1. Ryker is not regarded as one of the best pitching coaches in the country. The only person who has ever said that is Chris Malveaux (because what else is he supposed to say?) But I was mostly referring to the DJ Sanders hire.
2. I’m going to support the Malveaux’s but they are making it very difficult too early on with 2 decommitments in the 2025 class and the less-than pickups in the portal. Every team around us in the SEC (outside of maybe MSST/UGA, but they have much better incoming freshman classes) did a better job recruiting through the portal.
i guess we are just going to have to agree to disagree and check back here in 6 months. Y’all can remain optimistic about this team, but we’re going to be lucky to make it to the NCAA tournament. Those 8 seniors may go to waste this season because the Malveaux’s decided to pick up 4 inexperienced and unproven underclassmen instead of reliable bats. I don’t care if they’re new, it makes no sense and it shouldn’t give them a pass for it. Glasco got Canady and Alana Johnson (and even Katie Lott) his first year. Kumar brought in Parisien and Bewick from Miami-OH. I’m just not one to act excited about picking up pinch runners from the portal while Lair Beautae goes to Ole Miss, Salen Hawkins goes to Bama, Kenleigh Cahalan goes to UF, McKenzie Bump goes to UK, Jalia Lassiter goes to LSU, Kinsey Fiedler goes to Tenn, Quincee Lilio goes to South Car, Taylor Ebbs goes to Mizzou and Kailey Wyckoff goes to Arkansas.