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I want to be clear about a few things. First, this was not a playing time issue. I have said I would have benched him as well. RC had to do what was best for this team and the freshman pitcher was struggling and needed to be replaced. Tyler 's issue with RC is that he stopped communication with him, stopped throwing pens and Tyler felt abandoned. This according to Tyler was the only reason he made the decision to move on.

Secondly, this was not intended to take shots at RC. I have no issue personally with RC. I have another son and would send him to A&M in a heartbeat. Texas A&M stands on its own regardless of who the coach is. Tyler even said that he has no issue with RC and thinks he is a fine man BUT he felt that communication style would not change therefore that was a deal breaker for him. Many of you have left organizations because of management not the company or the job. In college baseball it is a tight window to be successful and risks have to be taken. The sure thing boat does not get far from the shore.

Thirdly, another poster in the premium forum took some shots at Tyler. He characterized him as a modern day Nuke LaLoosh. LOL, that is about right. Actually his nickname was Nuke. The issue I have with him is he is from Heath and thinks he knows stuff. He said Tyler has a million dollar arm and a .10C head. Of course referencing the great Bull Durham. I guarantee you Tyler is very sharp. His grades and SAT will tell you that. He is a goof ball off the field, no doubt, maybe immature for some folks. I agree he has growing up to do BUT on the field he gets it done. He got it done at Heath for 4 years and here at A&M he would have been really good. Tyler works very hard on his body and training. So Mr. Rockwallheathaggie, I say call the coaches at Heath again and see if they really believe that. I do own the fact he is a knucklehead away from the baseball field, he will be fine as he gets older, no doubt.

Lastly, this is not an entitlement issue. Tyler's family and all involved wanted him back at Texas A&M. I will bet one day he will look back and have some regrets but we shall see. The exit interview with the staff went well and I feel he is leaving on a good note with staff. They complimented him on his freshman year, thanked him for being a good teammate and wanted him back. Tyler suffered the pain of that SR loss like the rest of his teammates and was 100% about the team. That is who he is. He is a knucklehead for sure but he is also a great teammate.

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We are quick to criticize helicopter parents for being too involved these days. You are obviously letting your son stand on his own two feet and live with the consequences of his actions. Hard to do now, but I bet it will benefit him later. I applaud you!

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The exit interview with the staff went well and I feel he is leaving on a good note with staff. They complimented him on his freshman year, thanked him for being a good teammate and wanted him back.

So if he rocks out next year in JUCO, but want to stay in college, maybe time heals some wounds. Parker Ray went to JUCO for a season, actually I think that was at the staff's suggestion as he transitioned from a catcher/Infielder to pitcher. Either way, I wish Tyler and his family well.

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He is a top 3-round talent. He will not be back here for baseball.

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Daniel Mengden stopped by after the final loss and, unprompted, wrote a giant paragraph about how much he likes Childress.

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I missed that. Do you have a link?

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I want to be clear about a few things. First, this was not a playing time issue. I have said I would have benched him as well. RC had to do what was best for this team and the freshman pitcher was struggling and needed to be replaced. Tyler 's issue with RC is that he stopped communication with him, stopped throwing pens and Tyler felt abandoned. This according to Tyler was the only reason he made the decision to move on.

Secondly, this was not intended to take shots at RC. I have no issue personally with RC. I have another son and would send him to A&M in a heartbeat. Texas A&M stands on its own regardless of who the coach is. Tyler even said that he has no issue with RC and thinks he is a fine man BUT he felt that communication style would not change therefore that was a deal breaker for him. Many of you have left organizations because of management not the company or the job. In college baseball it is a tight window to be successful and risks have to be taken. The sure thing boat does not get far from the shore.

Thirdly, another poster in the premium forum took some shots at Tyler. He characterized him as a modern day Nuke LaLoosh. LOL, that is about right. Actually his nickname was Nuke. The issue I have with him is he is from Heath and thinks he knows stuff. He said Tyler has a million dollar arm and a .10C head. Of course referencing the great Bull Durham. I guarantee you Tyler is very sharp. His grades and SAT will tell you that. He is a goof ball off the field, no doubt, maybe immature for some folks. I agree he has growing up to do BUT on the field he gets it done. He got it done at Heath for 4 years and here at A&M he would have been really good. Tyler works very hard on his body and training. So Mr. Rockwallheathaggie, I say call the coaches at Heath again and see if they really believe that. I do own the fact he is a knucklehead away from the baseball field, he will be fine as he gets older, no doubt.

