Texas Tech softball, under coach Gerry Glasco, has assembled a powerhouse team with national title expectations, but faces immense pressure and scrutiny from rivals.
Ahead of his first year as the head coach of the Texas Tech softball team, Gerry Glasco wanted to let the pieces fall into place before he started talking about any major internal expectations.
Glasco and the Red Raiders are taking the same approach this season. Yes, they have the best player in the country in NiJaree Canady; All-Americans at catcher (Jazzy Burns), second base (Mia Williams) and third base (Taylor Pannell); one of the top rising stars in the country in Hailey Toney; perhaps the most undervalued outfielder in the nation in Mihyia Davis.
Oh, and the team is going to have several all-conference performers — be it those returning or who joined the fray through the transfer portal — who will be coming off the bench.
There's no hiding the Los Angeles Dodgers-like approach Texas Tech took in the offseason. While Glasco wasn't sure last year's team had enough to make the run to the Women's College World Series in January, the Red Raiders found their identity all the way to the final game of the national championship series.
Year 2 of the Glasco era is about to begin, and the head coach has a new set of problems, ones that nobody in the country is going to take pity on him for.
Texas Tech isn't just expected to get back to the WCWS; it will be considered a failure by many if the Red Raiders don't win the whole thing this year. There's a burden of trying to live up to everybody else's perception and expectation, and while Texas Tech is hardly the first college softball team to assemble this kind of talent, there's no shortage of those in the field — fellow coaches, teams and media members holding water for those trying to put in scarlet letter across Glasco's chest — who haven't taken kindly to the Red Raiders' way of doing business.
It's not just that Texas Tech assembled a roster full of the best players in the country. Oklahoma or Texas do it, that's just how the world's supposed to work. But doing it at Texas Tech? Surely there's a boogeyman operating in the shadows, circumventing the unenforceable "rules" others in the sport have been using to their advantage for decades. That's fine for them, but not Texas Tech.
Considering Glasco to be Enemy No. 1 is laughable on its face, but pettiness runs rampant when the status quo gets bucked. Whether he likes it or not, Glasco and his team are the target for all scorn spewing from those who have gotten away with plenty in their careers. Glasco's arrival at Texas Tech just awoke the sleeping giant, and now the beast is roaming the land, looking to feast upon whatever it can.
There are certainly drawbacks to being the pariah. Texas Tech's non-conference schedule is shockingly sparse of high-caliber teams that refused to play the Red Raiders. All's fair in love and war, sure, but the same coaches who say they want to battle the best ducking one of the best rosters in the country seems hypocritical at the least, hysterical at the most.
Texas Tech has the team capable of doing everything it wants to this season. Repeat as Big 12 champion. Hosting regionals and super regionals. Returning to Oklahoma City. Winning the national title.
Whatever label gets slapped on the Red Raiders along the way is up to the stone thrower standing in a glass house. Or their go-to reporters are willing to look past blatantly obvious incorrect facts and ignore the other end of the table, who wants to have their cake and eat it too.
The Red Raiders want to be the ones having the cake at the end of this journey over the next five months. Until the end comes, Glasco and his team will have to endure the scorn of many who simply wish they had it as good as they do right now.
Reality is, even winning a national title won't silence the noise surrounding them. Each Texas Tech loss (surely there will be a few along the way) will be boasted about as if that were a national semifinal. All the Red Raiders can do is put their heads down and work, just as Glasco has said from the moment he took over the dysfunctional program left high and dry by a coach who may or may not be leading this rebellion against the current regime.
Glasco has nothing to apologize for with the team he has in his hands. His first task is making sure the team doesn't get crushed by the gravity of the situation. Anything short of winning the final game of the year will be seen as some sort of karmic justice.
Seems like a lot on the shoulders of players in their late-teens and early-20s, but that's the scenario the Red Raiders find themselves in, fair or not.
What comes down the road is to be determined. For now, the Red Raiders just have to roll the balls out and play. The rest will take care of itself.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech softball: National title expectations, rival scrutiny | Giese
Category: General Sports
