The SEC is annually the strongest conference in college baseball and 2010 is proving to be no different. Just when there seemed to be some separation last week the waters became more muddied this past weekend with almost every series being a big one. With various RPI and polls there are only two irrelevant teams left in the conference in the two Bulldogs of Georgia and Mississippi State, who could have predicted those two schools would be the also ran’s? Most people seem to think that the SEC will get 9 schools to regional’s this year, that’s one more than will compete in the conference tournament at the end of the month. With Hoover so close I wanted to try and break down who will go and who might win.
Fourteen days ago the obvious choice was the LSU Tigers, the defending national champions who are loaded with Juniors and Seniors who have done all this before. Players like Matt Gaudet, Blake Dean and Micah Gibbs carried the team in hitting while the pitching staff, including top 5 draft prospect Anthony Ranaudo, were projecting to at least compete with Texas to be the best in the country. The last two weeks has seen that all unravel with the Bayou Bengals dropping seven in a row and being swept in two consecutive SEC series. The first to Ole Miss was seen more as a blip than a problem, all good teams lose series and Oxford is a very difficult place to go in any sport but being swept by Florida in Gainesville this weekend has really set the alarm bells ringing for Paul Manieri’s side. What has let the Tigers down is the pitching that they had so much faith in and especially their ace Ranaudo. After sitting the first month of the season with a stress reaction in his shoulder he was expected to come back and carry this team to their second consecutive national title, instead in his seven games back he has gone 2-2 with a 7.30 ERA. More worrying than that have been his performances in big games, first in one of the most hyped NCAA pitching match-ups in recent memory Ranaudo faced Ole Miss stud Drew Pomeranz on national television and got lit up lasting only 1.2 innings and giving up 9 runs on 9 hits. One week later trying to right the ship against the Gators he went only 2 innings giving up 4 runs on 6 hits. I honestly don’t think this team is good enough to win the SEC this year for the simple fact they have no clutch pitching behind Matty Ott (who himself got lit up Sunday) and Georgia has proven this year you don’t win much without pitching.
So if not LSU who? Friday I would have said without hesitation Arkansas was not only the best team in the conference but in the country. They were riding the hot hand pitcher on Fridays in Drew Smyly and have the most explosive offensive many of who have experience of the College World Series last year. Auburn, a really strong team themselves, made all those things look very difficult to justify this weekend. The Razorbacks headed home looking to bounce back after last weekend’s 2-1 series loss to Florida and promptly dropped two games again, even being out-slugged by a powerful Tiger team in the rubber match Sunday. I still think the Hogs are the strongest team in the SEC but they really need a good run down the stretch to get the crucial national seed. If they slip up the team most likely to take advantage are the Ole Miss Rebels who have been quietly taking care of business this year. In Drew Pomeranz they have a pitcher that Keith Law of ESPN thinks is a top 5 draft pick and are beginning to build consistency hitting the ball, their 10 game winning streak reflects this. The winner of this weekend’s series in Oxford could very well have the inside track to winning the SEC West and securing a national seed, but it has far more short-term implications. Friday night could decide who the best pitcher in the West is, Pomeranz or fellow Drew Smyly, and the rest of the weekend will be all about who swings the bats best. The winners of this series I predict will win the College World Series in Omaha, but not the SEC championship.
The two favourites right now have to be the leading teams in the East, those being Florida and the incredibly impressive Gamecocks of South Carolina. These two don’t have the super stud pitching possessed by teams in the West by they both have very solid rotations with USC posting the second best mark in the conference at 3.64 and Florida fourth best with a 4.06 ERA. What is key to the offenses is not their explosiveness, like the Razorbacks, but their timeliness and clutch hitting. With the combined pitching and timely hit the Eastern powers have put together SEC best records of 16-5 and 15-6 respectively, best of all they face each other in the final series of the regular season in Columbia, a series shaping up to be a three game play-off for the SEC regular season crown. If they continue to take care of business in the conference tournament it could be a dress rehearsal for the championship game at the end of the month.
Showing posts with label Ole Miss Rebels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ole Miss Rebels. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Friday, 15 January 2010
Snead Missed More than Most
Some of the best players of the last decade will be leaving the SEC this year. Amongst them will be Tim Tebow, Rolando McClain, Dexter McCluster, Javier Arenas, Reshad Jones, Aaron Hernandez and Joe Haden, to name a few. The biggest loss however will not be any of these players, it won’t be a national championship winner, Heisman winner or record holder. The SEC knows all about the aforementioned players, what they have done (a lot) and exactly how good they are. With every great player or certain first round pick leaving school there is also a player that still has question marks. Someone draft experts are unsure about, who’s college career ended to soon. This year is no different.
The player the SEC will miss most this year is former Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead. This past year was supposed to be Snead’s break out year, having exploded late in 2008. Even pre-season Heisman discussions included Snead’s name on the strength of his 2008 year. So after accomplishing all he has why is Snead not ready to leave? And why will he be missed even more than Tim Tebow? Simply, because this year was so disappointing. Snead entered with all the talk surrounding him and Ole Miss, they climbed as high as number 4 in the country. Between them they achieved an almost unmatched mediocrity for the rest of the year. Snead’s bad year means he has so much more to prove, and SEC fans would want to see so much more.