Lastly, this is not an entitlement issue. Tyler's family and all involved wanted him back at Texas A&M. I will bet one day he will look back and have some regrets but we shall see. The exit interview with the staff went well and I feel he is leaving on a good note with staff. They complimented him on his freshman year, thanked him for being a good teammate and wanted him back. Tyler suffered the pain of that SR loss like the rest of his teammates and was 100% about the team. That is who he is. He is a knucklehead for sure but he is also a great teammate.

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We'll all miss Tyler in the Maroon and White. And I'm sure everyone here wishes the best for him and are sorry things worked out the way they did. Thank you for coming here and clarifying things.

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If I had to do it over again, I'd go to A&M 10 times over but only if Childress was there... He is the best coach I ever had and has made me into the man and player I am today

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That's assuming that's not some lunatic that created a "DMengden" account.

https://texags.com/forums/8/topics/2751922/4

Ivey Gone. ?????

Yes, announced 6/22

Hope that it works out for him.

Best of luck, dad

There's a pretty good coach out on the South Plains that supposedly loves Grayson

Hope everything works out for y'all....

kind of the bottomline...the program lost a pitcher with a plus off-speed pitch and SEC experience...that would have had 2 more seasons on campus before draft eligibility.

that hurts any way you slice it

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Maybe we can be like TCU next year and get to Omaha in a rebuilding year.

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We don't play in the BDF.

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Also, we don't get to play Texas A&M.

If only we could play FSU every year in SR

Ivey will be a draft eligible sophomore. 2 seasons were not guaranteed.

Finally read this entire thread. Love Mr. Ivy's last post. I think they about explains it all. Of course, Coach Childress may have his own version. But either way, it's nice to know more of the story for a change.

Thanks!

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Maybe we can be like TCU next year and get to Omaha in a rebuilding year.

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We don't play in the BDF.

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You mean the conference that comprised 38% of the CWS teams?

The conference that sent the ONLY SEC team in Omaha packing?

The big 12 doesn't have the top to bottom strength like the SEC. Outside Tech, Okie St, and TCU nobody else was good. Even then outside Tech no other big 12 team was in the Top 10 most of the year. Those teams feed off weak conference play.

SEC baseball is a absolute grind and you better show up every weekend or you will get beat. IMO SEC has the best athletes and the hardest conference to play in.

SEC looked pretty mundane in post-season play this year.

RR

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The big 12 doesn't have the top to bottom strength like the SEC. Outside Tech, Okie St, and TCU nobody else was good. Even then outside Tech no other big 12 team was in the Top 10 most of the year. Those teams feed off weak conference play.

SEC baseball is a absolute grind and you better show up every weekend or you will get beat. IMO SEC has the best athletes and the hardest conference to play in.

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SEC was overrated this year... just like they are in football about half the time

The SEC is not the unstoppable force of nature SEC fans think it is

Sorry to see him go, but best of luck to Tyler. Y'all are going to love coach Hart. Great man, and a great coach!

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SEC was overrated this year... just like they are in football about half the time

The SEC is not the unstoppable force of nature SEC fans think it is

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The SEC didn't have the best CWS by any stretch of the imagination, but if you really think they weren't quality baseball teams that made up a better overall conference than any other, I'd have to disagree.

You've made the same argument following 2014 and 2015, but the SEC dominance of football and baseball started around 2006 when Florida won their first 'recent' national championship in the 2007 national championship game. The following decade has been pretty ridiculous.

In football, the SEC has won 8 of the 10 national championships. 4 separate teams have won the championship. In 7 out of 10 of those years, the SEC has the best winning percentage of conferences that send 5+ teams to a bowl game (I think 1 of those they're a few % points behind a conference that sent 5). In that time period, no other conference has won more than 1 national championship. The SEC has made up 10 of the teams that have played for a championship in that time.


