MikeH

Welp … Lott to Oregon. Official.

Not surprising that we're having a tougher road with WRs this cycle. Took three 5-stars last cycle, none of whom have played much. McCutcheon, theoretically the fourth WR take last year, has emerged as quite possibly the best of that group. And you likely have four returning "starters" in Moore, Mosley, Wingo, and Livingstone. Plus Niblett as an occassional gadget guy. That's a lot of traffic in front of you if you're looking for early playing time. I'd imagine that not all 9 of those guys return for 2026. Moore could maybe go pro (though I'm not sure he's had the season he probably wanted to leading into a potential draft year). I'm guessing we'll struggle to retain all the 2025 signees if all the starters return as well. But even if we lose a couple, that's going to be a lot of returning talent for 2026.

I'm in a weird place mentally with Sark. I think Sark is a good coach, a great offensive mind, a fantastic recruiter, and that what he's done for this program over the last five years has been incredible overall despite a few bumps along the way (particularly this year). If he leaves, we face a real risk of backsliding, massive roster attrition, etc. That said, part of me does wonder who we could land if he did leave while the roster is still loaded and the athletic department as a whole is in great shape, and whether that coach might not be better long term. I'm kind of okay with either path at this point, I guess.

He looked physically stronger and more assertive last night than he ever did the first two years. Made AD (a 5x All-Defense selection) look like a helpless JAG out there. If he’s gonna do that to AD and Lively, he’s gonna go for 60+ a couple times this year against some of the smaller, weaker defending teams. Last night was one of the most breathtaking individual performances I’ve ever seen. Just the size and skill set and ability to influence everything whenever he’s on the court. Special special player.

I was guilty of overreacting to Nick Brooks’s bad start coming off the heels of that showing in Gainesville. He got it together and played well today. If we can get that kind of showing from the OL the rest of the year, we just might still have some hope of turning it around.

Someone check my math here but a catcher nicknamed Chubs has a 100% chance of being awesome.

Arch’s inability to hit layup throws ultimately cost us the game. He missed at least 7 that should be gimmes for a starting SEC QB. Was Sark too conservative early? Probably. But Arch has to hit those throws. Not sure if that’s something that has shown up in camp or if it was just nerves in a huge game on the road. But it has to get better for this to be a playoff team this year. Defense was incredible as expected. Run game looked solid. OL was very good.

Galvan is gone but he's been replaced by one of the few catchers in the country who would represent an upgrade in Carson Tinney, a transfer from Notre Dame.

Schloss: what if we just build our staff only out of Volantises?

Some additional context

Almost!!!

A quick scroll through her stats and it’s definitely not uncommon for her to pitch in three games in three days. However, she’s never gone the distance three straight games. Max innings pitched in a three day stretch this year is 17, so she’d be in new territory from an innings standpoint from the 4th inning on tonight. Tech is 4-2 in those “third games” though two of the four wins came against Kennesaw State and a mediocre BYU. OK State and Arizona State both hit well off her the third time around. Will be interesting tonight for sure.

One of the announcers mentioned that she’d pitched three days in a row three times this season. However, they didn’t give any context as to how those outings went for her. I’d be curious to know that and how many of those came against the same team for all three games vs a regional or tourney set up.

Total implosion over these past two innings. Gave them the game on a silver platter.

Reese Atwood is an absolute legend for pulling that off in that spot. After the first two were almost strikes (I’m pretty sure the second one was tbh), I swear I could see the gears turning in her head through the TV and I wondered if she’d take a hack at one if Canady kept leaving it in there and sure enough she did. Big time guts and big time talent. What an awesome game!