So Ole Miss had the Johnny Bench award winner along with 2 top round MLB pitchers....

[Goat Holder]

....a seasoned closer, and 2 other seniors who've been starting for 3 years and couldn't even get out of a regional? Maybe Bianco is on the downside. Then add another senior middle reliever guy and add that their self proclaimed awesome recruiting class of a few years ago were juniors. You'd have thought, on paper, that these guys would be contending for Omaha.

What a wasted opportunity for them. They will do nothing but drop now with all the losses they had. When you lose 3 juniors to the top rounds of the draft you aren't supposed to be losing 2 games to William and Mary. They didn't have a bad season, but damn. And with Cohen is place, neither Bianco nor anyone else is going to get them past the point they were last season.

[messageboardsuperhero]

They win "on paper" in every sport before the season starts. Nothing new here.

I will say they had a little (but not much) more talent this year on the mound than will show in their record, but their end results always seem to be less than the sum of their parts. I've heard UM people say we "overachieved" this year... Well, I'd rather overachieve any day of the week than underachieve by getting beat twice by William and Mary and failing to get out of Raleigh without even challenging NC State.

[dickiedawg]

underachieve by getting beat twice by Samford/William and Mary and failing to get out of Tallahassee/Raleigh without even challenging Florida State/NC State.

Maybe we/they should fire BianCohen right now/last season!

[Todd4State]

They are very fortunate in my opinion that Stuart Turner stepped up for them. Their offense would have been really bad without him.

One of those seniors, Tanner Mathis, hit worse than Demarcus Henderson, who was our 7th or 9th place hitter much of the year. That was their lead off guy.

[Todd4State]

They win "on paper" in every sport before the season starts. Nothing new here.

I will say they had a little (but not much) more talent this year on the mound than will show in their record, but their end results always seem to be less than the sum of their parts. I've heard UM people say we "overachieved" this year... Well, I'd rather overachieve any day of the week than underachieve by getting beat twice by William and Mary and failing to get out of Raleigh without even challenging NC State.

In all honesty, we probably did overachieve, but I have to give the players and coaches credit for that. The coaches were willing to let our starters go through the order once and then go get Girodo or Ross out of the bullpen. And the players made improvements, worked hard, and they played up to their potential for the most part.

One day, maybe, Ole Miss will learn that it's not all about having a bunch of guys that 6'3"- 6'5" that are projectable players, but it's about finding guys that are willing to work and play hard. If you get that and add talent on top of those two traits, then you probably have a future Big Leaguer.