Terrors Season Ends
By: Christian Goeckel
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
This one hurts. That’s ok, it’s supposed to. When a senior class means as much as this one has to this community, a loss like Friday night’s is going to sting for a long time.
Glynn Academy fell to Lee County, 42-38, in a game in which the Terrors held leads of 31-6 and 38-21.
Glynn dominated the first half, busting big plays consistently and leaving the home Lee crowd stunned and the traveling Terror Nation at a fever pitch.
The domination reached its pinnacle when Glynn had Lee backed up at their 15 on 3rd down, trailing the Terrors 24-6. Hunter Hall intercepted Jase Orndoff’s pass and set up the Terrors inside Lee’s 10. Caine Crews punched it in for his third touchdown of the first half and the blowout was on.
Give Lee credit, you don’t get to 12-1 without being a very good team. Down 31-6, the Trojans flew down the field in three plays and tossed a touchdown to end the first half down 31-14.
Lee received the ball to start the second half and scored bringing the score to within 10, but Glynn answered with a long drive of their own, putting the Terrors up 38-21 going into the 4th.
That’s when the wheels fell off for Glynn. The Terror’s gave up 21 straight points off of fumbles on three consecutive drives. With Lee up 42-38, the Terror’s had a hundred and eighty seconds left on the clock to get into the endzone, and avoid the collapse.
First and second down were stuffed, and Jernigan had to exit the game for third. Back up Sam Wagner entered the game, and was subsequently sacked and injured on third down.
That left a 4th and 10 for Glynn to continue their season. Credit this team for not giving up. A banged up Jernigan rolled right, bringing the whole defense with him and threw a strike to a wide open Andrew Delaney streaking down the left side of the field on a delay route.
The long play quieted the home crowd, and set up Glynn at the Lee 15 with 90 seconds left on the clock. The Terrors controlled their own destiny. Get into the endzone and advance. Randon Jernigan busted up the left side for a gain of 8, setting up Glynn with 2nd and 2 from the 7.
And that’s when the Terrors lost a fumble for the fourth straight possession. Jernigan and Crews fumbled the ball at the mesh point of their read option, and Lee recovered to seal the game.
In a game in which Caine Crews rushed for 280 yards and three touchdowns, all he will remember are the fumbles.
Randon Jernigan, who lead this powerful option attack, will be kicking himself for not pulling the ball on the last play.
Hunter Hall, with a huge interception in the first half and countless tackles, will only wonder what he could’ve done.
What we will remember is them. The seniors who were the first class to spend all four years under Coach Hidalgo. The guys who have been the building blocks for what is now the premier high school football program in South East Georgia.
It has been an absolute joy to watch these guys play football for the Red and White, and that’s why this hurts so much.
The somber realization that it’s over. When spring practice kicks off names like Dallas, Hall, Jernigan, Crews, Fulton, McClellan, Delaney, and Podlesny will all be headed off to college.
What won’t be gone is what they’ve built under Rocky Hidalgo. This program is here to stay, and it’s these seniors we have to thank for it
Chief-less Noles
By: Alex Mathis
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It looks like the Jimbo Fisher and Florida State relationship has come to an end.
Jimbo Fisher took over for the legend Bobby Bowden in 2010. Jimbo has been pretty successful while being the head man in charge. His record was 83-23 with a national championship to his name.
He has turned a program that was somewhat struggling into a program that is in the top 25 every year and a program that has a top 10 recruiting class yearly.
So, what happened? There are a lot of rumors going around Tallahassee the last few days. Those rumors range from problems with administration, booster members, and also assistant changes.
Whatever the reason is, Jimbo Fisher will be in College Station next year coaching the Texas A&M Aggies.
This breakup has not been a pretty one. Coaches, players, and recruits have been out of the loop.
Florida State will always be Florida State. A program that is expected to compete for an ACC Championship. A program that is expected to compete for a National Title every year as well. The next head coach will have to come in and expect to achieve these same goals.
At this time there have been a few names that have been thrown around for potential replacements for Jimbo Fisher.
