looking forward to it. I said that yesterday. I really like this team. We're young. We made some youth mistakes tonight (against Clemson), but I like it (this team). And I'm going to do everything I can to...it would be great to win the conference. It would be great to host a regional or play in a regional and just try to take this team as far as we can go."
On the decision being made and why now...
"I would say I've thought long and hard about it. I'd say it like that. And I didn't want whether I was coming back or not lingering. I didn't want any chatter kind of behind the scenes that I thought would might affect my team. That was the biggest thing that went into my decision was the timing of it. Because of my team, I never want to be a distraction to the team. But I think it was best for me to just put it out. I've had a great run, and I think it's best for our team to know it. It's best for J Batt and the administration here to know it because it's just a different world now that we're in with transfer portal, NIL and a lot of decisions will need to be made quickly at the end of the year. So I felt like I knew where I was at, and I felt like it was important that J Batt and the administration knew that so that they could have, and they will, a great plan in place that whenever our season ends, and I hope it's not until mid-June, that they're ready to roll."
On J Batt's reaction during the conversation...
"He's been great with me. He's been great. And (he) totally understood it. Like I don't like a lot of attention, I'll just be honest, on me. It was great to see all the ex-players here tonight, and that was on of J's things. He's like 'I want to celebrate you if these are the last couple months.' So to see all our ex-players there before the game, that means a lot. And I think their will probably be one more opportunity to where we'll get a lot of those ex-players back. And I think that's the message. Man, I've had great players, and you don't stay some place for 32 years unless you have great players that play great."
On how his wife and kids took the news...
"So we kind of talked about it a week ago. We went to dinner, and so we just kind of talked it out. My wife I think was okay with it. The boys understood. They understood kind of where I was at. Then I'll just tell kind of a funny story. So we were playing Tuesday against Kennesaw State, and my wife didn't go to the game. For some reason she didn't want to go to Southern Poly Tech. But she didn't. She watched it on TV, and Colin called her and said 'hey, there's nothing wrong with dad, right? He's in good health? And you'll tell me if he's not in good health?' And she said 'No, there's nothing wrong with him.' So I think they understood it so we're all good with it."
On if his wife will be taking care of his calendar now that he won't be coaching...
"I don't know. I don't know. You know I'll probably be taking care of her calendar is probably the way that's going to work. For 32 years she's had to go off of my calendar so I think it's probably my time to take care of hers."
On the phrasing in the announcement of "step away" and not retirement and if he would go coach somewhere else or have some kind of administrative role...
"No, I'll be honest, J has offered and said 'hey, would you want to stick around and be a special assistant?' And I think that's definitely something that I'll think about. But I'm probably not just going to go dead and just not do anything, but that coaching question, I'm not so sure about that one. But I could see myself staying in baseball in some capacity. And I don't have anything in the books, but I enjoy being around the game. I talked to my mom yesterday, and I've been able to wear a baseball uniform for 62 straight years. Started playing when I was eight, and so that's a pretty good run. So to just go cold turkey and step away from, in whatever capacity that may be, of not being involved somehow with baseball...I can assure you this, I'm not into working 60-80 hours a week and working every weekend. But if there's something somewhere where I can help and not have to work all the time I might be interested in it...if that makes sense."
On if he has talked to J Batt about the future of the program or how they want to move forward...
"I've given him my opinion, and his comment was 'I really value your opinion.' But I don't think he's there yet. He didn't tell me he's there. But it's his decision. I'm sure he'll lean on me when that time comes if he needs to make that."
On the rest of the season and everything being his "last time" doing it...
"I'm looking forward to it. I said that yesterday. I really like this team. We're young. We made some youth mistakes tonight (against Clemson), but I like it (this team). And I'm going to do everything I can to...it would be great to win the conference. It would be great to host a regional or play in a regional and just try to take this team as far as we can go."