The heights that Snead’s recruitment predicted never fully materialised, at least not fully. A prized prospect out of Stephenville, Texas, Snead may well have begun his college career in the SEC. It began with Urban Meyer who took interest in Snead, first after being sent tape at Utah and then receiving a commitment after Meyer’s move to Florida. When the Gators continued their pursuit of Tim Tebow the Texan de-committed and began looking closer to home. It’s difficult to be starting QB at the University of Texas, especially the year after the Longhorns won the National Championship, that’s the bed Snead chose. A bed he promptly leapt out of after the decision to start Colt McCoy, not exactly a bad decision in the long run by Mack Brown. In his one year in Austin Snead completed 53% of his passes for 371 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Not a great sales pitch, good enough however for Ed Orgeron and the Rebels in Oxford, Miss. By the time Snead became a sophomore and arrived on campus Houston Nutt had arrived from Arkansas, a completely fresh start. By the end of their first season together everyone involved with the Rebels team saw light at the end of the tunnel; 2762 yards, 26 touchdowns and only 13 picks. Not exactly bad for his first year deciphering SEC defences.
The 2009 season didn’t exactly go to plan, it wasn’t helped by the arrival of another big armed Texan quarterback in the SEC West. Ryan Mallett transferred to Arkansas the same year Snead left Texas but red shirted his sophomore year. Their senior years in Texas high school was the last time these two could be compared directly. Snead threw for 3,546 yards, 38 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, Mallett went for 3,353, 31 touchdowns and only 3 picks. Mallett was the number 2 quarterback in the country in 2007, the year before, Snead had been number 3. The importance of Ryan Mallett to Jevan Snead’s career is that Mallett shows precisely how much Snead has underachieved in his college career. In 2009 Snead had 2632 yards, 20 td’s and (deep breath) 20! interceptions. Yards and touchdowns went down from 2008, interceptions went up. Not a good combination. Mallett (the new SEC and NFL darling) threw for 3627 yards with 30 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. This highlights the problems that Snead has had, after outperforming the Hogs quarterback in high school he suddenly dropped off in performance when he got to college.
It could be simply that Snead is the model student-athlete. He has already achieved his degree, and he should be given a huge amount of credit for that, but what about his career? Like every college player Snead dreams of playing in the NFL, and because of this year his draft stock has plummeted. With the departure of Tebow, Kiffin and others, Ole Miss may have been poised to move into a position of SEC power with Snead at the helm. With something to prove he could have been doubly focused, especially without the distraction of school. Unfortunately we, the SEC public, will never know. I may be alone but I wish we could.
The player the SEC will miss most this year is former Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead. This past year was supposed to be Snead’s break out year, having exploded late in 2008. Even pre-season Heisman discussions included Snead’s name on the strength of his 2008 year. So after accomplishing all he has why is Snead not ready to leave? And why will he be missed even more than Tim Tebow? Simply, because this year was so disappointing. Snead entered with all the talk surrounding him and Ole Miss, they climbed as high as number 4 in the country. Between them they achieved an almost unmatched mediocrity for the rest of the year. Snead’s bad year means he has so much more to prove, and SEC fans would want to see so much more.
The heights that Snead’s recruitment predicted never fully materialised, at least not fully. A prized prospect out of Stephenville, Texas, Snead may well have begun his college career in the SEC. It began with Urban Meyer who took interest in Snead, first after being sent tape at Utah and then receiving a commitment after Meyer’s move to Florida. When the Gators continued their pursuit of Tim Tebow the Texan de-committed and began looking closer to home. It’s difficult to be starting QB at the University of Texas, especially the year after the Longhorns won the National Championship, that’s the bed Snead chose. A bed he promptly leapt out of after the decision to start Colt McCoy, not exactly a bad decision in the long run by Mack Brown. In his one year in Austin Snead completed 53% of his passes for 371 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Not a great sales pitch, good enough however for Ed Orgeron and the Rebels in Oxford, Miss. By the time Snead became a sophomore and arrived on campus Houston Nutt had arrived from Arkansas, a completely fresh start. By the end of their first season together everyone involved with the Rebels team saw light at the end of the tunnel; 2762 yards, 26 touchdowns and only 13 picks. Not exactly bad for his first year deciphering SEC defences.
The 2009 season didn’t exactly go to plan, it wasn’t helped by the arrival of another big armed Texan quarterback in the SEC West. Ryan Mallett transferred to Arkansas the same year Snead left Texas but red shirted his sophomore year. Their senior years in Texas high school was the last time these two could be compared directly. Snead threw for 3,546 yards, 38 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, Mallett went for 3,353, 31 touchdowns and only 3 picks. Mallett was the number 2 quarterback in the country in 2007, the year before, Snead had been number 3. The importance of Ryan Mallett to Jevan Snead’s career is that Mallett shows precisely how much Snead has underachieved in his college career. In 2009 Snead had 2632 yards, 20 td’s and (deep breath) 20! interceptions. Yards and touchdowns went down from 2008, interceptions went up. Not a good combination. Mallett (the new SEC and NFL darling) threw for 3627 yards with 30 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. This highlights the problems that Snead has had, after outperforming the Hogs quarterback in high school he suddenly dropped off in performance when he got to college.
It could be simply that Snead is the model student-athlete. He has already achieved his degree, and he should be given a huge amount of credit for that, but what about his career? Like every college player Snead dreams of playing in the NFL, and because of this year his draft stock has plummeted. With the departure of Tebow, Kiffin and others, Ole Miss may have been poised to move into a position of SEC power with Snead at the helm. With something to prove he could have been doubly focused, especially without the distraction of school. Unfortunately we, the SEC public, will never know. I may be alone but I wish we could.
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