-First, that was as dead of an atmosphere as I can recall on a Friday night in quite some time. For all the talk about how "only" need to do X to get into a regional (we also need to do Y - win a specific number of remaining SEC games - although coach has yet to acknowledge that to anyone publicly or semi-publicly) last night sure looked and felt like an exercise in playing out the string. Brady Bramlett's numbers were very good going into last night, but we clearly caught him on an off night.... he didn't have a lot and didn't miss a ton of bats when he was in the strike zone (the real strike zone, not the 6 inches below the knee that kept getting called).... It reminded me of last year when Florida came up here. Logan Shore, as good as he is, just didn't have it that night. We chased him early after building a lead and went on to pound the crap out of the Gators that night. I'm not say that Bramlett is in Shore's class, but the idea is the same.... you've got to cash in when the other guy's ace doesn't have it. That's what really irritated me about last night. We had a W set up on a silver platter for us and just couldn't get it.
-Don't know what to say about Robert Tyler, but I guess I never do. He's shown you what he's capable of doing. His game against Florida and his game against Alabama were efforts that only a handful of college pitchers around the country could replicate. But unfortunately, those were the outliers. Last night was much more typical of his season.... I don't know why. Stricklin stated afterward that his arm is fine and his stuff is good because his velocity is good. I wish that we'd stop using his velocity to measure whether he's "fine" or not. I'd really like to see him working more in the low 90s and I understand that Corral would too. Someone texted me during the game last night pointing out that in one sequence, Robert threw 11 straight fastballs. I don't get it.... he's perfectly capable of being a "pitcher" but it seems sometimes like we're content with him being a "thrower"... Nobody can deny his ability, though, or dispute that he has a very ceiling. He'll make one more career start in Athens. It's hard to believe how fast this gone. We got ourselves into a regional with Alex Wood. We got ourselves into a regional with Justin Grimm in the rotation. We got there (and eventually, to Omaha) with Brooks Brown in the rotation. We may well never have a winning season with Robert Tyler in the rotation. Regardless of his struggles at times this year, guys like him don't grow on trees, and it's a shame that we've basically wasted his career here (and a few other careers, as well).
-Last night was our 15th SEC loss. This will now be five straight seasons that we've failed to produce a winning conference slate. The last time we finished with more SEC wins than losses, Mitt Romney was contemplating a presidential run. It goes without saying that it shouldn't happen, that it shouldn't go this long. Not all of that is on Stricklin, either, Perno was sub .500 in the league in 2012 and 2013. Correlation does not equal causation, but it's worth noting that Greg McGarity took over as AD in summer 2010 and began limiting our non-conference scheduling options beginning (at the latest) for the 2013 season. We were set to open that season at Cal State Fullerton, but that series was scrapped as the AD did not want to spend the money to fly and lodge the team out there. Instead we opened at Ga Southern. McGarity stated that the focus needed to be on the SEC and that the season would take care of itself if we played well in the conference. My point at that time was the a challenging non-conference slate gets you ready for a challenging SEC. I guess he doesn't see it that way. He doesn't see us winning a whole lot of conference weekends, either.
-That said, we lost the opener to both South Carolina and Alabama and came back and won the series. It'll be a tougher task now that we've burned Bo Tucker, but that was the case with the Alabama series and we came back and won that one. Ole Miss is beatable, but they didn't play their best game last night either. They probably clinched a regional berth, at worst, with their win last night (which got them to 13 in the league), but getting into a regional was all but a given for them anyway. It'll be interesting to see what they do today, as they're going to need a few more W's to host and a few more after that to get into national seed territory. But as I say, they do look beatable to me.
-I'd encourage anyone going to get into the stadium early today to see the 2006 team being recognized. Great group there and 10 years later, they absolutely deserve the recognition.
-Don't know what to say about Robert Tyler, but I guess I never do. He's shown you what he's capable of doing. His game against Florida and his game against Alabama were efforts that only a handful of college pitchers around the country could replicate. But unfortunately, those were the outliers. Last night was much more typical of his season.... I don't know why. Stricklin stated afterward that his arm is fine and his stuff is good because his velocity is good. I wish that we'd stop using his velocity to measure whether he's "fine" or not. I'd really like to see him working more in the low 90s and I understand that Corral would too. Someone texted me during the game last night pointing out that in one sequence, Robert threw 11 straight fastballs. I don't get it.... he's perfectly capable of being a "pitcher" but it seems sometimes like we're content with him being a "thrower"... Nobody can deny his ability, though, or dispute that he has a very ceiling. He'll make one more career start in Athens. It's hard to believe how fast this gone. We got ourselves into a regional with Alex Wood. We got ourselves into a regional with Justin Grimm in the rotation. We got there (and eventually, to Omaha) with Brooks Brown in the rotation. We may well never have a winning season with Robert Tyler in the rotation. Regardless of his struggles at times this year, guys like him don't grow on trees, and it's a shame that we've basically wasted his career here (and a few other careers, as well).
-Last night was our 15th SEC loss. This will now be five straight seasons that we've failed to produce a winning conference slate. The last time we finished with more SEC wins than losses, Mitt Romney was contemplating a presidential run. It goes without saying that it shouldn't happen, that it shouldn't go this long. Not all of that is on Stricklin, either, Perno was sub .500 in the league in 2012 and 2013. Correlation does not equal causation, but it's worth noting that Greg McGarity took over as AD in summer 2010 and began limiting our non-conference scheduling options beginning (at the latest) for the 2013 season. We were set to open that season at Cal State Fullerton, but that series was scrapped as the AD did not want to spend the money to fly and lodge the team out there. Instead we opened at Ga Southern. McGarity stated that the focus needed to be on the SEC and that the season would take care of itself if we played well in the conference. My point at that time was the a challenging non-conference slate gets you ready for a challenging SEC. I guess he doesn't see it that way. He doesn't see us winning a whole lot of conference weekends, either.
-That said, we lost the opener to both South Carolina and Alabama and came back and won the series. It'll be a tougher task now that we've burned Bo Tucker, but that was the case with the Alabama series and we came back and won that one. Ole Miss is beatable, but they didn't play their best game last night either. They probably clinched a regional berth, at worst, with their win last night (which got them to 13 in the league), but getting into a regional was all but a given for them anyway. It'll be interesting to see what they do today, as they're going to need a few more W's to host and a few more after that to get into national seed territory. But as I say, they do look beatable to me.
-I'd encourage anyone going to get into the stadium early today to see the 2006 team being recognized. Great group there and 10 years later, they absolutely deserve the recognition.
