RHN1975

It is an absolute guaranteed lock this team makes a bowl and it will not be played in B'ham. There are more than 4 wins left on this schedule. I would bet the farm on Ga State, LSU, Miss St, Ark, and SC. Arky will not run on AU like they did Texas. LSU will be the second road test for this team in a tough environment and the atmosphere may be tough but they are not Penn St on the field. Miss St and SC are not there yet. For the others what has Texas A&M done to impress anyone other than have hype? Ole Miss is actually scary but lets see them play a full defensive game first. Can our backfield keep their offense on the sideline? After watching UF/bama our backs could control the ball for 45 minutes against bama. They will have to to keep that offense off the field and have a chance. I think there is still a good shot at 9-3. UGA is the one team I do not have much faith in beating right now. Win one between Ole Miss and bama and they can get to 9. Worse case lose both and finish 8-4 which would be a great start for this staff. I don't think AU has fallen off the cliff or too far behind. I think parity is starting to show up thanks to the transfer portal and dominance at bama and Clemson. Guys that want to play are not going to sit on the sidelines 2 or 3 years for an opportunity.

2003... Cadillac was hurt and Brown took over most of the year. Larry Johnson came in with over 2000 yards for the season. he was held to less than 75 yards while Ronnie brown picked up 180 plus. I could deal with a similar outcome this time.

Wasn't singling you out just a general comment. When it comes to softball you seem to always know what you are talking about and share some great info. I just wanted to share some info for others that may not be familiar with some of the programs around here. I agree with the thought about playing an instate DI. The experience would be good but none of them excite me. AU will in most season play pretty much every DI in Alabama. I'd like to see them bring in a team like UNC or Louisville plus a couple of Jucos or DII's and play a round robin. Get a higher level opponent plus get plenty of innings and AB's for the entire team.

Also keep in mind JUCO's of today are not the same thing we saw even a couple of years ago. A lot of girls that were DI locks lost opportunities thanks to Covid and the extra years of availability. These girls had to either take less money or go elsewhere.

Don't discount the JUCO competition. Wallace will be a much better matchup for AU softball than Al St or Akron are for football. Granted I am the dad of a JUCO kid so slightly biased but her team is loaded. I believe every player on the roster had a DI or DII offer at minimum including a couple of SEC offers. As a program they do not recruit "JUCO" players. The go after the best possible and in a sport where full rides are virtually impossible the $2300 total out of pocket for the year for a dorm is a huge selling point. I was thankful when my daughter told me she wanted to commit. She still had DI interest but her visit there sold her and saved my bank account. Any time a team finishes 55-6 and hits 120 hr's in a season they can be dangerous. Returning sophomores combined for 80 of the HR's. As a team they hit .393 and scored 553 runs. They did lose some pitching as they were mostly sophomores but signed a couple of good arms and Chipola's #1 transferred in. I am looking forward to watching them compete. Are they as talented as AU? No but there are girls on the team that would have been a huge help for AU last season.

I have a feeling we are looking at the possibility of going 10-2 with 9-3 on the low side. I am not going all in on the Akron win but rather on the actual improvements that were evident. This team was more prepared and 1000x's less predictable than the last few years. This fact alone gets them an extra win. I think we get LSU and Ole Miss while improved can match our D. They will score but so will AU and AU can get more stops. I will never expect a loss to A&M as long as Jimbo is there and AU puts a decent product on the field. He is one of the most over paid and over hyped coaches in the county. He has his moments but at the same time look at his career in years where he doesn't have a Heisman winning QB or future Heisman winning QB. Last year he showed some success but it was exactly a normal year. I fully expect them to get 10 wins this year and everybody be excited for the future but look at their schedule.

72-0 I think they get the shutout. Akron scoring was a good learning moment and I think it will be a motivating factor. I don' think AU will try and score as much but I also saw the coaches run their game plan most of the game even with backups to get them reps. AU also has four backs that can score at anytime if we are trying to just run it out. I do believe we only see the starters as long as they have to be in for situational work.

This is a big reason I am looking forward to a certain game this weekend. Fair couldn't break into the starting lineup but looked good for AU. I think our "friends" to the east will have a little harder time than they are expecting.

I think that throw is a great example of progress. He didn't go for the homerun. He threw a ball where they could gain a chunk of yards and put it in a safe place. No way the defenders could get to that ball.

Calling for a low of 60 Thursday in Cullman, Al. We are getting closer.

You nailed this. We could go 15-0, have Bo and Tank 1-2 for the Heisman, and set the all time record for fewest points allowed, and people on this board will complain. Nix throws for 3,795 yards, 28 td's with 2 int's and people will complain that his footwork was wrong and he should have thrown for 3,800 yards. Tank rushes for 2,000 and 16 TD's and people will complain he fumbled in the 2nd quarter of a blowout win.

