Yeah, I mean the fanbase as much as the staff, the players, the UAA, etc. As has been mentioned, NIL is going to be cutthroat moving forward (and I despise that). I’ve heard our baseball NIL is as mediocre as our football NIL, in terms of not being close to elite. I’m very pro Sully. I hope he doesn’t tire of the job and move on elsewhere, as I don’t think we’re gonna like what happens after that.
Brad Weitzel was the key coaching piece to SEC regular season titles in 2010, 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2018, with 2017 also being the program’s first national title campaign in school history.[1] Weitzel coached several national and conference award winners while at UF, including Mike Zunino (Dick Howser Trophy),[2] Brandon McArthur (Senior CLASS Award),[3] and Jonathan India. My observation is that Brad was a key piece and conduit betwen the players and Sully's staff Sully let him go in 2019 I thought it was a mistake as did others keyed into the players, some of the others included parents of some of the best players just my 2 cents Sully didn't forget how to coach and the kids didn't forget how to run, hit and field but it takes a glue guy or 2 on both sides to keep the family rockin' on all cylinders I didn't see that this season
Absolutely spot on JJH. Weitzel was a pivotal actor during the the great 2010-2018 era run- he was like having a second Sully on staff. Mature, experienced and level headed he had a great eye for scouting talent and helping to develop that talent. I don't see some of those qualities on staff today.
I get everyone's disappointment, but baseball is a strange game. There is a huge amount of luck in having a championship run. Granted, we had a year of inconsistent hitting, and bad pitching, but still. To illustrate my point, the last back to back World Series champs were the Yankees in the late 1990's. And they have one of baseball's biggest payrolls. As they say, the ball just didn't bounce our way this year. No need to get all pissy on our coaches.
Look at starting pitching this year versus last year. Did we have anyone with the kind of stuff Waldrup had this year? Not by a long shot. Cags might have elevated his pitching game to that of Sproat last year. That is a maybe. Cade Fisher when he could locate was a prototypical Sunday starter and not a Friday night guy. We have some good young arms that I suspect will be very good next year. This year was a learning experience. And losing a Langford out of your line-up is a HUGE hole to fill.
Agree, the biggest issue was by far the pitching staff and pitching coach David Kopp is someone who definitely needs to be looked at. The staff ERA was well over 6.00 and last in the SEC and that just can’t happen at UF. Granted we had a great year last season when blessed with three special arms in the starting rotation but it is fair to ask if those guys were as good as they should have been. I mean Arkansas led the SEC this year with a team ERA of 3.59 and Tennessee was right behind but last year Waldrep, Sproat or Cags all ended up with ERAs well over 4.00. We brought some really nice young arms in this season but again none managed to have any sustained success and most had really bad years. Pitching was always Sully’s calling card but currently something isn’t right and that is the number one fix as we head into the offseason. Offensively, there were two holes at 3B and CF but there were enough bats (especially before Evans went down late) to win 35-40 games but again, it was tough to overcome the really poor pitching. Obviously going to have to hit the portal hard this offseason. I believe there will be things done to increase NIL and we will see a a bunch of new faces come August. Finally, we need to remember that this program was just one game away from a NC last season. Yes, the team underachieved this year and the buck stops with Sully but the guy has proven to be a great coach since arriving at UF and I have no doubt we will be back in Omaha much sooner than later.
Your post hits so many moving parts very accurately @Claygator. There is so much more to a successful season than just the win—loss column. Unfortunately there will always be fans who will never grasp this point. Coaches gotta coach and players gotta play. There are volumes that can be written about this and the splits it creates—always has been, always will be. Coaches have their own styles, systems, etc., but regardless their job is to “coach’em up”. That said players have to perform in games with the chalk down and the lights on. That’s offense, defense, and pitching. Now, here come the so many moving parts that have to mesh into team chemistry as well as team play. Ok, who’s responsible? To their specific roles both coaches and players are responsible. Coaches need to teach their preferred systems both offensively and defensively. Players have to execute those roles with their own skills and strengths. Coaches need to reenforce those skills through duplication in practices as well as games. Again, it’s up to the players to execute their learned skills in games. In my day if the coaches taught hit it where it’s pitched (which they did) then you did just that or earned your way out of the lineup and onto the bench. Squared up baseballs will produce all of the HR’s you need if you’re doing all of the other things properly. The same thing can be said about pitching. I will repeat myself here, the art of pitching is the ability to disrupt the timing of hitting. That said, I called pitches for a lot of years. Understand that when I call a pitch and location I am feeding our guys what I feel like is the high probability of success. But that can only be as good as the execution of pitch and location allows it to be. Now I always had a green light on my guys to add or change pitch and location as long as they had sound logic and performance to back it up. Coaches gotta teach—coach, players gotta execute—perform. It all has to happen together for the success that everyone desires.
I think we’ve got to be careful about not chirping too much about the coaches especially Sully. Sully’s winning percentage is 0.678 which is third in the nation amongst D1 coaches. Last thing we need is for him to pull up steaks and go elsewhere.
