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Gut Wagon

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Everything posted by Gut Wagon

  1. Their softball coach is the real plum. Mike White's days are numbered.
  2. Final thoughts for this thread: I've never been so glad to be wrong about the shortcomings of a coaching staff. On to 2026!
  3. Aside from Canady, wonder what their 2026 softball spend is going to be? By the time their season starts, the donors will know if their football spree bore enough fruit.
  4. To me, the ideal approach is to keep recruiting HS talent at the highest level, adding transfer talent mainly to offset major injuries and defections. Of course, if a HS recruit just doesn't develop or give max effort, no one should complain about an attempt to upgrade that spot with a proven transfer. (Not to name any names here, but let's all run really hard to 1B.) The need for maturity, physicality and depth in football forces Sark's hand on occasion. Plus, if a player at a key position has an unexpectedly great year and turns pro early, that can create a sudden hole to plug. (Goodbye Matthew, hello Emmett.) Sark also has gone shopping to replace notably poor performers (certain kickers and punters, for instance). Winning remains the goal in all these sports. So if each year White selectively shops in the portal for a few clear upgrades, I don't think anyone should question that approach. He's balanced it well lately.
  5. What level of portal pitcher might seriously entertain a Texas offer this offseason? TK's 207 innings represented nearly half the team total in 2025, and I assume her workload won't decrease much, if any. (Of course, the team's total innings played this year was a historically high number.) If we plan on needing 200 or so innings from the remainder of our 2026 staff, I'm guessing 90 of those could end up going to Cam. (She pitched 62 as a freshman.) That would leave roughly 110 to divide among Cit (if she stays), Wells and a transfer. I'm guessing we've seen the last of Cit in burnt orange, but even if she portals out and Wells gets a slightly lighter load than Cam did this year, we're still looking at needing a transfer to cover only only about 60 innings. Of course, those 60 could make or break a team's year, especially if pitched in relief in tight games. And the more I think about it, the better fit that makes Mizzou's Taylor Pannell. A lefty with tons of experience closing out wins in relief is one thing we don't have. She doesn't dazzle with stats but is a proven performer with games on the line.
  6. A 4-pitch walk ahead of Robert is exactly what I'd recommend. Edit: The K was somewhat surprising.
  7. Should have traded for Robert just to avoid having him beat us on the regular.
  8. Message to potential replacements: "Tired of playing for peanuts? Hey, we know a guy! Shopping for a title? Hitch your wagon to our bellcow, hit a pedestrian .260 and still make a run at it in OKC. All you need to bring is your glove, your bat and a willingness to spend a year in Hades."
  9. Tighter overall defense and another year of development for several key hitters hopefully will give our pitchers a bit more margin for error in 2026. But to be on the safe side, let's try to get that ERA even lower.
  10. Great news! We'll never know exactly what sketchy punting cost us in 2024, but we'd all agree it put a lot of extra pressure on our D. Nice to see the staff prioritizing special teams development while shutting Dabo out.
  11. You question our program's need of an almost unused player who goes by the nickname of "Money?" OK, can't say I blame you. https://extrainningsoftball.com/recruiting-spotlight-finding-samya-jones-a-closer-look-into-the-psyche-of-the-talented-2024-prospect/
  12. Over the last couple weeks, Goode was critical in bringing home the trophy. Especially for someone being forced into SS duty at a tense time, she was outstanding. Her shoring up the bottom third of the batting order likewise was huge, even before the final HR heroics. Mike mentioned this morning that Vivi's presence in the dugout was massive all season long. In fact, he likened her to another coach. Some fans might have forgotten just how great a player she is and what she figures to do for us in 2026 and '27. I won't be surprised if she comes close to what Mia gave us on offense this season, because she's displayed tremendous clutch hitting ability from the left side. And the combo of her at SS and Goode at 2B will be plenty strong defensively. At least on paper, Atwood seems the prototypical 1B and Stewie as well suited to catching as anywhere else on the field. But I can't say that's where either of them mainly should play next season. As solid as Joley usually was, I do like the idea of an expanded catch radius at 1B.