The name that you will hear in every conversation is Oregon’s Willie Taggert. Coach Taggert has proven that he can turn programs around and recruit at the highest level.
He was able to turn around a struggling Western Kentucky football team, a struggling University of South Florida team, and a struggling Oregon football team.
Coach Taggert is from Florida and has several connections when it comes to recruiting in Florida. Taggert is supposedly at the top of the list for FSU. Fisher and Taggert both share the same agent.
Surprisingly, another name being thrown around is the once Texas A&M coach, Kevin Sumlin. This one be an interesting move if it were to happen.
Coach Sumlin is a good coach. The expectations at Texas A&M maybe were a little high for him. His Aggies played in the SEC West. It is hard to compete with Alabama, Auburn, and LSU every year. Maybe a change of scenery would benefit Coach Sumlin.
The last name that is floating around is Bob Stoops. Coach Stoops stepped down at Oklahoma this year.
Coach Stoops is a proven winner. He is also a proven recruiter. Maybe Coach Stoops was tired of being in Norman and is looking for a new challenge. Tallahassee could be that challenge for Coach Stoops.
At the end of the day, the Florida State job is a good job. The team is loaded with talent and can compete each year for a championship. Florida State is also a school that recruits tend to gravitate to. Whomever comes in to be the next head coach has to salvage a diminishing recruiting class.
The next coach will have to build a staff quickly in order to get on the road and prove to recruits that Florida State is still Florida State.
Tennessee Rocky Flop
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Earlier this month Tennessee fired Butch Jones in the middle of a dumpster fire season, where the Vols finished 4-8 and 0-8 in the SEC.
Tennessee is a proud football program with over 800 wins and 13 SEC championships. Anyone in their right mind should want to take this job right?
Athletic Director John Currie needed to nail this coaching hire in the worst way possible after botching the Greg Schiano debacle from over the past weekend.
So, every morning I wake up now looking in the news at who the new Tennessee coach will be.
Regardless of who accepts the job, the public-relations damage has been done. And Tennessee is a school that recently settled a Title IX lawsuit regarding several counts of sexual misconduct by football players. It is not a place that needed more negative press.
Now you hear Tennessee is looking at Mike Leach from Washington State. Mike Leach to Knoxville would make the UT Weekly Press Conference during football season a definite landing spot for the football junkies of the world.
Leach is gold with the press. Plus, his offense would cause headaches for SEC Defensive Coordinators.
During a Tennessee football game in the future on CBS could the AFLAC question be: How many head coaches turned down the Tennessee job?
After UT botched the Schiano hire let’s get a count of who turned down the Vols:
John Gruden was never coming to start with. Used car sales should be going through the roof in Knoxville because those people will buy anything.
Dan Mullen picked Florida. Matt Campbell stayed at Iowa State. Tennessee offered Mike ” I am a man” Gundy $42 million, but he chose to stay at Oklahoma State. Dave Doeren of NC State said no. Jeff Brohm of Purdue said no. Who else turned them down?
Former coach Lane Kiffin trolls the Vols everyday on Twitter.
How about throwing $15 million a year at Nick Saban? He is not busy on Saturday; fly him up and pitch him during the SEC Championship game.
How about me, UT? I will take the job for $150k a year plus moving expenses. I am a championship coach.
My resume: Championships 3: Brunswick Fatboy Fantasy Football League 2009, 2010, 2011.
Playoffs: 7: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
Radio Show: I mop the floor every Saturday morning with Jason Bishop when the topic of college football is raised. Like taking candy from a baby on college football picks.
John Currie, call me, I will take your job in Knoxville. Protesters in Knoxville won’t bother me. I will buy them coffee on the way to the office daily.
I will even let Jason Bishop host “This week in Vol Football with Head Coach Kipp Branch”.
Championship football would back in Knoxville instead of burning couches, dumpster fires, and 0-8 in the SEC.
My, how the mighty have fallen. Hurry back Tennessee. On second thought I don’t want the job either.
Rocky Top is indeed Rocky Flop at this day and time.
Just bring back Phil Fulmer if you ever want to beat Alabama again.
