Lady Vols Softball

#4,526
#4,526
GameTime said:
Guys, what is the true backstory behind Arnold changing uniforms? I'm sure it has been discussed before, but there is not a lot to talk about now, so what happened to her here.
Unconquered_Caylan-Arnold-1140x1186.jpg
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Weekly’d
 
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#4,527
#4,527
TomHoot said:
Some posters here forget that coaches don’t play softball. Players do. They want to do well. They try hard. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. This weekend, they ran out of steam. Put yourself in the place of a JMU fan. Saturday afternoon, their team couldn’t hit Rogers either. It was just that one 3-player sequence: hit batsman, walk, home run. That was the difference. It was a close game. Later. Liberty just took advantage of an injured, tired pitcher. Series over.

There is no reason to throw over two Hall of Fame coaches with a proven track record. They were still 16th in the nation in a field of 300 teams. They produce teams which win consistently. Careful what you wish for. Or did you want football coach Phil Fulmer gone, too? That didn’t work out so well.

The LVs have pitching troubles. Those began with the unexpected departure of Caylan Arnold, then Rogers’ injury. Turner was thrown in the deep end. One or two prospects didn’t work out. Maybe the transfer portal is the answer. Maybe that new six foot pitcher will be effective. Maybe Bender can learn another pitch. Rogers’ index finger will probably be a chronic problem. If they want her at full strength for the playoffs, they need a reliable second starter. Second base is a problem. The coaches seemed to have lost confidence in Parsons, but she partially redeemed herself in post-season. Maybe she can get her confidence and consistency back. Maybe Fox can improve her hitting; she is a fine fielder. Or maybe someone new. But otherwise, they seem in good shape. They need to replace LF and 3rd base, at the least. But defense continues to be a strong point, especially if Morgan and Ayala return. And, without putting too find a point on it, the LVs are all in shape, unlike some of the opposing players we saw this weekend. That gives them endurance, flexibility, defensive ability and adds a base-stealing capability. Credit the Weeklys for recruiting and conditioning such players.

So don’t despair for the LVs. They should be fine. And never forget how good their SEC competition is. If a team is ranked 16th and can still only muster a 50-50 record, that says something about how tough their schedule is.
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A lot of excuses and please don’t take that as me coming after your answer. I’ll always support the team and the staff. But I won’t make excuses to why this happened this weekend. This has been years in the making and many are just now seeing it after the fact. I’ve said that the Weeklys have earned the right to walk away on their time but this won’t be an easy transition to get back up top in the SEC or nationally. The JMU pitcher yesterday is the type of player we pass over to get the kid that looks good getting off the bus. We have to get back to better evaluations in all spots.
 
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#4,528
#4,528
Before the region people were saying well we already beat Liberty and JMU hasn’t played anyone. JMU has a pitcher and tradition of winning. I was there the day we beat Liberty. Ashley was awesome that day, we played perfect defense and had timely hitting. How many times have all those things aligned for us Liberty is also a young team with a lot of innings been pitched by freshman. Two excellent coaches.
 
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#4,529
#4,529
Last Wed. I read a article that had sports writers around the country picking who they thought would win each region. In our region around half of the writers picked JMU.
 
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#4,530
#4,530
Tnphil said:
Last Wed. I read a article that had sports writers around the country picking who they thought would win each region. In our region around half of the writers picked JMU.
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Most here thought it would be a battle to get out of Knoxville with Liberty and JMU. Two strong teams in lower division. Granted we thought we should win, but yesterday we didn’t look like the host team.
 
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#4,532
#4,532
Majors said:
A lot of excuses and please don’t take that as me coming after your answer. I’ll always support the team and the staff. But I won’t make excuses to why this happened this weekend. This has been years in the making and many are just now seeing it after the fact. I’ve said that the Weeklys have earned the right to walk away on their time but this won’t be an easy transition to get back up top in the SEC or nationally. The JMU pitcher yesterday is the type of player we pass over to get the kid that looks good getting off the bus. We have to get back to better evaluations in all spots.
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We want to look good. Ralph even told on himself (to his credit) at camp a number of years ago as I was sitting there. Ricketts who is on the Olympic team and was all world at Oklahoma had the same pitching coach as Monica and really wanted to come to Ut but Ralph said he thought she was too fat.
 
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#4,535
#4,535
kregman said:
I was about to say the bad error started all that and the key add on run came with an error from Parsons .
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My apologies. Thank you for the correction. I wasn't trying to assign blame. I was pointing out that, those three batters aside, the game was fairly even.
 
#4,536
#4,536
TomHoot said:
My apologies. Thank you for the correction. I wasn't trying to assign blame. I was pointing out that, those three batters aside, the game was fairly even.
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No need to apologize we have killed our pitchers the last two years with bad errors. It is a sore spot for me. Not you at all. It is the small things that add up this time of year.
 
#4,537
#4,537
GameTime said:
Guys, what is the true backstory behind Arnold changing uniforms? I'm sure it has been discussed before, but there is not a lot to talk about now, so what happened to her here.
Unconquered_Caylan-Arnold-1140x1186.jpg
Click to expand...

she left because she wanted a real pitching coach. Karen was in charge of pitching that year and she had to go to outside resources for help. Karen was never a pitcher, After Arnold left Marty started calling pitches last year. And then Karen fired Marty because of last year debacle.
 
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#4,538
#4,538
I'm not up to snuff on how regionals are determined.....How is Duke a 13 seed and UGA is not seeded but UGA is hosting?
 
#4,540
#4,540
youcancallmeAl said:
Sure about that? You might be right, as far as I know. Here's what I don't know: What is our softball budget compared to Florida or Alabama or UCLA? And, just as importantly: What quality of leadership has been provided to the Weeklys from the AD over the years, and in the most recent years?
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If the Weeklys need leadership from the AD to run their program, they aren’t doing what they are supposed to. Does White need to run the FB program? Maybe he needs to provide guidance to Coach Harper and Barnes? As for budget, UT came in with around $800K ahead after expenses. Not bad considering pandemic effects on budget. Quit with the excuses. Mississippi State is still in it. KY as well. I bet their AD’s aren’t involved because their coaches are.
 
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#4,544
#4,544
People always question resources... but resources aren't the real problem. Using the right resources in the right way generally fixes a lot of issues.

Coaches in marquee sports that have a good plan and sound strategies for solving problems get what they need from UT. Rick Barnes, Josh Heupel, Tony Vitello and KJH can attest to that. Those programs are headed up. Is softball?
 
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#4,545
#4,545
James Madison coach would be a solid replacement for the Weekleys and it does not matter if the softball players are a little pudgy just as long as they can play the game well on a consistent basis.
 
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#4,546
#4,546
Very refreshing to see all the posts debating the pros and cons of the Weekly's as HC's. When I posted 2 wks ago it may be time to look at going another direction in hC's all I got was the sunshine and rainbows crowd referring to me as a negavol and I knew nothing about SB, etc. Glad to see an adult discussion can be had on this board. Lots of great insight on both sides being posted. kudos
 
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#4,547
#4,547
Majors said:
Recruiting classes have been good to great meaning they have the resources. Marty was seen coast to coast, scouting and recruiting. The budget, resources etc have been provided. Not sure the football teams lack of success has really impacted the softball teams ability to win when our recruiting classes have been good on rankings.
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The classes are ranked but look at what they’ve missed or overlooked. That tells me they are poor at recruiting the best local talent. Local as in 300 miles around Knoxville. Same with any sport. If you’re recruiting well but missing kids in your back yard, something is off
 
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