Saturday June 25th, 2005
2:28pmA Little Summer Time Aggie Football
My interest in the College World Series has dwindled slightly (I'm talking about 5% maybe) and I started thinking a little bit about Aggie football. I realized that I hadn't written a thing about football since Signing Day and there has been quite a bit that has gone on since then...good and bad.
I'll start with some news regarding TAMABINPO. I got an email a week or two ago from MGoBlog asking if I would like to participate in a collegiate football poll that they're going to start next season. They're recruiting collegiate football-based websites from across the nation to participate and are trying to get a wide scope of schools represented. I'm pretty pumped about this and am looking forward to kicking it off.
The NFL draft came and went with my boy, T-Murph, being the first Aggie selected.
Rnd Team Player, Po. 2nd: Green Bay: Terrence Murphy, WR 5th: Carolina: Geoff Hangartner, OL 6th: Green Bay: Mike Montgomery, DL non-drafted free agents: New Orleans: Keith Joseph, FB Detroit: Marcus Jasmin, Atlanta: Byron Jones, CBT-Murph is the only player not to have signed yet and I don't know why he hasn't.
The bad news is that we had a couple of guys kicked off the squad. Jorrie Adams, who was already on suspension & Erik Mayes were both arrested with possession of marijuana after an undercover cop bought marijuana from the two at Mayes's apartment. Jorrie was one of the top recruits in the state in 2003 while Mayes started at CB for us last season as a redshirt-freshman (a position that was already going to be weak for us in 2005). Idiots.
Finally, I wanted to mention that there are apparently talks going on between Bill Byrne, texas tech, & Dallas regarding moving our annual texas tech game to a neutral site (the Cotton Bowl or maybe Texas Stadium). I couldn't be more against this. I have no problem acknowledging that we have had some major problems against tt, especially in Lubbock, but across the NCAA the only regular season games that are played at neutral sites are between huge rivals....'Bama v. Auburn, t.u. v. OU, Georgia v. Florida. texas tech has never once been the biggest game on our schedule and I don't even remember a season that they were the 2nd biggest game on the schedule.
I know that there are a lot of Ags up in Dallas but that is a heckuva drive for everyone in Houston, Austin, & San Antonio and I can't imagine as many of them going to Dallas for the tt game as they would every other year to College Station. Shoot, the gas itself would cost $50 bucks.
We would also be pretty much eliminating the 12th Man. I know that for the Red River Shoot Out almost all of the tickets go to media and big alum which is fine but at the core of the 12th Man is the students and if the students can't get tickets then this game will be more like an NFL game and less like a Fightin' Texas Aggie football game. Just keep it on campus like it is supposed to be.
Feel free to shoot Bill Byrne an email letting him know where you stand.
Pshew. Glad I got that off my chest.
Finally, I stumbled across this site that has found all the Big XII football stadiums on GoogleMaps using the satellite. Someone must not have enough to do at work.
Thursday June 23rd, 2005
12:51amWelcome to Aggieland Coach Childress
The month long "guess who the next coach will be" marathon has finally come to an end as Bill Byrne hired Rob Childress, previously Nebraska's Associate Head Coach.
If you are one of those unfamiliar with Coach Childress (and leery of not hiring a head coach to take the job), check out his bio from Nebraska's website but before you do that let me tell you that I'm really excited about the hiring. Childress was, in my opinion, the key cog in the incredible building process that Nebraska has gone through over the last 5 or 6 seasons as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator as the Huskers went from a pretty bad program into a regular visitor in Omaha.
In each the last 4 seasons the pitching staffs that he has put together pitching staffs that have had an ERA under 4.00. His entire pitching staff's cumulative ERA over the last 3 seasons has been a measly 3.37 (653 ER in 1741.2 IP)....To put that into perspective, only 1 Aggie pitcher has had a lower single season ERA over the last 6 seasons (Jason Meyer, 2004, 2.89). The lowest Aggie team ERA since 1998 was this season's staff ERA of 3.66, the only sub-4.00 ERA over that span. I can't find the Aggie record lowest season team ERA but when I do I'll toss it in here.
A couple other things to think about....He has recruited/coached 5 Freshman All-American pitchers in the last 6 years with one more soon to be named for this season (Johnny Dorn) which would put that at 6 in the last 7 years. Wow. Asides from pitching, as the recruiting coordinator you know he had something to do with recruiting 5 of the last 6 Big XII Players of the Year (2000-Shane Komine, 2002-Jed Morris, 2003-Matt Hopper, 2004 & 2005-Alex Gordon). That's incredible.
Again, I am EXTREMELY excited about this hire and the future of Aggie baseball, especially when you consider that Childress will only be turning 37 in September.
In other Aggie news....
Cliff Pennington has joined the Oakland Athletics’ class A organization, Kane County (Midwest league) and will be making his professional debut this evening as the Cougars play the Clinton LumberKings.
Sticking with the same theme, Coby Mavroulis reported to the Nationals short-season rookie league team in the Gulf Coast League, aptly named the Nationals, on Sunday. They will begin their season tomorrow afternoon.
Finally, LHP recruit Aaron Thompson signed with the Marlins after being taken as the 24th overall pick in the 1st round of the draft. I haven't seen yet where he will be assigned or when he will start playing.
Oh wait, I wanted to mention that former Coach Jim Lawler took the head coach position at Arkansas-Little Rock....best of luck over there coach.