The Super NFC South
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
At the beginning of the season it looked as though a battle would be taking place between the AFC West and the NFC South for NFL dominance.
As we approach the final stretch of the season it looks like the AFC West will only get one team into the playoffs and that basically because they have to have at least one representative.
On the other hand, the NFC South has held up their end of the preseason bargain and are looking to be the toughest division in football.
The question regarding the division isn’t whether or not they’ll get two teams into the playoffs, but could they possibly get three?
For the sake of argument let’s go ahead and assume that Philadelphia (East), Minnesota (North), Saints (South) and the Los Angeles Rams (West) will all win their respective divisions.
Obviously, anything can happen over the next few weeks, but my brain is fried on college football playoff hypotheticals, so I’m taking the easy way out on this one.
Were this scenario to play out, that would really leave only four viable teams for the remaining wild card spots: Seahawks, Lions, Falcons, and Panthers.
Seattle has probably the second easiest schedule of those four teams, but I just don’t have the confidence in the Mom to make a legitimate run at the playoffs.
Their offense has resorted to Russell Wilson running around in the backfield and making some sort of ridiculous throw to Doug Baldwin, off of a busted play.
With injuries plaguing the defensive side of the ball the “Legion Of Boom” has turned into the Legion of “We’d like to hit you hard, but we’re a little fragile right now, so we’re just going to push you and hope that you fall down.”
Could Seattle make the playoffs? Absolutely. Will they ultimately make me regret saying that they won’t make it? Without a doubt.
So, that leaves Detroit as the main threat to the NFC South sending 3 teams to the playoffs.
There are two things the Lions have going for them. First, they have a much easier schedule from here on out. of their remaining games, Detroit doesn’t play a single team with a winning record.
It’s almost the exact opposite for Atlanta and Carolina. Secondly, and this could be what propels Detroit into the playoffs, is that Carolina still has one more game against Atlanta and New Orleans, while the Falcons and Saints will play each other twice. Did I mention they both have a game with Minnesota still on their schedules, too?
The one thing that both the Falcons and Panthers do have on the Lions though, is that they are currently one and two games ahead of Detroit in the standings, respectively.
Not to mention, both teams hold the tiebreaker due to victories earlier in the season. So really, Atlanta has a two game lead and the Panthers’ lead is three. That’s difficult to overcome when you only have a handful of games left to make it happen.
The entire division has their work cut out for them is they hope to get three teams into the playoffs.
Detroit is in prime position to run the table while the entire NFC South will be dueling it out amongst themselves- reminiscent of what the SEC West used to be years ago.
Regardless, ¾ of the NFC South has lived up to the hype, which is pretty damn impressive, when you think about it.
Andruw To Hall?
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2018 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has been released and there are two names on it that will be very familiar to Braves fans; the Joneses, Chipper and Andruw.
It’s been five years since they stopped playing pro ball in MLB and now it’s time for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America to decide if their respective careers merit induction to the hallowed grounds of Cooperstown in New York.
When it comes to Chipper, I don’t think there’s any doubt that he belongs in the Hall and honestly I expect him to go first ballot. His numbers are worthy, he was never linked to PED use and he’s arguably one of the top three greatest players at third base in baseball history. Chipper goes in, case closed.
Andruw, on the other hand, presents a more complex case. His prowess in center field is the stuff of legend; more than one who watched him play will tell you he’s the best they’ve ever seen play the position.
The ten straight Gold Gloves he collected from 1998 through 2007 bolster that claim. That certainly helps his argument for the Hall. Ozzie Smith is often referenced as getting in based on his glove work, despite that not being a whole truth.
The thing is, he also hit. During that same ten-year stretch of Gold Gloves, Andruw hit 30 or more home runs eight times (26 and 29 the other two seasons) and drove in at least 90 each year except one (84), including five 100 RBI seasons.
He garnered MVP votes five times as well, including finishing second in 2005 after leading the league with 51 home runs and 128 RBI. That kind of production at the plate coupled with the stellar glove work at a particularly difficult defensive position is a truly incredible decade of baseball for a player.
