You must be a Holiday. You’ve done nothing but defend Josh’s lack of post season production by comparing us to the entire program history of Texas and Miami and defend this teams sub-.500 record. Sounds like you’re bigger fan of other programs than this one. Quit living in the Gary Ward hay day and move on.
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Yeah you clearly have a problem with comprehension. I said none of that. I also said I have no problem with someone wanting to move on from Josh. But for someone like you who thinks O’brate is a reason they should win…shows how you have zero clue how recruiting works OR shows you have zero clue as to what other people have facility wise OR…BOTH.
More than any other coach zerOU has, Reggie Willits, has made a huge contribution to that program. I think they’d be where we are now if not for Willits. If they don’t can Holliday at the very least have to get another pitching coach!
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Glad someone agrees w/ me RE Walton. I heard most pitchers like him, that’s all great and everything, but just liking a coach doesn’t mean he’s getting 'er done! Spoke to the father of ORU pitching coach Wes Davis as his oldest son Stockton was a pitcher at ORU when Walton was HC and he said Stockton likes Walton. But again, liking a coach isn’t a recipe for success. My HS coach was likeable, but he sucked!
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No, we do not agree that OSU is currently a national contender. The OSU brand has the potential to achieve at a higher level in baseball. Regarding how often OSU should be in the CWS, I like to view the potential to make it more often as “hopeful expectation” as opposed to saying “that’s not happening”. Josh probably has the same attitude and I believe attitude plays a large role in achievement. Regarding Josh’s vision, maybe “hunger and vision” is more appropriate? I don’t see him shaking up staff or changing his recruiting methods. I will add that there are many smaller programs that are ranked and successful that have less “assets” than OSU. I respect your opinion as we are both OSU fans. We just have different expectations for the baseball program.
“I think they’d be where we are now if not for Willits”
Reggie has been there since Jan of 22’. OU did get hot and made it to the final series in 22’
2022
OU: 45-24 (15-9) Got hot and went to the CWS Runner-Up
OSU: 42-22 (15-9) Lost a home Regional to Ark
2023
OU: 32-28 (11-13) Finished 7 of 9 in Conf. Lost in a Road Regional
OSU: 41-20 (15-9) Shared the Conf Title. Lost in a Home Regional
2024
OU: 40-21 (23-7) Won the Reg Season. Lost in a Home Regional
OSU: 42-19 (19-9) Won the Conf Tourney. Lost a home Regional
" The OSU brand has the potential to achieve at a higher level in baseball." Based on what? What is it that makes OSU potentially a high-achiever in baseball than others? The bar for those on here has been set at making the CWS 2 of 5 years. The programs that are doing that are LSU, Arkansas, Florida and the like. Do you feel like OSU is in the same competitive field as those types?
“I will add that there are many smaller programs that are ranked and successful that have less “assets” than OSU” Go find me one program that is “smaller” (however you choose to define it) that has had more sustained success than OSU? Go find me 1.
Im an OU fan who played at Nebraska that grew up on OSU baseball.
I think there are a lot of OSU people who felt like or assumed that building O’Brate would somehow mean that OSU baseball would automatically start punching annual trips to Omaha and/or would have won a Nat Championship by now. People need to realize that the college baseball landscape is much, much more vast now that it once was. JOSH HAS BEEN DISAPPOINTING IN THE POSTSEASON. IF SOMEONE WANTS TO FIRE JOSH, I WONT ARGUE WITH YOU. Im not on here defending him at all costs. But some of you are stuck in the 80’s heyday and that is never happening again. Period. This Conf makes it tough. Josh’s approach to recruiting makes it tough. The lack of NIL makes it tough, especially in order to get the type of players that Josh needs in order to make his offensive philosophy run. Hey, if you guys wanna run Josh out of town…so be it. But if your reasoning involves “he doesnt make it to Omaha enough”…you better be prepared to fire a bunch of guys from here on out cause that is a really high bar to set for a program like OSU, no matter what kind of yard they play their home games in
If you were Oklahoma State’s AD, how would you go about fixing the current baseball situation? I think you’d have some good ideas.
From the AD perspective, its two answers, with only one being realistic: Funnel more NIL. It doesnt take a ton like it would in football. But if you found the money to build O’Brate, you can find enough money to go buy a couple difference makers. The other is really more of a Baseball Ops guy issue, where you HAVE to schedule road series @A&M or Texas every year. Every midweek has to be against a Texas club. Every Non-Con needs to be in Texas. Texas is your recruiting base and you have to show recruits that you will be playing against the best every year. Now, thats hard to do because you need the cooperation of those other schools too. But you dang sure better try
The more doable things lie with Josh. Gary Ward went the JUCO route with bringing in those Yavapai guys early on until he could reel in the big fish nationally. He still supplemented his roster that way. Josh doesnt do that near as hard. Josh likes to sign HS guys and then develop them. But if you miss on some…youre in trouble. Josh doesnt like to send kids packing if theyre not good enough. Thats fine…but it gets you in trouble while you have a roster with too many guys that will never help you. I dont wanna name names on here, but there are some HS kids from in-state that he signed that are currently on this roster that will never factor into anything. Josh needs to RAID the Jayhawk JUCO Conf up in KS. Cowley is right in his backyard, but he currently doesnt use it near as much as he should. Hes like some of the fans on here who think the program is a little bigger than what it is and the JUCO deal is a little beneath him.
He has to recruit to what his pocketbook is. If you only make minimum wage, its hard to go buy the fancy things. Josh has to change his offensive philosophy to fit what he can afford. The guys that go deep 20 times are going to be harder to find/afford for OSU. I talked to 4 scouts last week who were watching the Willits kid in Jones Oklahoma. They plan on being in Edmond this Fri to watch Holliday/Stillwater HS play Willits/Ft Cobb. They all 4 said Holliday will get shorted at the negotiation table because they know OSU wont remotely entertain paying him NIL to come to school. Now, part of that is a no-brainer as hell be a top 15 pick, but thats where OSU is in terms of paying anybody. OSU will never be able to fund a full roster the way some of these bigtime SEC baseball schools do, but they can pay 1-2 guys a year and make a dent.
If youre going to make a change on the staff, id get a new Recruiting Coord. I know Mark a little and hes a great dude. But hes a Recruiting Coord in title only.
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You’re hired. If you can do all that for baseball, you can probably do similar work for other sports. Tell Chad to pack his bags. 
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I did my part last weekend by donating about $1000 worth of tickets and beer at the concert!
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Forgive me if I am missing some point(s) but reading this gives me more reason to think Holliday is not the right guy for the job. He is the manager and influences everything baseball. Concerning NIL, he should be addressing that in some manner with the AD if he feels that is an issue. Of course Boynton blamed NIL for failures in the hoops program.
I know for a fact that Tom was calling at least 1 donor a few weeks ago about NIL stuff. I was in the room when he did. Now, I didnt ask anything after and know nothing more than that.
You seem like a level-headed poster. Forgive me if I sound like im putting words in your mouth…but some people sound as though baseball should be winning at a better clip becuase of O’Brate, to some extent. Why do people feel that way? Boone Pickens stadium is very nice…Gallagher Iba isnt on the same level in hoops as O’Brate is to baseball, but its definitely better than average. Im just curious as to why people feel like the venue with which you play your home games somehow should equate to winning more games?
Thanks, Ketch. We appreciate it.