(SB) Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

Based on today's performance I'd say she is definitely warming up.

 

She hasn’t even made it to the venue yet.

 

Gators current conference BA is now 240 which puts them in the middle of SEC but the ERA is now 6.08 which is last in conference.

 

Before I get into the tldr parts I’m gonna come out and acknowledge I’m very new here and I’m kicking myself in the arse for not finding this forum many many years ago. Better late than never. This forum is awesome. Very cool to be surrounded by individuals with not only a passion for Gator softball but you all are so educated, knowledgeable and insightful about the sport. I come from a baseball background so softball wasn’t a huge leap and I’ve been following the sport for around 13 years now which isn’t even half the time of many of you. You all flat out educate me often and occasionally support my posts which lets me believe I’m not always an idiot or overly biased Gator fan. Love yall, except that one guy named wing something or other who just shows up to downvote people. That guy is obviously an arse pirate lol.

 

I try to be optimistic but consider myself a realist and this season isn’t looking good. After what happened today there’s two ways the team can respond. Say f-it and close the shop or rally, pick each other up, fight and compete. I hope they choose the latter but even if they do I’m not sure that translates to wins. If they don’t fight then I’m thinking coach has lost the locker room and that’s not good. Things have been trending in the wrong direction for a number of years now and that’s a problem but problems are solutions waiting to happen. CTW brought this program from obscurity to a sustained national powerhouse in a short period of time. He can do it again but gotta be some changes. This season might be a wash or they theoretically could turn it around. I for one am not giving up on the program as a whole. Right now just sucks

 

Probably my last text wall for the evening . I wasn’t here last season but I was viscous in my critique of Hightower which wasn’t fair. I’ve been dogging Longley this season also not fair. Not one of these amazing young women is stepping out on the field trying to fail and piss off us armchair coaches. They’re trying their best and I believe they just don’t have a strong support network backing them up. They’re human first, students second and athletes last. Regardless of how this season plays out we should (myself included) support them (the players) and send them positive vibes. Negativity breeds nothing but more negativity. These are our Ladies in orange and blue. Go Gators!

 

I swear this is last post this evening lol. So yeah, lots of doom and gloom, I get it. I don’t have a crystal ball so idk how this season plays out. In the interest of getting off the train to negativeville let’s all talk about our favorite players, favorite seasons, favorite moments in Gator softball history. There’s many so have at it! Obviously I won’t be joining in for now. My fat fingers have typed enough for one day!

 

Bosch and Thomas need to go. Too many talented players on this team to get the results we have. Time for a change. Coaching staff needs some new blood and energy pumped into it.

 

Be careful calling him out, he'll go crying to the mods. LOL.

 

Lol let him. I found the perfect gif response to his arse pirating but apparently the file was too large. I’ll try again without text.

 

Apparently I’m too large lmao. Starlord from guardians of the galaxy winding up his middle finger is my statement to wing whatever.

 

This team currently looks like a total dumpster fire. Many of us including myself have been critical of TW. However, he is the second winningest coach in all of college softball, he is one hell of a recruiter, and his players seem to love him. He deserves our support as he tries to save this sinking ship.

 

I do appreciate the accolades! And welcome!!

 

CTW knows more about the sport than all of us combined. What we don’t know is whether the CTW of today is willing to make the tough, necessary changes needed to compete with the Oklahomas of the sport. As mentioned in an earlier post, it’s a concern that we missed on potential pitcher transfers, when they were so desperately needed.

 

I wonder if CTW has lost the hunger to be on top. It just seems to me (and I certainly can be wrong) that he is comfortable at being good but not great. He is getting a big paycheck basically on cruise control effort. Each year we see the same deficiency of hitting and pitching. He is like Mark Reict, a very good recruiter, wins enough games to keep his job but not having a team that can seriously vie for a championship. Seems he has grown comfortable with status quo and knows the likelihood of him being fired is nil .

 

We missed on the one we wanted because of NIL....not much staff could do

 

After winning the back to back titles, I remember reading or listening to something saying Coach Walton said he discovered the key to winning championships was pitching, elite defense, and timely hitting. At that time, we and everyone else were recruiting kids in middle school. I think over the course of the next 5 years there, with the exception of Barnhill and Lorenz, our recruiting was pretty bad. I think Coach might have been looking for certain qualities in players when they were too young instead of looking for elite softball players. Lately, our recruiting has been pretty good(players currently on the team). Cotrill, Trlicek, Goelz, Delbrey, Roe, Pollard, I believe can all be found in one site or another’s top 5 players for their classes. The development has not been there for these players. My hope is with the new recruiting rules, Coach Walton will shine and bring in the elite talent again. That seems to be the case with the next 2 classes being loaded with talent committed to the Gators. Now we need to ensure we can develop those players and thus far, Bosch and Thomas have not proven to be able to do that.

 

This is the stuff that baffles me....we were in the freakin WCWS LAST YEAR. How on earth is that cruise control/comfortable with the status quo? We have a generational recuiting class already signed.
This team has issues, especially pitching. We all knew Delbrey needed to step up to make this team elite. She hasn't done so at this point.....no clue if her surgery has negatively impacted her ability. But it's still a very good team that can make some noise. It likely won't be a great year, but some of this teeth gnashing is really over the top.

 

You make a great point about how the entire landscape of recruiting changed which I completely missed in my text walls last night! Before that change CTW was obviously at the top of the game. But then the recruiting rug was literally pulled out from under him. That adjustment period has been rough and caught up to us and we’re seeing the results of that now. However with next years class and beyond things are looking pretty good! That said I stand by my lack of faith in the the present assistant coaches, they gotta go.