The trouble is Andruw’s career following that excellent ten years.
Actually, the trouble really starts the last year of that decade, which was also his final year with Atlanta. After hitting over .260 with 51 and 41 home runs to go along with 128 and 129 RBI in 2005 and 2006, Andruw finished up his final year as a Brave by hitting .222 with 26 home runs and 94 RBI.
The power numbers aren’t bad but the drop off those three statistics are indictive of what was to come.
While his defense was still certainly better than average, anyone watching closely enough could tell that the once mighty center fielder was losing a step and that was indeed his last year receiving baseball’s highest defensive honor.
Andruw signed with the Dodgers and fell off a cliff. He didn’t stay in the same kind of shape he had won adoration in and in that first (and only) year with L.A. he only played in 75 games and hit .158 with just three home runs.
The next few years saw a better output, but he never hit higher than .247 or slugged more than 19 bombs. What’s worse, he only played five seasons after leaving Atlanta and he was only 31 years old at the time.
It’s hard to predict where voters will land on Andrew. Certainly, he’s not a first ballot Hall of Famer, but he’s in this grey area where he may get in eventually or because of the ludicrous 10-player limit and the current crowded ballot he may not even show up on enough ballots to stay in consideration for next year.
Maybe he doesn’t belong in the Hall but he deserves more than a one year appearance in the discussion.
Sandy Koufax will get brought up in this debate. He only played for 12 years and is in the Hall of Fame on the strength of about half of those seasons. The difference is that all of Koufax’s lesser years came at the start of his career and he retired at age 30, well before he could decline.
Andruw didn’t have the foresight to see what would become of him (how could he?).
Only one Jones is going into the Hall of Fame next year. The question is: will the other one ever join him?
Terrors Trample Harrison
By: Christian Goeckel
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’m going to ask everyone to do me a favor. I know, you’re still full from Thanksgiving and tired from Friday Night’s game, but hang with me.
I want everyone to think way back to the beginning of the school year. All the way back to week one, when Josh Anderson went viral for doing the worm from his tackle position (It actually worked). Glynn fell to Benedictine that day 31-8. The Terrors looked like a team that had lost it’s 5-Star Quarterback and Benedictine looked like it’s State Champion self.
Fast forward to Friday night, the day after Thanksgiving. Both of those teams had advanced to the Elite Eight in their respective divisions. One advanced to the Final 4, can you guess which?
Glynn Academy demolished Harrison 31-7, advancing to the Final 4 for the second time in 3 years. Behind one of the top defenses in the state and a devastating option attack, Glynn has an absolutely real chance to bring a title to the Golden Isles.
So why the trip down memory lane? Well, Glynn did not look like a contender in week one, but the old adage is that a season is a “marathon not a sprint”.
The Terrors started the year hurt, young, and starting a ton of guys at new spots. Since that time they’ve gotten stronger, in what Coach Hidalgo calls the greatest in season growth in weight room strength he’s ever seen.
They’ve become much more comfortable at their positions. At this time last year Randon Jernigan was a slot receiver and Caine Crews was in the secondary. Instead, Jernigan led a clean option attack, while Crews led the backfield with 30 carries for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns against Harrison.
The final few weeks of this season, this team has found itself. It may not be as flashy as last year, but it’s better.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a team that can move the ball on this defense consistently. Names like Marlon Taylor, Hunter Hall, and Marvin Dallas would all be 3 or 4 stars in North Georgia, but still put on their hard hats and lay the wood to opponents week in and week out.
Harrison High School was just the latest to run into the buzzsaw that has begun spinning in Brunswick.
Sure, the Hoyas were without the best player in the Country in Justin Fields, but I doubt it would’ve made a huge difference on Friday night.
See, you actually need the football to be successful as a quarterback and Glynn put a stranglehold on the time of possession with drives lasting 15, 7, 10, and 8 plays respectively.
The Hoyas started the 4th quarter with a 3 and Out and didn’t see the ball until their were five minutes left on the game clock. Harrison simply couldn’t get the Terrors off the field.
