I have nothing against Bragga. I'm sure he's a perfectly capable baseball manager. I blame the AD. I'm sure this isn't what he had in mind, but I always thought he was incredibly foolish to think Wayne sticking around for a year or two more would somehow cause more harm to the program. How arrogant to think we could replace him with somebody who would do better. As if we were a powerhouse before Wayne or something. We were probably doomed either way. But "he's lost a step" which probably wasn't true, since we looked a lot better in Wayne's final seasons than we do now, or "he's too old" were the reasons I heard. We'll have a President that will be 80 years old and has lost several steps (Biden) or one close to 80 (Trump) but that age was too old for a Rice baseball coach apparently. AD can only turn me around now if he...brings back Wayne! :)

I have tried very hard not to let my feelings about how Wayne was treated affect my feelings about Bragga, one way or the other.

But to put it in perspective, here are the data, as nearly as I can pull them together in a hurry, about Rice baseball with and without Wayne:

Years --Total 108, with Wayne 27
Wins and losses - Total 2094-1676-11, with Wayne 1173-528-2, without Wayne 921-1148-9
Conference record - Total 929-1000-3, with Wayne, 531-244-2, without Wayne 398-756-1
Conference championships - Total 21, with Wayne 21, without Wayne 0
NCAA Tournament appearances - Total 23, with Wayne 23, without Wayne 0

Wayne simply was Rice baseball for over two decades. Nobody, even Jess, was as dominant for as long as a Rice coach.

Bragga has some awfully big shoes to fill. It was said about Ray Perkins at Alabama that you didn't want to follow a legend (Bryant). That's the position Bragga is in, and it is going to be extremely difficult, at best, to live up to it.