I'd prefer to face an easier opponent. But with our 1-2 starting pitchers, I wouldn't be afraid of even Wake. And they really may be the best team in the past 10 years. We could win any game with Gordon or LBJ pitching.
Coach DP, Thanks for the 2023 memories. I don’t care that you aren’t Big 12 coach of the year. I don’t care that you finished last in the Big 12 one year (I do but that is irrelevant at this point). You’ve reached the minimum expectation for a successful season. I can and do appreciate being able to achieve that minimum. Your patience with Morehouse and Flores, and Daly to an extent, paid dividends this weekend. Heck, some would probably even say Jack O. I do believe that some of your decisions while frustrating and annoying in the moment we’re for bigger picture reasons. There is only way to guarantee national coach of the year. Let’s make it happen.
Mike Hardge reported this several weeks ago on The Horn although it was just, "I'm kinda hearing some folks talk about Tulo returning" kind of thing. Glad it came true. WRT Pierce taking over PC duties, I gotta admire the guy putting his butt on the line here. This kinda bolsters my point earlier that the WW leaving thing was because he did not have as much influence as he wanted, ie, he wanted to do things differently than the HC. Sorry, dude, in the end, you gotta defer to the boss. We already have been largely in agreement on this board that Pierce is really good at spotting pitching talent, so I trust him to develop the pitchers just fine. Look for Rodriquez to take on extra responsibilities (3rd base coach?) to lighten the load on Pierce.
I think that's his biggest strength, and it's paid dividends. There are some busts from time-to-time, but he has a knack at finding the really good ones that don't quite get drafted (or get drafted high enough to go), and finding some real diamonds in the rough. I also think Pierce has some pretty good relationships with Texas HS coaches and Texas JC coaches. Like LSU is known for teams that bash the ball out of the park a lot and score 10 runs, we're known as consistently one of the very best pitching teams in the college game. The good pitchers just want to play here.
Someone in Louisiana must have threatened the LSU coaches kids with death cause after that crap season they had in 2022 he's been on fire.
I just hope our pitching coach can figure out the bullpen. I feel like Boehm and Whitehead have done well in the little amount of time they've gotten, but he keeps going for the guys giving up multiple runs an inning.
Now that we've thoroughly kicked nationally ranked Texas Tech's butt on the road, you can all jump back on the Pro-Pierce bandwagon.
It looks like Miller may be on a personal leave of absence. It could be non-baseball related. He may be back?
I guess I'm nit picking here, but this was a slug fest weekend. As the pitching coach he failed miserably even though we won two and there wasn't any real strategy to it. I'm super happy our bats are alive and well so he can have credit for that. I was rough on Boehm in the pre season but I'm happy he shut me up. Maybe Pierce has been the key for him.
Pierce is going to look good the rest of the season, there isn't anything left on the schedule but TCU. He should win every remaining series. With such a weak schedule the rest of the season, the real measure is going to be how Pierce performs in the post season with a very experienced team.
Mostly agree, but it's tough not to drop at least one series when there are so many. TCU KSU OU or OSU All average or above-average teams.
I have never been a Pierce critic until now. He didn't even win the series with Washington and I think he's toast. This season will not get any better. He fired the pitching coach to become the pitching coach and this could be the worst Texas pitching I've ever seen. This season is turning into a complete disaster and dumpster fire.
Legit worrisome. I didn't get to watch today's game, funeral to attend to. I've said before i was on the fence with Pierce for the simple reason of finishing last in 2019 in the big XII and that should never happen at this school. Too much available talent in this state that WANT to play here and it's too easy to acquire the talent you need to win almost immediately, look at Jay Johnson at LSU, second year he wins the national championship. People keep pointing out NIL and I don't think it should be an excuse. There are some other things that come along with that kind of player if that's why they chose Texas. Times have changed with NIL, maybe I'm not thinking about it correctly yet . If you look at the top 25 though, all these folks that argue that NIL is a problem are telling me that the following schools have better NIL programs than Texas and that's why they are better? #21 Campbell #13 NC State #19 Dallas Baptist #11 East Carolina #16 Coastal Carolina If they don't have better NIL programs then it must be coaching. The NIL excuse is a bunch of BS. If you can coach, you can coach......PERIOD. I have experience coaching baseball and softball at a high level but I will never admit that I know more than Pierce, Pierce has more knowledge in his little pinky toe than I have in my entire body but Pierce is struggling with getting enough of the right players to come to the university (obviously). He's getting just enough to occasionally get to Omaha. I respect other peoples opinion on this board regarding Pierce and their support of him, cause in the end I could be wrong, i'm no savant and I would love to be wrong, i would love nothing more than for Pierce to be successful. But I think this might get worse, the pitchers are no better than they were last year, our team ERA is now higher than last years team. I was expecting a step forward and the possibility of going to Omaha, i don't see that happening at the moment.
I've been pretty neutral on Pierce all along. On the plus side, he has several CWS appearances. On the minus side, the pitching this year has been spotty at best with no real shut-em-down closer, and the pitchers who returned from last year don't seem to be better pitchers than they were with Woody as the pitching coach. The first few innings today were excruciating to watch. I think it was tough for Texas to hire a more celebrated coach at the time he was hired--I remember some big-name coaches getting big raises. And maybe no one wanted to follow two baseball legends. Perhaps finding another coach now would be easier? Also, CDC will do the hiring instead of an interim AD. It's still early in the season, and Texas is 2-1 in conference play. Any loss against an apparently weak Baylor team at home next weekend though would be really, really bad.
Damn, I miss Augie. It's not just the results on the field, but also his postgame interviews, which were must-hear radio. His passion for the game and philosophy of life made him remarkable and unique. I don't dislike Pierce, but I never feel that same passion when listening to him, have no idea what really motivates him in life.
