HTXfan

For the 2025 Spring season, the roster limit remains at 40. Starting in the 2026 season its 34 (used to be 35 pre-covid) and, as with all sports, all roster spots are allowed to be on full scholarship. However, its up to each conference to set their scholarship limit and it looks like everyone will end up being under 34 for baseball. Talk about the SEC, which will likely allow for the most baseball scholarships, is that they will initially limit it to around 25 full baseball scholarships for 2026. But, unlike today, the teams will now be able to split that number however they wish among the players. A key issue still to be determined for 2026 is when the teams must have the roster down to 34. Some are arguing to have it at 34 before any Fall 2025 practice begins and others want there to be a higher Fall limit and allow the coaches to cut down to 34 sometime during or after Fall 2025 practice.

Pitching will surprise many on the upside. It will be a competitive staff in the SEC.

Schuessler hit .343 and 1020 OPS with 10HR and some clutch hitting last year after having to sit out a full year with injury. Bet he will be better this year. Will be interesting to see what happens with 1B and DH this year. He is also pretty universally considered by the players as the hardest worker on the team.

I think latest is actually 45 players, so if no more adds and noone leaves or gets injured this Fall (although every team seems to end up with injuries), would need to cut 5.

plus Riojas RHP and Werchan OF

RHP grad transfer from Penn, Eli Trop, was drafted in the 16th round by the Phillies

And is not nearly as good

Heard he wasn't giving up baseball. Had some potential to sign this year but would assume that Weiner coming in, who seems like a great pitching developer and was head of minor league pitching at Mariners, would be a big plus to coming back. If surgery was in late Fall wouldn't be pitching in minors this Fall anyway. Pitching for UT next year gives pitchers 3 months vs SEC, which is like low minors anyway, and pitchers signing next Summer only lose about 4 months of minor league games from April to August.

It was just trying to show a specific example of what has happened recently with "under the radar guys". I could have also added an anecdote about highly thought of and experienced assistant coaches being hired and doing well out of the gate such as Wes Johnson moving to Georgia this year. Jarrett is from Tallahassee, played and coached at FSU and is in a good situation there. Highly unlikely he would entertain an offer from somewhere else.

Highly unlikely to be Johnson. He is at a good program with a history of success, and big fan, administration and NIL support. In addition, he has 5 years left on a contract paying him $1.8mm per year plus incentives and with a buyout of around $5.5mm. I would take well north of $2mm per year to move him plus having to pay the buyout.

Everyone wants to focus on the "top 10" big names, but history would show that is not necessarily the best route to take if you want to win big and the CWS. For at least the past 50 years, the only coaches who have taken a team to the CWS and then moved to another team and won the CWS with their new team are Paul Manieri (ND then won at LSU), Andy Lopez (Cal State DH then won at Pepperdine and Arizona), Jay Johnson (AZ then LSU) and Garrido (CSF then UT). Also, today the top names are generally already at schools where they are 1) winning big and have established their programs and assistant coaching rosters the way they want to run them 2) have significant fan, NIL and administration support 3) are in the Big 2 conferences SEC and ACC, and 4) are being paid very well (with a few exceptions) so very tough to money whip them. Convincing one of them to leave is difficult unless there are other outside circumstances such as Schloss leaving TCU for Aggy. Guys who have won and are considered high-level coaches such as Corbin, OConnor, Vitello, Jarrett, Schlossnagle (when he was hired by TCU), Lemonis and Tadlock were more like the guys mentioned in the above post. These guys are young, respected in the baseball community and will likely end up being guys who coach a team in the future that is competing for national championships. I know UT fans look at the history of the program and athletic resources and convince themselves that anyone would jump at the chance to move to UT, but I don't think that is necessarily the case in the current college baseball landscape. Maybe we end up getting one of the "top" guys but if the search is being done with the input of very good baseball people dialed in to college baseball, we should be able to get a coach who won't initially wow the fan and alumni base but could end up being great for the program long term. Just one example - Link Jarrett had only been a head coach at UNCG for 6 or 7 years and only made one regional. Most college baseball fans had probably never heard of him. However, he was very highly respected in college coaching circles. When ND hired him they were an ACC bottom dweller. In his first year at ND (excluding Covid year where they were in 1st in the ACC when the season was cancelled) they lost in the final Super Regional game to the eventual CWS champion and then the next year went to the CWS. Now he has Florida State in the CWS in his second year there. If CDC and his guys look hard enough, there are likely one or more Link Jarrett types out there if they can't get a big name coach.

Potential transfer portal pitcher https://x.com/mattfreemanISD/status/1795476024735494573

I just means that, by then, there wasn't much time before the game started and LBJ had to go over and get warmed up as the starting pitcher. So Hurley held his pic for him.

The quality of hitting in the SEC and ACC is way above the B12.

Jarrett is one of the top handful of coaches in college baseball and will quickly turn Fl St into a perennial powerhouse, as I think he could at any school with good resources. But I bet he isn't going anywhere. He is well paid, he and his wife grew up in Tallahassee, he was an All-American and an asst coach for Martin and both he and his wife's parents live in Tallahassee.