Thoughts on Sully losing count of trips to the mound. Forced to bring in a freshman closer and had to boot our top ten closer from he game. That kind of gaff could easily have cost us a close game. My guess is that every gator coach is now tasked with tracking mound visits and informing Sully after each visit.
It would even better if the umps kept better track and didn't tell him he was good prior to the visit.
Rules have changed, BT’s (or any catchers) trips to the mound count in that tally also—no excuses just part of the changes. Everybody’s got to get used to it.
Ironically, probably helps UF in the long run. Saved Neely a bunch of pitches for a possible Wednesday close and got Fisher past his bad UVA outing and settled him down for future work in the series.
And who knows how it would have worked out if Neely had stayed in? Maybe they rock him and we lose. Sully was obviously embarrassed and accepted the blame. The guys hung in there and got the win. Bottom line, that's really all that matters.
How many times do players need to bail out an action / decision by a coach? Often, I imagine. How often, though, is the action so obvious? I imagine Sully expressed his gratitude even more fulsomely to the team in the locker room than he did publicly in the press conference. Edit: I would LOVED to hear how Steve Spurrier would have handled that error in a presser. I bet James Bates would do an epic rendition of it.
Neely wasn't fooling anybody and had just loaded the bases. I think it worked out just fine thanks to Sully' mistake.
Well, James, it happens I guess. I’m the head ball coach and am busy calling plays on the old ball field. I don’t have time to count anything except touchdowns - we have guys on the old sideline that are supposed to do that. They messed up and it won’t happen again. I’ve got too many things to get right, like the old Emory and Henry play.
I don't expect perfection from coaches. In fact, I expect mistakes. I measure on reactions to mistakes, and Sully's was perfect. Good teaching moment.
I absolutely agree it turned out fine and that it may have turned out differently. But honestly that is irrelevant. But it could have just as likely been fine if Neely stayed in. The problem is that sully didn't get to do what he wanted. We all make mistakes. Just glad it worked out ok. As for this claim that he was told he was ok, I only heard that from the commentators. Later they showed sully walking out to the mound and he never even looked at the mound. Is there some other evidence of this that I haven't heard?
My guess from here on in the CWS, we won't have as many catcher visits to the mound so Sully can say exactly what he wants to say. Not blaming BT for any of it but Sully will make any mound visit more regimented going forward. He might even carry an abacus with him to show the ump on each walk out.
How about one of the trainers come out carrying a sign with the number of the visit on it like they do in boxing to show the number of the round. I don't know if they would allow a cheerleader in a bikini tho.