Harrison also added a new wrinkle in how to attempt to stop Glynn, when they decided to just not cover Glynn’s receivers. Glynn was able to connect on one deep pass, and should’ve had another walk-in touchdown.
If these Terrors are to continue on to the Mercedes Benz Stadium, they must clear one final hurdle and it’s their biggest one to date.
For the first time in the playoffs, Glynn must pack up and hit the road as they head over to Lee County High School for their Final 4 matchup.
The Trojans are a very good football team, sitting at 12-1 on the season. Though their one loss did come against a Valdosta team that Glynn dominated to start the playoffs. To be fair, Lee beat Richmond Hill, but we aren’t going to talk about the Richmond Hill game.
So, the road to the Benz is very simple: beat Lee and you’re there. The Terrors are ready, are you?
Gold Standard For Red Terrors
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Glynn Academy has been educating students in Glynn County since 1788. Glynn Academy has been playing football since 1913, but history is being made currently with this current batch of Red Terror seniors.
This senior class led by Hunter Hall, Randon Jernigan, Andrew Delaney, Tyler Grant, and the rest of this fabulous class has compiled a 40-12 record on the football field. This makes this senior group the most successful senior class in the proud 105 year history of Red Terror football.
This program with four straight elite eight appearances in the second highest classification in the GHSA makes it the gold standard in coastal Georgia for public schools.
It all starts at the top with Head Coach Rocky Hidalgo, who is a master motivator and just doesn’t get caught up in the hype. He coaches up his kids to play fast and with confidence.
Hidalgo’s confidence in his kids reminds me a lot of Steve Spurrier in his Florida days. From day one walking in the door in 2014 at GA the plan has not changed and that is:
Win the City championship, which the Red Terrors have done every year he has been here.
Win the Region Championship, which the Red Terrors have done in 2015-2017.
Win the State Championship, which the program was State runner up in 2015. That goal is still in play for 2017.
Someone asked me recently what is the difference between the local high schools? All three are very talented on the football field and my answer was the following:
Brunswick and Frederica Academy hope to win when they play teams of equal or better talent and Glynn Academy knows and expects to win in the same situation. Guess who is still playing on Thanksgiving?
Glynn plays a very talented Lee County team this Friday on the road, but I can guarantee you this Glynn expects to beat the Trojans.
The Red Terrors have some quality players. Hunter Hall is the most productive linebacker I have ever seen in person roam the football field in Glynn County in my lifetime. The kid is just a great football player and I know he has an offer from West Georgia, and at 6’0 195 for the life of me I just can’t understand why he doesn’t have 40 offers to play college football. This kid is an awesome football player.
Outside of Darius Slay of the Detroit Lions I have never seen a faster or better overall athlete than Randon Jernigan in my lifetime in Glynn County. The kid is a special once in a generation athlete. The 87-yard TD run against Valdosta in the first round is a treat to watch.
I saw the great Valdosta teams of the 1980’s in person as a student at Valdosta State College and my old college friends who still reside in the Valdosta area tell me they have never seen anyone run away from their Cats like Jernigan did on that TD run.
They love their football in Valdosta. In case you live outside of Glynn County, Jernigan signed a baseball scholarship to play for the University of Georgia recently. He will suit up for the Dawgs then will play professional baseball when his time at UGA is complete.
This is a special group of seniors on this Glynn football team. They just keep winning and winning and deep runs in the State playoffs is now part of the culture at Glynn Academy.
I encourage Glynn County to go out and watch this record breaking group this Friday night at Glynn County stadium.
Before the season many pundits said this would be a rebuilding year at GA. I guess rebuilding now is defined as Final Four appearances. I usually wear blue and gold on Friday nights. I’ll be wearing Red and White this Friday.
Go Terrors! Bring home a State Football Championship.
AAC To Become Power Conference?
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’ve always loved college football more than professional for a number of reasons.
One of the biggest is because they play much harder. Losing one game can derail the entire season. Unfortunately, college football has always had its share of flaws.
Previously it was almost unheard of for the best teams to play in the national championship. The BCS guaranteed the top two teams would meet but many times it seemed like that was not the case.
