Did Cajuns underachieve in Alyson Habetz's second season?

[NewsCopy]

So year two of the Alyson Habetz era is now over and you could see how it went by the look on the UL head coach's face following Thursday's 3-0 loss to ULM.

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[Phideaux66]

Not recruiting better pitching was an underachievement. The record with that roster is about what should be expected. Makes no difference who the coach is or will be. If you can't buy better players than we can now, our glory years will become distant memories

[Vobserver]

Not recruiting better pitching was an underachievement. The record with that roster is about what should be expected. Makes no difference who the coach is or will be. If you can't buy better players than we can now, our glory years will become distant memories

I disagree with all of this post except for the first sentence. The truth is that for some reason, not necessarily related to pitching strength, we gave up 32 unearned runs in conference play. This is a coaching issue, closely related to poor positioning by our defense. Our existing players have enough talent to win the SBC. Our existing coaches do not.

[Roarman]

Well Vobserver, there's one point I agree with you on and another I don't.

I agree with the poor positioning of the defense at times. That is a coaching issue. Our previous defensive coach, Hunter Veach, did an excellent job while he was here.

Here's where I disagree. The coaches coach, and the players play. No matter how good a coach is, if she doesn't have the players, she won't get the results she hoped for.

I think the main reason the 2026 team had the most losses in the history of the program and the 2025 team had the second most losses in the history of the program is because the players just were not good enough. Especially pitching.

In 2025, Bethany Noble had the highest era, 5.02, of any pitcher in the history of the program who pitched 30 innings or more. This year, Delbrey had the second highest era in the history of the program at 4.03, Hoover had the third highest at 3.98 and Tipton had the fourth highest at 3.78.

So, the four pitchers with the highest eras in the history of the program were all on this year's team.

If the coaches can't coach the returning pitchers up and they cannot increase their velocity and the pitchers coming in can't throw over 62 mph either, expect the exact same results in 2027. Sometimes, it's all about pitching.

[CajunRed]

We lack talent… period.

[UL_Cajuns]

The talent is just not there. Poor pitching and poor defense is a recipe for disaster. That said no way why we shouldn’t be in at least the top 3-4 of the SBC. 8th is unacceptable.

[CajunChuck]

I think that we can all agree that pitching needs to improve. While we can't afford an elite pitcher hopefully, we can get very good pitchers.

[Vobserver]

Well Vobserver, there's one point I agree with you on and another I don't.

I agree with the poor positioning of the defense at times. That is a coaching issue. Our previous defensive coach, Hunter Veach, did an excellent job while he was here.

Here's where I disagree. The coaches coach, and the players play. No matter how good a coach is, if she doesn't have the players, she won't get the results she hoped for.

I think the main reason the 2026 team had the most losses in the history of the program and the 2025 team had the second most losses in the history of the program is because the players just were not good enough. Especially pitching.

In 2025, Bethany Noble had the highest era, 5.02, of any pitcher in the history of the program who pitched 30 innings or more. This year, Delbrey had the second highest era in the history of the program at 4.03, Hoover had the third highest at 3.98 and Tipton had the fourth highest at 3.78.

So, the four pitchers with the highest eras in the history of the program were all on this year's team.

If the coaches can't coach the returning pitchers up and they cannot increase their velocity and the pitchers coming in can't throw over 62 mph either, expect the exact same results in 2027. Sometimes, it's all about pitching.

I do not disagree that pitching was a major issue. As to this year's squad lacking talent, the 2024 team was 12-15 vs top 50 RPI teams. This year's team was 10-18. No team without talent wins 10 games against top 50 competition. By comparison, Marshall this year was 4-7 against top 50, Texas State was 11-12, South Alabama was 7-17 and ULM was 3-13. Of all the non P4 schools, only Texas State won more Top 50 games than the Cajuns.

We clearly underperformed against weaker competition [losing 9 games outside the top 50, compared to 2 by the 2024 team], and I contend that is that this is not a talent issue, but a coaching issue.

[Reality Check]

I do not disagree that pitching was a major issue. As to this year's squad lacking talent, the 2024 team was 12-15 vs top 50 RPI teams. This year's team was 10-18. No team without talent wins 10 games against top 50 competition. By comparison, Marshall this year was 4-7 against top 50, Texas State was 11-12, South Alabama was 7-17 and ULM was 3-13. Of all the non P4 schools, only Texas State won more Top 50 games than the Cajuns.

We clearly underperformed against weaker competition [losing 9 games outside the top 50, compared to 2 by the 2024 team], and I contend that is that this is not a talent issue, but a coaching issue.

Who do you want to see replaced on the coaching staff? If pitching was so atrocious, shouldn't Aly hire a new pitching coach? Hitting was somewhat improved this year but in the instances where we needed a big hit, we got zilch in more instances than not. Should the hitting coach be replaced? Someone in another thread posted that Lacy contributes zilch. Should she be replaced? Several of Aly's coaching decisions this year were questionable and some led directly to loses. Should she be replaced?

[cajunref]

Who do you want to see replaced on the coaching staff? If pitching was so atrocious, shouldn't Aly hire a new pitching coach? Hitting was somewhat improved this year but in the instances where we needed a big hit, we got zilch in more instances than not. Should the hitting coach be replaced? Someone in another thread posted that Lacy contributes zilch. Should she be replaced? Several of Aly's coaching decisions this year were questionable and some led directly to loses. Should she be replaced?

If we had money, yes to all your questions. BUT, we don't.