Univ. of Tennessee

Brand new coaching staff this year, so a lot of us are just waiting to see what happens. However, the pitching coach Fred Corall is highly regarded, having spent a previous stint at Tennessee.

The overall athletic facilities at Tennessee are top notch. Baseball has lagged behind, but the stadium is currently undergoing renovations. Baseball also has access to the monstrous indoor football facility.

Knoxville is a great college city, and the university offers a myriad of academic opportunities.

If the University of Tennessee decides they want to be a national power in baseball (super regional most every season) they have the resources to accomplish that goal. You have the lottery scholarships and high school baseball in Tennessee is as good or better than it has ever been but you have Vanderbilt & Memphis working very hard for the best players. The best high school players are from the Memphis & Middle Tennessee areas where Vanderbilt & Memphis are located. Money and facilities should not ever be a problem with the football program attendance for home games being over 100,000 and the mens and womens basketball teams drawing very well. IMO, the baseball stadium needs some serious work and should be remodled. It was built with a "cookie cutter" design and the fans are much too high above the action. Lower the seating to field level and the atmosphere should improve. The University of Tennessee has been averaging around 900 fans per game and they need to increase that to about 1500-2000 per game with 3000 attending the big SEC weekends. Another problem is that the non conference schedule has few if any big name teams playing in Knoxville. With North Carolina, NC State, Clemson, West Virgina, Virgina, Georgia Tech, Duke, Wake, etc... being close they should be playing each other. They did play Arizona State a few years ago and Delmonico (yes I know he is gone) did not play his best players for some reason. Another major issue according to a survey that is being fixed is the color black being used in the uniforms. It is my understandig that the "die hard" University of Tennessee fans want to see the players and coaching staff wearing more orange and less black. The academic programs offered by the University of Tennessee are very strong and compare to most state universities. The only major problem that I see is if the athletic department really wants to win. To my knowledge they have not decided to do the major renovation of the stadium as of this date and they went cheap when hiring the current staff. They had several "big time" coaches that were interested in the job but not for what they want to pay. The average head baseball coach in the SEC made $339,000.00 last season and Coach Raleigh was hired at much less and he did not have a winning recored as a head coach.

Coach Raleigh has stated he wants to upgrade the schedule, but was hamstrung with the 2008 schedule. We'll see if he can change that for 2009.

CBG, I know they have plans to add seats down toward field level. I don't know if they are still waiting on a "sugar daddy" to come through with a large private donation or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Bizazz:
Coach Raleigh has stated he wants to upgrade the schedule, but was hamstrung with the 2008 schedule. We'll see if he can change that for 2009.

CBG, I know they have plans to add seats down toward field level. I don't know if they are still waiting on a "sugar daddy" to come through with a large private donation or not.

Bizazz,

I was just trying to give the facts. I wish the team and staff well but I am still not confident that Mike Hamilton will do what it takes for the team to be ultra successful. Let's hope that he is working on things behind the scenes and Coach Raleigh leads the team to Omaha every season. The University of Tennessee will know if they are moving in the right direction if every school is looking to hire their baseball staff.

Since the question in part is about the new staff at UT I thought I would relay this article in today's Memphis Comercial Appeal. It's about a Memphis player take on his recruitment by The University of Tennessee.

"I am 100 percent completely devoted to Tennessee now," Locante said Monday. "Just going there, the atmosphere was electric. Everyone was just really happy I was there. Everyone was kind to me.

"It was a taste, hopefully, of what college is going to always be like for me. Plus, SEC sports -- I mean, that's where it's at."

Locante said his summer coach, Tim Dulin, initiated the contact with Tennessee, which already has a trio of former Memphis-area high-school standouts on its roster in freshman catcher Blake Forsythe (Christian Brothers High), sophomore infielder Alan Wright (CBHS) and senior utility man Andy Simunic (Collierville).

"Before I went up on my visit (to Knoxville), I was strongly considering Memphis, MTSU and Auburn. Then my head summer coach, Tim Dulin, called (Tennessee baseball) coach (Todd) Raleigh and said 'I've got a left-handed pitcher.'

"(Raleigh) came down and saw me, and he really liked what he saw. He called me, I'd say, about two months ago and we've been talking ever since.

"(Tennessee's) coaches, they've all really treated me as more of an individual than just a baseball player or recruit. They just seem real genuine, and one of the things I was looking at was the character of the coaches, because those are going to be like my parents while I'm up there."

Fungo

Fungo, that's encouraging.

"Proof's in the pudding" as they say.