Pirates' Jacob Stallings on dad, Kevin, the fired Pitt coach: 'He was building for the future'
BRADENTON, Fla. — A decade ago, in the mornings before first bell at Nashville's Brentwood Academy, the Stallings went to the gym to shoot baskets.
Kevin, the dad, was the coach at Vanderbilt. Jacob, the son, was an all-state basketball player.
Later, when Jacob was building a career as a catcher with the Pirates, he often needed to take some extra cuts in the cage. He went straight to his dad.
“He throws great BP,” he said.
More than that, Jacob said, “He's my best friend.”
Speaking Friday in the Pirates clubhouse in LECOM Park, Jacob said his relationship with his dad, who was fired as Pitt's basketball coach Thursday, is more than mere father/son.
“We're both invested in each other's jobs,” he said. “He loves my baseball. I love his basketball.
“We always talk about it. I don't know if he asks my advice as much as I give it to him. We really enjoy being there for each other.”
To this day, even while Jacob is with the Pirates in spring training, “we talk every day, pretty much throughout the day,” he said.
But Pitt disconnected what could have been a truly Pittsburgh story when the elder Stallings was fired with four years remaining on his contract.
Father and son building careers with two of the city's most polarizing teams: imagine the conversations they could have had over the years.
How serendipitous that the dad was hired in 2016 to coach in a city where the baseball team drafted his son four years earlier.
When the hammer fell Thursday, it was no surprise, and the meeting between Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke and Stallings was cordial, Jacob said.
One of Kevin's first calls was to his son.
The call was brief because Jacob had responsibilities at LECOM Park, but they spoke at length later in the day.
Jacob said his dad declined to comment for this story. But when asked about his father's state of mind, Jacob said, “He's fine. I think his immediate thoughts just went straight to his staff and his players, just their well-being.
“His whole staff has uprooted their families in the past year or two to come there. Now they have to go somewhere else, probably. That's hard.
“Almost all of his (players) were in their first year. Now they might look to go elsewhere, or they'll stay there and have to be with a new coach.
“His thoughts are with them. He tried to reach out to most of them, if not all of them.”
As the season was ending, his father was able to focus on the games, Jacob said, even while knowing his time at Pitt was running out.
“He loved his players. That made it a lot easier on him,” he said. “Just being able to focus on them, kind of pour into them.”
Jacob Stallings has been in professional athletics long enough to know it can be an unforgiving business. Reality — empty seats at Petersen Events Center and an unprecedented 0-19 record against ACC opponents — was too much for his dad to overcome.
“I'm not sure how many coaches could have gone in there and expected to win with such a young team and Ryan (Luther) getting hurt the way he did,” Jacob said. “If he had known this was going to be a possible outcome, maybe he would have done some things differently in terms of trying to bring in some older guys. But he was building for the future. I don't think he regrets anything he did.
“There were a number of different avenues he could have gone. His best teams have been the ones that have grown together and become juniors and seniors together. He wasn't given the opportunity to see those guys get older.”
Jacob expects to see his dad in Bradenton before the Pirates break camp March 27. Most likely, he will be at several Indianapolis Indians games, where Jacob likely will start the season.
“He won't coach next year,” Jacob said. “I feel pretty confident with that. I guess you never know what the future holds. I think he's going to process it and see what transpires.
“I'm sure he'll come and see some games and see his grandson (Jacob and wife Amy Beth have a son, Emmitt, who turns 1 on Monday). I think he'll be excited to spend a lot of time with family.”
When Stallings accepted the Pitt job in 2016, he and wife Lisa decided to keep their home in Nashville so their youngest daughter, Jordyn, could finish high school.
“It was hard,” Jacob said, adding his dad hasn't seen his daughters — Alexa is in the Nashville music business — since December. “But it's what he and my mom decided to do. She's in the middle of high school, teenage girl. They don't want to move her to a new place.
“Now it turns out it's probably a smart decision since he's not in Pittsburgh anymore.”
Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
