Louisiana softball searching for consistency as Sun Belt play continues

[Louisiana84]

Gabbie Stutes has the LEADERSHIP qualities our softball program needs. I am so happy she is a Ragin' Cajun.

[CajunVic]

Mark. I always appreciate your comments and I agree with you on recruiting strategy going forward.

Here's what I'm thinking. For 25 years, coach Aly attended the major tournaments across the country. She was very successful recruiting and signing top players.

What allowed her to be successful on the recruiting trail, was the fact that she had an "A" enblazoned across her chest and players wanted to play for Alabama.

I'm afraid, if she is attending those same tournaments as head coach of the Cajuns, that may be a mistake. The coaches sitting next to her from, Oklahoma, Texas, UCLA, Tennessee and on and on are simply fishing for the big fish with much more desirable lures. Lures that dangle money for the big fish to take a gulp of. Because of that, coach Aly is fishing in the wrong pond and is not going to get a bite.

So, maybe she should go to lesser tournaments in which she will be competing with similar anglers using the same bait. That way she might snag a relatively unknown player, and turn her into something special.

Now do Coach Michael Desormeaux

[VObserver]

I like the idea of being the bigger angler at the smaller pond. I think this is the strategy the SLU coach uses. He is able to find some diamonds in the rough and coach them up once they get on campus.

I generally agree with this; though I do believe we should continue to recruit at the highest possible level, at least to the extent that we maintain contact with high level recruits, not to the extent that we don't have a backup plan in place, but so that they at least know we have interest.

[JMV JustMyView]

Wasn't that basically same approach that Lotief employed, although we did land a couple of gems albeit obviously prior to "NIL" becoming legal
....?

Not sure what his recruiting style was but he was a great developer coach.

[JMV JustMyView]

I generally agree with this; though I do believe we should continue to recruit at the highest possible level, at least to the extent that we maintain contact with high level recruits, not to the extent that we don't have a backup plan in place, but so that they at least know we have interest.

It will be a challenge to get upper tier players on campus and more of a challenge to keep impact players.

[RoarMan]

I generally agree with this; though I do believe we should continue to recruit at the highest possible level, at least to the extent that we maintain contact with high level recruits, not to the extent that we don't have a backup plan in place, but so that they at least know we have interest.

I don't know if there is a specific budget just for recruiting. If there is, and she's going to the major tournaments to compete for players against power four schools, I'm not sure that is a wise use of recruiting dollars.

[JMV JustMyView]

I don't know if there is a specific budget just for recruiting. If there is, and she's going to the major tournaments to compete for players against power four schools, I'm not sure that is a wise use of recruiting dollars.

He is saying she doesn't necessarily have to attend those major tournaments, but at the very minimum needs to at least stay in contact with them. You always have to make the call and the call doesn't cost anything but time.

[Mark Hemphill]

Not sure what his recruiting style was but he was a great developer coach.

Mike always had an eye for athletic girls who were undeveloped and under recruited. He would get them to sign with UL and then immediately red-shirt them. That way, he had an extra year to develop their swing mechanics. If you look back at all of the All Americans that played for UL when he was the coach, I would say that the majority were products of this system.

[CajunSID]

I miss the days when this board ripped a coach's on-field strategy like bunting down a million.

Now we have gone from criticizing the team because nobody is ripping a__ publicly and going bowling on a Wednesday night to determining recruiting strategy.

Really hope we win the series this weekend or Coach Habetz's office space arrangement is up next.

[RoarMan]

I miss the days when this board ripped a coach's on-field strategy like bunting down a million.

Now we have gone from criticizing the team because nobody is ripping a__ publicly and going bowling on a Wednesday night to determining recruiting strategy.

Really hope we win the series this weekend or Coach Habetz's office space arrangement is up next.

Call it what you want, but, I don't think you can deny that there's a difference between recruiting a player to play at Texas Tech and recruiting a player to play at UL.

Aly may be able to offer a player a partial scholarship and $10,000. And, that's a big maybe. Texas Tech can offer a player a full scholarship and $150,000 or more. Much more.

If you are that player, where are you going? It's just what softball and all other college sports have become. And, it's sad.