The SEC started a similar period of dominance in baseball starting in 2008, but we can go back to 2007 to have the same decade as our reference period. The SEC has won 4 of the national championships, and played in the final series 8 of those 10 seasons. 3 separate teams have won those championships, and 6 separate teams have played in the final series. The SEC has made up half (10 of 20) of the teams that played for a championship, with the closest conference being the PAC (5). The rest are the Big 12 (1), Big South (1) WAC (1) and ACC (2).

While I'd agree that obviously the conference was far from "unstoppable" in baseball this year, parity in college baseball makes it to where a physical advantage like in football doesn't exist and you won't go steamroll over the rest of the nation just by existing. But there's a lot of evidence, listed above, why the SEC is the clear premier conference in football and baseball for the past decade. That inflated sense of SEC ego comes from a lot of SEC schools playing for a lot of championships.

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Best of luck, dad

There's a pretty good coach out on the South Plains that supposedly loves Grayson

Hope everything works out for y'all....

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Are you suggesting he transfer to Tech? Bad bull

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Best of luck, dad

There's a pretty good coach out on the South Plains that supposedly loves Grayson

Hope everything works out for y'all....

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Are you suggesting he transfer to Tech? Bad bull

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Why? Kid is an Aggie, didn't fit in well, hope he lands in a good spot. Texas Tech is a great baseball program

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Best of luck, dad

There's a pretty good coach out on the South Plains that supposedly loves Grayson

Hope everything works out for y'all....

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Are you suggesting he transfer to Tech? Bad bull

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Also, I am not so much suggesting it, as I am predicting it. Supposedly, tadlock recruits Grayson heavily.

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SEC was overrated this year... just like they are in football about half the time

The SEC is not the unstoppable force of nature SEC fans think it is

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The SEC didn't have the best CWS by any stretch of the imagination, but if you really think they weren't quality baseball teams that made up a better overall conference than any other, I'd have to disagree.

You've made the same argument following 2014 and 2015, but the SEC dominance of football and baseball started around 2006 when Florida won their first 'recent' national championship in the 2007 national championship game. The following decade has been pretty ridiculous.

In football, the SEC has won 8 of the 10 national championships. 4 separate teams have won the championship. In 7 out of 10 of those years, the SEC has the best winning percentage of conferences that send 5+ teams to a bowl game (I think 1 of those they're a few % points behind a conference that sent 5). In that time period, no other conference has won more than 1 national championship. The SEC has made up 10 of the teams that have played for a championship in that time.


The SEC started a similar period of dominance in baseball starting in 2008, but we can go back to 2007 to have the same decade as our reference period. The SEC has won 4 of the national championships, and played in the final series 8 of those 10 seasons. 3 separate teams have won those championships, and 6 separate teams have played in the final series. The SEC has made up half (10 of 20) of the teams that played for a championship, with the closest conference being the PAC (5). The rest are the Big 12 (1), Big South (1) WAC (1) and ACC (2).

While I'd agree that obviously the conference was far from "unstoppable" in baseball this year, parity in college baseball makes it to where a physical advantage like in football doesn't exist and you won't go steamroll over the rest of the nation just by existing. But there's a lot of evidence, listed above, why the SEC is the clear premier conference in football and baseball for the past decade. That inflated sense of SEC ego comes from a lot of SEC schools playing for a lot of championships.

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Best of luck, dad

There's a pretty good coach out on the South Plains that supposedly loves Grayson

Hope everything works out for y'all....

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Are you suggesting he transfer to Tech? Bad bull

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Also, I am not so much suggesting it, as I am predicting it. Supposedly, tadlock recruits Grayson heavily.

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I predict you are wrong. He will be playing in the minors in 2018.

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Best of luck, dad

There's a pretty good coach out on the South Plains that supposedly loves Grayson

Hope everything works out for y'all....

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Are you suggesting he transfer to Tech? Bad bull

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Also, I am not so much suggesting it, as I am predicting it. Supposedly, tadlock recruits Grayson heavily.

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I predict you are wrong. He will be playing in the minors in 2018.

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Could be...

The cupboard is pretty bare for next year. We'll probably get beat a round earlier by TCU next season, if we even make regionals.

