Tony's Take: How far can Alabama baseball go under Greg Goff?
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Humbled sounds about right.
Alabama head baseball coach Greg Goff used that word to describe an agonizing season in which his team finished 19-34-1 (5-24-1 in SEC play), its fewest wins since 1980. The assessment came before a three-game series against Vanderbilt that saw the Crimson Tide outscored 34-5, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The wounds Alabama has suffered have long been callused over by an accepted level of disappointment.
"One good thing about my life is I've been humbled,” Goff said last week. “I have been on my knees, I have been praying to God for the answers that we need as we moved forward in the three different jobs that I've had."
Goff isn’t shy about being a religious man and stressed faith frequently through the Tide’s many woes this season. There’s nothing wrong with that, but an 18-1 loss on Thursday followed by a 13-1 defeat on Friday proved that no amount of praying makes up for a lack of pitching. Although, it is worth considering whether or not a rain-shortened 3-3 tie Saturday was the work of some type of divine intervention to help Alabama avoid being swept for the seventh time in SEC play this season.
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There’s no way to sugar-coat the Tide’s season this year. From an Alabama standpoint, the best thing you can say about it is that it’s finally over.
Alabama’s five SEC wins are tied for the fewest since the SEC expanded its schedule to 30 games in 1995. To further put things in perspective, Alabama suffered a disappointing season last year when it failed to make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season. At this point last year, the Tide was contemplating how many wins it would take in the SEC Tournament to advance to a regional.
This year’s Alabama team was spared from that quandary as it was eliminated from the SEC Tournament during last weekend’s three-game sweep to Florida.
“Well obviously, it’s not a year that anyone wants,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am in Birmingham last week. “... It’s not what we wanted, but at the same time, too, I like the effort our kids have continued to make and I know the coaches are out there recruiting, and that’s what you want them to do.”
Byrne’s optimistic outlook came before the series against Vanderbilt, where the rain offered more opposition to the Commodores than Alabama did. However, he is right in that there were points in the season, albeit short-lived, in which Alabama showed promise under Goff.
The obvious example being Alabama’s three-game road sweep of Auburn. During a 36-hour span, the Tide made life miserable for its cross-state rivals, gritting out close wins in Goff’s patented small-ball style. But, just like most positives this season, the momentum was soon washed away by five straight SEC losses.
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It’s tough to say how much the team has improved or adapted to Goff’s style during the head coach’s inaugural season. This weekend certainly didn’t reflect positively, but 13 one-run defeats show Alabama was at least a contender in plenty of its games.
It’s also worth noting Goff has been here before. During his first season at Louisiana Tech in 2015, he coached the Bulldogs to a 25-27 season. The following year he orchestrated a 42-20 turnaround season which earned Louisiana Tech its first NCAA regional appearance since 1987. Goff saw similar second-year success at his earlier stops, improving Montevallo from 26-27 in 2004 to 36-22 in 2005 and to a lesser extent at Campbell, where he went 21-37 in 2008 and 27-24 in 2009.
“This isn’t my first year, thank God. If it was, I don’t know what I’d be,” Goff said. “I’ve been through three of these and I understand. I think people understand what's going on here. Build this thing day by day, little by little, recruit by recruit. So, the experience of playing in the postseason is something that is going to happen.”
While it’s understandable Alabama’s success won’t come overnight, Tide fans aren’t the most patient bunch. Goff’s “day-by-day” approach rings similar to the “brick by brick” motto Alabama fans have teased Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones for during his underwhelming four-year tenure with the Volunteers.
Alabama basketball coach Avery Johnson received some heat after failing to get the Tide in the NCAA Tournament during his first two seasons on the job. A strong showing in the SEC Tournament paired with the promise of the nation’s No. 5 recruiting class saw even Johnson’s harshest critics lay off.
Head football coach Nick Saban also had a disappointing first year, finishing 7-6 with a loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Although, Saban quickly followed that up with an undefeated regular season and an appearance in the SEC Championship Game the following year before winning his first national title with Alabama in 2009.
That’s more up to Alabama’s speed, but it's unfair to expect the same results in other sports.
That being said, what should Alabama anticipate not only next season but on a yearly basis under Goff? Despite a lack of recent success, the Tide still boasts a proud history on the diamond. Alabama has made the NCAA Tournament 23 times and has advanced to the College World Series on five separate occasions. The Tide boasts 14 regular-season conference titles and has won the SEC Tournament seven times.
“That’s why I came here,” Goff said last week. “I saw everything that was here, the tradition and everything, the cosmetics of the stadium and the support, all those things are here. That’s why I’m so excited... This job is the best job in the country, and I’m excited about taking this thing to the next level.”
How far that next level will be is up for debate. Realistically, catching up with traditional baseball programs such as LSU and Florida will be difficult. Even programs such as Mississippi State and Vanderbilt might be out of reach in the next few years.
However, it’s not impossible to imagine a best-case scenario where Goff turns Alabama into a respectable top-half SEC contender over time. Until then, the head coach hopes a continued approach of faith and hard work will build the foundation for a brighter future on the diamond.
One can only pray.
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