Not Hard to Understand Drop Off This Season

[THEONLYTENISEE]

It’s been upset like that for years.

I believe he's been to Omaha more than any other team in the last 10 years.

I would like to see FSU/UF play a regular weekend series instead of 3 mid-week games.

We need to schedule Va Tech or GA Tech similar to this.

 

[Jaws]

That was a series of Tuesday night games. Things might have turned out different if Jamie Arnold and Joey Volini were wearing their cleats.

True, but Florida wasn’t starting Liam Peterson or Aiden King in those games either. I’m not saying FSU isn’t a very good team, they are. But they’d be middle of the pack in the SEC. Having said that, any middle of the pack SEC team can win the whole thing.

 

[Jaws]

FSU has one of the best lefties in Arnold. This is why I think they would.

Tennessee has the best lefty in America. Arnold is a stud too. Nearly every SEC team throws a stud on Friday/Saturday night.

 

[Pawleysvol]

Seibert, May, Sharp, Abraham, and a few others.

Seibert is intriguing. He was higher rate “d than Kuhns correct? Coming off an arm injury.

 

[taylorvol]

Seibert is intriguing. He was higher rate “d than Kuhns correct? Coming off an arm injury.

Seibert was our highest rated signee in the entire class PG had him at #35. He’s a stud and will be draft eligible as a sophomore much like Kuhns.

 

[vol66]

Anyone questioning Frank Anderson is simply showing their you know what. He’s elite. I mean just look at the jump in production of Liam Doyle this season alone. Not to mention he took a pretty rag tag group of pitchers last year with no true Friday starter and won a national championship with them. I fear for when Frank leaves.

Vols in MLB thread and all.

 

[WallyBalls]

Doyle says development is there. He’s a lock for a top 10 pick and could still go 1/1. Outside of Bama where his pitch count got away from him he’s been at his best against the best.

Phillips has some shortcomings but folks have to take into account he missed most of his FR year at JUCO due to injury and only pitched 12 innings before coming to Knoxville. Last year he saw limited action vs the meat of the schedule so this is his first foray into big time college baseball. The stuff is there, it just needs to be refined. Despite his listed age/class, he was basically a late season FR coming into this season in terms of experience.

Plus, Phillips is missing tons of reps compared to a lot of guys just from growing up where he did.

He is as green as they come. I know his delivery is frustrating and controlling the run game is maddening at times, but his development from 2024 to 2025 is still very impressive to me. At no point in time after last season did I ever entertain the idea of Marcus being a functional starting pitcher this season. Yet he has been.

That's a massive jump from where he was.

 

[taylorvol]

Plus, Phillips is missing tons of reps compared to a lot of guys just from growing up where he did.

He is as green as they come. I know his delivery is frustrating and controlling the run game is maddening at times, but his development from 2024 to 2025 is still very impressive to me. At no point in time after last season did I ever entertain the idea of Marcus being a functional starting pitcher this season. Yet he has been.

That's a massive jump from where he was.

Agreed. Scouts love how raw and young he is in terms of lack of innings thrown and his tremendous upside.

 

[savannahfan]

Maybe so but a very below average post. Perhaps you should have waited longer and taken the time to do some research. You want to fire the best pitching coach in the nation? LOL.

I did not say anything about the "pitching coach" No doubt he is one of the best teaching the art of pitching. I said the the guy teaching the position, i.e., defense is not doing his job.

 

[savannahfan]

I couldn't disagree more, respectfully.

Kilen, Fischer, Curley, Bargo, Ensley are all-SEC type players. Curley has really gotten in his head this year but there is a reason he is still projected to go so high in the draft. Doyle, Phillips, Russell, Snead (possibly Franklin) are all projected to go in the top 3 rounds in the draft this summer.

We are a top 5-10ish talented team in the country, a lot of these young guys will look so much better next year

Last year - next year.. I thought we were talking about THIS year. I in fact all the guys you name are as good as you say, then why is this team underachieving?

 

[rockytop25]

Last year - next year.. I thought we were talking about THIS year. I in fact all the guys you name are as good as you say, then why is this team underachieving?

Because it's BASEBALL, you don't hit .300 and pitch to a 2 ERA every year.

Why are they still projected to go in the top 3 rounds if they are as bad as you say they are?

 

[rockytop25]

Agreed. Scouts love how raw and young he is in terms of lack of innings thrown and his tremendous upside.

