This is just a hunch, but since Barnes seems completely insufferable as a human being, my gut tells me a classy guy like Casey did not want to work for him.

Can anyone confirm if Casey leaving had something to do with Barnes?

Also, the rumor Casey is coming back at some point somewhat confirms this. He might want to return once Barnes is gone. Or he might want to replace Barnes as the AD.

I could be totally wrong and the story that he doesn’t want to coach his kid is the truth. Where’s angry at Angry when we need him? Fill us in. If anyone has knowledge let us know, or write me an email explaining if there’s any link there.

The bottom line, though, is that Barnes must go. Ed Ray must go, Barnes must go, and we need some competent people in these key positions.

My first thought with Able’s Tommy John surgery was it could have been due to how he was used in the CWS.

Able addressed this professionally:

Some members of the national media criticized then-Oregon State head coach Pat Casey for Abel’s CWS pitch count. Abel has repeatedly defended Casey and pitching coach Nate Yeskie when asked about his workload.

“People are going to go after (Casey) and Yeskie and (interim head coach Pat Bailey) and everyone,” Abel said. “There’s no warrantees, there’s no guarantees in this game. It’s just baseball, it happens.”

Abel took the entire summer off and didn’t begin throwing again until October.

“I felt better than ever coming into this season,” he said. “I never got overused, I never did anything that I didn’t feel like I wanted to and my coaches never put me in a situation that would jeopardize my career, my life, anything like that.”

What do you guys think? I do feel our coaches have overworked pitches in the past, but I’m not sure how we compare with other programs in that regard since I don’t watch other programs.

Also, this CWS could be interesting. Two of my best buddies are GaTech and UGA alum and both are now top 20 teams. I know it’s too early to predict, but as it gets closer let me know how you see the brackets shaking out.

Finally, I read a report today that Gebbia is finally getting more first team reps. It seems crazy it took this long, and it also implies these coaches think Luton is the guy. That’s a bit scary to me. Luton did improve last year, but Gebbia could be an NFL QB. I think you have to go with the higher upside and coach him up if he’s behind with the playbook, etc.

Feel free to go general.

General thread covering the three relevant topics right now.

Regarding the new uniform reveal on the 20th — brace yourself for another disaster.

Go Beavs.