MCWS 2024: The defining stories of FSU's Link Jarrett - ESPN

OMAHA, Nebraska — Link Jarrett is sitting in the lobby at the Embassy Suites in Omaha, fidgeting with his hat and trying to explain that he is not really as intense as he seems — at least not always. A guy who handles his media obligations has already checked in at Jarrett's table, armed with an excuse to pull him away from the interview if he wants to leave. Jarrett, after all, is a busy man this week. His Florida State Seminoles are back in the Men's College World Series.

But Jarrett wants to keep going. He is talking about baseball, life and juvenile trespassing, and how it all fits into where he is now.

It's Thursday afternoon, a day before Florida State watched a three-run ninth-inning lead evaporate in a 12-11 loss to No. 1 Tennessee, and Jarrett's life is cluttered with emotional twists and turns.

He's the coach who left a beloved gig at Notre Dame to come home to his alma mater two years ago, only to be the first skipper in 76 years to fail to post a winning season. He's also the guy who has the Seminoles back in the MCWS one year later.

Florida State has made it to Omaha 24 times, and has yet to win the whole thing. It gnaws at Jarrett, to the point in which he relives in-game minutiae from three decades ago, when he was a player for FSU. He thinks about the inches that separated him from fielding a hit up the middle, the instincts that failed him. He thought about it shortly after arriving in Omaha on Wednesday.

«But it's not like I'm possessed by it,» Jarrett said. «No, I know it's there. It's not baggage. It's like, are you doing better? What instruction can you give [the infielders] and make sure that you learn from what happened? I have to learn from these things. And then some of the accomplishments, you