With the 2021 baseball season in the books, one of the questions for next year is who will return, starting with the head coach and his staff. When he was hired, I thought Coach Jewett had an excellent resume as an assistant coach, having worked for some of the biggest names in the country and served as the top assistant for a Vandy team that annually competed for a College World Series birth. Some were upset that a former Tulanian was not hired and a number, rightfully, questioned why, after such a long career, Jewett had never been tabbed to be a head coach. While others came to the same conclusion earlier, even after year one, I now believe he is not the coach for Tulane University and should be let go,
Other than the Covid-aborted season, we’ve finished each of his four years with RPI’s in the 80’s. That’s not good enough. I recognize the problems of the 11.7 scholarship limit for a school like Tulane who cannot or will not provide other scholarship money to level the recruiting playing field with big state universities and wealthy competitors like Vanderbilt. Still, our recruiting, with few exceptions, has not been good. This year, Bennet Lee, Jacob Laprairie, Chase Englehard and Jared Hart were solid. But that’s four of about 20 guys we signed counting transfers and JC.s. We generally featured a lineup with at least three near “sure” outs for the first time in years and very little power throughout.
With 21 pitchers appearing this year, we had three (Olthoff, Aldrich, and Gillies) who were solid, though the first two also had some bad moments. Still, their combined ERA was a very good 3.32. Another nine guys threw at least 10 innings each for a combined ERA of 4.50. And the final nine, showing why they didn’t get much time on the mound, had a combined ERA of 8.01. There was a lot of complaining this year about “in game” management, much of it well deserved in my view, but it’s hard to make pitching decisions when all of the options are bad. Too frequently, that was the case.
I don’t take firing anyone lightly; I’ve had to do it too many times to think otherwise. But, if I understand the current situation, Coach Jewett is in the final year of his contract and, if so, the decision is to sign him to a new 3+ year contract or simply not renew his current one. To me, that seems to be an easy decision.
As for players returning. We clearly lose seniors and graduate students who have used up their eligibility: Keagan Gillies, Trent Johnson, Jake McDonnel, Robert Price, and Keaton Knuepel. We also have 11 redshirt juniors who may or may not return starting with Branden Olthoff and Jack Aldrich, who are both likely to go pro. Although he didn’t pitch like it, I also think Donovan Benoit could get drafted based on having excellent stuff. Others who may or may not return among redshirt juniors are Trevor Minder, Luis Aviles, Frankie Nieman, Clifton Slagel, Justin Campbell, Bryan Mackey and C.J. Whelan, who did not play this season. I believe Hayden Hastings has already committed to leaving. Others may have also committed one way or the other but baseball is not like football. Coming back isn’t a “free ride” and family finances play into such a decision.
Among our underclassmen, I believe Collin Burns is eligible for the draft and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go. And finally, with the new transfer rules, can we hold on to our best underclassmen? We probably won’t know that until late summer, but it could be hard to retain guys like Lee, Laprairie, Englehard, Hart, and Burns (if he’s not drafted).
Anyway, we should know about Coach Jewett’s future in the next week or so. If he stays, I will be very disappointed.
Roll Wave!!!
Other than the Covid-aborted season, we’ve finished each of his four years with RPI’s in the 80’s. That’s not good enough. I recognize the problems of the 11.7 scholarship limit for a school like Tulane who cannot or will not provide other scholarship money to level the recruiting playing field with big state universities and wealthy competitors like Vanderbilt. Still, our recruiting, with few exceptions, has not been good. This year, Bennet Lee, Jacob Laprairie, Chase Englehard and Jared Hart were solid. But that’s four of about 20 guys we signed counting transfers and JC.s. We generally featured a lineup with at least three near “sure” outs for the first time in years and very little power throughout.
With 21 pitchers appearing this year, we had three (Olthoff, Aldrich, and Gillies) who were solid, though the first two also had some bad moments. Still, their combined ERA was a very good 3.32. Another nine guys threw at least 10 innings each for a combined ERA of 4.50. And the final nine, showing why they didn’t get much time on the mound, had a combined ERA of 8.01. There was a lot of complaining this year about “in game” management, much of it well deserved in my view, but it’s hard to make pitching decisions when all of the options are bad. Too frequently, that was the case.
I don’t take firing anyone lightly; I’ve had to do it too many times to think otherwise. But, if I understand the current situation, Coach Jewett is in the final year of his contract and, if so, the decision is to sign him to a new 3+ year contract or simply not renew his current one. To me, that seems to be an easy decision.
As for players returning. We clearly lose seniors and graduate students who have used up their eligibility: Keagan Gillies, Trent Johnson, Jake McDonnel, Robert Price, and Keaton Knuepel. We also have 11 redshirt juniors who may or may not return starting with Branden Olthoff and Jack Aldrich, who are both likely to go pro. Although he didn’t pitch like it, I also think Donovan Benoit could get drafted based on having excellent stuff. Others who may or may not return among redshirt juniors are Trevor Minder, Luis Aviles, Frankie Nieman, Clifton Slagel, Justin Campbell, Bryan Mackey and C.J. Whelan, who did not play this season. I believe Hayden Hastings has already committed to leaving. Others may have also committed one way or the other but baseball is not like football. Coming back isn’t a “free ride” and family finances play into such a decision.
Among our underclassmen, I believe Collin Burns is eligible for the draft and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go. And finally, with the new transfer rules, can we hold on to our best underclassmen? We probably won’t know that until late summer, but it could be hard to retain guys like Lee, Laprairie, Englehard, Hart, and Burns (if he’s not drafted).
Anyway, we should know about Coach Jewett’s future in the next week or so. If he stays, I will be very disappointed.
Roll Wave!!!
