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Ace Pitcher Has Stanford Off And Running…

Appel (right) with likely No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Andrew Luck (photo courtesy Stanford Athletics).

Heading into this weekend’s Pac-12 series opener against USC, Stanford remains one of the hottest teams in the nation, and Cardinal pitcher Mark Appel has been a big part of it. Stanford is 13-2, with series sweeps against 2011 College World Series teams Vanderbilt and Texas and a 2-1 series win over Rice.

Appel was just 6-7 last year, but he sports a 2-1 record with a 3.19 ERA, a .157 opponent batting average and 40 strikeouts in 31.0 IP this season. The junior’s 2011 record is deceiving, because he matched-up on Fridays against the likes of 2011 first round MLB picks Sonny Gray, Taylor Jungmann and Gerrit Cole.

In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Appel discusses what he learned from those matchups, his head coach Mark Marquess, his thoughts on the Cardinal offense that’s hitting .312 and averaging 8.4 runs a game, Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, and much more!

Press the “Play” button below to listen to the interview.

Appel.mp3

Mark Appel – 6’5 – 215 – Jr. – Houston, TX

Head Coach:  Mark Marquess

 

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Veteran Coach Readies Stanford For Another Run…

In his 35 years as a head baseball coach. Stanford’s Mark Marquess has seen and done a lot. Marquess enters his 36th season as head coach as his alma mater as the seventh-winningest coach in college baseball history with 1,422 wins and a .647 winning percentage.

Marquess has led the Cardinal to 27 NCAA Tournaments and 14 College World Series, with national championships in 1987 and 1988.

In this exclusive interview with College Baseball 360 editor Sean Stires, Marquess reveals how he has changed the most as a head coach since his first game in 1977, how the game of college baseball has changed in that time, what he would change about college baseball, marquee series with Texas, Vanderbilt and Rice this year, and more!

Click the “Play” button below to listen to the interview.

Marquess.mp3

Stanford Head Coach Mark Marquess –  Career record: 1422-741-7

Milestone Wins
1st Career Win (February 4, 1977 vs. USF, 6-1)
1000th Career Win (February 9, 2001 vs. Florida State, 6-2)
1100th Career Win (February 17, 2003 vs. Nevada 5-4)
1200th Career Win (March 5, 2005 vs. Cal 10-3)
1300th Career Win (April 6, 2008 vs. Arizona State 10-2)
100th Career Postseason Win (June 7, 2003 vs. Long Beach State 4-2)

• 2 NCAA Titles
• 14 CWS Appearances
• 7 Super Regional Appearances (6 Titles)
• 27 Regional Appearances (14 Titles)
• 12 Conference Titles

The college baseball season continues to gain momentum as well swing into week four. This week’s Notebook combines some of the observations of College Baseball 360 Editor Sean Stires with the observations and insights of CB360 contributor Jack Blanchat.

Bryan Peters had both of Nebraska's game-winning hits over UCLA.

weekend in Lincoln. All three games went to extra innings. How rare is that? Nebraska has been playing baseball since 1889, but prior to Friday and Saturday it had never had extra inning games in back-to-back days go to extra frames. Gerrit Cole lost a perfect game after retiring Nebraska’s first 20 batters Friday, but still helped the Bruins win 1-0 in 11 innings thanks to nine shutout innings.

With Trevor Bauer on the mound, Nebraska’s hopes for a win weren’t looking any better on Saturday. Bauer fanned 17 in 10 innings, but settled for a 129 pitch no-decision in the Cornhusker’s 2-1 win. Bryan Peters had the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 12th for Nebraska, while Dylan Vogt pitched five no-hit innings of relief to earn the win.

The Cornhuskers then plated three runs in the bottom of the 9th inning in Sunday’s series finale and eventually won 5-4 in 11 innings. Peters was the hero again, belting a game-ending home run to give Nebraska back-to-back walk-off wins for the first time in eight years.

Nebraska is 8-4 with a team batting average of .303. UCLA is 7-4, despite a 1.55 team ERA with 126 strikeouts and 42 walks in 104 1/3 IP.

Gator Bait…

Florida (10-1) suffered its first loss of the season to Florida State in the Florida Four event last week, but the Gators came back strong over the weekend with a three-game sweep of Miami in Gainesville. Florida’s starting rotation of Brian Johnson, Hudson Randall and Karsten Whitson combined to allow just two earned runs in 17.0 innings during the series. It’s just the second time in school history that Florida has swept a three-game set from the Hurricanes.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise…

Cal State Bakersfield's Jonathon Montoya

Don’t look now, but Cal State Bakersfield is on a run. The Roadrunners have won 10 straight with the help of some great pitching. Bakersfield, playing its first games away from home this season, gave up just two runs while going 4-0 at the Coca Cola Classic over the weekend in Surprise, AZ. The biggest of the wins was a 2-1 10-inning victory over Arizona State. Freshman Cael Brockmeyer’s 10th inning home run off ASU All-American Mitchell Lambson was the difference. The Roadrunners also turned-in wins over Kansas (12-0), Air Force (5-0) and Northern Illinois (6-1). Bakersfield starting pitchers Tommy Hoenshell, Mike McCarthy, Jonathon Montoya, and Brandon Van Dam combined to pitch 35 innings, while giving-up just two runs. McCarthy was the only one not to pitch 9.0 innings.

Sycamore No-No…

Indiana State’s Jason Van Skike tossed a no-hitter in Saturday’s 8-0 win over Central Arkansas. It’s the school’s 10th all-time no-hitter, but the first nine inning no-no for a Sycamore since 1943. Van Skike needed 143 pitches to complete the gem, which still had its share of base runners. Van Skike struckout five, but he walked eight batters and hit one more.

TCU’s Aces…

When talking about TCU pitchers, 2010 freshman phenom Matt Purke is typically the first name to come to mind. However, Kyle Winkler has been lights out so far this year for the Horned Frogs. Winkler (3-0) has allowed just two unearned runs in 22 1/3 IP so far this season. The senior has 19 strikeouts and just one walk with a .149 opponent batting average. He moved to the Friday spot in the rotation the last two weeks while Purke battled a blister on his pitching hand.

Purke has pitched 10.0 shutout innings himself this season (he pitched against Kansas on opening weekend and pitched Sunday against Texas Tech) to improve to 2-0 this year and 18-0 in his career. Meanwhile, freshman Andrew Mitchell has surrendered just a run in his first 15 2/3 IP, including a Sunday start against Cal State Fullerton last week when Purke missed his start.

The Horned Frogs’ bullpen is still a work in progress though. TCU’s opponents have scored winning runs in the 8th inning or later in all four of the team’s losses this year.

Kyle Robinson

Razorback Off & Running…

Arkansas senior Kyle Robinson played sparingly in his first year at Arkansas last year after transferring from Indian River CC. Injuries played a part in his limited time, but Robinson is making-up for it this year. He hit .474 (9-for-19) with three home runs and 13 RBIs last week. The outfielder’s .465 batting average is the third best in the SEC through the first three weeks of 2011. He also ranks in the top five in the conference in slugging percentage (#3 – .791), runs (#5 – 14), hits (T-#1 – 20), and RBI (#1 – 21).