Now we have a playoff with four teams coming from the five ‘power’ conferences. I think we need to rethink that because there are some pretty good teams in the ‘Group of Five’ that will never make the playoffs.
Specifically, I think the American Athletic Conference should be added to make the ‘Power Six’ conferences.
You may remember the former Big East, which is the current AAC. During the BCS era they were one of the power conferences. The heavyweight teams like Miami, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College left the conference.
The second tier institutions like Louisville, West Virginia, Pitt and Rutgers followed suit. As a result, they were very weak because of that and the conference champion would routinely be blown out in the BCS bowl game.
Over the last few years the conference has vastly improved. With schools in Florida, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania they have a great recruiting base. They are producing NFL talent which casual fans might not be aware of.
One example of that is Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles. He was picked 3rd overall in the 2014 draft. He led a very good Central Florida team to a 12-1 record in 2013. The Knights beat No. 8 Louisville in the inaugural AAC Championship and No. 5 Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.
Houston is another program that has had recent success. They were 13-1 in 2011 as members of Conference USA. They beat UCLA and Penn State that year. They finished with that same record in 2015. The Cougars beat Louisville and Vanderbilt during the regular season and No. 9 Florida State in the Peach Bowl. They started the following 2016 season with a victory over No. 5 Oklahoma.
One of the best success stories has to be Temple. The Owls were a charter member of the Big East in 1991 but they were expelled from the league following the 2004 season. They rejoined the conference in 2012 and finally had success. They beat Penn State in 2015 and won the conference championship last year.
Memphis has produced NFL talent like Paxton Lynch, Dontari Poe, Stephen Gostkowski, Akeem Davis and DeAngelo Wiliams.
They shared the conference title in 2014 and in 2015 they upset No. 13 Ole Miss. The Tigers are currently 9-1 including a win over UCLA. They are guaranteed to win the West division and play in the AAC Championship.
UCF (10-0) faces South Florida (9-1) this week and the winner wins the East and advances to the conference championship.
The best thing any of these teams can hope for is a spot in one of the New Year’s Six bowl games. The playoffs should be expanded to at least 6 teams and if that happens the AAC champion should automatically get a playoff spot.
Georgia To Dominate SEC East For Years To Come
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Timing is everything.
I met my wife at an impromptu party my roommates and I had in Chapel Hill over 17 years ago. We were originally supposed to hang out with another group of friends, but just didn’t want to, so we decided to have people over to our apartment, instead.
Had that not taken place I never would have met my wife and would be 37 years old, probably living in my parents’ basement, still believing BASEketball is the perfect date movie.
The reason I mention this- besides never passing up an opportunity for a BASEketball reference- is the timing is set up perfectly for Georgia to dominate the SEC East over the next few football seasons.
Part of the reason is Georgia has set themselves up nicely for the future. They’ve got a good coach in Kirby Smart and strong recruiting classes coming in.
The other reason, and this is where the whole “timing” things comes in, is the level of competition they’ll be facing within their own division.
If people have referred to the SEC East these past 3-4 seasons as being a dumpster fire, the next 2-3 years will be a flaming inferno of mediocrity. You might as well start putting together those Poseidon gifs right now; you’ll be able to use them.
I like some of the progress being made at schools like Vanderbilt, Missouri, South Carolina, and Kentucky. But, with all due respect to those four programs, unless something drastic we’re to change over the next year or two, neither of those schools should be able to compete with Georgia on the field.
And let’s be honest, Georgia’s path to the SEC East dominance won’t be because they’re able to consistently beat those four teams I just mentioned. Their success will be based on the outcome of their matchups against Florida and Tennessee.
They say if a quarterback drafted in the first round becomes a bust it can set a franchise back three or four years. I believe Florida and Tennessee are about to find out the same thing can be said for coaches too.
(You could argue, and correctly I might add, that after coaches like Ron Zook and Derek Dooley, both programs are well aware that fact.)
Let’s start with Tennessee. I know just about every Vols fan is salivating at the possibility of Jon Gruden returning to Knoxville. I guess it could happen, but so could me winning a Pulitzer for my article on Lane Kiffin’s tweets.