Oh you mean the free vaccination their DC got? I seem to recall he was out for a while. Some folks seriously can't help it. Cannot have a single conversation without vaccinations or covid being involved. It's ok to have a normal conversation even Joseph Goodman wrote an article today without one mention of the disease.

100% with you. It would be nice to have one place to go and avoid talking about Covid, masks, and vaccines for a little while. I was excited for football and sports for the first time in a year and a half but that's fading quickly.

Probably easier to motivate people in Tuscaloosa. I imagine they want every possible vaccine they can get having to live there.

South was never really a part of the U of A system. U of A had an extension in Mobile but when USA was created by the legislature it was a separate university with it's own BOT and replaced the U of A extension.

I don't think all of the responsiblity should fall on the schools to pay for the scholarships. The NCAA could definitely share more revenue downstream. How would softball revenues look had the NCAA not sold the sport down the river because of basketball? Giving away commercial spots to sponsors of March Madness during the WCWS is ridiculous. This took away revenue from one of the most watched NCAA events.

It only takes a couple of words to tell whats wrong with travel ball. It's adults. Adults running tourney's trying to make money. Adults paying coaches to come to their showcases to recruit so now players think they have to play in said showcases. Adults taking cash hand over fist for lessons/coaching. Adults chasing their dreams through their children. I can't complain too much since I was in the middle of it. My daughter has played travel since her first year of 8U. She was simply better than all of the kids at our park and after being asked to help out a friends travel team that had two girls out sick she fell in love with it. She went from #1 player in our park to #9 on one team of girls a year older than her. She enjoyed the competition and friendships built sitting under the tent at tourneys. Her ability level sky rocketed and she fell in love with the game. Had she stayed at the park I think she would have been bored after a couple of years. Now on the subject at hand. This could only be addressed by the NCAA. I know from my daughter's recruitment she was eligible to recieve academic money in addtion to atheltic money. She was told not to bother applying for a lot of competitve scholarships at different schools because she couldn't accept them anyway. I guess the selection process could be deemed unfair or could be abused to help athletes. She had to turn down a leadership scholarship to the school of her choice that would have given us a total of 100% paid. She has 100% tuition, books, and fees covered but being able to cover the dorms would have been nice.

We are not getting Kolaitis as a hitting coach. He left a solid job at UAB where he could have set himself up for a good P5 job if he continued down the path he had started with them. He wanted to get back to the PAC. As a HC thats might be a different scenario and its definitely one I could support.

I am sick of reading thread after thread of how we suck at this or we suck at that. The coaches suck. Recruiting sucks. We could lose the entire QB room to Covid and only beat MSU by 3 with Peques taking snaps and people would blame QB development for offensive problems.

II enjoy seeing this after reading some "experts" on here tell us why the Schwartz TD was a busted coverage and had nothing to do with AU's offense doing a good job. I am sure the CB reading the play fake as AS blew past him had nothing to do with this play working.

I think you are right. My daughter committed to a JUCO over a few DI and DII offers. With all this shuffling going on her decision is looking better every single day.

Umm no. If her college career is like her travel career she will transfer a couple of times. Rolfe in the '22 class is much much better overall. Also there will probably be more movement in the next couple of classes as people see who is returning. If a girl was looking at a place that would lose a couple of pitchers over a couple of years all of a sudden that might not be the case. Rosters have changed with an extra class stacked up in front of them.

The classes have been good enough to start out better than 2-7 against P5 teams. I will not be surprised if they do not finish above .500 in conference play. At least we know they will make the SEC tourney since Mizzu isn't eligible.

I used FloSoftball rankings for all years. 2020- #4 (This years signees, HS seniors) 2019- #2 2018- #11 2017- #2

Not as much as in other sports like football and basketball. I am not saying you are completely off base but AU has been ranked in the top 10 year in and year out now and we see where we are now. The only ones always ranked in the top 10 are UCLA, UAT, and OU. FSU won in 2018 and their highest class ever prior to that was ranked 12th. That is not happening in football. I honestly believe coaching plays a larger role in success than the recruits they bring in. Right now AU has probably the 4th best coach in the state (including all levels from DI to JUCO) and 5th best if we let an assistant at another school be ranked ahead of our HC. The absolute best non pitcher I know of in this 2021 class is going to a mid-major. She would start defensively for any team in the SEC as a freshman and probably hit daily as well. There may be a handful of TB teams in the country that she would not walk in and take over a spot in the MIF. She has the prototype size and speed of a DI MIF and the 29 ACT to go with it. She is not ranked in the top 100. (Not my daughter and doesn't play with her TB team or HS team)