Quality Pitching…

Notre Dame is just 4-6 through Mik Aoki’s first ten games at the helm, but it’s not for a lack of pitching. Starting pitchers Brian Dupra, Cole Johnson and Todd Miller combined to give the Irish nine straight quality starts (at least 6.0 IP and 3 ER or less) to open the season. The last time a Notre Dame staff had just six straight quality starts was 2001, when 2000 and 2001 first round draft pick Aaron Heilman helped the program achieve its first ever #1 national ranking. Dupra, Johnson and Miller combined for 22 2/3 IP with 21 strikeouts and no walks in their three starts last weekend, but went 0-2 with a no-decision (the Irish beat Manhattan in extra innings in Miller’s start).

Duke-ing It Out…

James Madison is off to a record-setting start in 2011. The Duke’s 11-1 start is the best in program history. JMU leads the nation with 30 home runs and 13.3 runs-a-game through the season’s first three weeks.

Stanford @ Texas…

Now we’ll turn things over to Jack Blanchat, who was at the Stanford vs. Texas series in Austin. The Longhorns took two out of three games in the series. Blanchat’s insights start with thoughts on Texas ace Taylor Jungman, who saw his run of 22.0 scoreless innings to open the season come to a close in Friday’s 4-3 Texas win.

Taylor Jungmann

Taylor Jungmann is the real deal – it doesn’t get much simpler than that. He’s confident, aggressive, and he mixes up his pitches and gets outs in every way. His odd delivery makes it hard to pick up the baseball coming out of his hand, and he gets results. It shows something that Friday night was his worst outing of the season so far, considering he pitched eight and two-thirds innings and only gave up three runs on six hits. Even more impressive about those six hits was that nobody got multiple hits off Jungmann – and nothing was hit particularly hard other than a triple from Brian Ragira that broke up Jungmann’s perfect game in the fifth inning.

The environment at Disch-Falk Field was like an NCAA super regional – absolutely crazy, and jam-packed. It’s one of the biggest stadiums in college baseball in terms of capacity and playing dimensions. The stadium also has field turf instead of a natural grass playing surface, so that made conditions a little harder because the baseball would occasionally act very strangely after it bounced off the turf. The playing conditions, which included wind coming in from left field most of the time, resulted in no home runs for a Stanford team that had six dingers in eight games coming into this series, but it also contributed to the three triples in the series as well.

Texas trotted out a few new faces in their lineup, and they all had a few bright spots, but they still looked very much like freshmen. Jacob Felts did a nice job behind the plate, catching Jungmann’s Friday win(although, the way Jungmann is pitching, it’s hard not to do a good job behind the plate), and he went 2-for-7 and scored a run offensively – altogether not a bad weekend for a freshman catcher. Freshman rightfielder Mark Payton went just 1-for-10 at the plate, but he still scored a run and had two RBI in the series thanks to some erratic Stanford pitching. Finally, freshman third baseman Erich Weiss was solid on offense – he had a hit in every game – but he struggled defensively in Saturday’s contest. He had two errors at the hot corner, and could have been docked for one more if the scorekeeper had been less friendly.

Dean McArdle

Stanford’s pitching rotation is shaping up pretty well – now the offense just has to go out and get Mark Appel a win on Friday night. The sophomore has had tremendous stuff in all three of his starts this season, but by virtue of going up against Sonny Gray and Taylor Jungmann, Appel’s record sits at 0-2 so far. It’s easy to believe that Appel will get back in the win column as the season goes along, but he has shown he can be a primetime player on Friday nights – something the Cardinal will need if they want to overtake UCLA and Gerrit Cole in the Pac-10 down the road.

Dean McArdle pitched very well Saturday (in a 9-2 win) – he’s a bulldog pitcher who had his control working and now has a 7-0 career record at Stanford. He and Jordan Pries are surprisingly similar pitchers, both
righthanders with great control and a nice array of pitches, even though they don’t have overpowering stuff.

I think at this point in the season Stanford head coach Mark Marquess is just trying to mix up his rotation a little bit and see how guys work in different places. Mark Appel brings the power on Friday night and has almost out-dueled both Sonny Gray and Taylor Jungmann.
The three week “Country Music Swing” – Houston, Nashville, and Austin – has been tough on the Cardinal’s record, but they have been impressive so far. I get the sense that the team is ready for a few days off, and they’ll get it with finals week this week. In the big picture, Stanford won’t face as consistently good pitchers as they’ve faced these last three weeks, and that should help cut down on strikeouts. Stanford struck out 27 times in the series against Texas (Jungmann had nine) and therefore stranded 23 runners. All in all, this three-week test has been good for Stanford, though. They’ll be ready to take on teams in a deep Pac-10 Conference, and they’ll have just as much or more experience against the nation’s top teams when it comes time for the NCAA Tournament.

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We started our position-by-position look at some of the top players with catchers earlier this week. Now we’re going to the middle of the infield with the shortstops. Here’s our look at some of the top men up the middle to watch heading into the 2011 college baseball season…

1. Garrett Wittels – Florida International

Heading into the new season it will be hard not to watch Wittels as he pursues college baseball immortality. The FIU junior slowly gained attention last year as he collected hit after hit in game after game, taking his hitting streak to 56 games to end the 2010 season. He hit .413 over the course of that streak and needs hits in his team’s first three games of the season against Southeastern Louisiana to break former Oklahoma State 3B Robin Ventura’s 1987 record 58-game streak. The junior’s other numbers last year looked like this: 100 hits, 60 RBIs, 21 doubles, and just 19 strikeouts compared to 22 walks.

2. B.A. Vollmuth – Southern Mississippi

As a freshman in 2009, Vollmuth’s offensive numbers (.237, 8 HR, 28 RBIs) were far from eye-popping. Vollmuth started just 25 games during that freshman season, but 23 of those starts came during USM’s Cinderella run to the College World Series. Vollmuth used that run and a trip to Cape Cod that summer to springboard to a monster 2010 sophomore campaign, when he batted .386 with 20 home runs, 17 doubles, 72 runs, and 76 RBIs – all team-highs. He also sported a 1.219 OPS. If not for Rice’s Anthony Rendon (whom we’ll talk about when we get to our 3B list), Vollmuth likely would have been the C-USA Player of the Year. He’ll look for a third straight NCAA berth and even bigger things in 2011.

3. Deven Marrero – Arizona State

Not too many players can walk-in the door as a freshman and have the kind of season Marrero did in 2010. Marrero set a Sun Devil freshman record by hitting a team-best .397 with 11 stolen bases while making most of his 37 starts at shortstop. He earned All-American status for his efforts in the spotlight at ASU while helping the Sun Devils reach the College World Series. The 6’1 shortstop didn’t just survive, but thrived in that spotlight en-route to Omaha. He had game-winning hit in the bottom of the 12th inning to beat Arkansas in game one of their Super Regional and then scored the winning run the next day to send ASU to the CWS.

