2023 Schedule

#28
#28
How would you rate Tennessee’s non conference games last year? It was my first full year watching and have nothing to compare it to.
Georgia Southern is a regional team. Both Oklahoma and Texas made it to Omaha. I didn’t like the Rhode Island or Iona series.

I like 1 Top 25 match up, 1 Top 50 matchup, and the other 2 series top 150.
 
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#30
#30
So the question comes. Would you rather schedule hard and lose 2/3 or schedule easy and win 3/3?
You have more insight than most of us. I liked the Georgia Southern series and the tournament in Texas. I didn’t like the Rhode Island and Iona series because I don’t think those teams have the pitching to make us better. When you’re beating teams 20+ runs are we really getting better?
 
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#31
#31
You have more insight than most of us. I liked the Georgia Southern series and the tournament in Texas. I didn’t like the Rhode Island and Iona series because I don’t think those teams have the pitching to make us better. When you’re beating teams 20+ runs are we really getting better?
good point however you get to play a lot of guys and give them a chance to earn additional time on the field.......not sure when we scheduled Iona or Rhode Island however Iona did lose most of their team during the Covid time and coaching change, and when we played last year it was 90% (guessing here) new guys they acquired at the last minute. I don't like scoring 30 runs against someone however, 17+ is acceptable early in the year. Keep in mind, a lot of these Northern teams call us to play, they also get paid to come to play, which helps out their budget.
 
#32
#32
For me, this year in particular, I would not schedule extremely hard to start with. I always say the early season is for winning and learning your team and this year will be huge for that. When I was varsity HC, I always made sure we had early games we could/should win after a pretty tough tournament that we always started the year with. The problem was the year I intentionally scheduled easy games because I wasn't sure what we had was like last year for UT. We put up 17 runs on one team in the first inning with no outs. I regretted some of the games I scheduled but I didn't know how good we were and was going to make sure we had wins. I think this coming year the fielders may be great players but will they gel and work together for success. Will they still be using the first 4/5 weeks to figure out who plays where and with who. I had a friend who coached HS ball and didn't win a game and tried to use the we played a tough schedule excuse. My answer to him was if you don't schedule some guaranteed wins you deserve to be fired. I think Iona and RI were guaranteed wins while they figured it out last year. Plus you have to remember we were starting 3 new guys on the mound as weekend starters and didn't know they would be as good as they were, and I think those weekends helped them have overall success. If they had been busts, we would have been using those weekends to figure out who next. As OT says, Iona only kept 12 players from the year before and 1 starter. We had no idea they would be as bad as they were. When they were scheduled, they were a decent team. RI is up and down every year.
 
#45
#45
He has 4 from the Carolinas on the current roster and another who lived here when he was recruited. That is an incredible amount. I think he also has 3 committed from the Carolinas so he is already hitting this area.
 
#46
#46
I'm guessing they are having a hard time finding teams that are willing to play them. I don't think non conference will be much tougher, especially early. They have to figure out who is going to be the starters and you don't want to have to do or die every game while you are figuring that out. Plus conference schedule is tougher so you want to switch off some wins. I'm just thinking that a lot of teams do not want to play last years #1 team for most of the season. Especially at LNS and don't think other than Arizona we will go anywhere else to play.. Except maybe Smokies again.
I tend to believe the opposite. I think teams are jumping to even have a chance to beat Tennessee.
 
#47
#47
I cannot believe there are many mid-majors that want to play this loaded team or LSU or Arkansas. I don't think teams get paid like they do in football so you have to travel to a tough environment to get beat. We are not going to play P5 teams on weekdays. Will be interested to see schedule.
 

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