Except for possible attrition related to next month’s Major League Draft, head coach Scott Stricklin said he’s not expecting any of his current players to leave Georgia’s baseball program considering the past year or the release of Fred Corral as the team’s pitching coach.
“I’m not. There’s always a guy or two that may be a walk-on player who wants to play a little bit more that talk about it, and that’s always a possibility. But all indications from our individual meetings today, everybody is excited to come back and ready to go,” Stricklin said. “I don’t know where those rumors start. People talk and all that but this team is very close, they all know how talented this group is and they want to stay together.”
Stricklin held individual meetings with all his players on Thursday following Wednesday morning’s season-ending loss to Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament, a defeat that put a capper on Georgia’s fourth-straight losing campaign under his command.
Stricklin, 104-119-1 during his Bulldog career, will be in the fifth season of a six-year contract next spring. He knows the pressure he’ll be under to succeed.
“You just go out, try to prepare your team and your players and work as hard as you can. You consume yourself in the work, the preparation and get ready to have a great year,” said Stricklin, when asked what his approach will be. “I think our roster is going to be very talented and we’re now going to have a lot of experience. So, you know what? All I can do is concern myself with the job in front of me and that is preparing our team and preparing our players. That’s all I can concern myself about. Everything else takes care of itself. I’m honored to be the coach at the University of Georgia and I’m looking forward to entering the 2018 season with a very talented roster.”
Stricklin said he and athletic director Greg McGarity spoke on the phone Wednesday night. The two will meet in person later.
“I think he saw the development. He just expressed his support for me from Day 1. As far as me coming back as head coach, we talked yesterday after the game. He was confident we are going in the right direction,” Stricklin said. “The season didn’t go the way we wanted it to go, it’s not the way we envisioned, but we finished much stronger. We feel like we’ve got some momentum going into next year. We’ve got a confident bunch coming back. He sees that and that was expressed to me.”
Obviously, Stricklin has his fingers crossed.
With rising junior Michael Curry, along with a bevy of rising sophomores that include the likes of Cam Shepherd and Michael Bradley, Stricklin is counting on experiences learned this past spring paying off next season.
“I feel the foundation is set, and now those freshmen turn into sophomores, those sophomores turn into juniors and we’re not going to have to rely so much on freshmen next year,” Stricklin said. “We’ve got a talented group of freshmen, and they’re going to make an impact for us, but we’re not going to have to put the weight on their shoulders like we did this past year. Now, the foundation is set, and we feel like the cycle of recruiting that’s stacking classes can start to take place.”
