Dawg83

MLB Draft is today and tomorrow, will be curious to see what.decisions are made in certain cases. Most of State’s questions revolve around HS signees. The only two possible returnees that have some questions around them are Milewski (I think he’s leaving) and Teel (I’m 50/50 on him being back). OM started the day with good news already. Hunter Elliott announced he’s returning to college for his 15th year of eligibility. I’m pretty sure he was on campus at Ole Miss when I was in diapers.

Another big portal add this evening with Allen from LA Tech. Probably the best arm they’ve added this portal cycle. We’re along way away from the 2027 season but feels like you can probably count on State being in the preseason Top 5 or so. Gotta say it’s refreshing to see what Oak has done in the portal after years of Lemonis being not very good at it for the most part.

I like Bauer and Miller, think they can become really good. Davis had moments but was inconsistent. Most of that group though, very blah. I think you could tell a month or two before the postseason that State’s season would end via bullpen failure, and that’s how it played out. Blew late leads in both of the Super Regional games.

I think their older arms weren’t that good and their best arms were inexperienced. Also the bullpen was hurt mightily by the combination of McPherson getting hurt and Charlie Foster (transferring to OM, BTW), being totally and completely unreliable. Duke Stone started the year as one of their top two bullpen options and pretty quickly had to become their Saturday starter. That definitely trickled down to hurt the pen in a negative way.

State and Ole Miss both in the same Arlington tourney next year as well. Dallas Baptist, UCLA, Wake Forest, Penn State also going to be there, not sure who is playing who yet (doubt State and OM play each other though). Yeah they’ve done a really nice job of filling holes in the lineup. Hard to expect the offense to be quite as good as it was last year given how historically good Reese and Sullivan were, as well as others, but it doesn’t feel like they’ll have that much of a drop off. And you’d assume they’ll be better on the mound with all the experience and talent that is returning. Haven’t added as many portal arms as one might think, but I do think they’ve added a couple of nice bullpen options. When your whole starting rotation is returning, can’t imagine it’s easy to recruit portal arms who know they probably are not going to be starters here. And everyone wants to start in this era.

I see OM as a playoff contender, how can you not with Chambliss, Lacy, and some of their DL returning? But I don’t think they go 11-1 like they did last year. 9-3, perhaps? The thing that would maybe concern me if I’m an OM fan is that last year’s team was outstanding in close games, and that can be hard to replicate year over year. I think the Kiffin era bore that out as well, his ‘24 team may have been his best one but they fell apart in close games.

A lot of State fans will probably make the comparison of OM 2026 and State 2018 (Moorhead’s first year after Mullen). Golding gets to start off with a strong roster, the question becomes what can he do with it. OM has a tougher schedule than they had last year, and you do wonder what happens if they don’t beat LSU in Week 3. How would that team and that staff react to something like that? Not the same exact situation, but I know for a fact that State fans never viewed Moorhead the same after he lost to Mullen in that much hyped Florida game.

In all seriousness, I think Kamario Taylor is a great talent that could be a lot of fun if State can keep him standing upright. I’m less confident in State being able to keep him standing upright. I also think State’s schedule is insane. 9 SEC games plus a road game against an 8 win Big 10 team. I think State could win 5 to 7 games. But if you asked me if it’s more likely that they win 8 or that Lebby is fired, would say it’s way more likely that Lebby gets fired. i feel like you will know the drill by Week 4. State is at Minnesota, at South Carolina, Mizzou at home in weeks 2-4. Lebby is toast if he goes 0-3 in that stretch, and he probably needs to be 2-1 in those games considering the next four are Bama-LSU-Oklahoma-Texas all in a row (thanks for that, Birmingham).

Do we have to?

Everyone who said Georgia’s style of play was going to be an issue for them in Omaha, congratulations, you got it right. I have UNC winning it all, but the Oklahoma story is pretty crazy. I don’t think anyone really saw this coming. It’s not even an OM 2022 situation where OM was clearly an underachieving team all season and just figured it out late. No, OU is kind of a young team that had an unremarkable year and all they’ve done is taken out the ACC champ, Big 12 champ, and SEC champ over the course of 3 weeks.

If we are headed for a Georgia vs UNC final, which it feels like for now, that would be a really fascinating matchup. We all know what Georgia’s offense is, and UNC’s bullpen is special, so that would create some really interesting matchups.

Ole Miss goes 0-2 in Omaha, sent home today by Troy. No season that ends in Omaha is a failure, but I’m sure a lot of OM fans thought they’d be around longer than two games given the side of the bracket they were on. It seemed fairly straight forward to me. OM’s offense was what it was the whole season and never changed, very boom or bust. Their pitching carried them to Omaha but then failed them once they got there. It’s a little hard to believe Townsend never threw a single pitch in the Super Regionals or the CWS. Especially today when their pen was struggling mightily.

OM’s bullpen didn’t have it tonight, gave up 5 runs in the last two innings and UNC got the win. OM vs Troy in a loser’s leaves town game on Sunday afternoon.

I will say that we’ve been on a run the last few years where a team that seemed like one of the best 1-2 teams for a while ended up winning it…. That would lend itself strongly to this being Georgia’s to lose. I think you’re going to get three Texas vs Georgia games before it’s all said and done. I don’t feel great about Bama or OU’s chances on that side.

And it looks like Lemonis may be a serious candidate to get that Coastal job. Would be an interesting situation for him there. I am not sure I’d go that route if I were Coastal’s AD.