4. Kenny Diekroger – Stanford

Diekroger is another freshman who thrived as a true freshman in 2010 for one of the perennial top teams in the country. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the second round out of high school, but instead of signing the Woodside, CA native stayed close to home to play for Mark Marquess. The decision has, so far, paid-off. Diekroger jumped into the line-up, leading Stanford with a .356 averaged and 41 RBIs. He started 54 of his team’s 55 games to help the Cardinal get back to the NCAA Tournament after a 2009 absence. Diekroger was named a New England Collegiate Baseball Summer League All-Star last summer. His younger brother, Danny Diekroger, joins him this year as a freshman on the Cardinal baseball team. He played third base last year, but moves to shortstop in 2011.

5. Brad Miller – Clemson

Miller led his team with a .357 batting average to help the Tigers reach the College World Series. Now a junior, the 6’0, 185 lb. Miller scored 71 runs with 49 RBIs, 8 home runs and a team-best four triples while starting all but one of Clemson’s 70 games in 2010. His 1.018 OPS was also the second best on the Tiger roster. After the run to Omaha, Miller played the rest of the summer with the USA Collegiate National Team. He was one of just three on the roster who played for Team USA in both 2009 and 2010, becoming the first Clemson player since 2000 and 2001 to have that distinction.

6. Levi Michael – North Carolina

It’s hard to believe, but Michael is already a junior. The early high school graduate batted .290 with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs while helping UNC to Omaha in 2009 in what should have been his senior season in high school. He moved from second base to shortstop last year and his overall production moved-up as well. The 5’10 sophomore led the Tar Heels with his .346 average, and while his home run total dipped to nine, his slugging percentage still went up from .527 to .575. His OBP also went from .377 to .480 thanks to 44 BB and 17 HBP, compared to just 26 strikeouts. He also led his team with 20 stolen bases.

7. Adam Bryant – Troy

While fellow Sun Belt star Garrett Wittels garnered all the national acclaim for his hitting streak last season, Bryant had a monster “below the radar” campaign of his own. Of course, Bryant wasn’t below the radar as far as Sun Belt Conference pitchers were concerned. The 5’10 junior batted .356 with 65 RBIs, while leading the Sun Belt with 23 HR, 70 runs and a .744 slugging percentage. He struck out just 38 times in 250 at-bats and amassed an OPS of 1.175. Bryant smashed four of his home runs en-route to Troy’s run to the Sun Belt Tournament title game, which they lost 14-10 to Wittels and FIU to fall one win short of an NCAA bid. He committed just three errors in 295 chances for a spectacular .990 fielding percentage.

8. K.C. Serna – Oregon

The junior has been in the line-up at shortstop for all but a handful of games in the two years since George Horton and Oregon brought baseball back to Eugene. From the lead-off spot in the order, Serna hit a team-high .348 last year. He also led the Ducks with 14 stolen bases and a .419 OBP, while helping the program to an NCAA Regional bid in just its second year of existence. He also belted five home runs with 13 doubles. The Ventura, CA native was the starting shortstop for the Western Division at the Cape Cod League All-Star Game as a member of the Falmouth Commordores last summer.

9. Nolan Fontana – Florida

Fontana was a vital cog in the Gators’ run to the College World Series as a freshman in 2010. He started all but one of Florida’s 64 game and sparkled at shortstop, committing just four errors in 279 chances. That alone made him the first player in program history to earn a Rawlings Gold Glove Award. His overall offensive numbers (.283, 3 HR, 23 RBIs) aren’t eye-popping, but his move to the top of the order in early April helped solidify the Gator line-up and the drive to Omaha. Fontana’s .437 OBP with 53 walks were team-highs, while his 29 strikeouts tied Preston Tucker for the fewest of any batter with at least 200 at-bats. He also played for the USA Collegiate National Team over the summer.

10. Steve Nyisztor – Rutgers

Nyisztor is one in a long line of players from Toms River, NJ to wear the Scarlet Knight’s uniform for head coach Fred Hill. He batted .410 as a freshman at second base, but that wasn’t even good enough to earn first-team All-Big East honors. That went to Louisville star Ryan Wright. Nyisztor makes the move from 2B to SS this year after committing just three errors last season. His other offensive numbers included 17 doubles, 52 runs, 51 RBIs, four HR, three triples, 11 stolen bases, and a 1.013 OPS.

11. Eric Stamets – Evansville

Stamets earned consensus Freshman All-American honors and was named the Missouri Valley Conference Freshman of the Year after starting all 59 of Evansville’s games last year. He batted .321 with four home runs, 15 doubles and 27 RBIs, while leading the Purple Aces with 57 runs and 43 stolen bases. His school record stolen base total ranked fifth in the nation and were the most by any DI freshman. Stamets walked 33 times with 12 HBP and just 33 strikeouts in 234 at-bats.  He had 75 hits and did not go back-to-back games without a hit all season.

Others To Watch…

Caleb Busheyhead – Oklahoma

Taylor Featherston – TCU

Ryan Lashley – Stetson

Taylor Motter – Coastal Carolina

Austin Nola – LSU

Joe Panik – St. John’s

Justin Roland – Charlotte

Tim Smalling – Virginia Tech

Darnell Sweeney – Central Florida

Chad Zurcher – Memphis

Related

Top 11 Non-Conference Schedules In 2011

Top 11 Catchers To Watch In 2011

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From t-shirts and caps to limited edition prints commemorating the last CWS ever played at historic Rosenblatt Stadium. Dugouthats.com also always  hats of your favorite college teams like LSU, Texas, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UCLA, South Carolina, Miami and more.

Just click on any of the red links above or the image on the left to find the best selection of college baseball apparel.

Texas is the latest Big 12 school to post its 2011 college baseball schedule. The Longhorns have played three 2010 fall games, so their 2011 spring late consists of 53 rather than 56 games.

CLICK HERE to see the complete 2011 Texas schedule.

Texas then returns home to begin a 14-game homestand which starts with a single game vs. UT-Arlington on March 1. A marquee three-game set with Stanford follows March 4-6. Texas head coach Augie Garrido is 2nd on college baseball’s all-time wins list with 1,768, while Cardinal skipper Mark Marquess is 10th win 1,387 victories.

The Longhorns open Big 12 play March 15-18 when they host Kansas State. Other home Big 12 series are against Missouri, Texas Tech and Oklahoma. They go on the road to face Oklahoma State, Kansas and Nebraska. Texas also has split conference series vs. in-state rivals Baylor and Texas A&M. They’re in Waco for the first two games of the Baylor series and then host the Bears in the April 10 series finale. Game one of the Texas A&M series is in College Station, while the last two games are at Disch-Falk Field.

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A Look At Some Movement From Opening Weekend Action

Some Big Match-Ups Highlight The Start Of 2010 Campaign

(CLICK HERE to see any of the 301 Division I college baseball schedules.)