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there's two sides of every story. Not like we'll ever get to hear RC's, though.

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This. Fans will eat this up though. It's less helicopterish dealing with the coaches directly than playing defense for him on the Internet.

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Your sentiment should work both ways. A coach is tasked to maximize the performance of his program through a combination of collecting the best talent available, getting them to campus, and then developing/motivating that talent to perform at its maximum on game day.

Each coach has his own style. Some are great recruiters and collect a lot of elite talent, and are great at selling the college experience over the pro experience to 17 and 18 year olds. Others are better developers of talent and are able to compete with less talent. Some are very laid back coaches that attract a certain type of athlete, and others are the tough love type that appeals to another type of "gritty" player.

You can't say that every transfer situation is the fault of the kid (which you tend to do in these conversations), just as you correctly say that we can't blame Childress for every kid that leaves either.

We all agree that Childress is the tough love type of coach, and that turns off a lot of youth parents and their sons. We've seen it year after year here in recruiting. The B-CS area has become one of the richest areas for baseball talent in the state, and by and large the coach's reputation scares off a majority of these kids who grew up as A&M fans, and/or who's parents attended Texas A&M. Over the past two years, there were like 6-7 high D-1 prospects in the area, and one signed with the Aggies (and he had major arm surgery). Rice and TCU have extracted more high level talent from B-CS in recent years than Texas A&M. Even Florida came in and took a B-CS kid last year.

If A&M can simply sign 60+% of the local high D-1 talent produced, this should be a perennial Top 5-10 program and a regular in Omaha. You can shrug it off and call the parents and kids a bunch of whining wimps, but the bottom line is elite talent in your back yard is going to your competitors and they are going to Omaha. That is a problem any way you slice it.

The great coaches in any sport typically have a strict routine for player development, but they are versatile in how they personally deal with individual players. They can get inside each player's head and understand what motivates them, and the coach adjusts his style to connect and motivate on an individual basis. For some players, it's tough love. For others, it's a softer approach.

I have no idea if there are two sides to Mr. Ivey's story, and I don't care to litigate it. But if as a coach I recruited this kid and then after fall ball publicly stated he was one of the most talented freshman pitchers I've ever had, I think I'd be diligent in communicating with the kid and doing everything in my power to personally motivate him after he faltered in March. There have been simply too many examples of these disconnects to categorically blame the kid and his parents every single time.

Childress has run a very good program at Texas A&M. From day one when he was announced the head coach, he was very clear that the goal for this program is to go to Omaha every year and win a national championship. He repeats that goal publicly every year. I think we all realize that it isn't realistic to expect goals to become reality most of the time or even part of the time. But goals should be reached occasionally, and in 11 years this program has zero wins in Omaha. At some point, you can't ignore that statistic.

It's pretty simple, while this program is pretty good and every couple of years on average will have a Top 10 team in the regular season, the elite talent is not there to be a regular participant in Omaha and/or an occasional national championship contender. Whether it be through the draft or recruiting, the coach has not attracted a lot of elite baseball talent. He attracts good baseball talent and develops that talent, and occasionally that will result in a great player like Michael Wacha, Ross Stripling, or Tyler Naquin, but elite talent does not consistently flow into the program like it does at other elite college baseball programs...which is why A&M is always on the cusp but not included in the elite baseball programs in the country.

The issue falls to the AD. Is it an ultimate goal and requirement for Aggie baseball to be an elite baseball program (granted is very, very tough to do), or is the current state of being a pretty good baseball program satisfactory. For 97% of universities, being petty good is an acceptable result. I'm honestly not sure if Texas A&M falls within that 97% or not. That's the ultimate question for the AD and the fanbase.

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The big 12 doesn't have the top to bottom strength like the SEC. Outside Tech, Okie St, and TCU nobody else was good. Even then outside Tech no other big 12 team was in the Top 10 most of the year. Those teams feed off weak conference play.

SEC baseball is a absolute grind and you better show up every weekend or you will get beat. IMO SEC has the best athletes and the hardest conference to play in.

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SEC was overrated this year... just like they are in football about half the time

The SEC is not the unstoppable force of nature SEC fans think it is

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Still no off weeks in the SEC. No Kansas on the schedule.

