Sports

Gamecock Baseball: WTF?

CAN SOUTH CAROLINA SALVAGE ITS SEASON? || By FITSNEWS || The University of South Carolina baseball team won the College World Series in 2010 and 2011. And appeared in the CWS finals in 2012.  Then longtime head coach Ray Tanner resigned to become the school’s athletics director, giving the job…

CAN SOUTH CAROLINA SALVAGE ITS SEASON?

|| By FITSNEWS || The University of South Carolina baseball team won the College World Series in 2010 and 2011. And appeared in the CWS finals in 2012.  Then longtime head coach Ray Tanner resigned to become the school’s athletics director, giving the job to former assistant coach Chad Holbrook.

Holbrook’s first team didn’t make it out of the super regional round, while his second team failed to advance past its home field regional last spring – the first time that had happened since 1976.

Despite this downturn, we were optimistic things were looking up thanks to Holbrook’s recruiting success … in fact we wrote last spring that “we fully expect Holbrook to reorient the trajectory of the program given the talent he’s brought in … as well as some of the stars he’s already landed for the 2015 class.”

Unfortuantely the 2015 season has been an even bigger disappointment.  In fact the Gamecocks are on the verge of – gasp – not qualifying for the NCAA postseason for the first time since 1999.

Ouch …

“This is getting down right embarrassing,” one frustrated fan wrote to us.  “My how the mighty have fallen. A few years ago winning and competing in the College World Eeries.  Now (in) 2015, they could not win the little league world series.  No Pitching, no hitting, poor fielding: It goes to show you some assistants are not head coach material.”

Holbrook’s response to the mounting criticism?

He gave an interview with The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier last week talking about how his kid used to have cancer and that dealing with fan criticism was “a piece of cake” by comparison.  We’re sure that’s true … but heartwarming stories aside, his job is to win games.  And the longer Gamecock baseball fortunes continue to decline, the less people will be willing to cut him some slack.

Hopefully the Gamecocks will mount a run over the next month and silence the critics … building on the momentum from a big series win over Vanderbilt last weekend.

***

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16 comments

GrandTango April 20, 2015 at 2:25 pm

FITS sure has a lot of nerve….or is it just bliss?…LMAO…

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LEROY April 20, 2015 at 2:29 pm

What happened to the “FAB FIVE”?

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Toomah April 20, 2015 at 2:30 pm

Your kid having to go through cancer sucks but a job is a job. Maybe if it gets bad enough ol’ Tanner will step back into the position.

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Tanner test takers April 20, 2015 at 2:33 pm

“coach Ray Tanner resigned to become the school’s athletics director, giving the job to former assistant coach Chad Holbrook.”

Maybe if we can get the same person who took Scott Wingo’s tests to fill in for Holbrook we can right the ship in time.

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yep April 20, 2015 at 2:44 pm

or the assistant coach that paid for Sammy Watkins parents to go to that 5 star resort in Florida to get him to sign with them. Maybe he could convince a kid to go there instead just like that. That story was just as true you know

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one_big_dude April 20, 2015 at 3:02 pm

Can anyone recommend a good SHOWER CURTAIN ROD salesperson in Clemmons?

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Guest April 20, 2015 at 2:48 pm

Sometimes the truth hurts but it is still the truth.

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Crooner April 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm

I heard from the parent of a former player that the team hates Holbrook. Of course, the same guy told me the same thing about Tanner.

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Go COCKS! It ain't always easy April 20, 2015 at 3:22 pm

How about a hat’s off to the fans who sat through rain to watch the Gamecocks rally and take the series against #4 Vanderbilt. How about WTF the Gamecocks whipped some Vandy ass this weekend. You could have written this shoddy piece following a losing series. And since you love to follow the MSM often times but continuously ridicule them at the same time , you can go ahead and wish the head ball coach a happy 70th birthday. All of these guys have done more for USC than you and yo daddy ever have!

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Squishy123 April 20, 2015 at 5:22 pm

How about the Dirt Peckers getting their ass handed to them on Thursday night and again to some high school quality team on Tuesday.

Slurrier will be toasting it up on his boat ride tomorrow, he’s got to stay around otherwise he’ll have two unemployed kids to support.

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shifty henry April 20, 2015 at 10:11 pm

Police in Five Points responded to a call of a vehicle break-in. The owner of the vehicle said he two tickets to a Gamecock game on his dash and someone busted his window and left two more Gamecock tickets.

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erneba April 20, 2015 at 3:42 pm

In a way, I am surprised that any university can sustain itself in any major college sport for a long period of time. I know some do, while other are perennial also-rans. Getting and keeping the very best athletes in any sport is difficult these days. Potential athletes start training and playing earlier than a few years ago. Better coaches, better equipment, better facilities, and healthier kids make it tougher for a few schools to load up on all the top-rated high school talent these days. There’s a lot of good kids out there that are good athletes and that makes it hard to monopolize the talent.

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Squishy123 April 20, 2015 at 5:17 pm

Fully expected when they handed the team off to Lumpy Rutherford. Every postgame interview is the same,questions asked to the Down’s Syndrome guy in the flatbill baseball cap.

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Jay April 20, 2015 at 9:50 pm

I’m surprised that nobody has blamed Obama about the Gamecock’s downturn.

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ELCID April 21, 2015 at 1:52 pm

It’s got to get better or he’s history next year.

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Jonathan Grooms May 3, 2015 at 7:59 pm

This is precisely why successful coaches (Tanner) should not become athletic directors. I would argue the whole of SC sports is in decline since Tanner took over as AD – save women’s BB – whose success is directly attributed to past AD Eric Hymen who had the foresight to hire coach Dawn Staley. Billionaire Charles Koch, who built Koch Industries (115 B annual revenue) into the world’s largest privately held company, claims he did it by putting the right people with the right skill set in the right job. We need to learn from Mr. Koch. Neither Tanner or Holbrook have the right skill set for their respective jobs. Tanner needs to go back to being a baseball coach and Holbrook a recruiter – and President Pastides needs to look for a QUALIFIED AD to continue the success of Eric Hymen.

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