Virginia at East Carolina

(3-game series)

Bam!  Right off the bat a prime time match-up.  Q: How did East Carolina end its 2009 season?  A:  With a Super Regional loss to ACC power North Carolina, which earned a fourth straight CWS berth.  Q:  Where did Virginia end its 2009 season?  A:  Omaha after a trip to the program’s first ever College World Series appearance.

With a young squad last year Brian O’Connor eased into the start of the season by winning its first 19 games against the likes of Bucknell, Fordham, and Canisius.  That’s not the case this year though.  The Cavaliers go to Greenville, NC at

Danny Hultzen

Clark-LeClair Stadium, where East Carolina beat South Carolina in last year’s NCAA Regional, in what is likely to be Super Regional-like atmosphere in week one.

Danny Hultzen, meet Kyle Roller.  Brad Mincey, this is Jarrett Parker.  If you can’t get excited about this one you probably liked the movie “Valentine’s Day” (my wife drug me there and she didn’t like it either).

New Mexico at Texas

(3-game series)

This is a classic match-up of hitting vs. pitching.  New Mexico led the nation last year with its .363 team batting average while Texas had the second-best ERA in the land at 2.95.  The Lobos haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1962, but the Longhorns have been to the College World Series 26 times with four National Championships in the time since then.

Taylor Jungmann

On the flip side, New Mexico had a 5.26 ERA while Texas sported just a .288 team batting average last year.  Augie Garrido’s Longhorns thrived on “small ball” last year with 104 sacrifice bunts compared to 54 home runs.  New Mexico only hit 51 long balls, but they led the nation by legging-out 47 triples.

Texas returns the bulk of its pitching staff, including Taylor Jungmann (11-3, 2.00 ERA) and Chance Ruffin (10-2, 3.32 ERA),  and is the consensus #1 team in the nation entering the season.  Catcher Rafael Neda (.415, 1.133 OPS) and Ryan Honeycutt (.406, 6 HR, 53 RBIs) lead the Lobo offense.

UNM head coach Ray Birmingham knows he’s putting his team’s feet to the fire with this series and other road trips to Arkansas and Arizona this season, but he hopes the tough tests pay off by season’s end.

Rice at Stanford

(3-game series)

Talk about tradition.  This is a College World Series match-up in February between two teams that traditionally thrive on pitching.  Stanford has been to Omaha 16 times, including five times in the last decade.  Rice has seven CWS appearances of its own, and they have all been since 1997.

Stanford missed the NCAA Tournament last year after joining Rice in Omaha in 2008, and they had trouble scoring

Anthony Rendon

runs last year.  The Cardinal ranked seventh in the Pac 10 with 341 runs scored.  Their .416 slugging percentage was also seventh in the league, while they were sixth with a .360 on-base percentage.  That didn’t combine well with a 5.12 ERA that ranked seventh as well.

Rice is led by 2009 National Freshman of the Year Anthony Rendon (.388, 20 HR, 72 RBIs) at the plate and Mike Ojala (5-0, 2.17 ERA) on the mound.  Rendon is one of eight returning starters from last year’s Super Regional team.  Sophomore LHP Brett Mooneyham (6-3, 4.14 ERA) gets the Friday start for Stanford.  Cardinal shortstop Jake Schlander is the reigning Pac 10 Defensive Player of the Year.  OF Kellen Kilsgaard (.313, 9 HR, 46 RBIs) is Stanford’s top overall returning offensive player.

This is just the third meeting between Wayne Graham and Mark Marquess’ teams.  The Cardinal swept a series at Sunken Diamond in 1991, while Rice won two out of three games at the 2003 College World Series.

Rhode Island at Mississippi State

(3-game series)

Rhode Island was the team that was perceived as the biggest snub last year after the NCAA Tournament bids were announced.  Jim Foster’s Rams won 37 games in 2009, but won neither the Atlantic 10’s regular season nor tournament titles.  Oliver Palmer (.342, 11 HR, 44 RBIs) and Mike LeBel (.323, 7 HR, 41 RBIs, 17 SB) lead the URI offense.  The pitching staff must replace its top two starters and its closer from last year’s squad.

Mississippi State has missed the last two NCAA Tournaments after going to the 2007 College World Series.  The Bulldogs have finished a combined 14 games under .500 with back-to-back 9-win seasons in SEC play in John Cohen’s first two years as the MSU head coach.  Connor Powers (.301, 19 HR, 63 RBIs) and Ryan Duffy (.339, 10 HR, 33 RBIs) head a group of solid returning players in the line-up.

George Horton

Oregon at Cal State Fullerton

This is just a one-game match-up to open the season on Friday.   Both teams aslo play Pepperdine and Long Beach State over the weekend.  The season-opener is a homecoming for Oregon head coach George Horton, who graduated from Fullerton in 1978 and later coached the Titans for 11 seasons.  Horton played on Fullerton’s first College World Series team in 1975 and later coaches the Titans to six CWS berths, including the 2004 National Championship.  He is one of just nine men to appear in Omaha as a player and head coach.  He left his alma mater after the 2007 College World Series when he was hired to revive a program at Oregon that had been

Dave Serrano

defunct since 1981.

Current Titan head coach Dave Serrano was an assistant under Horton at Cal State Fullerton from 1997 to 2004.  He coached UC Irvine to the 2007 CWS, and prevailed against Horton and the Titans in a 5-4 13 inning game that’s the longest game (in time) in CWS history.  Horton has a 7-6 head to head advantage when the two have met as head coach.

Horton, known as “The Commissioner” at Fullerton, ranks 19th among active head coaches with a .665 career winning percentage, while Serrano ranks 25th at .660.

Can ASU Keep On Winning Without Murphy?

2009 Pac 10 Champion:  Arizona State (No Pac 10 Postseason Tournament)

The More Things Change…:  There wasn’t much change at the top of the Pac 10 ranks, but there was some turnover in the middle.  Arizona State’s 2009 Pac 10 title was its third straight to give the Sun Devils their 10th straight NCAA appearance.  However, Washington State went from the bottom of the conference in 2008 to a second-place finish last year.  It was the Cougars’ first top five finish in the conference since 1991 and they earned their first NCAA Regional appearance since 1990.  Meanwhile, Oregon brought back baseball & played its first games since 1981, Oregon State was back in the tournament after staying home in 2008 and Stanford missed the NCAAs after a 2008 trip to the CWS.  The biggest news from the Pac 10 in 2009 though came in the off season with the departure of ASU head coach Pat Murphy.  The big question now is: Can ASU continue its success with a new head coach?

2010 Pac 10 Baseball Preview

Arizona

2009 Record:  (30-25, 13-14)

Mascot:  Wildcats

Head Coach:  Andy Lopez

Location:  Tucson, AZ

Vitals:  .314 BA, 46 HR, 71 SB, .387 OBP, .965 Fld%…5.46 ERA, 0 CG, 13 SV, 379 K, 215 BB, .293 opp. BA

Slight Returns:  The Wildcats have just 12 returning players from last year’s roster.  They will have as many as 16 freshman on the roster this season.

