2006- On section of many of a Interview on Baseball’s Kyle Russell written by Danny Davis University of Texas Beat Writer.

Danny Davis, University of Texas Beat Writer

Every Thursday in the Hookem newsletter, we will catch up with a former Texas standout. This week’s “Where Are They Now?” interview is with former UT slugger Kyle Russell.

An outfielder at Texas from 2006-08, Russell’s 57 career home runs are still a school record. A two-time conference champion, Russell was named the Big 12 Player of the Year in 2007 and became a third-round draft pick in 2008. This week, Russell will join nine other Longhorn luminaries as the Texas Hall of Honor’s Class of 2025 is celebrated.

Kyle says “There was one time that I do remember that I was struggling so badly, and I think it was my junior year. My sophomore year was a really, really important year. I did really, really well, and then I started struggling after my junior year, I remember Coach Garrido pulling me inside of the hotel room one day, and was, “Look, I know that you were All-American last year. You did all these great accolades, but I’m going to sit you this series against Texas Tech.” And I’m like, “What, you’re going to sit me?” He’s like, “Just hear me out. Sometimes you just need to take a break.” He was such a mental wizard when it came to the way that he could pull the best out of you, and he knew at that point in time that the best thing that he could do for me was to sit me for those three games against Texas Tech. So he sat me those three games, and I just remember visualizing in my head going, I’m going to sit here, but I’m going to focus on everything that’s going on in this game and then once it’s over, we’re going to hit the ground running for those following games that we had. I think we had maybe 40 or 50 games left in the season. Since I sat out those games, I just went on an absolute tear. It’s just one of the little things that I can kind of focus on that I think was really a big, huge impact in my career.