USC Softball Beverly Smith has to go
- Thread starter Spurman54
- Start date
She was really good when she first got here and it looked like she could build a winner but as time has gone on, the team has gotten worse and worse. Thoughts were this season was looking good until conference play started and reality set in.
I tried to go to a softball game a few years ago with both my daughters and never have the three of us been so bored in our lives. I fully support womens sports but that was brutal. Maybe if we were any good it would have helped a little but we were getting smoked by Florida that game.
Last year I went to one game and it was so bad. Fundamentals were beyond atrocious, no pitching, no hitting. The kids in this era cannot relate to Beverly Smith. She cannot recruit the top level players. For whatever reason the pitchers she recruited out of South Carolina have not worked out. I do not know the answer. In high school they were really good but when they got to USC they could not translate it to the SEC or division 1 level. Bailey Bedenbaugh was the gatorade pitcher of the year from Union High School her senior year but for whatever reason she did not translate that to USC. Bailey is a good kid and her family are good people but her and the other pitchers Karson Oachs and the other ones just have not been very good at all. I am not a softball expert but I do know baseball and softball is an off shoot of baseball with basically the same rules in general. I am not bashing the players on this team let me say that, but for whatever reason they just have not performed at an SEC level of softball. I do hope they get it turned around but from what I have seen it does not look good.
The way I remember it is when Compton was here, she was reluctant to use local talent. She just didnt think it was at a level she needed. For the most part she didnt want to use it so she primarly signed players from the west coast. In her defense, that was pretty common across the country. What she didnt see was local talent had developed quite well right under her nose. Proof is during Compton's last few years, UGA became a national power using a lot of SC talent.
When Smith came in, she decided to recruit more locally. My understanding is Compton knew she missed the boat on that and let Smith know. Things went well for Smith early on. The problem was imo, and this may piss some people off, the local talent level was starting to decline. Add to that that Clemson added softball in the middle of SC's hotbed for players (the upstate) and Smith's job is not getting any easier.
Now I like Smith and I admire what she tried to do here but yeah, it's time for a change.
When Smith came in, she decided to recruit more locally. My understanding is Compton knew she missed the boat on that and let Smith know. Things went well for Smith early on. The problem was imo, and this may piss some people off, the local talent level was starting to decline. Add to that that Clemson added softball in the middle of SC's hotbed for players (the upstate) and Smith's job is not getting any easier.
Now I like Smith and I admire what she tried to do here but yeah, it's time for a change.
I don't keep up with softball, but it is interesting that Clemson's had a program for three years and they're already miles past Carolina as a program. I would say that's pretty damning for whoever the head coach might be.
No as a matter of fact I love women. Every school in the SEC has raised their standards of excellence to where our standards are not even close to the majority of schools in the SEC that sponsor womens softball. For whatever reasons the in grown talent has not stepped up. No bash on the young ladies and I do wish them the best but schools like Florida, Alabama, Tennessee would not tolerate the product being put on the field by USC. I know these young ladies are fine young women but as a whole they are not SEC softball players. Just being totally honest.U like beating on women
I think further proof of that can be found at SMC. There was a time they were considered a consistant national power at the JUCO level built mostly on local talent. They were basically a feeder program to some big name programs under Rick Pauley. Especally UGA. Today they seem a shell of themselves. Kinda sad.