Dang, Hop... good take on that

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The issue falls to the AD. Is it an ultimate goal and requirement for Aggie baseball to be an elite baseball program (granted is very, very tough to do), or is the current state of being a pretty good baseball program satisfactory. For 97% of universities, being petty good is an acceptable result. I'm honestly not sure if Texas A&M falls within that 97% or not. That's the ultimate question for the AD and the fanbase.

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Given that baseball is a non-revenue sport, I would think a BMA who is tired of having a pretty good program and wants to roll the dice on establishing an elite one would make that call. An AD is not going to pull a coach in a sport like baseball when he is doing what Childress is doing. It would take someone with way more pull and money than him. I think the fans keep coming as long as it is a winning program.

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You can't say that every transfer situation is the fault of the kid (which you tend to do in these conversations), just as you correctly say that we can't blame Childress for every kid that leaves either.

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Not sure where you read that I assigned blame. Transfers fit in the natural order of things. I'm simply stating the fact that the family of almost every kid who transfers or doesn't play has their story and it's almost never the whole truth.

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Childress has run a very good program at Texas A&M. From day one when he was announced the head coach, he was very clear that the goal for this program is to go to Omaha every year and win a national championship. He repeats that goal publicly every year. I think we all realize that it isn't realistic to expect goals to become reality most of the time or even part of the time. But goals should be reached occasionally, and in 11 years this program has zero wins in Omaha. At some point, you can't ignore that statistic.

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Seems to be the heart of things. At what point though? If it doesn't happen in the next four? I don't know anything about our new AD. Been damn close past two years but that whole horse shoes and hand grenades saying applies.

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If A&M can simply sign 60+% of the local high D-1 talent produced, this should be a perennial Top 5-10 program and a regular in Omaha.

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Please let me know how many major college baseball programs are signing SIXTY PLUS PERCENT of the talent from the city they're located in. Even expanding the definition of Houston, Rice isn't signing 40% of their roster from Houston and that's one of the best baseball cities in the nation for high school talent. And having gone to College Station for high school, I can tell you 60% of the guys you'd target aren't so "all in" on A&M that they'd turn down playing time at another school. It just doesn't work that way. Knowing some athletes that went on to play at other schools, maybe half were die-hard A&M, and a very small percentage of THAT group were so maroon that they'd turn down scholarship money or playing time at another school.

With the number of players that play at a D1 school anywhere from BCS, our signing class would be entirely local on almost a yearly basis. And of that, you'd have to assume we had the scholarship money and playing time available to them that would make them want to play, or more realistically, sit on the bench with a fraction of the money they could get somewhere else. The entire assertion is ridiculous.

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There have been simply too many examples of these disconnects to categorically blame the kid and his parents every single time.

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How many have there been, and what were their names? I'd like to know where they went on to kick ass so we can know how many elite talents the coaches run off every year.

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the elite talent is not there to be a regular participant in Omaha and/or an occasional national championship contender. Whether it be through the draft or recruiting, the coach has not attracted a lot of elite baseball talent. He attracts good baseball talent and develops that talent, and occasionally that will result in a great player like Michael Wacha, Ross Stripling, or Tyler Naquin, but elite talent does not consistently flow into the program like it does at other elite college baseball programs...which is why A&M is always on the cusp but not included in the elite baseball programs in the country.

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"Elite talent" doesn't "flow" to many programs in the entire nation because elite talent very very rarely plays college baseball. They go pro immediately, and Childress like a number of other coaches has a lot of guys that signed to play that end up taking pro contracts. Baseball America even wrote an article back around 2010 about the number of guys we'd lost to the draft. You made a similar argument about our lack of talent around 2014 when a number of those same guys went on to be the heart of the teams we saw the last 2 seasons. Also, our recruiting classes are often ranked and ranked highly. I can't think of more than one season where we had a recruiting class that completely fell off the map.

If you want to blame the coaches for not getting the team to win one more game the past 2 seasons ok, but if you think there was some big talent gap keeping them from beating TCU one more time and contending in Omaha we weren't watching the same baseball teams. The fact that 13 of our players had major league teams offering them contracts out of college makes me think that the staff isn't so inept at signing talented players.