5 Offseason Standards That Keep Teams Hungry

Winning can be the start of the slide. After a deep run or a title, the real threat isn’t on your schedule—it’s in your clubhouse. We unpack how complacency takes root during the quiet months and map out a hard-nosed offseason plan that keeps players hungry, focused, and honest about their work.

We start with lessons from Nick Saban’s process: celebrate briefly, then eliminate the “rat poison” of praise by anchoring everything to execution—one drill, one rep, one play at a time. Then we look at Ryan Day’s transparency model and apply it to baseball with visible practice stats, effort grades, and execution metrics that remove hiding spots and turn accountability into culture. From there, we translate elite habits into concrete baseball standards: measurable throwing programs, exit velocity benchmarks, 60-yard improvements, body composition targets, and skill assessments scheduled and posted so progress is public and real.

You’ll hear how to reset the narrative on day one, rebuild roles from scratch, and design player-owned development plans that name three weaknesses and attack each with a partner, a timeline, and testing days. We frame roster turnover as a proving ground for new leaders and show how to “schedule humility” with film, guest speakers, and manufactured adversity through constraint scrimmages and competitive training blocks. The message is simple and sharp: excellence is a pursuit, not a destination, and last year’s success can’t become this year’s excuse.

If you’re ready to turn comfort into fuel, lock in your standards, measure everything, and keep the goalposts moving. Subscribe, share this episode with a fellow coach, and leave a quick review telling us the one metric you’ll track this offseason. Your trophy won’t lift weights for you—what will you measure next?

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Chapters

• 0:01 Why Complacency Kills Seasons
• 2:58 Lessons From Nick Saban’s Process
• 4:53 Ryan Day’s Transparent Accountability
• 6:41 Offseason Standards For Baseball
• 9:05 Build Ownership And New Challenges

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

On this episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged, you'll discover why complacency can wreck a season before it even starts. How great football coaches like Nick Sabin and Ryan Day approach complacency and ways to prepare your baseball team this offseason to leave last season behind and focus on 2026. Next on Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

SPEAKER_00: 0:32

This is the Ultimate High School Baseball Coaching Podcast, Baseball Coaches Unplugged, your go-to podcast for baseball coaching tips, drills, and player development strategies. From travel to high school and college. Unlock expert coaching advice grounded in real success stories, data-backed training methods, and mental performance tools to elevate your team. Tune in for bite-sized coaching wisdom, situational drills, team culture building, great stories and proven strategies that turn good players into great athletes. The only podcast that showcases the best coaches from across the country. With your host, Coach Ken Carpenter.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13