Omaha Update III
Arizona State handled Florida pretty well beating the Gators 6-1 keeping their season alive and forcing a second game against Florida (6pm today on ESPN). ASU's starter, Erik Averill, went the distance giving up only 5 hits and 1 run (earned) with 7 K's and 0 walks. The winner of today's game will face the longhorns in Championship Series.
Yep, texas beat Baylor in dramatic fashion (a reoccurring theme in Omaha) with a Chance Wheelis walk off HR to lead off the bottom of the 9th inning. Wheelis avenged a run scoring error earlier in the game.
The 3-0 longhorns will have the next 2 days off as they await the winner of Bracket 1 before the Championship Series starts on Saturday. Coming through the loser's bracket, ASU will have played 2 more games than texas so it'll be interesting to see what their pitching situation will look like. Florida will have only played 4 games.
My mantra continues...."How can you not just love the CWS?"
Wednesday June 22nd, 2005
12:51amOmaha Update II
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(I'll update the schedule daily so you know who, when and where)WOW! That could have been the most amazing day in Omaha history.
For those who were watching the NBA Finals (and all of it's earth stopping excitement) there were two dramatic come from behind wins with the favored team falling in each game.
Larish after his 9th inning HRI'll start with ASU's victory over Nebraska. Actually it was Jeff Larish vs. Nebraska as Jeff went 3-for-3 with 3 HRs, 4 runs scored & 3 RBIs including the game-tying HR in the bottom of the 9th inning....not bad for the 1-hole hitter. What made the game even more exciting is that Nebraska took a the lead 7-5 in the top of the 9th after trailing by 2 going into the final inning and then Larish tied it up in the bottom half of the inning before ASU won it with a bloop single in the 11th.
In the evening game Baylor came back from a 6-0 deficit to knock off #1 seed Tulane. The Bears trailed 7-5 going into their final at-bat of the season (exactly the same as ASU earlier) and were able to piece together the winning combination of hits and won the game on a throwing error on back end of a double play that would have ended the game. Regardless of how many runs Baylor scored, none of it would have even mattered had Abe Woody not come in out of the bullpen and shut down Tulane for the final 4.1 innings (he only allowed two men to reach base).
Interestingly, Baylor's strength, their starting pitching, has not been very good in Omaha
IP H R ER SO/BB HR AB BF GSc 5/17 M.McCormick 6.0 5 4 2 4/3 1 22 28 51 5/20 T.Taylor 1.1 1 2 2 1/5 0 5 10 40 5/21 C.VanAllen 4.2 6 7 5 8/2 1 21 24 34I suppose they're glad that Taylor only threw 48 pitches because they're going to need him for texas.
Both of my predicted bracket winners are now eliminated and the top 3 seeded teams will be watching the rest of the CWS with us on ESPN. Let's Go Arizona State!
Today's games feature Florida against Arizona State at 1pm (ESPN) & texas against Baylor at 6pm (ESPN2). If Florida or texas win they go straight to the finals but if Baylor or ASU win there will be another game played between the same teams on Thursday at the same times as today. Hopefully the underdogs will be able to maintain their high and keep rolling.
Again I ask, "How can you not just love the CWS?"
Cubs Pitching Update
Just wanted to pass this info along....Prior threw 77 pitches in a simulated game on Tuesday and is now slated for a Sunday start against the White Sox at US Cellular Field. Wow.
Kerry Wood made his second minor league rehab start on Monday throwing 69 pitches in 4 innings (2 runs with 6 Ks). He is scheduled for one more AAA start (this Friday) before coming back to the big league roster. Who knew that we could have our entire rotation back in 8 days.
Finally, Jerome Williams made his Cubs debut last night and threw quite well...
IP H R ER SO/BB HR PC-ST GSc 7.0 3 2 2 6/4 2 101-60 65That one start was worth trading LaTroy Hawkins.
Tuesday June 21st, 2005
12:01amOmaha Update
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(I'll update the schedule daily so you know who, when and where)What a great weekend of baseball, huh?
I'm going to run down the happenings really quickly....
Friday afternoon Tennessee lost to Florida even though they had Luke Hochevar on the mound for them. Friday evening Nebraska put Arizona State in the loser's bracket behind a big pitching performance from Joba Chamberlain.
Saturday started off with Game 3 where we saw Oregon State take on Tulane but they were not strong enough to beat Micah Owings (on the mound and at the plate). Game 4 was a Big XII Saturday night special between texas & Baylor where texas finally put up a W against the Bears.
Sunday saw our first elimination game of the CWS which featured Tennessee & ASU with the Devils keeping their Cinderella season alive. In the evening, Nebraska and Florida battled it out in the winner's bracket with Florida coming out yet to be scathed, much to my dismay.
Yesterday we got to watch Baylor scratch and claw itself to an extra-innings victory over Oregon State in the second elimination game (even though their starter, Trey Taylor, only went 1.1 innings) and then watched texas impress against Tulane sending the #1 seed into the loser's bracket. I'll admit texas surprised me last night but I'm still not completely sold on their pitching depth. Regardless, they're sitting pretty right now.
With the undefeated teams sitting out a round as their reward (texas & Florida), today features both of the elimination games....Nebraska v. ASU (1pm on ESPN) then Tulane v. Baylor (6pm on ESPN). Who on earth would have picked those match-ups for those games? Certainly not me.
How can you not just love the CWS?
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