The Holes:  Pac 10 batting champion Dillon Baird (.433, 8 HR, 55 RBIs) leads the list of departed players.  Hunter Pace (.372, 15 SB) and Dwight Childs (.331) are gone from the line-up as well.  Arizona also loses its top starting pitcher, Preston Guilmet (6-5, 3.74 ERA), as well as relievers Cory Burns (2-0, 3.80 ERA, 40 appearances) and Jason Stoffel (2-1, 4.67 ERA, 39 app., 11 SV).

Who’s Back:  The top returning pitcher include Daniel Workman (3-1, 3.86 ERA), Joe Allison (5-1, 4.66 ERA) and Kyle Simon (3-5, 6.03 ERA, 11 starts).  Bryce Ortega (.324, 16 SB) and Steve Selsky (.318 will lead the offense).

Family Ties:  Brothers Michael and David Lopez will both wear the Wildcat uniform this season.  Their dad is head coach Andy Lopez.  Michael is a pitcher who redshirted last year, while David is a freshman infielder.

Tucson Time:  Arizona plays its first 26 games, including its conference-opening series vs. Oregon, on its home

Tim Esmay (ASU photo)

field in Tucson, AZ.  The Wildcats have a total of 44 home games in 2010.

Arizona State

2009 Record:  (51-14, 21-6)

Mascot:  Sun Devils

Head Coach:  Tim Esmay

Location:  Tempe, AZ

Vitals:  .303 BA, 75 HR, 116 SB, .418 OBP, .969 Fld%…2.90 ERA, 11 CG, 12 SV, 608 K, 157 BB, .239 opp. BA

Meet The New Boss:  Pat Murphy is gone after 15 seasons in the desert.  Murphy’s last win in a Sun Devil uniform was a 12-5 victory over North Carolina in Omaha, and it was the 1,000th of his career.  New head coach Tim Esmay is no stranger to the ASU

Kole Calhoun

program.  He played in the College World Series for Jim Brock’s Sun Devils in 1987 and ’88, and he was also an assistant to Murphy for the last five seasons.  Esmay was also the head coach at Utah from 1997-2004.

Line-Up Lowdown:  ASU returns 7 of its top 9 hitters who saw significant action in 2009.  The glaring losses are Pac 10 Player of the Year Jason Kipnis (.384, 16 HR, 71 RBIs, 27 SB) and catcher Carlos Ramirez (.338, 19 HR, 75 RBIs).  However, Kole Calhoun (.313, 12 HR, 53 RBIs) is back for his senior season.  Calhoun hit 3 HR with 11 RBIs in Omaha.  Sophomores Johnny Ruettiger (.360, 12 SB) & Drew Maggi (.309, 21 SB) and junior Matt Newman (.305, 7 HR, 54 RBIs) all return as well.

Oh Brother:  Senior co-captain Rauol Torrez (.250,15 SB) and soph. Riccio Torrez (.280, 6 HR) are the fifth set of brothers to play at ASU at the same time, but they are the first to start alongside one another in school history.  All 54 of Rauol’s starts came at third base, while most of Riccio’s were at first base.  The brothers are back as well to anchor the Sun Devil infield in 2010.

An Ace Down:  RHP Mike Leake (16-1, 1.71 ERA, 7 CG) and LHP Josh Spence (10-1, 2.37 ERA) were both good enough to be any team’s ace last year, but only senior Spence is back this season.  Leake signed after being taken in the first round of last year’s draft by Cincinnati.  Spence decided to return for his year after going in the third round to the Angels.  Other notable returning pitchers are LHP Mitchell Lambson (9-5, 3.01 ERA, 5 SV) and RHP Jordan Swaggerty (4-1, 4.50 ERA, 4 SV).

California

2009 Record:  (24-29, 9-18)

Mascot:  Golden Bears

Head Coach:  David Esquer

Location:  Berkeley, CA

Vitals:  .298 BA, 65 HR, 66 SB, .375 OBP, .966 Fld%…5.74, 2 CG, 13 SV, 423 K, 249 BB, .284 opp. BA

Big Bear Losses:  Cal loses three of its top four batters from last year, including two-way player Blake Smith (.319, 10 HR, 38 RBIs), who was drafted in the second round last year by the Dodgers.  Smith had two saves out of the

Mark Canha (Cal photo)

bullpen while starting three games as well.  Jeff Kobernus (.341, 8 HR, 20 SB) and Brett Jackson (.321, 8 HR, 11 SB) are both gone as well.

Top Bear Back:  Cal’s top overall hitter, Mark Canha, is returns.  The junior led Cal in average (.366), HR (12), RBIs (43), slg% (.634), and OBP (.444).  Brian Guinn (.315, 10 SB) and Danny Oh (.303, 7 HR) is back as well.

Plenty Of Pitching: The Golden Bears return most of their pitchers from a staff that finished with the worst ERA in the conference last year.  Reliver Dixon Anderson (3.98 ERA, 3 SV), LHP Chris Petrini (4-3, 3.98 ERA) and Erik Johnson (3-6, 4.41 ERA, 9 starts, CG, 4 SV) are among the top returnees.

No-Nonsense Non-Conference:  In consecutive weeks Cal plays non-conference games vs. 2009 CWS team Arkansas (3 at home), 2009 Super Regional team Rice (4 in Houston) and ’09 NCAA team Cal Poly (3 on the road).  They follow that with their Pac 10-opening series at Arizona State.

Call From The Hall:  Former Cal head coach Bob Milano was inducted into the ABCA Hall of Fame in January.  He won 688 games at Cal from 1978-1999 and led the Golden Bears to the College World Series in 1980, 1988 and 1992.

Oregon

2009 Record:  (14-42, 4-23)

Mascot:  Ducks

Head Coach:  George Horton

Location:  Eugene, OR

Vitals:  .227 BA, 16 HR, 60 SB, .296 OBP, .961 Fld%…5.07 ERA, 4 CG, 8 SV, 357 K, 239 BB, .271 opp. BA

Growing Pains:  Oregon fielded its first baseball team since 1981 last year, and things looked bright early when the Ducks beat St. Mary’s 5-3 in their season opener.  They lost the next two games of the series, but then won 2 of 3 games at home vs. defending national champion Fresno State.  That would be the high point of their inaugural season though, as they won just three games after March 31 en-route to a 14-win campaign.  Oregon finished last in the Pac 10 in these (and a few other) statistical categories:  Batting average, HR, runs, slg%, OBP, hits, RBIs, doubles, total bases, walks, strikeouts (by pitchers), saves.  They also committed the second most errors (85) in the conference behind USC”S 101.

The Bright Side:  After a bumpy first year George Horton returns all but five players who saw action last year, while nine freshmen and a handful of junior college transfers join the team.  Here’s a look at some of the returnees with the category in which they led the Ducks last year Curt Raulinaitis (batting avg.-.291), K.C. Serna (RBIs-19 & HR-3), Danny Pulfer (starts-55 & BB-19), Drew Gagnier (ERA-2.70, appearances-23, saves-7).  Starting pitchers Erik Stavert (5-6, 3.04 ERA, 14 starts) & Tyler Anderson (2-9, 15 starts) are both gone.

