You didn't see what I did. I don't really have a whole lot of respect for Jake Mangum. Great athlete and great player, but so was Brent Rooker.
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Burroughs and butch should be high on the list. Not saying they’re at the top but they are absolutely solid baseball guys and I believe would get us back goin. I’m sure there’s someone flashier that is higher up but I’d be 100% happy with either of them.
I think when you are at his age, already been fired in disgrace from a top job and a private HS fires you for more bad judgements, including a situation that could have turned criminal if charges were made and/or an accident occurred,part of your stance about criminal is that he was fortunate it didn't turn criminal. It's no longer red flags it's a huge neon sign flashing Do Not Hire. He cannot exercise good judgement in his personal life, had horrible judgement with HS players (not the playing time junk but something more severe) that actually involves players...bad judgements at multiple programs now. This type of decision making individual cannot be a part of running a program. Defend all you want but he couldn't get a second chance at DII or DIII tells you we only know about a select few skeletons in his closet. There are more.
This everyday! Not only that he with all his contacts in mlb he can't even sniff an mlb job and they look the other way on just about everything so the fact he's unhireable at every level of baseball should tell you all you need to know. He's radioactive. Just like you said if you can't keep your personal life straight(and the affairs are only one of his issues), then you can't run a program of any size.
Skeletons in the closet, national championships in the trophy cases. You have to decide what you're willing to accept. I've made my stance on it. And at the end it doesn't matter because I'm not the one making the decision. What I saw was a guy who took a team worse than we've had the last two years and took them within two games of Omaha. I mean we were pitching position players on the weekend and winning. No one, including me, is saying that Andy hasn't completely f'd his life up. Because he has. But hell, Hugh Freeze is back on the sidelines and he was doing the same and worse. I guess I'm willing to take that risk because I know what the reward is. Probably why I wouldn't be a good AD.
It's kind of a moot point anyways. We're not hiring cann and nobody else is either.
His problem is that when he has too much time on his hands the problems start popping up. I mean look at his first year. He gets here in November and takes over the program and by the time he gets moved into his office it's February and it's time for baseball. He's completely focused on the season and the results showed that. The problems began in July, August, and September. When he didn't have anything to do.
More SEC wins this year isn't saying much.
He's a good coach, doesn't mean he's ready or deserving of this job. I like Lane, doesn't mean he should be in the top 5 coaches for this job.
He's been to 2 regionals in 7 years at LA Tech.
I mentioned this elsewhere, there are 2 coaches in Louisiana that are arguably better than him... yet only 1 of them kind of gets mentioned. The other? Not at all.
Why is that? Cause Burroughs "is a State guy".
Who are the other two guys?
1. Matt Deggs - ULL. His name has been mentioned some. But not as much as Lane. Deggs has 3 Regional appearances, as well as 1 Super Regional appearance.
2. Matt Riser - SEL. 4 regionals in 9 years.
I'm even advocating for either. Simply pointing out that those 2 have been and are better coaches, yet we aren't even mentioned them.
I can name 15 guys right now that are better options and realistic options.
1. Dan Heefner - DBU
2. Rob Vaughn - Maryland
3. Chris Pollard - Duke
4. John Szefc - Va Tech
5. Jordan Bischell - CMU
6. Justin Haire - Campbell
7. Mark Calvi - USA
8. Greg Lovelady - UCF
9. Butch Thompson - Auburn
10. Monte Lee - uSC hitting coach
11. Casey Dunn - UAB
12. Robert Woodard - Charlotte
13. Matt Deggs - ULL
14. Todd Interdonato - Wofford
15. Mark Wasikowski - Oregon
You could make arguments against some. But that list is virtually better than Burroughs.
Like I said above, baseball is not something I get wrapped up in. However, clearly there's no excuse for us to totally suck...like none. Something has gone wrong and to me it's pretty obvious a wholesale change needs to be made. I just don't know is there any advantage to firing everyone during the season to get a jump on the top coaches like in football? Or do you just ride it out until the season is over?
Lane has only had 5 seasons at LT. 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022.
Regionals the last two, which had not been done in consecutive years there in 35 years.
39 wins in 2018 but got left out.
We will see what he does this year. He's built a program there and is a viable candidate.
I wouldn't put any of those lesser names ahead of him. La Tech is a dying athletics dept now that they're stuck in a terrible conference. He will do more with less. Many of those we aren't interest in and some aren't interested in us. There's a fit issue with several of those guys. Not that they're bad coaches. You can mark off Heefner and Butch and Calvi right off the bat. Interdonato, Dunn, Lee as well. Lee was an awful head coach by the way.
We're going to pull better than that list or mine I believe.