discussing the incoming freshman and next season. It's podcast (podcasted?) on 960theref.com if you want to listen for yourself.
Most of the interview centered around the incoming class, on the heels of the revised rankings that have us #4 nationally. To say Stricklin is excited about it would be an understatement.
-Stricklin stated that he threw batting practice to Cam Shepherd on the field a few days ago, for the first time. Afterward he said to the freshman "I've been waiting three years to do that!"
-Seems like Tucker Maxwell and Tucker Bradley are the leading candidates at this juncture to play CF. Stricklin also mentioned what a fine football player Maxwell was. I've always liked the two sport guys... Conor Welton, Kyle Farmer, Joey Side, and Gordon Beckham all enjoyed outstanding high school football success. Brett DeLoach had a great run on the gridiron too and attracted some college attention. Keegan McGovern, Bo Tucker, and Mitchell Webb were all HS QBs... Webb actually had an offer to Kennesaw State to play football over there. I think all of those guys brought a great mentality to baseball and had a toughness about them that you need to go through the SEC.
-Stricklin mentioned that Campbell, who is coming here after things apparently fell apart with his admission to Vanderbilt, started off at Kennesaw State, then saw his numbers sky rocket at JUCO last year. Campbell is a smallish guy (5'9) but very strong and hits for a lot of power. Stricklin indicated that he'll be a prime candidate to slide into a corner OF spot.
-Sounds like we have three candidates to play SS with the top two being Shepherd and Will Proctor. Stricklin also mentioned that whoever doesn't win the SS job will be in the hunt to start at 2B or 3B. It was a different tone on LJ Talley than we've heard publicly. Stricklin said basically that Talley "did some good things last year" and basically left it at that. Stricklin also noted Mitchell Webb was "kind of up and down" last year. It won't shock me if neither of those guys are in the opening day lineup next season.... Although, I remain a believer a Mitchell Webb. He's a better hitter than he showed last year and is very talented defensively... Just needs to get more consistent.
-Stricklin also noted that Patrick Sullivan and Adam Sasser are very talented defensively, but need to do more with the bats... and if not, we may slide someone (a freshman) over to 1B also.
-Stricklin said that Keegan McGovern was "in the mix" for a corner OF spot and did not mention Michael Curry in the interview.
-This seems to be a continuation of a trend where we hear a lot about the talent level of individual freshman, then 12 months later they're mentioned in passing as having done some good things, but being pushed by the newcomers. I remember saying last spring that somebody was going to get "Michael Bell'd" from last year's freshman class. That's just how it goes I guess.
-Pitching wise, you don't really realize how young we are until you start talking about what we lost. It appears that Kevin Smith is the front runner to be the Friday night guy in the early going... the very early going. Stricklin is high on Tony Locey also and it sounds like they view him as as weekend guy right out of the gate. Stricklin mentioned Smith's velocity is up to the mid 90s. Also, Tucker Bradley will get a long look on the mound as well.
-We'll open next season at home with College of Charleston. Then, in what was about the worst news I heard yesterday, we'll go BACK to Statesboro in week two to play Georgia Southern. I swear I thought that was a four year contract and that we wouldn't play them in 2017. I hate it, I absolutely do.... It's a no win situation for us and we derive no benefit from playing those guys, other than it being on the road and being relatively cheap to bus and stay down there. We'll get UAB in week three at home (and see Ron Polk, hopefully, as I assume he'll still volunteer over there) and perhaps pick up another inside linebacker from them before then, and then we'll round out the non-conference season with something called Rider, who is from New Jersey (which exit, I'm not sure). We'll open league play in Baton Rouge, but Stricklin did not discuss the remainder of the schedule.
-Finally, Stricklin mentioned he need to start winning and said "We can do everything right off the field, we just set a record for team GPA, we can do all the community service stuff also, but if we don't win, we won't keep our jobs." With our current AD, I'm not sure I agree with Stricklin's assessment, but I am happy to hear some acknowledgement that what has happened on the field so far is not acceptable.
You know, I sit here and I'm so excited about football season.... I'm thinking how much fun we'll have at the UNC game to start the year, where I'll watch the Missouri game, the Tennessee weekend, Georgia/ Florida, all that stuff.... and I really can't wait.... And I don't want to wish any time away, but I'm REALLY looking forward to February and getting back into baseball, going on the road, etc. I absolutely love it and just hearing a little bit of talk yesterday about the new season got me really fired up.