Homecoming:  Oregon opens the season at Cal State Fullerton, where Horton played and later spent 11 seasons as the Titans’ head coach.  Horton guided Fullerton to six College World Series appearances and the 2004 National Championship.  Current Fullerton head coach Dave Serrano was an assistant under Horton.

Oregon State

2009 Record:  (37-19, 15-12)

Mascot:  Beavers

Head Coach:  Pat Casey

Location:  Corvallis, OR

Vitals:  .278 BA, 23 HR, 53 SB, .392 OBP, .977 Fld%…3.93 ERA, 3 CG, 13 SV, 431 K, 199 BB, .245 opp. BA

Sam Gaviglio (OSU photo)

Locked Line-Up:  Oregon State returns six starters from last year’s team.  All-Pac 10 honoree Adalberto Santos (.320, 4 HR, 43 RBIs, 15 SB) and team HR and RBI leader Stefan Romero (..291, 5 HR, 51 RBIs) head the group.

Plus Pitching:  The Beavers’ 3.93 team ERA ranked second in the Pac 10 last year to Arizona State, and they return two starters, Sam Gaviglio (10-1, 2.73 ERA) and Tyler Waldron (6-4, 4.15 ERA), and closer Kevin Rhoderick (3-3, 4.18 ERA, 9 SV).  Gaviglio was a Freshman All-American last year.

Turn The Page:  Baseball America recently named Oregon State the #2 team of the past decade, while tabbing head coach Pat Casey the coach of the decade.  The Beavers won back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and 2007 and made an additional trip to Omaha.  They averaged 35.6 wins a season from 2000-2009.

Stanford

2009 Record:  (30-25, 13-14)

Mascot:  Cardinal

Head Coach:  Mark Marquess

Location:  Palo Alto, CA

Vitals:  .279 BA, 49 HR, 46 SB, .360 OBP, .977 Fld%…5.12 ERA, 2 CG, 8 SV, 381 K, 222 BB, .268 opp. BA

Rare Absence:  After a trip to the 2008 College World Series Stanford missed the NCAA Tournament last year.  It was

Colin Walsh (Stanford photo)

the second time in three seasons that the Cardinal failed to receive a post season bid, but it’s also just the third time since 1990 that Stanford did not at least go to an NCAA Regional.

Core Cardinals:  Stanford returns 2B Colin Walsh (.320, .466 OBP), SS Jeff Schlander (.232), catcher Zach Jones (.239, 3 HR), and OF Kellen Killsgard (.313, 9 HR, 46 RBIs).  Walsh was the team’s top hitter as a sophomore and was named a Cape Cod League All-Star last summer,  while Schlander was named the 2009 Pac 10 Defensive Player of the Year.  The team loses top run producer Brent Milleville (.306, 14 HR, 52 RBIs).

Cardinal Arms:  Starting pitchers Jordan Pries (4-4. 4.62 ERA) and LHP Brett Mooneyham (6-3, 4.14 ERA) are back to lead the weekend rotation.  The duo combined to make 22 starts last year as freshmen.

Gerhart’s Gone:  Two-sport sensation Toby Gerhart (.288, 7 HR, 36 RBIs, 7 SB) burst on the national scene on the football field in 2009.  He was the Heisman Trophy runner-up and won the Doak Walker Award after rushing for a school record 1,871 yards and 28 TDs.  Gerhart hit 16 home runs in three years with the Cardinal baseball team.  He was an outfield starter on the 2008 CWS squad.  He won’t play baseball this year as he prepares for the April NFL Draft.

Tough Tests:  Stanford opens the season by hosting a 3-game series with perennial power Rice.  They go to Austin, TX the next weekend for a 3-game set with 2009 national runner-up Texas.

UCLA

2009 Record:  (27-29, 15-12)

Mascot:  Bruins

Head Coach:  John Savage

Location:  Los Angeles, CA

Vitals:  .285 BA, 54 HR, 55 SB, .382 OBP, .969 Fld%…4.28 ERA, 5 CG, 12 SV, 509 K, 197 BB, .259 opp. BA

Power Outage:  UCLA loses its top two run producers, Cody Decker (.322, 21 HR, 53 RBIs) and Casey Haerther

Gerrit Cole

(.305, 9 HR, 42 RBIs) from last year’s team.  Haerther was selected in the 5th round of last year’s MLB Draft by the Angels, while Decker was tabbed in the 22nd round by San Diego.

The Line-Up:  Justin Uribe (.318, 3 HR, 23 RBIs) and Blair Dunlap (.301, 7 HR, 39 RBIs, 15 SB) are the top hitters back in the Bruin batting order.  Uribe will move from the outfield to first base this year.  Junior college transfer Dean Espy will be expected to step-in at third base as well.

Bruin Pitching:  Sophomores Gerrit Cole (4-8, 3.49 ERA) and Trevor Bauer (9-3, 2.99 ERA, 4 CG) will lead the pitching rotation.  Bauer had pitched a  team-high of 105 1/3 IP last year.  Cole is a Preseason All-American who struckout 104 in 85 IP last year.  He pitched for the USA Collegiate National Team last summer.

Big 12 West:  UCLA plays five games against three Big 12 teams in 2010.  The Bruins host Oklahoma State in one of their three games in the Dodgertown Classic (Vanderbilt & USC are the other two opponents there).  They also host a 3-game series vs. Nebraska and play Oklahoma in their last game of the Whataburger College Classic in Corpus Christi, TX.

USC

2009 Record:  (28-28, 13-14)

Mascot:  Trojans

Head Coach:  Chad Kreuter

Location:  Los Angeles, CA

Vitals:  .274 BA, 41 HR, 58 SB, .359 OBP, .954 Fld%…4.06 ERA, 5 CG, 10 SV, 438 K, 231 BB, .259 opp. BA

Top Losses:  USC loses three players, Grant Green (.374, 4 HR, 32 RBIs, 16 SB), Brad Boxberger (6-3, 3.16 ERA) and Robert Stock (5-4, 2.90 ERA, 4 SV), who were taken in the first two rounds of last year’s MLB Draft.  Green went with the 13th overall pick to Oakland.

Returning Trojans:  Ricky Oropesa (.314, 13 HR, 48 RBIs) was named a Freshman All-American last year.  He and Mike O’Neill (.319) are the top returning players in the USC line-up.  Sophomore RHP Andrew Triggs (5-3, 3.96 ERA) is expected to be the staff’s #1 starter.  Fellow Soph. Chad Smith (3-4, 3.40 ERA) and Sr. Kevin Couture (3-3, 5.66 ERA) return as well.

New Faces In Many Places:  A total of 15 newcomers (7 transfers and 8 freshman) will look to contribute for USC in 2010.  One of them is redshirt sophomore Mike Greco, who hit .250 with 2 HR and 27 RBIs in 46 games as a freshman at Army.  He sat out last year after transferring and will battle for a spot at first base this year.