Just because it can happen, doesn’t mean it will, or even that it should. Whoever takes over in Tennessee, success won’t happen overnight.
Florida is basically in the same boat as Tennessee, they’re just not taking on quite as much water as he Volunteers.
There is some talent in Gainesville, and with the right coach- all indications point to Chip Kelly, as of now- it may only take a year or two before they are back where they believe they belong.
Since Spurrier left in 2001, they’ve pretty much struck out with everyone they’ve brought in, with the exception of Urban Meyer. Granted, Meyer’s hiring almost outweighs the other three coaching disasters, but not completely. I just can’t shake the feeling that Florida will somehow screw this up.
Either way, the bottom line is this: the next 2-3 years are set up perfectly for Georgia to dominate the SEC East. Coaching and talent will play a huge role, but like with most things in life, timing is everything.
New Brave World
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It has been nothing but upheaval in Braves Country the past few months.
The John Coppolella scandal shook the front office on down and they are still piecing things together.
From the top down, it has been somewhat of a bizarre turn of events, in that Coppy’s forced resignation has caused decisions that both change things and keep things the same.
Brian Snitker will remain the Braves manager in 2018. Doubtlessly, a direct result of the circumstances surrounding Coppy’s departure. It’s a little bass ackwards since usually you would see a new GM being given the opportunity to select his own skipper, but Snit was awarded his contract for next season right after Coppy left, well before Alex Anthopoulos’ arrival.
I call this a direct result because the word was that the Braves were going to replace Snitker prior to the scandal breaking. Snitker’s maintaining of his job was a move made to provide a little stability to the organization and specifically to the clubhouse during what was going to be (and is) an uncertain time.
It’s maybe not an ideal way have your job saved, but I’m sure Snitker is happy to have another opportunity to prove his mettle.
That being said, after retaining Snitker the Braves stopped trying to carry over coaches from last season.
Former Braves shortstop Walt Weiss was hired as the new bench coach for the 2018 season, replacing longtime Braves coach Terry Pendleton.
Eddie Perez is also being relieved of his duties as first base coach, removing the last two vestiges of Bobby Cox’s tenure from the clubhouse aside from Snitker himself.
It’s a move that says to me that the Braves moved too quickly to retain Snitker and probably even regret doing so.
Clearly, they’re looking for a change in the regime, but they reacted to Coppy’s royal screwup by keeping the head of that regime attached.
For the record, I’m in favor of this kind of massive changeup of the coaching staff. As a Bobby Cox devotee, I find it strange to even be typing this, but it’s time his fingerprints were wiped from the team.
Bobby had a very particular managerial style. One that players and fans like myself loved and admired; that has permeated the tenures of both Fredi Gonzalez and Brian Snitker.
It was very old school, and while there is nothing wrong with that, it’s just time for a changing of the guard.
I think the Braves would like to see a little bit less traditional managing and something a little more brazen.
It’s probably not a coincidence that these changes away from “Bobby’s guys” is happening after the World Series-winning manager AJ Hinch (allegedly) got into a bar fight in the middle of the series. There’s fire out there and I support bringing it in to Atlanta’s clubhouse.
Anthopoulos serves as another example of the kind of aggression the Braves need to move toward.
This is a guy who decided the Blue Jays were going to make a run in 2015 and traded for Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki and David Price before and during the season.
Donaldson won the MVP that year and Toronto went to the ALCS. Now he’s got a whole new toy chest of goodies in the Braves’ minor league system and given the choice between waiting for them to develop or trading them, chances are we’ll see the latter.
That’s not a bad thing. Prospects are far from sure bets and Atlanta has tons of them. Some of them need to be turned into bona fide major league players and Anthopoulos has shown he won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on a deal if he thinks it will help the major league club.
He’s a pallet cleanser of a GM and I think we’ll see some exciting moves during his stint.
All this change probably means that Snitker’s seat is hotter than ever but if he can steer in the direction the Braves want him to, we might see some fire from him after all. If not, then there will still be fire; it’ll just have a ‘d’ at the end.
