I've said before, I don't really care about baseball - but this run had me watching, from regionals to finals. I also bitched earlier about our matchup with UVA as my wife and I did undergrad at UF but she did grad school at UVA. We survived that. Now, the finals had me (UF) up against my corndog sister (LSU). We made a friendly wager that on family reunion vacation next week loser buys dinner for the winner. I've offered her Burger King, drive thru or dine in, her choice.
Before I get to Sully, I'll comment that for all the btching in this thread (true GC fashion), there were nearly 300 other teams sitting at home watching wishing they could have done what we did. Second place is the first loser, and all that usual carp about not winning the NC - I get it, but don't undersell what this team actually DID accomplish. A 1-run game 1, and lopsided blowouts in games 2 and 3, for me, is just the nature of baseball - anything can happen on any given day. It also tells me these two teams are fairly even, just depends on who shows up that given day. Game 2 seemed like once we got going we couldn't be stopped, game 3 was the same just going the other way. In both cases, mistakes were made - coaching, and by players. That's baseball. I'll give my respect to this Gator team, they earned it.
On Sully, I don't follow baseball, so I did a little homework. Announcers were saying he's made the CWS (I refuse to add the M because this is THE college world series), 8 of his 15 years since he joined in 2008. Checking who else has been that
prolific in that timeframe...
the following are ranked by total appearances
Team / Total CWS appearances / Titles (last one) / CWS appearances since 2008
Texas / 38 / 6 (2005) / 6
Miami / 25 / 4 (2001) / 3
F$U / 23 / 0 (hahaha) / 5
ArizSt / 22 / 5 (1981) / 2
USC / 21 / 12 (1998) / 0
OkSt / 20 / 1 (1959) / 1
LSU / 19 / 7 (2023) / 6
Stanford / 19 / 2 (1988) / 4
Ariz / 18 / 4 (2012) / 3
CalStFul / 18 / 4 (2004) / 3
Florida / 13 / 1 (2017) / 8
Nobody has gotten to the CWS more often than Sully in that time frame. Nobody, and the closest is Texas and LSU at 6 appearances.
Going back to the
winning NC teams in the Sully era, here are the same stats for their performances
Team / Total CWS appearances / Titles (last one) / CWS appearances since 2008
2023 LSU / 19 / 7 (2023) / 6
2022 OleMiss / 6 / 1 (2022) / 2
2021 MissSt 12 / 1 (2021) / 4
2020 Covid
2019 Vandy / 5 / 2 (2019) / 5
2018 OreSt / 7 / 3 (2018) / 3
2017 Florida / 13 / 1 (2017) / 8
2016 CoastalCar / 1 / 1 (2016) / 1
2015 UVA / 6 / 1 (2015) / 6
2014 Vandy
2013 UCLA / 5 / 1 (2013) / 3
2012 Ariz / 18 / 4 (2012) / 3
2011 USCe / 11 / 2 (2011) / 3
2010 USCe
2009 LSU
2008 Fresno St / 4 / 1 (2008) / 1
Again, nobody compares to Sully in terms of getting there and having a chance. Does he make some bad decisions, absolutely and unquestionably. However, nobody has a program operating at this high a level consistently. Nobody. Closest is LSU and UVA with recent titles and only 6 appearances in CWS. You aren't goimg to find a replacement that is an upgrade. Can/Should he get some staff to help his weak points? Yes! But nobody is running a better program. LSU is the next closest, 6 appearances to our 8, but 2 NCs to our 1 (and that could be swapped if game 1 went our way).