Washington

2009 Record:  (25-30, 13-14)

Mascot:  Huskies

Head Coach:  Lindsay Meggs

Location:  Seattle, WA

Vitals:  .265 BA, 64 HR, 42 SB, .357 OBP, .967 Fld%…4.88 ERA, 1 CG, 14 SV, 387 K, 194 BB, .276 opp. BA

Lindsay Meggs

New Skipper:  2010 will be Lindsay Meggs’ first season as head coach at Washington.  He arrives after three seasons at Indiana State.  Meggs was named the 2009 Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year after guiding the Sycamores to a 33-21 record and a second-place conference finish.  Prior to that Meggs spent 13 seasons at head coach at Chico State, where he won Division II National Championships in 1997 & 1999.

Draft Losses:  The Huskies lose their top run producer, Ryan Conley (.303, 19 HR, 55 RBIs), who was taken by St. Louis in the 7th round of last year’s draft.  Top reliever Brian Pearl (3.05 ERA, 8 SV) and starter Jason Erickson (5-4, 4.34 ERA) were both drafted and signed as well.

Husky Returns:  Pierce Rankin (.299, 6 HR, 26 RBIs) and Troy Scott (11 HR, 31 RBIs) are the top returnees in the line-up.  Sophomore Andrew Kittredge (4-5, 4.27 ERA, 3 SV, 7 starts) and LHP Geoff Brown (4-4, 5.01), who made 31 relief appearances, are among the top returning pitchers.

Big Home Slate:  Washington’s first nine home games are three 3-game series vs. 2008 National Champion Fresno State, perennial power Cal State Fullerton and intrastate rival Washington State.

Washington State

2009 Record:  (32-25, 19-8)

Mascot:  Cougars

Head Coach:  Donnie Marbut

Location:  Pullman, WA

Vitals:  .273 BA, 56 HR, 44 SB, .358 OBP, .971 Fld%…4.34 ERA, 1 CG, 15 SV, 453 K, 184 BB, .279 opp. BA

The Drought Is Over:  Last year’s NCAA Regional appearance was the first for the program since 1990.  The Cougars swept five series in 2009, including three in Pac 10 play.  All of the sweeps came on their home diamond, where they had just three series sweeps in the previous 11 seasons combined.

Leaving & Staying:  WSU loses its top three hitters, Alex Burg (.346, 7 HR), Jared Prince (.343, 7 HR) and Greg Lagreid (.332, 5 HR), from last year’s NCAA squad.  They return stolen base leader Garry Kuykendall (.299, 11 SB), Matt Argyropoulos (.277), Shea Vucinich (.230, team-high 40 runs), and Derek Jones, who hit a team-best 12

Chad Arnold

home runs despite just a .223 batting average.

On The Mound:  Junior Chad Arnold (8-3, 4.39 ERA) will lead the weekend rotation.  Arnold got the team’s only NCAA win with an elimination game victory vs. Wichita State in the Norman, OK Regional.  He’s joined by David Stilley (3-3, 4.64 ERA) and reliever Seth Harvey (2.25 ERA, 22 app.).  The Cougars lose starter Matt Way (8-4, 2.43 ERA) and closer Jeremy Johnson (6-2, 2.90 ERA, 10 SV).

Texas Time:  Washington State plays 12 of its first 18 games in the state of Texas.   After four games in Lubbock they return home for a 4-game set vs. Utah and then return to the Lone Star State for three games at Texas A&M and two games at Dallas Baptist.  They end their spring trip with a 3-game series in Wichita, KS vs. Wichita State.

2010 Pac 10 Conference Predictions

Player of the Year:  Kole Calhoun – Arizona State

Pitcher of the Year:  Sam Gaviglio – Oregon State

Conference Champion:  Arizona State, with Oregon State giving the closest challenge

Toby Gerhart is not Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders, but the big Stanford running back is going to do something that neither of those famous two-sport stars ever did.  Gerhart is part of a small group of athletes whose college career

Gerhart (Stanford Photo)

will end after playing in both a football bowl game and the College World Series.

While Sanders took his two-sport act to another level by winning Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys and playing in the World Series with the Atlanta Braves, even he cannot make the claim that Gerhart will after Stanford plays in its bowl game at the end of this season.  (Sanders was also neither a Biletnikoff Award finalist nor Heisman Trophy hopeful, although he and Biletnikoff did both go to Florida State.)

Based on how Gerhart has performed this year odds are he will be a part of an even more select group of athletes who can say they hit a home run at the CWS and scored a touchdown in a bowl.

Here’s a by the numbers look at Toby Gerhart’s statistics as both a college football and baseball player at Stanford:

1,736…net rushing yards by Gerhart this season

1,651…Gerhart’s career yardage prior to 2009

.867…Gerhart’s OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) in 2009 on the Cardinal baseball team

1…football start made by Gerhart in 2007 after he suffered a season-ending knee injury vs. San Jose State

Mark Marquess (Stanford Photo)

140…yards he rushed for in that game prior to the injury

16…career home runs Gerhart has hit in three seasons playing for Mark Marquess

16…career touchdowns he scored in his first two-plus seasons playing for Walt Harris and Jim Harbaugh

26…touchdowns Gerhart has scored so far in 2009 – a new Pac-10 single-season record

42…career touchdowns scored by Toby Gerhart – a new Pac-10 career mark

25…times Gerhart has been hit by pitch

(Pac 10 Photo)

639…career rushing attempts by Gerhart

433…Gerhart’s career at-bats

12…career stolen bases in as many attempts

7…home runs hit and stolen bases in 2009

7…Gerhart’s football jersey number

24…Gerhart’s baseball jersey number

24…career doubles Gerhart has hit

1…career pass attempt by Gerhart – an 18 yard touchdown in Stanford’s win over Notre Dame

1…home run hit by Gerhart in Stanford’s 2008 CWS win over Florida State

3…RBIs in two Super Regional elimination game wins over Pepperdine in ’08

3…200-plus yard rushing games by Gerhart this season

0…200 yard rushing games by a Stanford player since 1988 prior to this season

21…credit hours – Gerhart’s course load at Stanford during the fall 2009 semester

Gerhart is among more than 35 student athletes who have been featured this fall in the exclusive Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports.

Two Top Two-Sport Stars Go Head-to-Head Saturday

Toby Gerhart

Gerhart is a 6’1, 235 lb. senior who has rolled through Pac 10 defenders like a bowling ball through Weebles this season to the tune of 1,531 yards (2nd in the nation) and 23 nation-leading touchdowns.  He is one of three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, which is given to the nation’s top college running back each season.

At 5’11 and 195 pounds Tate is the lightning to Gerhart’s thunder.  His blazing speed has helped him reel-in 83 receptions for 1,295 yards (both ND school records) with 12 touchdown grabs.  Tate has also rushed for two touchdowns, and returned a punt 87 yards for another score.  His efforts rank him fourth nationally in receiving yards and have made him one of three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award, which is bestowed annually upon the nation’s top college receiver.

