Jason Kelly is a baseball coach and former player. He is currently the pitching coach for the Texas A&M Aggies. He played college baseball for the Cal Poly Mustangs, the Cuesta Cougars, and the Missouri Valley Vikings.
Playing career
Kelly grew up in Santa Maria, California, where he attended St. Joseph High School. As a junior at St. Joseph, Kelly had a 14–0 record with an earned run average (ERA) of 1.45. He recorded 107 strikeouts in 87 innings pitched, which earned him the Santa Maria Times All-Area MVP award. Kelly then enrolled at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where he played baseball for the Mustangs. As a freshman in 1999, Kelly had a 3–1 record, a 7.91 ERA, and pitched 30 innings. In his second season, he sat out the season. For the 2001 season, Kelly transferred to Cuesta College, where he played for the Cougars under head coach Larry Lee. Kelly led the team with ten wins and 107 1⁄3 innings pitched. He was also named First Team All-Western State Conference. Kelly finished his college baseball career playing for the Missouri Valley Vikings during the 2002 season.
Coaching career
Kelly started his coaching career as a volunteer assistant for the Cal Poly Mustangs. During this time, he also worked part-time at a local grocery store. The next year, he received his first full-time coaching job as the pitching coach at Chico State. Later, Kelly joined Larry Lee’s staff at Cal Poly as the pitching coach.
On August 16, 2012, Kelly was appointed as the pitching coach for the Washington Huskies. He helped improve the Huskies’ pitching, which led to a 2018 College World Series appearance. For his work during that season, he was named d1baseball.com’s Assistant Coach of the Year. After the 2019 season, Kelly left the Huskies to take the same position at Arizona State. Following the departure of head coach Tracy Smith, Kelly moved to LSU as the pitching coach.
On June 24, 2022, Kelly became the head coach of the Washington Huskies. On June 30, 2024, it was announced that Kelly would leave Washington to join Texas A&M’s new baseball coach, Michael Earley, as the pitching coach.