People forget (I sometimes do too) that he is still just 20 years old

 

[GVF]

Ironically...our drop-off is no worse in most comparisons to all ranked above UT, yet they 've been dropped to 17th. Only a few teams ranked 1-16 make sense when looking at conference, conference record, performance last 4 weekends, overall. Only reasoning the ranking makes sense for UT is that they've spread it out and not won a weekend in a while, where the others blow and entire weekend and then win or sweep two weekends. Other than that, there's not a whole lot of difference in LSU, GA, AU, VU, UT, and AL for the variance in their Top 25 rankings. And if you ask me, Ark is getting shafted at #8, while LSU and TX sit above them at #1 & #3.

 

[taylorvol]

People forget (I sometimes do too) that he is still just 20 years old

He’s basically the same age of several true freshmen (Kuhns, Newstrom, Marin)

 

[txbo]

Last year - next year.. I thought we were talking about THIS year. I in fact all the guys you name are as good as you say, then why is this team underachieving?

We're going into the last week of regular season on the bubble for a regional host spot....This year.

 

[Bigvalley84]

I honestly think we’re seeing some of the defending champion bad luck , the weather has been awful the at home this season , some of the umps have been worse than the weather , the last 5 weeks we’ve lost the weekend series but with a lucky break here or there we could have easily won 3 of those 5 series , I think our youth and playing from behind has put a lot of pressure on us and we’ve not handled it well , like I’ve stated numerous times this year Tony has made some head scratching moves but at the end of the day the players have got to play and execute whether it’s pitching , defense or offense , I think we’re a solid team but need to play better as a whole or it’ll be over sooner than we’d all like

 

[tombowalker]

Last year - next year.. I thought we were talking about THIS year. I in fact all the guys you name are as good as you say, then why is this team underachieving?

Parity across the SEC and small sample sizes probably has as much to do with it as anything.

 

[BreatheUT]

And losing 7 position players (incl 5 guys who hit >20 HRS), the entire starting pitching rotation, and Aaron Combs and Kirby Connell didn’t help. I will take a top 20 team after winning the NC.

Though another NC would be a nice addition to the trophy case, this looks like a Super Regional team at best. We just need to get better for next year.

 

[taylorvol]

Plus, Phillips is missing tons of reps compared to a lot of guys just from growing up where he did.

He is as green as they come. I know his delivery is frustrating and controlling the run game is maddening at times, but his development from 2024 to 2025 is still very impressive to me. At no point in time after last season did I ever entertain the idea of Marcus being a functional starting pitcher this season. Yet he has been.

That's a massive jump from where he was.

Heck, Phillips is basically same age as some of our true freshmen (Marin, Newstrom, Kuhns). He’s going to be a stud. Super talented but just green

 

[taylorvol]

Though another NC would be a nice addition to the trophy case, this looks like a Super Regional team at best. We just need to get better for next year.

TN has had a heck of a season compared to most who have “crashed and burned” after their NC year. Applaud CTV and staff for keeping a young team focused

 

[Fatdad32]

I think we may just catch fire . Orange colored glasses!

 

[WallyBalls]

Heck, Phillips is basically same age as some of our true freshmen (Marin, Newstrom, Kuhns). He’s going to be a stud. Super talented but just green

If he was a stock, I'd be buying all I can get.

Hell, same goes for the program. No matter how 2025 winds up, there's going to be a lot of scars and grit coming to the 2026 team.

That's not a bad thing.

 

[VolFan_stuck_in_the_901]

If he was a stock, I'd be buying all I can get.

Hell, same goes for the program. No matter how 2025 winds up, there's going to be a lot of scars and grit coming to the 2026 team.

That's not a bad thing.

I think the struggles of this 2025 season could wind up paying big dividends in the 2026 and 2027 seasons

 

[Bigvalley84]

I think the struggles of this 2025 season could wind up paying big dividends in the 2026 and 2027 seasons

Looking at the All SEC teams and not having one freshman on any of em could be one of the of reasons for our struggles , yo have the number 1 recruiting class and not have a single player on any of those teams is a huge surprise for me , we had 4 all SEC selections plus Bargo and Peebles have been pretty good in conference so it looks like our ceiling is gonna rely on a few of these freshman playing better in the post season plus our bullpen has to be better

 

[VolFan_stuck_in_the_901]

Looking at the All SEC teams and not having one freshman on any of em could be one of the of reasons for our struggles , yo have the number 1 recruiting class and not have a single player on any of those teams is a huge surprise for me , we had 4 all SEC selections plus Bargo and Peebles have been pretty good in conference so it looks like our ceiling is gonna rely on a few of these freshman playing better in the post season plus our bullpen has to be better

All but one of our All-SEC selections was a portal transfer... nothing wrong with that of course but a lot of our past success came organically from kids we recruited/developed. I think next year and 2027 will see a big return to the success of the 2021-2024 years.