Most of the interview centered around the incoming class, on the heels of the revised rankings that have us #4 nationally. To say Stricklin is excited about it would be an understatement.
-Stricklin stated that he threw batting practice to Cam Shepherd on the field a few days ago, for the first time. Afterward he said to the freshman "I've been waiting three years to do that!"
-Seems like Tucker Maxwell and Tucker Bradley are the leading candidates at this juncture to play CF. Stricklin also mentioned what a fine football player Maxwell was. I've always liked the two sport guys... Conor Welton, Kyle Farmer, Joey Side, and Gordon Beckham all enjoyed outstanding high school football success. Brett DeLoach had a great run on the gridiron too and attracted some college attention. Keegan McGovern, Bo Tucker, and Mitchell Webb were all HS QBs... Webb actually had an offer to Kennesaw State to play football over there. I think all of those guys brought a great mentality to baseball and had a toughness about them that you need to go through the SEC.
-Stricklin mentioned that Campbell, who is coming here after things apparently fell apart with his admission to Vanderbilt, started off at Kennesaw State, then saw his numbers sky rocket at JUCO last year. Campbell is a smallish guy (5'9) but very strong and hits for a lot of power. Stricklin indicated that he'll be a prime candidate to slide into a corner OF spot.
-Sounds like we have three candidates to play SS with the top two being Shepherd and Will Proctor. Stricklin also mentioned that whoever doesn't win the SS job will be in the hunt to start at 2B or 3B. It was a different tone on LJ Talley than we've heard publicly. Stricklin said basically that Talley "did some good things last year" and basically left it at that. Stricklin also noted Mitchell Webb was "kind of up and down" last year. It won't shock me if neither of those guys are in the opening day lineup next season.... Although, I remain a believer a Mitchell Webb. He's a better hitter than he showed last year and is very talented defensively... Just needs to get more consistent.
-Stricklin also noted that Patrick Sullivan and Adam Sasser are very talented defensively, but need to do more with the bats... and if not, we may slide someone (a freshman) over to 1B also.
-Stricklin said that Keegan McGovern was "in the mix" for a corner OF spot and did not mention Michael Curry in the interview.
-This seems to be a continuation of a trend where we hear a lot about the talent level of individual freshman, then 12 months later they're mentioned in passing as having done some good things, but being pushed by the newcomers. I remember saying last spring that somebody was going to get "Michael Bell'd" from last year's freshman class. That's just how it goes I guess.
-Pitching wise, you don't really realize how young we are until you start talking about what we lost. It appears that Kevin Smith is the front runner to be the Friday night guy in the early going... the very early going. Stricklin is high on Tony Locey also and it sounds like they view him as as weekend guy right out of the gate. Stricklin mentioned Smith's velocity is up to the mid 90s. Also, Tucker Bradley will get a long look on the mound as well.
-We'll open next season at home with College of Charleston. Then, in what was about the worst news I heard yesterday, we'll go BACK to Statesboro in week two to play Georgia Southern. I swear I thought that was a four year contract and that we wouldn't play them in 2017. I hate it, I absolutely do.... It's a no win situation for us and we derive no benefit from playing those guys, other than it being on the road and being relatively cheap to bus and stay down there. We'll get UAB in week three at home (and see Ron Polk, hopefully, as I assume he'll still volunteer over there) and perhaps pick up another inside linebacker from them before then, and then we'll round out the non-conference season with something called Rider, who is from New Jersey (which exit, I'm not sure). We'll open league play in Baton Rouge, but Stricklin did not discuss the remainder of the schedule.
-Finally, Stricklin mentioned he need to start winning and said "We can do everything right off the field, we just set a record for team GPA, we can do all the community service stuff also, but if we don't win, we won't keep our jobs." With our current AD, I'm not sure I agree with Stricklin's assessment, but I am happy to hear some acknowledgement that what has happened on the field so far is not acceptable.
You know, I sit here and I'm so excited about football season.... I'm thinking how much fun we'll have at the UNC game to start the year, where I'll watch the Missouri game, the Tennessee weekend, Georgia/ Florida, all that stuff.... and I really can't wait.... And I don't want to wish any time away, but I'm REALLY looking forward to February and getting back into baseball, going on the road, etc. I absolutely love it and just hearing a little bit of talk yesterday about the new season got me really fired up.