Baseball Coaches Unplugged is proud to be partnered with the Netting Professionals improving programs one facility at a time. The Netting Professionals specialize in the design, fabrication, and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, BP turtles, screens, ball carts, and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf, turf protectors, dugout benches, and cubbies. Contact them today at 844-620-2707. That's 844-620-2707, or you can visit them online at www.nettingpros.com. Check out netting pros on X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for all their latest products and projects. Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. And you know what keeps coaches, the good ones, up late at night? It's not if they went out and had an average season. It's when they have those great seasons. They make those deep runs in the playoffs or even win a state title. It's complacency. Complacency is the silent assassin of excellence in sports. It creeps in when you're not looking, when the trophies are on the shelf and everyone's patting each other on the back. And nowhere is there more dangerous than the off-season when the lights are off and nobody's watching. I want to talk to you today about two coaches who understand this battle probably better than anyone right now. And it's happening during football season. Nick Saban, the retired Alabama football coach, and Ryan Day, the current coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Now I know we're talking baseball here, but stick with me because the principles of preventing complacency transcend sport. Let's start with Nick Saban. The man's won seven national championships, seven. And you know what he says after each one? He talks about the 24-hour rule. Celebrate for 24 hours, then it's back to work. But here's what's brilliant about Saban's approach. It's not just about moving on quickly, it's about what he calls rat poison. That's his term for praise, for media hype, or for anything that makes his players think they've arrived. He actively fights against external validation, seeping into the locker room because he knows he knows that the moment the players start believing their own press clippings, they're done. Sabin builds what he calls the process-oriented goals versus outcome-oriented goals. He doesn't let his players focus on winning championships. He makes them focus on executing each drill, each play, each rep with excellence. That's how you fight complacency. You make the standard the standard, and regardless of last year's record. Now let's move on to Ryan Day at Ohio State. He made an unbelievable run in the football playoffs last year, and it's one that will go down in history. He inherited a monster program from Hall of Fame coach Urban Meyer. And here's his challenge. How do you keep players hungry when they've already made it to the top? Today's approach is fascinating. He's created what it's called a culture of accountability through transparency. He posts everything practice stats, effort grades, execution percentages. There's nowhere to hide. You can coast, and when everyone sees exactly what you're putting in, but here's one day, here's where he really shines. He constantly redefines success. Beat Michigan. Great. Now the standard is the Big Ten Championship. Win that. Now it's the college football playoff. The goalpost is always moving because excellence is a destination. It's not a destination, excuse me. It's a pursuit. So how do we apply this to baseball? Specifically in the off-season. Because that's where complacency either takes root or gets destroyed. First, you've got to reset the narrative immediately. Last season ended whenever it ended. Whether you won the championship or you exited early from the state tournament, it doesn't matter. The offseason is day one of next season. I'm talking about having a team meeting before everyone leaves and establishing the simple truth. Last year's results have zero bearing on next year's success. Make them understand that their reputation has to be rebuilt from scratch. Second, create measurable off-season standards. This is your Sabin move. Don't let players go home with vague instructions like stay in shape or work on your swing. Give them specific, trackable goals. I'm talking about velocity targets, exit vLo benchmarks, 60-yard dash times, body composition percentages. And here's the key. Collect that data when they return. Nothing prevents complacency like knowing you'll be measured. Third, use the off-season to build individual accountability systems. This is straight from Ryan Day's playbook. Have your players create their own development plans. What are their three biggest weaknesses? What's the specific plan to address each one? Who's their accountability partner? Checking in on them. Make them own their development. When players create and own their standards, they can't blame anyone else for not meeting them. Fourth, combat success when new with new challenges. If you had seniors who graduated and were stars, great. Now you have holes to fill and young players who need to step up. Frame that as opportunity, not loss. If you're returning everyone, that's when complacency is most dangerous. That's when you need to say, last year we won with talent. This year we're going to win with discipline. Change the measuring stick. Fifth, this is a crucial one. Schedule humility into your offseason. Saban does this by showing film of championship teams that failed to repeat. Deg does this by bringing in speakers who talk about failure and resilience. You need to manufacture adversity before real adversity hits. Show your players documentaries about dynasties that fell apart. Have them read about the 28 Yankees who won it all, then the 29 Yankees who won it all again, and ask them what separated those teams from the ones that couldn't repeat. Here's the hard truth that every coach needs to face. Your players will get complacent if you don't actively prevent it. It's human nature. Success breeds comfort, and comfort breeds mediocrity. The offseason is where this war is won or loss. Because when February rolls around and you're back on the field, it's too late. The habits are already formed, the mindset is set, and either they spent the winter grinding or they spent it coasting on last year's success. I'll leave you with this. Nick Saban has a saying that I think every baseball coach should put on their wall. He says, Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people. Your job in the offseason is to make sure high achievers stay hungry and your mediocre players either rise up or self-select out. You do that by setting uncompromising standards, measuring everything, and never, and I mean never, letting last year's success become this year's excuse. The greatest threat to your program isn't the team on your schedule. It's the comfort level in your own clubhouse. Fight every single day. Today's episode of Baseball Coaches Unplugged was powered by the Netting Professionals Improving Programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at www.nettingpros.com for all your baseball needs. Be sure to tune in every Wednesday where we sit down with some of the best baseball coaches from across the country. As always, I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.