Gerhart has now exhausted his football eligibility, but he has one season of eligibility left if he decides to play for Mark Marquess and the Cardinal baseball team next spring.  (That could be tough with the NFL draft in April.)  Gerhart has made 105 baseball starts in his first three seasons while helping Stanford to the 2008 College World Series.

Tate has a few more options remaining.  As a junior on the Irish football team he could still return for a last bit of

Golden Tate

gridiron refining next fall.  He also has two years of baseball eligibility left, so he could potentially patrol the outfield for Dave Schrage for two more seasons.  He could also go the route of another former Irish two-sport star, Jeff Samardzija, who is now a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs.  Samardzija played minor league baseball after his junior baeball season, and then returned for his senior football campaign to break more records & catch more passes thrown by current Cleveland Brown QB Brady Quinn.  (Tate has already broken Shark’s single-season yardage record and needs just 88 yards to break his career mark of 2,593.)

But here’s the best part:  We get to see both Gerhart and Tate in action on the same field while we’re gorging on leftovers this weekend when Notre Dame visits Stanford this Saturday night in the regular season finale for both teams.

*CLICK HERE to read the Collegebasell360.com Two Sport Reports which have featured Gerhart, Tate & other two sport athletes throughout the fall.)

Following is what Weis had to say about each of them on Tuesday:

On Toby Gerhart

Q.  Their running game, what do you need to do to slow that down?  What do they do that makes them so successful?

WEIS:  Well, I mean, I could talk about their offensive line, I could talk about their tight ends and I could talk about their scheme and their mentality, but

That No. 7 (Gerhart), the guy with the ball in his hands, you know, he’s special.  He’s a hard north‑south runner.  Not that he can’t bounce it outside, but you have to gang‑tackle him, and we’ve had a few problems with tackling now, and I think that if you don’t gang‑tackle him, he gets a lot of hidden yardage because you don’t get 139 yards a game by just being running in open field all the time and just by scheme.  I mean, this kid is a heck of a runner.  I have a lot of respect for him.

Q.  Where does Gerhart rank in terms of the skill position players you guys have faced this year?

WEIS:  Well, I think that, for example, if you’re going into the draft, let’s take him ‑‑ with this guy, you’re going into the draft, he’ll be one of the first guys taken, because one of those guys who wants a guy, a dependable, every‑down runner they can just hand the ball to 25, 30 times a game, there aren’t very many of them that are that type of size that are that type of durable that have proven track records.  He obviously has a proven track record.  So he’s right up there with the best of them.

There’s guys that we play that are faster than him, but I don’t know if there’s any more grounded than this guy.

Q.  I know you get this kind of question a lot.  Who does he remind you of?  Is there anyone?

WEIS:  Size alone puts him in a different category than a lot of running backs.  Yeah, there’s a bunch of guys that come to mind, but I’d have to think about that a little bit more.  I really haven’t thought about the parallel.

On Golden Tate

Q.  I don’t know how familiar you are with the strength and conditioning numbers of your players, and I don’t know if Golden Tate is pound for pound one of your strongest players.  Is it that?  Is that what makes it so difficult to bring him down, or is it just desire and will that keeps him on his feet sometimes?

WEIS:  Well, he is a rocked‑up unit to start out with.  I agree.  I think it’s a combination of both those elements.  I think you hit it twice.  I don’t think it has to be one or the other.  I think it’s a combination of both those things.  He’s a strong, physical rocked‑up unit, and he has a great center of gravity when he’s playing.  He’s well‑grounded when he gets hit a lot of times.  How many times have we seen people bounce off of him?  But I think that and a strong will, it’s a good combination.

Q.  And I know that he and you both said he’s learned the game a lot more, and that’s helped him become a better player.  But what pushed him down that road do you think?  What got him ‑‑ because this guy has improved so much.

WEIS:  Yeah, well, first of all, he’s a great competitor any time he’s on the field.  That’s why in baseball season he doesn’t want to talk about football, and in football season he doesn’t want to talk about baseball, because he’s such a fierce competitor.  I think he’s got ‑‑ he’s probably improved more than any player on the team, and there’s still some things that he can even get better.  There’s some things that when he goes over a few more of the more refined coaching points, he can even get better than where he is.  Maybe not necessarily numbers‑wise, okay, but he can get better from where he is now.

Q.  Whether it’s this year or next year, and I know that he’s going to make that decision at the appropriate time, but he’s going to play in the NFL, and there are some people that you talk to, it just seems like the only thing that they’re worried about is the height.  Can you address that, what you think ‑‑

WEIS:  They won’t be worrying about the height.  You know what’s going to happen is they’re going to watch the tape, because anyone who watching the tape, they’re not worrying about the height.  I think that more importantly, they want to let him go to the combine and see what number he runs, because when all of a sudden it’s a 4‑4 flat or something along those lines, that height will be thrown right out the window, because unlike a lot of other receivers, the volume ‑‑ just think about the number of plays that you’ve seen him make this year.

The bottom line is he has evidence.  You have visual evidence when you watch him.  You don’t want to bet on the come with him.  He’s already got a body of evidence on tape.  You just go pick a game out, and you’re going to have at least nine or ten plays where you say, this kid is something special.

Q.  Is there anybody at the next level that you see a parallel to?

WEIS:  Unlike Gerhart, who I don’t have, so I’d have to think about it, he reminds me of Steve Smith’s clone.  I know Steve Smith well.  I’m a big fan of Steve Smith.  A little trash‑talker just like Golden.  But their personalities are alike, they’re fiery guys, they make big plays.  They’re tough.  They don’t back down from anyone.  I would imagine ‑‑ I don’t know exactly Steve’s size, but I would imagine it’s probably pretty close, and he’s done pretty well, last time I checked.  He reminds me a lot of Steve.

Q.  Following up on that, you say size is not a limitation for him.  Route‑running, which two years ago was really non‑existent for him, is that the area where he has improved the most?

WEIS:  He has improved the most, and he has work to do yet.  The two things, because he’s capable of running even better routes, which he has improved exponentially on that subject right there.  But he’s capable of running even better routes, and with his strength and quickness getting off the line of scrimmage versus a jam, when he starts using even more proper technique and better technique at that right there when people come up and they want to try to take him away, it’s going to be scary when he really gets that down the way ‑‑ with the same improvement that he has in route running.

Q.  Assuming that he came out right now, how would the NFL judge him?  Would they say, okay, he’s weak on the route running but he’s so physically skilled that we’ll take him early and develop him?

WEIS:  I think it would really come down to two things, and he already has one of them in the bank already.  I forget who I answered it with, but he already has the volume of evidence in the bank.

I mean, when you start studying a player in college, you’re looking for him to make plays.  Well, he doesn’t take long to find this guy.  He’s a highlight reel.  You’ve got a highlight reel.  Just imagine, do you want to make his highlight real for the year?  How would you like to be his age when it came to that?  There would be plenty of evidence; you could put play after play on there, and they’re all from this year.  You don’t have to go to any other year.

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