re: Beth Torina- "This program grew this year. This program is going to be better for it“

Spin doctor

This! She will tell players after they make multiple errors to laugh it off. "The important thing is to have fun while playing". I have watched that " happy go lucky" attitude for years, after players make mistakes.

The issue is that every word of your post has been true for the last 8 offseasons and nothing has changed. Nothing has gotten better, in fact I would say the level of coaching and in game management has only gotten worse. It is time for a complete program overhaul. I would fire everyone, from Beth all the way down to the strength and conditioning coach and the nutritionist.

The hitting was far better, more competitive at bats with very little talent

What else can she say?

We have said every May for the last 5-6 seasons, “next season is the make or break season for Beth” and it never happened.

I fully believe Scott Woodward sees Beth as his “safety valve”—he can say “Look at me. I don’t fire every single coach.” Yes, she should have been gone four years ago but I’m not worrying about it. I really believe unless the program totally tanks, SW is fine with softball the way it is.

Now granted, losing this regional the way we did was a fricking bad look and maybe Scott is forced to act. But if nothing happens on Monday, you can pretty well rest assured nothing is going to happen at all and Beth will be back.

Further thoughts:

1) I agree with our facilities this program should be doing better. Where is that First Cut poster who is obviously a Beth Torina family member? Obviously in hiding right now. But he/she made a long post defending Beth by writing a novel about every softball facility in the SEC attempting to spin that Tiger Park and the practice/weight facility were NOT among the top in the SEC.

2) The program needs an image change. Check out the final result thread on the softball FB page. It is a shite hole, as usual. You have players’ parents, players and former players, even Leftwich’s mother on there attacking and fighting with fans and defending Beth. No sport at LSU has a “circle the wagons” mentality like softball.

3) The program needs an image change. The idiot behind the plate is the national “face” of the program. When people think of LSU softball, they don’t think of plate discipline, fielding, etc. You could google “LSU softball” before AI took over and the top question searched for worldwide was some form of the query “Who is the loudmouth idiot behind home plate?”

4) The program needs an image change. A couple people have posted this over the last few years and I didn’t believe it but I’m starting to think there’s some credence to it. In the days of Walljasper, Hoover, Bell, etc. this team was made up mostly of hard-assed warriors with attitude. We seem to have gotten away from that and now it seems to be an effort to recruit “cute” girls. This team needs some big strong hitters a la Oklahoma, etc. as well as some players with attitude.

All that being said, I expect dead silence from Woodward and for Beth to be back next season for the reasons mentioned above. I think Scott feels his plate is too full to worry about softball as long as they are a top sixteen seed and hosting regionals. I don’t like it, but unfortunately that’s the way it is.

When can we expect the program to grow to equal or better than Southeastern Louisiana?

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The hitting was far better, more competitive at bats with very little talent

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This was Beth's what, 14th season at LSU? If there's "very little" talent on the team, at what point is the very entrenched HC held accountable for that?

I don't care that she makes $455k per year, that's actually just a bit more than average in the SEC surprisingly.

I care that every year it's "next year" with Torina, and not having been to the WCWS since 2017, and getting bounced from our own regional by a smaller directional Louisiana school for the second time in three seasons.

I agree totally she is ultimately responsible