  13. Regardless of how long it takes Wells to adapt to D1 hitting, I have to think Hunter's gone. Losing six seniors with an incoming class of seven from HS suggests she won't be the only departure, either. Add another new face or two via the portal and we could have a roster much younger than this year's, but with a ton of championship DNA freshly baked in. Not trying to jinx us, but it all sets up as a great scenario for a repeat.
  14. On today's Coffee & Football, Mike White said one of the more interesting things I've ever heard stated by a coach in any sport. In talking about how he's mellowed out and isn't as much a stickler for every detail as he once was, he noted (paraphrasing here), "Guys need to play good to feel good. Girls need to feel good to play good." What a perfect way to describe it. The difference in demeanor of male vs. female participants in most team sports has always been clear, but I'd never really thought about it being "hard-wired." Now that I reflect on it, I realize that even in high-pressure situations, the best softball and volleyball seem to be played when girls don't appear to take things all that seriously. Not sure if this "rule" applies as much to basketball, in which all the top women's coaches (including Vic) seem to spend most of every game screaming about something and subbing girls out quickly following mistakes. Of course, the physical nature and flow of basketball dictate far more of a moment-by-moment coaching approach than is true of softball or even volleyball. But even in basketball girls rarely get as visibly upset when they screw up or are sent to the bench. Maybe there's just way less ego involved.
  15. Left a whole lot on the bone there. Hope it doesn't matter.
  16. Old buddy of mine used to play a little baseball and later served on the Murray State BOR. I'm pulling hard for his guys tonight...and hopefully beyond.
  17. Rumor of it trending much more heavily toward NIL vs. fit...which we know isn't Sark's cup o' tea. But who knows? Not I.
  18. The gruntling continues! Welcome aboard!
  19. How do Pannell and Johnson compare? The former certainly has had a lot of relief experience, which could be useful. Johnson had big K numbers the past two seasons, but I'm not sure how good her opponents were. Anyway, either lefty would seem well worth pursuing.
  20. Reggie Bush's lateral...David Freese's dramatics...Craig Curry's muffed return. There's a reason so many sports fans end up in AA.
  21. Found them! Just took much deeper digging. Aggy and the swine were vying for that top spot until the real season began. https://www.on3.com/softball/news/softball-america-top-25-rankings-final-2025/
  22. Texas just made a joke of the old adage, "Defense wins championships." Although along the way there were some epic defensive plays made in clutch situations, we'd all agree it was far from a strong season in that regard. In terms of our 2025 roster, I love that it was assembled as it was. A largely homegrown team despite having another of the best homegrown players in the land not even playing an inning all season. Texas fans should be proud of how this squad was constructed and developed. Credit to White and his staff for that. Going forward will be interesting. We know future major college champions in every team sport are likely to be a strategic mix of talent from various sources. Toward the end, not even master recruiter and developer Nick Saban was doing it all with his own HS recruits. I don't think Sark, Schloss, Miller or Schaefer will ever try to prove they can. And no matter how well White recruits from the HS ranks, he'd be crazy not to keep adding transfers strategically. I look forward to seeing who comes aboard over the next few weeks to bolster a strong freshmen class. The idea is to keep adding better talent than you already have. I do hope adding transfers remains the exception and not the rule in Austin, in all sports and in all cases not involving transition classes. I'd even love it if the vast majority of our players in all sports continue to be from within Texas, but that's an increasingly tough stance to maintain in such a competitive athletic landscape.
  23. Yep. To be around the upper end of nearly every team sport you have to keep trying to make your existing roster obsolete. Hard job for the coaches to make it all work, but bringing in better talent is the only way to become great and stay that way. Gasso continues to teach a masterclass in that.
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