Lurker here. All I have to do is see who is missing from the ratings list to see what's wrong with the OP. Not a fan boy but this forum has a handful of baseball guys I come to read and none of them gave a positive rating of the OP. None posted negative ratings either but have commented constructively. Just my observation. Hope the program gets it figured out soon though. As far as Weitzel goes and pitching, as a casual observer it seems like our softball team suffered similar difficulty after losing Jennifer Rocha as well.
Right there with you Lurk—Langford was a non-verbal leader definitely leading by example. And then we had BT…… We were completely without player team leadership I thought this year and it both hurt and showed.
Don’t know if anyone else got the same vibe, but I kinda thought Shelton wanted to be the leader in the field, but simply didn’t have the respect required to do so. I saw him going after guys for making mistakes, especially on cut off plays, but the responses were not usually of the “I got you” variety, more of the “whatever dude” variety. At least that’s how I read it.
I agree for sure that the ones of y’all who have or make the opportunities to attend and watch practices regularly are so far ahead of the curve in terms of what and how things (team leadership and player’s development) are going over the ones of us who count on your reports to the message boards and the performances we see on TV. Team cohesiveness is witnessed or a lack of it is noticed best by regular attendances. Good point @ paininfull.
I never heard anyone else voice the same sentiment other than my pops and we’re almost always on the same page nowadays. I was more curious if anyone else kinda picked up on the same vibe.
This entire post was good, but this paragraph especially struck me. In fall '22 and season '23, Sully commented a number of times that several players had picked up on instructions to focus on hitting up the middle as a method to spray more. I especially remember that he stroked Josh Rivera for that and I think he named BT and a couple of others. Wyatt already was doing that, I think that was part of his blossoming the year before. That technique seems to have been part of Jac's improvement this season from a boomer with a good average to one of the very best college hitters. (Frontrunners should feel free to point out how few doubles he had and that he never bunted.) My point is that the coaching is happening and working for some, but for others the implementation is inadequate. I can't help tossing in an edit: A lot of people correctly point out the importance of NIL in competing with other top teams. I agree with the concept of players getting cash in their pockets, but I hate the total incompetence and failures by NCAA around it. But hating it doesn't make it go away. All we can do is find a way to make it help Gator teams. It's true for every one of us, but especially for people with NIL gripes- anyone who cares about Gator bsb success needs to be contributing SOMETHING to the Florida Victorious baseball fund. $10/month, $10/year or more matters, but more is better. I'm a fixed income retiree, but I can squeeze out something. I just read a post that mentioned business success and leadership, but didn't mention chipping in to help lead with NIL success. For years, I could buy tix and yell loudly, but now I can actually make a difference. Anyone who can afford to pay for this site can afford to chip in. Do the owners of GC contribute to NIL?
This I think we hit the portal hard for real hitters and a weekend starter. I also think Sully will take a hard look at his staff. Might see a change.....
Watching the Sec tournament most teams have more quality players than the Gators have. Each team in the East especially has a least more than one infielder that can hit and play the position well. Vanderbilt’s second baseman is very good in the field, fast on the bases and hits to get on base. Tennessee is loaded with hitters. We have good players and Jac with little pitching past one or two innings. We are just going to have to get better all around players and more weekend starting pitching to climb back to the top of the Sec. We are good just not great. Summary I think it is on the players we have are not executing and not on the coaches. Hopefully we get into the tournament and start playing ball.
Remember when 7 was a lock to be the next Head Baseball Coach at Texas? Then crickets, and nothing was ever publicized to suggest he even got a call. Regardless of profession, almost no one is irreplaceable. Plus, with all the advantages of being the Head Baseball Coach at UF, he'd be hard pressed to find a better gig. It's a win win for him and UF.
Am I right that your assertion is the Gators, a program that has had a few good coaches, plus one of the very best in the business, would be able to ditch that superior coach and still have it's pick the half dozen or so coaches at that same level? Or are you suggesting the next Sully-level coach who is an assistant or is HC at a lesser program, but is ready to blossom into one of the greats would be picked? Which coaches do you have in mind that currently are more successful than Sully or will appear from the mist to win from day one in the manner Sully did? There was a discussion of Gator fans feeling complacency and entitlement, this might be an example. During his time as a Gator, Sully has kept the Gators at the highest level of all the teams in college baseball. The Straw Man fallacy is bouncing around a lot- too much- lately. OK. I'll conceed that, "almost no one is irreplaceable," but that line is nearly meaningless in this context. The chance of replacing Sully with a coach that would be nearly so successful year after year is comparable to the chance finding a football coach that will perform as well as Spurrier or Meyer or finding a hoops coach who will succeed like Donovan. Not only have the Gators failed to do that in those sports, so far, Sully's overall success- only one NC, but several runner-ups- is better than those three. Spurrier was similarly consistent, but for a shorter period. Our best chances of continuing to make Regionals every year and often contending for championships rest with the great coach already in our dugout.
